Agile working methods to enable innovation within teams
“Getting it done” starts with knowing what you want to do. No person, team or organisation can do everything. Unfortunately, many large organisations act as they can. The consequences can be devastating: Teams work on projects they will never be able to implement; resources are spread too thinly to make a real impact; employees become frustrated or even cynical; and companies wake up to find they are falling behind.
In my talk, I will build on my own experience and years of exchange with other companies and business schools to show how to design organisations that think strategically and make tough decisions not just at six-monthly budget meetings but every day. I will start by showing the power of using design thinking, agile working methods and empowerment to drive radical innovation at the team level. I will then show the limitations of these approaches when limited to individual teams. Finally, I will present organisational models that enable networked teams to drive strategy and make tough decisions decentrally.
Elise Kissling, Director of Innovation Management, BASF, Germany
Elise Kissling is passionate about creating learning teams and organizations that deliver radical innovation. At BASF, she designed and launched a program and learning platform for market-driven innovation. The program was launched to help the company’s eight operating divisions and three research platforms build internal and external networks to co-develop tomorrow’s business ecosystems. Featured in a Harvard Business School case study, the program has helped create innovation roadmaps for several of BASF’s customer industries. It has also funded and incubated 16 projects over the past three years with an impressive more than 30% success rate. Elise is currently planning to spin out one of her incubation projects, a daylighting system that brings light up to 20 meters deep into buildings. In her previous roles, Kissling was responsible for BASF’ 150th anniversary; led the strategy work for the company’s digital ag business; and headed global brand strategy and external communications for BASF’s agriculture division. Before joining BASF, she was deputy head of the unit “German and European Business Information”, the intelligence unit of a leading German newspaper and publishing group, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.