Intrapreneurship Academy
Partner Project with Impact Hub Geneva
Changing The System From Within
Our vision is that organisations in Geneva and beyond leverage their full potential to use innovation to respond to societal needs by transforming their employees into intrapreneurial leaders, connected to a wider community of changemakers and disruptors that are paving the way for the new economy.
About the Project
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is increasingly recognised as a core priority by a growing number of institutional actors. Furthermore, the covid-19 economic disruption presents a pressing need as well as an opportunity for organisations to explore more resilient and sustainable business models aligned with the SDGs. Intrapreneurship refers to the application of entrepreneurial principles from within established organisations in order to lead innovative and purposeful change, and develop new working models and systems.
The Intrapreneurship Academy (IA) is a 6-month professional development programme (October 2020 to March 2021) for organisations committed to the SDGs, providing their employees with a transformative learning journey and concrete tools and skills in order to develop innovative initiatives within their organisations contributing to the implementation of the SDGs. The program targets organisations across sectors, incl. private sector, public sector, NGOs and UN agencies.
The programme is unique in that it builds on the expertise and networks of both the Impact Hub and Collaboratio Helvetica, notably drawing on the extensive experience of both organisations of implementing social laboratories, as well as using methodologies and approaches such as Theory-U, Design Thinking and Circular Economy to bring upon systemic change. In addition to the core team of two facilitators from the organisations mentioned above, methodological experts were invited to contribute to specific modules with their content expertise.
Results
The IA promised to deliver on four elements based on the pillars of Intrapeneurship: innovation, leadership, entrepreneurship and collaboration.
Familiarise yourself with applying social innovation tools, methods and frameworks that inspire transformative change at both personal and organisational levels;
Increase self-awareness of your potential as intrapreneurs and leaders and develop resilience;
Design a roadmap for bringing your intrapreneurial projects forward, through the support of the program team, experts and peers;
Join a community of like-minded people from different organisations (corporates, international organisations, UN agencies, educational institutions, startups, etc.).
When asked which were the most important, familiarising yourself with applying social innovation tools and increasing self-awareness were selected by an equal amount of respondents. One person chose designing a roadmap for bringing your intrapreneurial project forward. This suggests that our approach to intrapreneurship is most appreciated through its innovation and leadership angles.
The key takeaways that were deemed most relevant and useful by participants were Entrepreneurial tools to successfully sell ideas, such as Business Canvas and Pitch. Amongst others were Design Thinking methodology and Next Generation Leadership.
Finally, when asked how participating in the IA had impacted their outlook on their work, participants generally responded very positively. They reported increased motivation and confidence in their own abilities, more out of the box thinking and understanding of how innovation occurs in unexpected moments. They appreciated the safe innovative environment that enabled them to acknowledge their potential and value their own ideas more, improved self-awareness and alignment, or connecting to intrinsic motivation and purpose, as a key component of fulfillment and achievement. They gained influencing skills, a comprehensive strategy and well structured methodology to navigate complexity and address systemic challenges.
"Collaborating with the collaboratio helvetica Practitioner Circle was important to the Intrapreneurship Academy because we share the same methodological basis for systems change work. Transforming society is not an easy task as it requires linking personal and collective dimensions, so working together with the right allies is key. Our experience with Severin was delightful thanks to his pragmatic and sensible approach."
Erica Mazerolle
Social Innovator and CE Entrepreneur, Facilitator & Speaker
Contact
Erica Mazerolle, Impact Hub Geneva & Severin von Hünerbein, collaboratio helvetica
Supported by Impact Hub Geneva