The power of innovation: 11 success factors for knowledge transfer

With the Academy, Julia Koop from ERGO's Digital Factory has established a format for sustainable, cross-divisional networking and knowledge transfer. The Academy involves employees who have valuable knowledge for the company's ability to innovate. In the “WerkWandel” magazine, she provides tips for successful knowledge management.

The Digital Factory of the ERGO Group was founded in 2018 as the engine of digital and agile transformation. The Digital Factory serves as an incubator and enabler for working methods and, with cross-functional teams, supports the design and implementation of digital services and products.

What makes the Digital Factory's approach special is its structure: on the one hand, overarching skills have been brought together centrally in the Digital Factory – for example, IT and business architects, UX (user experience) designers, design thinking moderators, release train engineers, etc. On the other hand, the content-related responsibility for the digital results to be implemented remains with the department that brings the problems to be solved into the factory. This model leads to a strong expansion of cross-departmental collaboration.

What does knowledge transfer have to do with the ability to innovate?

When it comes to the keyword ‘innovation’, many think of the big breakthroughs. However, innovations are rarely completely new (= ‘radical innovation’), which divide time into a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. A large proportion of innovations arise from the new combination of known elements, i.e. existing products or services. The question is how companies can systematically create a breeding ground for such innovations. In most companies, the knowledge already exists, but the experts are usually not (well) networked. Every employee is an expert, not only in their subject area, but also in how it works in the company context. If an organisation manages to network the knowledge of its employees in a meaningful way, valuable combinations of known elements can be created.

But where should you start? There are already individual employees in organisations who are very well networked both internally and externally. They no longer need a push and, through their active exchange, they constantly bring new ideas and perspectives into the company. Most knowledge workers would also agree that networking is important in a professional context. But for the majority of them, it repeatedly slips down the priority list. Organisations must create sustainable incentives for them to actively network and thus exchange knowledge that can flow into the development of innovations. The Digital Factory Academy was launched to achieve this.

The format started out small with a dialogue between two people. The idea of sharing knowledge not only with one colleague, but with several interested parties, quickly scaled up to a group-wide format to which practically everyone in the insurance group is invited today; although the content focus of the format is primarily on product owners, developers, architects, technical experts and all those who (want to) drive digital solutions in the group. Within just a few years, the initial approach has given rise to a vibrant and stable community in which a topic is presented by an expert in 20 minutes each week, followed by a discussion round of another 20 minutes. The Digital Factory Academy has become a permanent place within the company where colleagues can meet and gather knowledge and points of contact. Over time, eleven factors have been identified that can help to make such knowledge transfers sustainable. Many of them are based on the agile working world.

Digital Factory Academy

The author Julia Koop is responsible for Communities, Culture & Communication at Digital Factory and is part of the cross-functional team. Over the past two years, she has established a functioning cross-departmental knowledge transfer at ERGO with more than 80 community meetings. The so-called Digital Factory Academy creates a common identity for all employees in the group who are interested in the (further) development of digital topics. After two years, the Digital Factory Academy as a digital community includes 500 colleagues. 

Eleven success factors of the Digital Factory Academy Community

• A clear target group: The first question should always be: Which horizontal organisational connection should be promoted for strategic reasons? For example, the Digital Factory Academy is aimed at all those who deal with the (further) development of digital services and products. For this reason, the Product Owner Community of Practice was included in the target group from the outset.
  
• Curator: Communities with around 75 members rarely work well without a curator who draws up the ‘big picture’, curates the selection of topics and acts as the face of the community. The more personally a community is managed, the greater the loyalty. The curator of networks must understand what the target group is dealing with in terms of content, especially in their everyday lives.
  
• Search for experts: Every expert is keen to share their expertise with others, especially if it involves little effort and a wide distribution. They are also happy to be contacted by interested parties for further questions.
  
• Club character: The format is open to everyone. Those who want to participate sign up for a distribution list and receive invitations via it. Colleagues without any other connection become part of the virtual system Digital Factory as a driver of digital and agile transformation in the group.
• Self-organisation: The community members propose topics every six months via a survey and vote on them. This is the basis for the curator and part of the active involvement of the members.
  
• Virtual format: In order to leverage horizontal effects, particularly on innovative ability, this format can only be implemented simultaneously across all locations – and it has to be virtual and non-binding.
• Flexible appointment scheduling: the weekly format has no fixed appointment. Appointments are arranged individually with each expert who presents.
  
• Service concept: The dates for sessions can be found directly in the members' Outlook. The Digital Factory Academy uses a push mode to keep the knowledge dates very present.
• Voluntary: Participation is not mandatory. Each member can come to the sessions as it suits them. Everyone is responsible for investing their own time and deciding whether the knowledge of a single session generates value for them.
  
• Partnerships within the group: As a rule, every group has functions that have a strong interest in reaching horizontal target groups. For example, in the Digital Factory Academy, the innovation scouting team presents a start-up with an interesting solution for the group at least every three months.
  
• Step by step: lasting communities develop slowly. They only remain if they continuously adapt to the needs of their members. Organic growth ‘across the floor’ is optimal.