BRAINPOWER SURGE FIGURE 1


Rewards & Recognition


ition


Primary nventor


rimar Inventor


Micro Funding


Training Workshops Communicators


Innovation Office


Request for Innovation


Open Innovation Catalysts Hubs


Proof of Concept


Idea


IDEA Database


Experts Champions


IEC


Submission


Operational Database


Internal Collaboration


External Resources


GIVING IDEAS DIRECTION With IDEA, ARDEC established a scalable, innovation management program that works from both the bot- tom up and the top down, including a support network and established paths of inquiry so that both inven- tors and managers can develop ideas from the early stages through development and possible deployment. (SOURCE: ARDEC)


conducive to supporting innovation lead- ers. As she told Te Picatinny Voice in February 2011, looking back at the for- mation of the IDEA program, “We had over 2,000 people solving problems or gaps in warfighter capabilities, meeting requirements, but I didn’t get a sense that they all had an avenue to have their ideas [and] innovations heard.”


Te effort began in January 2008 with ARDEC officials benchmarking a num- ber of “best in class” corporate innovation


programs, followed by interviews with key stakeholders, including top- and mid-level managers, rank-and-file inven- tors and innovators, program managers and active-duty personnel. Between July and September 2008, we also conducted an “innovation climate” survey across the workforce and a targeted inven- tor survey to gather baseline data for future reference.


We based the innovation climate survey on the work of Drs. Scott G. Isaksen


and Göran Ekvall, pioneers in the field of innovation climate research. A total of 892 ARDEC employees responded to the survey. Figure 2 shows the most frequent answers for six survey questions related to the discovery of an innovation.


While most answers were in line with the findings of Isaksen and Ekvall, the survey found ARDEC to be significantly more risk-averse than its commercial coun- terparts. Reducing the inherent risks of innovation and increasing ARDEC’s


88


Army AL&T Magazine


October–December 2013


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