DEEP DIVE | PRORITY WAVES

We prioritised 4 areas for now to then in 2022 get to the other 4 areas. Take a look at the topics that are most relevant in your context when it comes to change that is needed towards a truly innovative WWF. Here you can find more info on these first waves, inspiration from across the network and deeper dive links.

WHAT IS THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE IN LEARNING AND FAILURE?

WWF has a culture in which it is essential to reflect, learn and share the learnings openly, especially, if these involve failure. We are a learning organisation and offer the psychological safety it takes to be innovative. Everyone in the organization knows what is meant by “failure” and the fear of failure is put into perspective. Staff of all seniority understand failure is common when someone is courageous to trying something new (in a mindful way and little harm creating tests, etc). People take on a mindset that is focused on the learnings of these failures.

“Real failure is trying something, learning it doesn't work, then continuing to do it anyway.”  We aim to not just do things right but also question if we do the “right” things. 

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

Psychological safety is broadly defined as a climate in which people are comfortable expressing and being themselves. Psychological safety exists in work groups, rather than between specific individuals, therefore, it’s a matter of creating framings both in the local / teams level and the global WWF one so that we can altogether create this safety for innovation to emerge. 

WHY IS THERE FEAR TO FAIL?

WWF REPUTATION & FUNDER RELATIONS

What is a healthy balance between fulfilling expectations and commitments and accepting and communicating that mistakes were made and adaptations were made? Employees feel the pressure of the external communications and WWF’s reputation. It’s important to find a way to communicate with the wider public about our work, our innovations and about our failures. 

CHANGE WE HOPE TO SEE IN THE AREA OF SKILLS

We have a basic understanding of what innovation means, why it matters and how it works in WWF. We have build up our innovation capabilities with Design Thinking (DT) being a first widely established method when developing projects, tackling challenges and try to innovate in our way of working. Staff all over the network are comfortable with the tools it offers and use it to complement their local project / program development (PPMS or other standards).  DT tools and the mindset behind it especially empathy and prototyping are fully incorporated in WWF and its usage leads to more impactful projects. 

Listening / Empathy: Projects are not based on expert bias or assumptions but on the reality, needs, goals, hopes of key stakeholders that are necessary to realise long term successes.

Prototyping: Fast and cheap testing early on in a project leading to adapting of ideas for more impact and exist of not functional ideas before major time investments.

ABOUT INNOVATION SKILLS & DESIGN THINKING

If your office / community is just starting to dig deeper into the topic of innovation, having a joint understanding and language is really important. Thus investing into capacity building efforts and  thinking about how innovation will be driven and structured is really important. DT can then be a useful tool. It is a way to generate new solutions in order to address old problems and issues, to listen to the fast changing society, understand it, and establish bridges between you and your users. But we are dealing with nature conservation!  Luc Hoffmann, one of the founders of WWF said, “In the beginning I thought it would all have to do with nature and birds. And then I understood it was all about people”. 

CHANGE WE HOPE TO SEE

Offices and communities have a clear process in place and resources ready that provides guidance and support to those wanting to tackle a challenge in an innovative way. Design Thinking is about the method of problem solving; the idea pathway is more about the process in which the method is a part of. Which is why clear decision making, support offers and means to track progress of innovative ideas in development is essential. A lean idea pathway ( linked to WWF program / project development standards) is provided which offices and communities adapt to their circumstances. 

There are two key approaches: (a) build a solution to the problem (depth) themselves in the office or community; (b) do a call out for solutions to be submitted from inside or outside of WWF (breadth) or (c) a mix of the two. The challenges to be addressed are always connected back to the strategic goals of the office / community and thus ensure a focus on strategic innovation. This pathway makes it easier for an idea to move through the lifecycle not harder. 

WWF's IDEA PATHWAY

Problem definition: Time is invested upfront to ensure the “right” problems are put into focus. The scope of the challenge is clearly defined and empathy with key stakeholders is build.

Experimentation: Challenging assumptions made, testing the idea with key stakeholders, adapting ideas based on the feedback provided before moving ahead.

Ideation: Clear techniques are available to lead to developing unusual ideas and develop 2-3 possibly impactful ideas.

1| We leverage the opportunities offered by new technologies by partnering with experts in this space and identifying ways to improve our approaches through technological solutions.

2| We work with relevant external innovation partners that offer non-tech related alternatives to our way of working and complement our innovation work.

3| We support existing solutions from outside WWF that work towards achieving our goals. 

A scaling process is developed that  offices and communities can pick up when they have ideas ready to be scaled. This is again rooted in Design Thinking while integrating the different approaches of scaling in, out and up. A combination of tools, examples and capacity building elements are available to support. Globally cross practice calls for scalable solutions are in place to identify a handful of ideas moving into a process of scaling together with partners. Fundraising teams are well equipped to find the necessary resources to support. 

Innovation is a strategic element at the core of WWF and internal budgets allow for time and resources to be invested. Staff have time to grow their innovation skills, think outside the box and ideate regularly. Innovative ideas can go through the lifecycle with the resources they need to unleash their potential. We operate with new  ways of external funding, we are tight to fewer restrictions and, therefore, we have more room for learning and innovation. 

Key groups essential for innovative ideas to be successful have strong innovation skills and fully integrate innovation into their way of working. For example, those developing the office strategy and projects ensure innovation is fully embedded. The fundraising community has a strong pipeline for innovation and is comfortable to sell innovative ideas. People and Culture teams recruit innovative staff and innovation is fully integrated in KPIs and performance evaluation. Boards demand innovative leadership of CEOs. Etc.