Studio Fall 2019
How might we scale a culture of innovation at Southwest Airlines?
Known for low costs and great customer service, Southwest Airlines is one of the most successful and recognizable names in the airline industry. Southwest has an innovative business model and was looking to invest in scaling a culture of innovation.
TEAM:
Tina Barton | Mikaela Hawk | Kindra Knight |Cole Suttle
In an effort to keep the LUV alive at Southwest, this team recommended using the LUV approach to make small shifts in existing structures and practices. This included:
- Leverage the graduate relationship.
- Understand and communicate expectations.
- Verbalize innovation support models.
Examples were provided for how to incorporate these recommendations into existing structures.
- Using “Green Light Conversations” before the Academy as a catalyst for creating a dialogue between the participants and their leader.
- Shifting to Academy participants being directed to identify innovation opportunities within their existing roles, developing a project timeline and plan to integrate innovation into their work with innovation support feedback during the Academy.
- Conduct a post Academy “Green Light Conversation” with their Leaders to revisit learning outcomes and expectations and co-create a specific plan for how to manage and allocate time for innovation to be integrated into participant’s work.
TEAM: James Alanis | Deborah Clanton | Monica Fields | Ginnie Roark
This team determined the importance of capturing and sharing stories of the process of innovation and uncovered three key areas of opportunity to support the Innovation Team in scaling a culture of Innovation.
- Define: redefine innovation to celebrate process and people as much as products or outcomes. This could be done by graduates self-identifying as innovators and using branded email signatures to support storytelling and personal recognition.
- Align: utilize badges to capture data and as a way to capture what people are able to apply after the Innovation Academy.
- Invest: support participants to tell their stories in ways such as allowing them to gift badges to non-graduates and collaborate on projects in preparation for the “Booster Shot”.
