In the framework of the actions promoted by the EU Digital Transformation Accelerator and as coordinators of the European project DIGIS3 (Digital Innovation Centre for Intelligent, Sustainable and Cohesive Digitalisation), on 12 April, AIR Institute staff, participated in the second part of the training session "Digital Innovation Management".
This new online training session for trainers aimed to show the different processes, methods and tools that are currently used in the management of digital innovation.
As part of 1 of the 4 courses on this topic, the intention is to train the Digital Innovation Hubs from the entire European network, to which DIGIS3 belongs, to make sure they keep up with the advances in the field of digital innovation management. To this end, the speakers who participated are members of the EDIH "Crowd in Motion", promoters of this training and collaborators with the European Commission in this area.
The agenda for the session was as follows::
13:00-13:15 – Welcome and introduction.
13:15-14:15 – Incentivisation and gamification.
14:15-15:15 – Tools for idea management.
15:15-15:30 – Explanation of next steps, summary and questions.
Before starting the session, the methodology (eminently interactive and looking for the participation of the attendees) to be used for the session was explained, the "15-15-15-15 working mode", dividing each hour of training into 15-minute sections, as follows:
- 15 minutes to present content on the subject to be dealt with in each section.
- 15 minutes of work/discuss in groups, in separate discussion rooms.
- 15 minutes of knowledge transfer, sharing the conclusions of each group’s discussions and asking and answering questions.
- 15-minute break, with the possibility to join discussion groups and network.
DIGIS3 found that this methodology clearly served to motivate participants to intervene, as well as to generate contacts and encourage communication among the participants.
Regarding the contents of the session, the first part of the session provided an insight into the different ways of motivating staff to encourage their creativity and participation in the generation of ideas.
In addition, gamification was highlighted as one of the tools that works best and achieves the best results in terms of increasing the sharing of ideas in organisations, their value, and the fact that the promoters of these ideas can obtain rewards of all kinds.
Several tools for this purpose were presented, and a specific example of the software and incentive programme used in "Crowd in Motion" in the form of a competition was used, with different types of rankings, prizes, trophies, badges, and awards, depending on the objective being sought.
In the 15 minutes dedicated to the group discussion, the opportunity was taken to share how motivation and incentivisation for the generation of ideas is managed in each organisation. This was discussed in groups. The results of the discussion were shared by each discussion group’s spokesperson in the last 15 minutes of this part of the session.
In the second part, several online tools used for idea management and asynchronous collaboration were presented. For their part, the speakers presented their own tool developed for this purpose, making it available to the rest of the EDIHs (DIGIS3 among them), with a licence for its use free of charge. It was possible to see how the tools work through examples and demonstrations of the different utilities and possibilities.
In the group discussion corresponding to this part of the session, the different participants shared their previous experience with tools of this type, discussed their potential use and the limitations of their implementation and general use by all the members of the organisations and working groups. The conclusions were shared by each group’s spokesperson with the rest of the participants and, with comments and answers to questions from the speakers, the session was completed.
Following the session, the round of questions and answers, and the next steps, DIGIS3 concludes that this practical workshop is a very useful modality. In comparison to other teaching methods, it greatly encourages participation and favours collaboration and the exchange of knowledge and experiences among the participants.
In addition, DIGIS3 positively assesses the training being provided by the European Commission. A good level of training is being provided to the EDIH and it will also serve to transfer this knowledge to SMEs, MIDCAPs and Public Sector Entities and to improve the way in which services are provided to beneficiary entities.