A pair of Pittsburgh-area companies are teaming up to create a training course aimed at instilling a culture of innovation within any organization.
South Side-based LUMA Institute and Bridgeville-based Development Dimensions International on Monday unveiled a new training course, Driving Innovation, designed for mid-level leaders within an organization. The course is the latest addition to DDI’s Business Impact Leadership training and marks the first time DDI, a human resources consultant, and LUMA, a firm that teaches innovation through design ideas, have teamed up.
LUMA brings the design-thinking expertise, and DDI brings its leadership development expertise, said Ellie Hall, with the executive solutions group at DDI. Together, they hope to train the leaders who can create the framework needed for a culture of innovation.
“We joined the trend around looking into the world of design and design thinking and human-centered design that business leaders can use as an analogy for business transformation processes,” Hall said. “If, in fact, leaders think of themselves and think of their people more like designers to solve problems and create the atmosphere, they can fuel the innovation in the organization.”
LUMA is able to extend its grasp by introducing some of its techniques to DDI global clients who, if interested, are sent to LUMA for further innovation training.
“This is an introductory workshop, the discipline of design won’t be taught in an afternoon,” said LUMA director and CEO Chris Pacione. “If you really want to change a culture, you have to create disciples inside an organization,” and, by doing that, there is a higher chance the skills and the thinking will stick.
DDI has been offering its Business Impact Leadership program for about two years, Hall said, and incorporating innovation has been in the works for a while, but in the past year, there was at least one customer request a week for a session specific to innovation. And those requests were not only from North American customers, but also Europe and Asia.
“Truly every market is reporting a surge in interest,” she said.
At LUMA, Pacione also has seen a resurgence in companies’ focus on innovation. He pegs it to what he calls “the condition of plenty.”
This condition is the result of 20th-century technology, like televisions and cars, turning into everyday commodities, coupled with the rise of a huge middle class in places like China and India that are changing the global competitive landscape. In this climate, companies can no longer rely on price and features to ensure product success.
“Only those companies able to innovate, able to introduce a steady stream of offerings consumers find useful will flourish,” Pacione said.
LUMA and DDI aren’t the only ones talking about the importance of innovation. For the past 15 months, a grassroots group called Innovation Happens has been trying to introduce local start-ups to the region’s biggest companies in the hope that both sides can gain from each other’s knowledge and deals can be made. Another firm in town, TrueFit, has been hosting a series of seminars with Ontario-based consultant John Sutherland to introduce Sutherland’s technique to understand innovation, recognize game-changing technology and how to capitalize on those changes.
A third group called Culture of Innovation Collaboration Forum, linking three of the region’s other design houses — Echo Strategies, Daedalus and ThoughtForm — has been meeting with executives from some of the region’s biggest companies to talk about and share strategies surrounding innovation and growth within their companies.
Lou Musante, managing partner at Echo Strategies, said innovation and culture may be the buzz words of the day, but they are the result of companies finding new ways to grow.
“The ’90s and the last decade was all about cut costs, lean and six sigma. We have taken all the cost out of the company and now we have to grow, and if you have to grow, it’s usually through innovation,” he said.
Original post by Malia Spencer of the Pittsburgh Business Times.