Train the trainer
Banking, Insurance & Real Estate
Services
Culture & Skill Development
Applied Methods

→ Skill training

Digital tools
Duration

1 month

client
challenge
To drive their vision of an innovative company culture forward, Allianz needed to train its people in Human-Centred Design and enable internal innovation coaches to plan, deliver and assess internal innovation projects.
Process
Training
Co-creation workshop
Continuous refinement

Training

In an intense “Train The Trainer” program we trained selected Allianz staff in the principles and tools of Design Thinking, Lean, etc. Thanks to theoretic input, practical exercises and best practices the participants developed the toolkit and know how to quickly map out and test high potential ideas. We also established a common approach for successful team moderation, project planning and energy management.

Co-creation workshop

In a next step, each of the new coaches were then able to apply their new learnings by moderating a team during the yearly Allianz Biz Jam. This allowed them to practice their innovation toolset and facilitation skills on real projects and gather valuable learnings.In case of questions the SW coaches were constantly present for support and feedback during the workshop days.

Continuous refinement

After the Biz Jam the group came back together to reflect on their learnings and debrief how to improve their facilitation skills. Spark Works gave individual feedback and tips for managing bottlenecks both within the innovation process and the team management.

"For many, moderating innovation teams is harder than it seems. Innovation is tiring work, you constantly have to push your team to challenge the status quo, create new options, but also take decisions. In our Train the Trainer programs we try to share with future coaches our long experience with organisations and teams of all sorts and sizes, so they are best equipped to facilitate innovation within their own organisation."

Linda Armbruster, Managing Partner at Spark Works

outcome

The 'Train the Trainer' program provided each of the participants with a ‘Design Thinking Coach’ certificate to develop a common internal innovation approach across the organisation. The training aimed at instilling a company culture that institutionalises human-centred and agile problem-solving for navigating the fuzzy front end of innovation.

Project Lead
Linda Armbruster
Director Collaborative Innovation
Linda holds an M.A. in Strategic Design from the design akademie berlin. As a trained Design Thinker from the Potsdam and Stanford d.school, co-founder of Spark Works and lecturer at the ETHZ, she builds and leads research and training programs in the private and public sector, blending methods grounded in Human-Centred Design to inform and inspire insight-driven innovation.
Partners
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