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D6 Innovation Steward: Josh Sprague

A few years ago, ITD leadership noticed that great ideas generated out in the field weren't getting submitted into the innovation funnel. The main culprit was not an unwillingness, but rather just not knowing how. So to remove that barrier, innovation stewards were added in each district to facilitate the submission of ideas. We have noticed, though, that these innovation stewards are not extremely well-known in the districts. To address this, profiles of these stewards will be published in these pages in the coming weeks. The first one was D5 Innovation Steward Greydon Wright. We continue now with D6 Innovation Steward Josh Sprague:

What intrigued you about this role?
J.S.: I was chosen for this role by Kimbol Allen (then the D6 District Engineer), and he shared with me the attributes they were looking for, which were
- A forward thinking and influential leader
- Open-minded, with a willingness to try new things and do things differently
- A problem solver
- Approachable

I see it as a great honor to be thought of this way. It was because of this that I accepted the position.

How long have you been the D6 innovation steward?
J.S.: I have been the District 6 steward from the inception of the program, so a little over 2 years.

Are there common misperceptions you often hear that prove to hinder the process of submitting ideas? How would you answer those concerns?
J.S.: When I started at ITD about 10 years ago, I, like many others, had many ideas that could improve performance, save time and money, or just make the job easier. But I consistently faced the same obstacles, “that’s a great idea Josh, but you are not the engineer. So unless you can make it their idea, it will never happen.” Or “we have been doing it this was for 30 years.”

Now with Innovate ITD, employees can make changes to improve the quality of their work, and in many cases, without manager’s approval. This small change has yielded one of the biggest impacts to the culture change at ITD.

What have you found to be most rewarding about the position or the process?
J.S.: The program really demonstrates the value of every employee.