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D1 Innovation Steward profile: Jerry Wilson

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. These innovation stewards may not be extremely well known in the districts.

To address this, profiles of these stewards have been published in these pages in recent months"

D5 Innovation Steward Greydon Wright
D6 Innovation Steward Josh Sprague
D4 Innovation Steward Trey Min k
D2 Innovation Steward Doral Hoff/Roy Hill
D3 Innovation Steward Lori Fox

We continue this week with D1's Jerry Wilson (pictured below), who assumed the role in March 2016.

What intrigued you about this role?
J.W.: "Getting to be involved in "Not doing things the way we've always done it." I like that ITD is making changes/improvements by asking frontline staff who actually perform the work to develop ideas/innovations that will improve their daily jobs and save time and money, while also improving customer service and making ITD a better place to work."

Are there common misperceptions you often hear that prove to hinder the process of submitting ideas?
J.W.: "Some people don't want the recognition for their ideas, or they struggle with describing the details of their idea and resist submitting ideas."

How would you answer those concerns?
J.W.: "Helping staff input their ideas and describing the details and benefits of it is where I come in as the Innovation Steward. If they don't want the recognition, I try to help them understand the benefit to others and the department from their improvement and that if there are questions, people know who to ask. We invite staff to our monthly staff meeting to talk about their innovations, but if people don't want to do that, I don't pressure them, and I describe the idea/innovation for them."

What have you found to be most rewarding about the position or the process?
J.W.: "Having staff be recognized and appreciated for their desire and efforts to improve our department. There used to be an attitude of 'don't try to fix things because this is the way we've always done it.' Innovate ITD really puts into action our new culture."