Educational Resources - Culture
An effective innovation program is people-oriented.
Culture includes engaging people to discover opportunities, develop ideas and implement new solutions.
It is comprised of the Engage, Partner, and Communicate disciplines in the Utility Innovation Framework.
Engage - Create collaborative
engagement of workforce that provides momentum for innovation. Stakeholders within the utility organization best
understand the needs and opportunities
for improvement.
Powerful innovation programs invite broad participation of employees and stakeholders to provide thoughts and ideas.
To align the long-term vision of the Board and the challenges identified by staff, AlexRenew (Alexandria, VA, United States) created the Safety, Environmental and Sustainability (SES) Committee. The SES encourages innovation through employee engagement in making improvements throughout their facility. This cross-departmental committee meets once a month and identifies improvements needed throughout the organization. Accomplishments are then communicated in AlexRenew’s newsletter.
Partner - Collaborate with other
organizations to leverage insights and resources beyond the organization. Stakeholders outside of the organization, including peer utilities, consultants, universities, research centers, manufacturers, and customers, provide a vast array of new ideas that help utilities reach beyond their organizational anchoring.
A utility’s existing supply and value chain relationships provide one of the best opportunities for innovation.
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's (Los Angeles, CA, United States) innovation program helps drive innovation internally and among entrepreneurs across the country. Their Technology Feedback Forum offers innovators and entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their new technologies or services to Metropolitan, its member agencies and their partners. It provides entrepreneurs a sounding board for ideas and gives agencies the chance to discover early stage technologies. H2OTechConnect is their online incubator that brings together academics, entrepreneurs, investors, attorneys, and others working in the ecosystem of innovation in energy, wastewater, stormwater and watershed management.Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's (Los Angeles, CA, United States) innovation program helps drive innovation internally and among entrepreneurs across the country. Their Technology Feedback Forum offers innovators and entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their new technologies or services to Metropolitan, its member agencies and their partners. It provides entrepreneurs a sounding board for ideas and gives agencies the chance to discover early stage technologies. H2OTechConnect is their online incubator that brings together academics, entrepreneurs, investors, attorneys, and others working in the ecosystem of innovation in energy, wastewater, stormwater and watershed management.
Communicate - Develop and share the success stories that supports the identity of the organization.
Utilities must continuously communicate the achievements of the innovation program to gain further support and dedication.
These communications can take the form of newsletters, meetings, memos, social media, internal broadcasts, or website publications.
At American Water (Camden, NJ, United States) innovation progress is communicated through newsletters, monthly progress reports, daily TV updates, presentations, and annual shareholder meetings. Employees are recognized internally through these newsletters or utility awards. In addition, progress is communicated externally through white papers and conferences.
Find relevant articles on innovation culture below!
