Be enterprising

Why is that important?

An innovation team needs entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs take responsibility, are action-oriented and decisive. Entrepreneurs see opportunities and keep an eye on the long-term goals. That is why entrepreneurship is a core competence of every team member. With entrepreneurs in the team, we move forward and achieve our (team) goals.

How do we do that?

• Everyone has their own project under their responsibility. You decide for yourself how you design your project, but you do include lessons learned earlier in your considerations.
• Within your project you have decision-making power and a mandate to spend or make decisions.
• Own initiatives are always encouraged. If it ties in with the portfolio, you get / take the space to further investigate the idea. Otherwise we place the idea on a backlog, so that the idea is picked up at a different time.
• The team goals are jointly set and progress is jointly evaluated.
• We hold each other accountable if activities are carried out that do not contribute to previously established (team) goals.

We give each other feedback and engage in self-reflection

Why is that important?

Feedback and self-reflection contribute to an open culture in which (internal) growth is stimulated. Sharing lessons learned ensures that we learn from each other. As a team, we work more efficiently and professionally.

How do we do that?

• Every month we hold a retrospective, the retro. During the retro, each team member explains what went well in the past month, what did not go well and what should stop. This can apply to the entire team, to the team member individually or to someone else or someone else's role. It can be about work, behavior or a combination of these.
  The retro is a safe place where space is offered for vulnerability and transparency. In retro, everyone is actively engaged in self-reflection and feedback is given on each other / each other's roles. Afterwards, the team will choose a KaiZen; that improvement or stopping is endorsed by everyone.
• There is a daily stand-up where, after a short check-in (how are you), we share the results of yesterday and the expected results of today. During the stand-up, mutual feedback is also given on behavior / activities / role.
• Valuable lessons learned about the approach, results or applied behavior are shared with each other. This can be in an existing form of a retro or stand up, or a separate group session is scheduled for it.
• We speak directly to each other if we are bothered by how someone fulfills their role.

Diversity in the team

Why is that important?

A good team is complementary to each other. Consists of different personalities, expertise, backgrounds, qualities and knowledge. Employees complement each other, the diversity ensures better results, there is more reflection and the performance is better. Employees have more job satisfaction, energy and work better in a diverse team.

How do we do that?

• Our team consciously consists of various employees: age, gender and background all vary.
• In new recruitment, we take into account what is needed in the team in terms of diversity & expertise.
• We make a trainee workplace available for a government colleague. Every 6 to 9 months, a new external trainee joins our team. During that period, our team will be expanded with a new employee who complements us with a different expertise, background and knowledge.
• When putting together a working group, we work from our roles or expertise. As a result, the composition changes continuously.
• A project or experiment is picked up by 2 novum colleagues. This involves looking at who has space, who has affinity with the subject, or who can use it to develop themselves. The duos therefore change per experiment and we therefore always work with different colleagues.
• Within the team there is a lot of room for personal development. Following an education or training course or being deployed on something that you want to become even better at. This makes us more widely deployable and we contribute to new knowledge and expertise in the team. This way we stay dynamic and on the move.