[Customer Story] Unleashing Innovation in Utilities: How Creative Training Transformed a Florida Water Company's Culture

In the world of utility management, innovation isn't always the first word that comes to mind.

Yet, for one Florida-based utility company responsible for managing renewable water, wastewater, and reclaimed water for their county, embracing creativity and innovation became the key to overcoming growing pains and fostering a more collaborative, efficient organization.

This is the story of how a partnership with TrainSMART and a commitment to unconventional training methods transformed not just their processes, but their entire organizational culture.

The Challenge: Growing Pains in a Rapidly Expanding Utility

Our story begins with a utility company facing challenges that many rapidly growing organizations encounter:

1. Silo Formation: As the company expanded, departments began to operate in isolation, hindering cross-functional collaboration.
2. Turf Protection: Employees became protective of their roles and responsibilities, leading to a lack of knowledge sharing and cooperative problem-solving.
3. Declining Trust: The combination of siloed operations and turf protection led to a decrease in trust across the organization.
4. Need for Innovation: In an industry facing increasing demands for efficiency and sustainability, the company recognized the need to infuse creativity and innovation into their day-to-day operations.

The cumulative effect of these challenges was clear: despite their growth, the utility company was at risk of stagnation and inefficiency. They needed a solution that would break down barriers, foster trust, and stimulate innovation across all six of their divisions.

The Solution: The Innovation Program and TrainSMART's Creative Approach?

Recognizing the need for transformative change, the utility's leadership and development department created the Innovation program.

This initiative was designed to help participants:

• See the organization from a big picture, systems perspective
• Infuse creativity and innovative thinking into day-to-day projects
• Bolster cross-departmental communication
• Effectively collaborate across divisions

To bring this vision to life, they partnered with TrainSMART, known for their expertise in delivering high-impact, creative training solutions. TrainSMART was tasked with designing, developing, and delivering four of the twelve innovation?modules, each focused on providing creative and innovative skill-building, tools, templates, and assessments.

The Participants: High-Potential Change Agents

Fifteen participants were carefully selected for the pilot program based on three key criteria:

1. High-potential within the organization
2. A demonstrated ability to effectively lead
3. Internal influence across departments

This selective approach ensured that the training would have maximum impact, with participants able to disseminate their learnings and new approaches throughout the organization.

TrainSMART's Four Innovative Modules

TrainSMART designed four unique modules, each leveraging creative techniques to foster innovation and collaboration:

Module 1: Creating the Ideal High-Performing Team

This module utilized LEGO? bricks to bring abstract concepts to life:

• Teams brainstormed characteristics of ideal high-performing teams
• Each trait was modeled in 3D using LEGO? bricks
• Teams integrated their models into a "super story"

Outputs:

• Thinking with one's hands
• 3D modeling and storytelling skills
• Creation of "sticky" stories for easy recall and retelling
• Novel brainstorming methods
• Shared understanding across functional teams

Module 2: Creative and Innovative Thinking

This intensive module introduced the FourSight innovative framework:

• Participants took an innovative thinking assessment prior to the workshop
• Teams were formed based on assessment results
• Groups created prototypes of new products to illustrate different innovative thinking profiles
• Teams tackled real-world utility challenges using the FourSight process

Outputs:

• Understanding of personal "energy waves" in innovation
• Team innovation profiles
• Creation of powerful challenge questions
• Tools and templates for each step of the FourSight process
• Generation of real-world solutions to organizational challenges

Module 3: Innovating in Accordance with the Organization's Values

This module aligned innovation with the company's core values:

• Teams were assigned core values to explore
• Using LEGO? SERIOUS PLAY? techniques, groups brainstormed actions centered on their value that would drive innovation
• Actions were organized into sticky stories
• Teams presented how each value could enable innovation within the utility

Outputs:

• Alignment on how values can accelerate organizational innovation
• Increased levels of communication and collaboration

Module 4: The MacGyver Challenge - Using Improvisational Storytelling to Solve Challenges (3 hours)

The final module focused on improvisation and storytelling:

• Warm-up exercises built improv skills
• Introduction of the "Story Spine" concept used by Pixar
• Teams used story spine phrases to tackle business challenges improvisationally

Outputs:

• Application of new idea-generation tools
• Demonstration of improvisational play's power in problem-solving
• Practice in divergent thinking without immediate evaluation
• Development of in-the-moment creativity applicable to daily work

Implementation: Bringing Creativity to Life

The implementation of these modules was carefully orchestrated to maximize engagement and learning:

1. Hands-On Approach: Every module involved tactile, interactive elements, from LEGO bricks to prototype creation.
2. Real-World Application: Participants worked on actual challenges facing the utility, ensuring immediate relevance of the skills learned.
3. Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Teams were consistently mixed to foster connections across the organization's six divisions.
4. Gradual Skill Building: Each module built upon the skills developed in the previous sessions, creating a comprehensive learning journey.
5. Reflection and Integration: Time was allocated after each module for participants to discuss how they could apply their new skills in their daily work.

