DataPalooza 2022

Form Communities of Practice Communities of Practice are organized groups of individuals from across an agency or organization that meet periodically to discuss a topic of common interest. They are a way to share ideas, best practices, and solutions with others who have experience or interest in a similar topic. Depending on the size of your organization, they might include internal teams, or partner organizations outside your organization. For example, many Communities of Practice have been organized across the entire Federal Government in areas such as User Experience, Customer Experience, and Leadership Development. Good when you want to: Share ideas across an organization. Find solutions to recurrent challenges that are being faced. Improve communication across an organization. Build alliances with related organizations. Resources Examples of communities in the Federal government: https://digital.gov/communities/ Form partnerships or alliances Where Communities of Practices bring individuals together, a formal partnership or alliance is where multiple organizations partner to work on common problems. The work at CSBS is a great example of the state agencies working together on a common goal. Good when you want to: Amplify the impact of your efforts on a topic Standardize work between related organizations. Get access to expertise that you don’t have in your organization. Confer internal awards Create awards to recognize employees who are promoting innovation mindset or taking on innovation related projects. Have coworkers nominate employees. The awards can have fun names like the ‘stick your-neck out award’ or the ‘curiosity award’ so that innovation values are celebrated as they are announced. Give winners the opportunity to give presentations on their efforts at all-hands meetings or other gatherings. Also recognize their managers, to encourage managers to promote innovation. Give winners special images to put in their email signature. If policies allow, small gift cards are swag can also be shared with the award. Good when you want to: Promote innovation values with limited budget Encourage innovation projects Alternate approach: Give awards for the best new idea. (Can be combined with Shark Tank to select winners.) Resources https://hbr.org/2014/11/to-encourage-innovation-make-it-a-competition

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