Hushed, slightly nervous side conversations layer over the pump-up mix playing in the Innovation Lab as breakfast winds down and the six members of Baker Tilly’s Innovation Board take their seats. We’ve made it to the final day of the human-centered design sprint that we have facilitated with 30 BT team members from across all service lines.

Kristen Russell sets the tone for the day, reminding board members that these innovations are like chicks that have just hatched and may still be in their “awkward” phase. A lot of work has been put in this week, but a lot more will be required to turn these nascent ideas into shiny, fully-fledged roosters. And of course, not all of them will make it that far.

That’s where the Board comes in. From their position of experience and leadership in the firm, they are able to evaluate the strength of each insight and solution, and determine which ones to prioritize for further exploration.

After the first presentation, one Board Member breaks the ice with:

“Let me tell you what I love about this idea.”

A few more presentations in, a different Board Member asks: “Can we get this group in front of the activation growth team next week? They need to see this presentation."

The excitement is palpable among the Board Members and participants alike. This is what we all hoped for— ideas that have the potential to significantly affect the firm’s bottom line, by doing things like:

• Redirecting unleveraged hours of front-line staff to billable work

• Easing and incentivizing cross-selling between different functionalities at the firm

• Mitigating turnover costs by enhancing employee engagement

• Automating processes in order to free up more time for client work

It’s the last day of the sprint, but the work doesn’t end here. On our end, we’ll be following up with a Skills Transfer session for participants and a Strategy session for the Innovation Board. And then Baker Tilly’s all-star Innovation team will kick into gear to start exploring and fleshing out all the winning ideas. You can be sure we’ll be waiting in the wings to support wherever we can.

If you’ve stayed with me all week, thanks for joining me on the journey. Innovation Ignite was a true partnership between Aaron and myself on the Ei-side and our collaborators at Baker Tilly. Our team at Ei is always happy to geek out about human-centered design. If you are a learning leader with the mandate to weave innovation into the fabric of your culture, we'd love to collaborate with you.