LEF Future Center

The development of an Innovation process for a new future center

What – In order to become more innovative the Dutch highway agency (Rijkswaterstaat) chose to open a future center. Our assignment was to assist in the development of the overall concept of the future center as well as the internal innovation process. This would secure the successful execution of internal development projects.

370-degrees was part of this process throughout the entire one year development phase of the Future Center.

Process – The design of the Future Center was created through a series of creative workshops. These workshops involved relevant stakeholders from within the organization as well as external experts within the fields of innovation and change management. Our role in the process was as facilitators. We created and facilitated the framework of the process. At times this meant summing up in between development phases and re-framing ideas so they would be clearer. This allowed the project group to focus on what was most important. During the development process one of the important tools used was storytelling. One of the results of this was a magazine developed by the project team behind LEF future center describing the entire concept. You can browse through the magazine here.

What – The Dutch, British and Flemish highway agencies wants to become more sustainable and use a partnership model to enhance that process. Our assignment was to create a project and process for this partnership. The project is called Carbon FreeWays and aims at bringing highway related CO2 emissions down to the lowest possible level in all three countries

370-degrees have been part of this project for more than 2 years now and the plan is to run it until end of 2011.

Process – We started by bringing senior responsibles from each country together in order to develop a strategy for how to maximize the outcome of a partnership. Together with senior responsibles we came up with a 3-step process – Educate, Engage, Excite. First step was to discover themes relevant for bringing down co2 emissions down on the high ways. Through carefully analyzing carbon footprint reports it became clear that there was three areas that would be relevant to focus on. Procurement – Street Lighting – Construction.

Second step after having chosen focus areas was to arrange a two-day workshop for relevant managers and developers from each country. The workshop aimed at educating the right people from the three organizations. All participating managers and developers were given the opportunity to continue working on bringing down co2 emissions. Out of the interested we formed working groups with the assignment of planning how to save as much co2 as possible. A workshop for each group was arranged together with the gathering of relevant research material. Now these working groups have had 2 working days together and planning for a third in the autumn of 2010.

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The Xperiment

What – RIjkswaterstaat Xperiment is a 7-week innovation program in which 25 students from a variety of higher-level education and countries are brought together in multidisciplinary teams to work on challenges faced by Rijkswaterstaat.The subjects of the challenges are very differ- ent, but they all have a common focus on innovation and sustainability.

Process – The teams are put together based on 3 criteria: The group must contain relevant knowledge to comprehend the challenge The group must contain the necessary diversity to facilitate innovation All participants must really want to take part in the Xperiment

During the 7-week program the participants will work at Rijkswaterstaat’s LEF future centre, so that they can make use of the vast knowledge and facilities available at Rijkswaterstaat.

To ensure the innovation process the participants will have weekly lectures/workshops/coaching on innovation related topics as well as weekly coaching sessions on the innovation process with a partner from 370-Degrees and a vast array of external and internal experts connected to the Xperiment.

What happened after the Xperiment?

Each Xperiment is followed up by extensive evaluation in order to further develop the form of the Xperiment and to ensure the successful continuation of the work started during the program.

The results so far include: Xperiment participants being hired by Rijkswaterstaat The implementation of projects developed during the Xperiment A growing network of experts and organizations connected to Rijkswaterstaat through the Xperiment Inspiration in terms of work methodology

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