Creating a culture of innovation.

Shelly Sabatka knew she was on to something when the family members of residents at Mankato Lutheran Home, the skilled nursing facility in Mankato, Minnesota, where she is employed as the food and vending director, raved about the food served at the annual Thanksgiving dinner. It was one thing for the residents to love the food; it was quite another for visitors to want to take some home with them.

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Inspiration hit Sabatka like a lightning bolt--why not extend Mankato Lutheran's food program into a catering service for the community? This would serve two purposes: (1) dispel the stereotype that nursing home food was awful, and (2) generate new revenue. Hard work turned an idea into reality, and the catering service, called the Gourmet Apron, expects to generate $36,000 in new revenue this year. Sabatka may never have gotten the idea off the ground, however, if it hadn't been for the Innovation Station.

The Innovation Station was created by Mankato Lutheran's parent company, Ecumen, one of the largest nonprofit providers of services for adults over age 50 in the United States. It's a place on Ecumen's corporate Intranet site where employees can submit an innovation that they have put into practice at their respective sites that improves residents' experience or makes their jobs more efficient. Because these innovations are available on the corporate Web site, all of Ecumen's employees can easily access, share, and potentially implement them at their own facilities.

The Innovation Station is just one of many initiatives Ecumen has undertaken over the last several years to institute a company-wide culture change. "We made a commitment to transform ourselves, and we decided to create a dashboard with indicators to help us keep track of whether we truly were transforming," says Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts. "Being a company that supports innovation is one of those indicators."

Without a well-thought-out plan on how to implement the innovations contributed, however, the leadership at Ecumen was afraid the Innovation Station might merely become a high-tech suggestion box. "We knew we needed an organizational system for these innovations, where the onus for implementation stays out with the employees doing the work," says Jessica Drecktrah, Ecumen's director of special projects. "If it's just a suggestion box, the onus falls on whoever collects the ideas."

Furthermore, the ideas couldn't simply be "ideas." In order to be submitted to the Innovation Station, they have to already be implemented at a facility.

A four-tiered recognition system was designed to reward those who submit innovations:

* The Acorn Award is given to all innovators (the people who came up with the ideas) and/or innovation sharers (the people who chose to share them via the Innovation Station).

* The Seedling Award is given to all innovators who contribute what is deemed a major innovation.

* The Majestic Oak Award is given to all innovators who contribute a major innovation that someone at another facility decides to duplicate.

* The Fertile Ground Award is given to all who duplicate a major innovation.

To provide additional acknowledgment and awareness, new Innovation Station submissions are featured in Ecumen's newsletter, the Ecumen Insider, every six weeks. All award winners are recognized at the organization's annual Leadership Conference, with the winners of the Seedling, Majestic Oak, and Fertile Ground awards receiving a celebratory meal, as well. As an added bonus, Majestic Oak award winners receive an oak tree during a formal planting ceremony and a celebratory facility party.

The whole idea, says Drecktrah, is to bring attention to the new and different things that employees have done. "We're trying to create a culture of experimentation, transparency, risk, and fun, and this recognition program is based on that."

Another example of an idea that came through the Innovation Station and became a major program was Angel Care, a holistic approach to death that was implemented at Ecumen's Parmly community in Chisago City, Minnesota. It starts with a conversation with the resident and his or her family about what is important to them in the process of dying. This advance planning aims to promote compassionate care, personalize the journey, integrate spirituality, ease fear, lessen the burden on loved ones, and enable caregivers to celebrate the person. Other program components include putting an angel sticker on the resident's door to communicate to staff that death is imminent, placing a rose on a white sheet on the bed after the resident's body is removed from the room, placing a cross or other symbol of personal significance on a permanent remembrance banner, and celebrating the deceased person at monthly remembrance services.

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Last year, 40 innovations were submitted via the Innovation Station. This year, the goal is to have each of Ecumen's more than 100 communities submit an innovation. To do so, employees submit a standard documentation form, which captures qualitative and quantitative program outcomes, via Web, e-mail, fax, or postal mail. How the idea arrives isn't as important as getting everyone to think outside the box to improve their workplace and each customer's experience.

After an innovation is submitted, employees are encouraged to engage in Web-based peer rating and review. The ratings, reviews, and outcomes are used as measures in the Seedling Award selection process, which is annually performed by Ecumen's operations leadership.

"A major way that we will change housing and services for the better and enhance our customers' experience is through innovation from within," says CEO Roberts. "We're larger than the sum of our parts, but we can innovate as an organization faster by giving our people the necessary room to experiment, invent, and grow."

For more information on Ecumen's Innovation Station, contact Jessica Drecktrah, Director of Special Projects, at [phone] or visit www.ecumen.org. To send your comments to the author and editors, please e-mail [e-mail].

BY JASON STAHL, ASSOCIATE EDITOR