Innovation pocket cards help ease submissions

Innovations – finding savings and efficiencies in everyday work, improving existing processes, saving time, bettering customer service – will propel ITD forward. Something was holding that effort back, however. Time after time, employees reported that the process of innovating was intimidating, complicated.

Pocket-sized innovation cards, created by John DeRoos (Continuous Improvement) and Reed Hollinshead (Communication), could be the answer to making it simpler for employees to submit innovations.

"The success of this program is directly tied to letting people know that their idea is worth submitting, and eliminating the barriers to submission," explained DeRoos (pictured below). "This card is a step in that direction."

The cards, which have tips for submission on one side and reasons on the other, are designed to be hand-delivered by a district or division's innovation steward, so that employees can identify the person that can help them submit ideas and innovations into the ITD funnel. The cards will also be handed out to new employees as they first enter the ITD workforce.

More than 660 ideas have so far been submitted into the ITD innovation funnel and more than 38 percent of employees have participated. "Hopefully these new cards will help those numbers grow," DeRoos added.


Published 12-09-16