Results: A Utility Transformed

The impact of TrainSMART's innovative modules within the Innovation program was both immediate and far-reaching:

1. Enhanced Problem-Solving Skills

Participants reported increased confidence in their ability to tackle complex challenges creatively. The diverse toolkit provided by TrainSMART allowed them to approach problems from multiple angles.

2. Improved Cross-Departmental Communication

The shared experience of the Innovation program created a network of innovators across all six departments. Participants reported feeling more comfortable reaching out to colleagues in other divisions for collaboration and idea-sharing.

3. Real-World Solutions

Through the program, participants generated actionable solutions to pressing organizational challenges, including:

• Improving employee recruitment and retention strategies
• Enhancing inter-department communication processes
• Developing more effective onboarding for newly promoted supervisors

4. Cultural Shift Towards Innovation

The ripple effect of the Ignite program began to permeate the organization. Participants brought their new skills and mindsets back to their teams, slowly shifting the overall culture towards one of creativity and collaborative problem-solving.

5. Alignment of Innovation with Values

By explicitly connecting innovation to the company's core values, the training ensured that creative solutions would align with the organization's fundamental principles and long-term vision.

6. Breaking Down Silos

The cross-departmental nature of the training began to erode the silos that had formed. Participants reported a greater understanding of other departments' challenges and an increased willingness to collaborate across divisional lines.

Participant Feedback: Voices of Transformation

The response to TrainSMART's modules was overwhelmingly positive:

• "I really love the interactive nature of these creative workshops." This comment reflects the engaging, hands-on approach that kept participants actively involved throughout the training.
• "Very hands-on!" The tactile nature of activities, particularly the use of LEGO? bricks, resonated strongly with participants.
• "These workshops are very useful for thinking critically - thinking outside the box." Participants recognized the value of the creative techniques in expanding their problem-solving capabilities.
• "I'm committing to bring back this knowledge to my team." This feedback highlights the program's success in creating change agents who would disseminate their learnings throughout the organization.
• "This is a fantastic program. It would be great for leadership to participate in it." The enthusiasm for the program was so high that participants saw value in expanding it to higher levels of the organization.

Client Satisfaction: A Ringing Endorsement

The utility's leadership expressed their gratitude to TrainSMART for their "professional, 'world-class' facilitation during each of the workshops." This endorsement underscores the high quality of TrainSMART's design and delivery, as well as the immediate perceived value of the training.

Lessons Learned: Insights for Other Organizations

The success of this utility company's innovative training program offers valuable insights for other organizations, particularly those in traditional or regulated industries:

1. Creativity is Universal: Even in technical fields like utility management, creative problem-solving skills are invaluable.
2. Hands-On Learning is Powerful: The use of tactile tools like LEGO? bricks can make abstract concepts concrete and memorable.
3. Cross-Departmental Training Breaks Silos: Bringing together employees from different divisions creates lasting networks that improve organizational communication.
4. Align Innovation with Values: Connecting creative thinking to core organizational values ensures that innovation efforts remain true to the company's mission.
5. Real-World Application is Key: Having participants work on actual organizational challenges ensures immediate relevance and application of new skills.
6. Improvisation Builds Adaptability: Teaching improvisational techniques can help employees become more flexible and creative in their daily work.

Conclusion: A New Era of Innovation in Utilities

The journey of this Florida-based utility company demonstrates the transformative power of innovative and creative training approaches. By partnering with TrainSMART to design and facilitate a series of unique, engaging modules, they not only addressed their immediate challenges of silos and declining trust but also laid the groundwork for a more innovative, collaborative future.

This case study serves as a powerful reminder that in any industry, even those as traditional as utility management, fostering creativity and innovation can lead to breakthroughs in efficiency, communication, and problem-solving. By investing in their employees' creative capabilities and providing them with tools to collaborate across departmental lines, this utility company has positioned itself at the forefront of innovation in their field.

The success of this initiative underscores a crucial lesson for all organizations: creativity and innovation are not limited to certain industries or roles. With the right training approach and a commitment to thinking outside the box, any organization can transform its culture, improve its processes, and unleash the innovative potential of its workforce. As this utility company has shown, sometimes the key to solving complex organizational challenges lies in something as simple as a pile of LEGO? bricks and the willingness to play seriously.