Every month, Prairie Business magazine speaks to regional leaders to learn more about a specific topic. This month we asked: How do you model innovative thinking in your organization and what benefits does it offer?
Shane Zutz
Vice president, human resources
Digikey
Thief River Falls, Minn.
In many cases, innovation relates to great ideas that dramatically change the trajectory of a business or product. While true, innovation happens more often when you create a culture where people feel encouraged to think differently, challenge assumptions and experiment with new approaches. In Digikey, we try to model innovative thinking in the following ways:
Encouraging – We try to promote a mentality where team members ask, “What if?” and “why not?” Instead of adhering to the status quo. This has been an important part of the history of Digikey’s growth and is part of why we are a leader of the industry. By creating an environment where questions are welcome, we allow new prospects and creative solutions to appear.
Embracing smart risks – Innovation requires examination of new things, even when the result is not guaranteed. Digikey constantly experimenting in all business units and organization levels. This mentality has helped us to stay forward in changing market conditions.
Cooperation in teams – This is the main attribute of innovative thinking. By breaking the silos and encouraging inter-functional team work, we create an environment that directs diversity in thinking to generate ideas and solve problems more effectively.
Creating this type of environment as part of our daily work has clear benefits. It leads to finding the smartest, more efficient ways to serve our customers. This environment also directs its commitment, as team members feel empowered and motivated when they know their ideas matter.
Novelty is not an event once – is a habit. We create a culture that nourishes continuous growth and improvement by modeling curiosity, risk taking and cooperation.
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DJ Campbell
Vice President, HR leading official
Sanford Health
Bismarck, nd
Innovative thinking is essential for transforming health care providing, especially in addressing challenges such as access to rural communities. In our organization, we promote a culture of innovation by encouraging inter-disciplinary cooperation, using technology and constantly seeking new ways to improve the patient’s results. One of the most influential ways we demonstrate this is through our virtual health care infrastructure, which is revolutionizing how to deliver care for undeserved populations.
Innovation is the process of developing and implementing new ideas and methods that improve efficiency, effectiveness and results. It is not just about the invention, but about applying solving creative problems to real world challenges. In our organization, we model innovative thinking by encouraging curiosity, embracing change and taking calculated risks to improve the distribution of health care. This means actively searching for new technologies, getting involved in discussions of thought forward, and promoting an environment where employees feel empowered to propose and test new solutions. Innovation also requires skill – constantly evaluating what works, refining the approaches and being willing to stay when needed.
By integrating telemedicine, remote monitoring of patients and diagnosing it, we break down traditional obstacles to access to health care. For example, patients in rural areas who previously had to travel long distances for specialty care can now be connected to providers immediately through safe virtual platforms near the home. Furthermore, distance monitoring allows for proactive management of chronic conditions, reducing hospital read readings and improving the overall well -being of patients.
The benefits of this innovation -driven approach are clear: rural patients are taking time care, of high quality without geographical restrictions. Providers can optimize their resources and health care inequalities decrease significantly. With the champion innovation, we are not only forming the future of health care, but we also provide equal access to all communities, regardless of location.
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Chase Kramer, Aia
Director of Design, Architect
TSP, Inc.
Sioux Falls, SD
After 95 years in the architecture and engineering industry, we have developed many better processes and practices to help promote innovative thinking. In addition to some of the standard ideas of ideas that are mostly found design firms, we implement some others to help ensure that we are using innovative thoughts in all aspects of our work.
An important characteristic of our firm’s heritage is the creation of a culture of continuing learning. From the mentoring point of view, we deliberately have new themes of designers research to present each week to the biggest team – something we are calling “TSP Ted Ted”. These not only help us all potentially learn something new, but they also tear our general presentation skills.
Part of this continuous learning culture is our project removal process. When a project leaves the door and when construction is built, a debrief develops with the entire project team to discuss what it worked and what not. Instead of allowing mistakes to be seen as obstacles, we see them as a learning opportunity for individuals and the whole firm.
Innovation and technology also go in parallel, so it is important to stay with the latest technologies. We have embraced it not only in repeated or everyday processes, but also to help start brain storm and other creative efforts. Our multidisciplinary team is also trained in architectural visualization to help make the design process more interactive with our clients, leaving them to see how nuanced decisions affect a space and, from a more pragmatic point of view, to see how they can enter the equipment and systems that are needed for regular maintenance.
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