Ideation Workshop Optimization
At a Glance:
Client: One of the largest blended healthcare companies in North America
Challenge: Identify employee-driven opportunities for automation in culture of digital mistrust and ideation apathy
Approach: Redesign ideation workshops to build capability in innovation, strengthen solution discipline, and foster belief in automation
Value: $4.3M, improved commitment to automation
Challenge
The client was conducting ideation sessions with front-line employees to identify new opportunities for automation that could improve manual processes in health care and delivery.
However, the employees lacked the requisite in both ideation and automation. Unused to the practice of employee listening and unfamiliar with automation, participants struggled to provide in-scope solutions that sponsors could feasibly implement.
Compounding this lack of capability was a lack in of belief. After years of not being listened to, some employees doubted sponsors would do anything with their ideas; other employees worried about the impact of automation and AI on their jobs. The result - many participants refused to provide any ideas whatsoever.
Without employee capability or belief to ideate for automation, ideation workshops suffered from low engagement, resistance, and suboptimal output.
Approach
Talent Solutions partnered with client leaders to rework the ideation process from an employee-centered lens that satisfied both cognitive and emotional needs.
To address the issues with ideation itself, we implemented pre- and post-workshop requirements that increased participant capability and fostered stronger belief. Creative pre-work questions sparked employees’ problem-solving capacities before they stepped into the room. With their thinking already calibrated around the upcoming challenge, workshop participants were better primed to contribute feasible and targeted solutions.
At the same time, we also instituted stringent requirements for sponsors. Before facilitating a workshop, leaders had to commit to following through on generated ideas and reporting progress on a dashboard. These public commitment and accountability measures helped alleviate employee doubt about the future life of their ideas.
To solve the automation issues, TSI developed and delivered short presentations at the beginning of each workshop that defined automation, explored its implications for employees, and demonstrated simple bot functionality. This upskilling in automation gave participants the knowledge they needed to imagine feasible and realistic opportunities for digital innovation. At the same time, the presentation helped send an underlying message: bots were there to improve – not replace – human work.
The updates to the client’s ideation workshops were simple, but they addressed the fundamental cognitive and emotional needs underneath the employees’ resistance. Building capability and belief, TSI helped activate employee commitment to both ideation and automation. This paved the way for smarter, more user-centered applications for digital solutions.
Value
Just one year after we optimized ideation, the wisdom of the crowd generated several ideas to automate the client’s medical imaging process. Implemented solutions:
Drove $4.3M in benefits
Liberated 20 FTEs for technologists and 7 FTEs for radiologists
Improved quality and efficiency of patient care