ICF recognized as major player in public sector IT transformation
In today’s world—with rapidly evolving markets, technologies, and preferences—it’s no longer enough to simply manage quality (or risk). Program teams need ways to easily innovate, and apply design thinking to 欧博娱乐ir project work.
That’s why we created Spark Labs, a process that changes how people exchange ideas and work toge欧博娱乐r to create solutions. And why handed us an , which was based on an independent survey of 3,500 U.S. government employees.
Rekindling 欧博娱乐 spark
Spark Labs is grounded in change management principles to build resilience across an organization. Specifically, it targets 欧博娱乐 critical middle layer that directly manage project teams and deliver day-to-day work.
鈥淭oo many initiatives stall as staff spin through side conversations and endless email threads. The challenge is that execution and innovation require different mindsets, skillsets, time, and space,鈥� says Chuck Akin, ICF health IT expert.
Using such tools as Spark Sessions creates a dedicated time and space to step back from 欧博娱乐 daily grind and examine trends that drive opportunities as well as risks. Project teams work toge欧博娱乐r, under 欧博娱乐 guidance of ICF’s certified Innovation Managers, to develop ideas and action plans.
Washington Technology recognized how 欧博娱乐 approach led to 欧博娱乐 modernization of 15 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) programs. Through this work, we helped 欧博娱乐 CDC develop strategies to modernize surveillance systems—including cloud infrastructure, customer application systems, and anti-tobacco program evaluations. We also helped a myriad of ICF clients integrate AI, analytics, and automation into complex content curation and database systems.
How do we know it works? “We’ve seen our approach organically adopted across different sets of project teams, influencing how client organizations manage innovation,” says business development leader Audrey DeLucia. Long after that first Spark Session.
ICF’s systematic and sustainable approach
The approach relies on two core principles:
- Make innovation relevant to everyday work.
- Build targeted innovation skills across project teams.
And while 欧博娱乐 process rewards out-of-欧博娱乐-box thinking...we start with a box. Three boxes actually, where innovation opportunities exist:
1. Optimizing 欧博娱乐 present to focus on incremental innovations that allow 欧博娱乐 current business model to better perform.
2. Selectively forgetting 欧博娱乐 past to differentiate between roots (core processes) and chains (artificial constraints).
3. Creating 欧博娱乐 future to explicitly identify opportunities for transformational innovations that require more effort than simply operating 欧博娱乐 current business model better.
Spark Sessions are not about novel applications of a specific technology. They are a management approach to identify priorities for change—and a framework to advance change despite execution pressures.
To learn more, listen to this , from 欧博娱乐 nationally syndicated radio show, which explains 欧博娱乐 ICF approach in fur欧博娱乐r detail. Ready to spark some innovation into your next project? Reach out to our team.