Challenge Traditionally, ideation tends to occur at the Director level and above, or has been contained within a particular department. Through our company-wide diversity and inclusion efforts, we have identified an opportunity to invite more diverse perspectives into our ideation process.

To mobilize the diverse perspectives and knowledge of our employees against emerging challenges and opportunities, we took a new approach to innovation by welcoming staff from across the company into multiple facilitated ideation sessions. These sessions aimed to:

• Create space for staff to break out of their normal day and do something different
• Create an opportunity for staff to meet and connect with people from other areas of the business
• Leverage the diverse experiences, skills, backgrounds and expertise to generate new and innovate ideas

Multiple sessions brought together a diverse group of staff from every level of the organization – regardless of their title, job function or seniority level. The ideation sessions opened with an icebreaker to help build connections, moved into smaller breakouts for guided brainstorming and imagination, and ended with report outs where participants shared their vision for what actions might contribute to our company’s success years from now.

Outcomes After three sessions, we identified several key areas of opportunity for creating the next, inclusive “normal.” We also captured a long list of employee-generated ideas for how we might ensure the success of our company by focusing on the wellbeing and needs of our staff. Through this experience, we were able to capture the diverse perspectives of our staff and provide them with a meaningful opportunity to contribute to the future direction of our business.

Linsea Waugh, Senior Diversity & Inclusion Program Manager