Citizen Innovators - Building AI Powered Superhumans - Third Edition

Part 1: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/citizen-innovators-building-ai-powered-superhumans-first-gilmurray

Part 2: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/citizen-innovators-building-ai-powered-super-humans-gilmurray

So how do organisations stand up a successful Citizen Innovators program?

6. Promote, train and celebrate great code practice.?

There’s no point in organisations giving workers tools if they don’t know how to use them. Train and educate individuals on security, version control, naming conventions, commenting, etc. and how they may apply that in their code. Training is critical to support and encourage Citizen Innovators and digital professionals.

Citizen Innovators can drive value for their organisations, and the ones that get the most support will predictably be the most successful. Educate individuals and teams as to the right way to develop, share code and reuse software.

Individuals do not intentionally create unsecure, poorly crafted, inadequately document code, they simply know no better. Exceptional coders are made not born. It is the same with Citizen Innovators.

Who knows, an organisations Citizen Innovators of today, maybe their best coder tomorrow or even today.

7. Provide the right toolkit which may include a Low-Code / No-Code platform.?

All employees need digital literacy skills. Some will grasp digital skills faster than others. They will need to use multiple digital tools.

If an organisation wants it’s teams to succeed, they must provide the right, easy-to-use, low-code platform and digital tool kit. Rory McIlroy could not win the US open with a 7 iron. It is critical that an organisation gives is Citizen Innovators the best opportunity to succeed. Not providing the right tools, political support and training, will result in its Citizen Innovators program failing.

The rise of no-code automation solutions and platforms has made it easier for non-technical managers and users to understand automation technology. As a result, Citizen Developers in companies get better support from their peers to create workflows that, in turn, make operations and processes more efficient.

However, it’s not enough to train Citizen Developers on how to use these low-code/no-code tools. They also need training on how to develop their automation mindset. They need to be able to grasp the difference between the manual process and the automated one, so they can accurately design the latter and ensure that it’s stable, reliable and that it actually helps users in their day-to-day. ?

Ciprian Caragea, Solution Architect @Atomatik

8. Mirror digital dexterity.?

Every employee should embrace and champion the latest technological innovations, facilitate training, and motivate others to take responsibility for their own and the organisations digital dexterity.

9. Grow and promote talent from within.?

There has been a widening disparity between the rate of technology change and employee’s ability to exploit the technology. This growing chasm is one of the biggest obstructions in the path to digital dexterity. Too often organisations hire externally and then repeatedly tell the organisation how wonderful this new, external talent is. This generally makes incumbent staff feel devalued and unwilling to help their new colleague(s).

Organisations need to create opportunities for existing employees to join development teams to learn how to code correctly.

Citizen Innovators see the technology around them as a way to boost the productivity of their jobs.

And when people close to the enterprise’s operations are empowered to innovate using that technology, their actions can become a key part of a business’s digital transformation.

Organisation’s HR departments have a huge responsibility to work hand in glove with the business. Career paths, reward systems, training and alignment with business strategy are all key to developing and retaining an organisation’s best staff.

10. Offer tangible rewards and gamify.

Organisations need to incentivise staff to contribute ideas and give them time to deliver them. Rewards make that possible; competition makes it fun.

Do remember that gamification and reward based systems need to be carefully cultivated. Incentivising the ‘wrong’ behaviours can destroy a business case or indeed an organisation’s culture.

11. Encourage mentoring from experienced software developers who have excellent people skills.?

To create more effective developers, citizen or otherwise, time must be spent tutoring, coaching and mentoring. One of the most effective ways to encourage others to develop is provide exceptional IT mentors who delight in seeing new developers grow and deliver.

IT mentors can help avoid rogue applications making their way onto the network by actively engaging with Citizen Innovators. When IT are engaged they can monitor and check that Citizen Innovators code meets business security requirements. They can provide the necessary guardrails needed to avoid mishap.

As a result, rather than resent IT oversight. Citizen Innovators actually appreciate it, especially when it comes to challenges like secure application development.

12. Align the program with business strategy and build a business case.?

A Citizen Innovators program for transformation sake won’t be effective. Any technology or change program must be tightly tied to business strategy. The fundamentals of good business don't change no matter the program or technology.

1. Develop a sound financial business case for a Citizen Innovators program.
2. Walk before you run. Take time to analyse the environment and workload requirements. A POC | POV can be a useful first step to understanding how a program might work, what it might cost and what it might deliver as business benefits.
3. Move forwards at pace using each steps to enhance your Citizen Innovators playbook whilst checking back frequently to ensure the program matches to business strategy and continues to pay for itself. If the program goes off track then actively bring it back on track.
4. Don't bet the bank from day one. Skill up your team over time so that you add more capability as your Citizen Innovators program pays for itself.

What does research and practice show?

Research shows organisations that integrate technological and people architectures enjoy widespread innovation and out perform their peers. Companies with high technology intensity have doubled their growth rate on average compared to those with low technology intensity.

It is in a digitally dexterous environment that workers feel most empowered to innovate and collaborate and to take calculated risks in order to achieve business goals.

Additional articles?on digital dexterity and Citizen Innovators:

• Gartner Says Too Few Organizations Have the Digital Dexterity to Adopt New Ways of Work Solutions
• Four fundamentals of workplace automation ?McKinsey By?Michael Chui ,?James Manyika , and Mehdi Miremadi
• Purple People: The heart of cognitive systems engineering .
• Governing Citizen Developers ?Betty Blocks

Who am I?

I am senior executive with 28+ years of experience leading digital programs?and the author of the book “The A-Z of Organizational Digital Transformation.”? I have been a director, board member, research fellow and advisor to multiple international companies.

Find me?on social media?LinkedIn ?|?Kieran Gilmurray ?|?Twitter ?|?YouTube

Book a?FREE 30 minute introductory call ?so we can discuss your specific business's Citizen Innovators, Data Analytics (), Artificial Intelligence (), Generative AI or Intelligent Automation needs -?click here. ?

I am regularly ranked as one of the top global experts in Intelligent Automation, Data Analytics, Brand Influence and Business Technology Innovation and have won multiple global awards including:

??Top 14 people to follow in data in 2023

??Top 20 Data Pros you NEED to follow?

??World's Top 200 Business and Technology Innovators??

??Global Automation Award?Winner

??Top 50 Intelligent Automation Influencers??

??Top 50 Brand Ambassadors??

I am an experienced global head of automation and data science practitioner who has ran teams of software engineers, data base administrators, data scientist PHDs, data analysts, data engineers and database administrators for many years creating one of the very few true Decision Intelligence companies to date along the way.

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