Challenge:
A Media & Technology leader company’s products were falling stagnant to their competitors, and innovation was not happening from within the company. Management had difficulty identifying innovative employees, building a team with an innovative mindset, coming up with new products, and spreading innovation across the organization. It was even challenging to collect people for brainstorming new products and ideas. They didn’t have personnel pull into the process from within, and did not want to hire an outside agency who did not know their products well.
Background:
AlignStra was commissioned by the client to sift out innovators and strategic thinkers from within the company, train them, keep them motivated to be trained, and compel them to become winning teams. AlignStra would ensure they were developing the skills needed by the company and create multiple projects they could work on.
Solution:
AlignStra developed a six-level, adjustable, non-linear gamification platform to teach innovation skills and motivate employees. The platform included 5 courses from the legacy LMS library, and 54 new gamified courses and activities. The platform was based on information analyzed from 35 interviews with upper management and previous innovation initiatives.
The gaming curriculum included problem analysis, opportunity identification, ideation, collaboration, design thinking, business case development, experimentation, finding sponsors, and managing stakeholders. The game was themed with progressing skill levels. Participants were rewarded with tangible and intangible benefits including name badge stickers, speaking opportunities, and access to the CEO.
Results:
AlignStra identified 150 out of 15,000 employees across the company to participate in the new program. From this pool, 40 innovators at different management levels were trained and split into teams who contributed to creating new products. Ten different projects were developed and presented to the CXO, and two teams received funding to develop their new products.
To have AlignStra solve your innovation challenges, contact info@alignstra.com