When we joined them, the City of Sunnyvale had already led several organizational development efforts focused on teaching and applying innovation frameworks. We wanted to understand what had worked in the past and what the employees needed now. 

After interviewing City staff, presenting to leadership, and reviewing relevant documentation, we co-defined the following intended outcomes for program participants:

• Learn and practice inclusive and collaborative research and engagement strategies that lead to effective solutions
• Gain a deeper understanding of a challenge from the perspective of people most affected by it
• Develop, test and refine a portfolio of ideas to address the challenges

In order to accomplish these goals, participants would need pre-set challenges to tackle. The Sunnyvale Employees for Equity and Diversity (SEED) Team had recently conducted internal research through which employees had raised internal communications as the top priority for advancing equity, access, and inclusion (EAI) in the organization. With input from leadership, program participants prioritized four challenge topics (from an original list of 6):

1. Increasing transparency and clarity of internal communication
2. Improving feedback loops with staff
3. Leaning into collaborative decision-making
4. Increasing communication and engagement with field staff

In order to assess the success of the Summer 2024 Innovation Team and identify opportunities for improvement, we administered a pre- and post-program survey, conducted project team debriefs after each training session, and regularly invited feedback and ideas from Innovation Team participants. Here’s what we learned:

1. Value in Cross-Department Engagement. Program participants found considerable value in learning from colleagues across various City departments, and saw the potential of programs like these in addressing challenges – so long as there are clear next steps to test and implement ideas.

“[I appreciated] being able to hear from employees citywide, whom I have never spoken to before, and hear a different standpoint.” (Innovation Team participant)

2. More Time Needed for Testing Ideas. Through this process, each team generated at least 20 (and some over 50) ideas to improve internal communications.  Each of the four teams presented four (or more) top ideas for consideration. The matrix below shows the top ideas across the four teams. Many participants greatly valued this part of the process, but felt they needed more time to vet their ideas before prioritizing and presenting at Showcase.

3. Participants Built Confidence in Design Thinking. Participants valued working together to explore their challenge topics and applying innovation frameworks. In particular, gaining experience writing interview questions and coding data—areas that were new for many. A comparison of pre- and post-program questionnaire results, participants showed a 7.8% increase in confidence around applying design thinking to their daily work.

4. Equity Reflections Were Meaningful.  Throughout the program we encouraged teams to take an equity pause to ‘notice’ and ‘reflect’ on differences in access and belonging at key steps in the process. We found that program participants showed a clear interest in hearing from people who are most impacted, and the “notice and reflect” tool created the opportunity for thoughtful reflection and discussion. However, participants wanted more time to apply the learnings from their reflections, such as an additional period of outreach and engagement to allow them to fill gaps and connect with more impacted people, particularly those who were harder to reach (such as field staff).

The Innovation Team  focused on generating a portfolio of ideas to improve internal communications within the City. To move forward into tangible solutions, teams were guided through the following steps:

• Identify staff to interview (who are directly impacted by the challenge at hand)
• Notice who might be left out and reflect on ways to increase inclusion and belonging in the engagement process
• Write interview questions and conduct interviews with City staff
• Analyze and synthesize findings from interviews
• Reframe the challenge from the point of view of those impacted
• Collaboratively brainstorm ideas for ways to address the challenge
• Prioritize ideas based on the impact and effort needed to implement them

Through this process, each team generated at least 20 (and some over 50) ideas to improve their challenge topic. At Showcase, each of the four teams presented four (or more) top ideas for consideration. The audience of over 100 managers, from the City management team, were then invited to give feedback on ideas and sketch one of their top ideas.