Educational Resources - Leadership
An effective innovation program is results-oriented.
Leadership is about defining the motive for and expected impact of innovation.
It is comprised of the Visualize, Focus, and Measure disciplines in the Utility Innovation Framework.
Visualize
Describe the reason, purpose and
vision for innovation.
Visualize motivates and frames innovation activities by articulating the nature of activities leadership is willing to undertake.
It also describes how innovation is connected to a utility's identity.
It captures the values of the utility that become the basis for directing the program and selecting ideas for investment.
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.
Focus
Define the specific areas of opportunity and challenges to be addressed.
Utilities can develop criteria to select
ideas for funding that best align with
organizational priorities.
Focus should support both organic (i.e., blue sky) development of ideas as well as top down initiatives that are directed as current or emerging challenges.
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.
Measure
Assess progress toward the
vision of success. Measure is largely concerned with using proven performance and delivered value to ready the organization for idea adoption.
As the innovation program helps incrementally transform the utility, the program itself will evolve to meet
the needs of the organization.
Ultimately, utilities will want to consider establishing performance measures to measure the impact of these changes.
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.
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