August Edition of the Innovation/Dig Deeper Newsletter!

New Ideas. New Opportunity. Dig Deeper

What's new in the world of innovation and curiosity?

Here's your August update of the Acadia Innovation newsletter, your consolidated source for new innovation happenings at Acadia Insurance. Browse below to learn more!

Experimentation Bootcamp

Check out what four Acadia employees who attended the rst Experimentation Bootcamp had to say about their experience and what they learned.

Recently Submitted Ideas

Check out a few of the ideas that were recently submitted in SPARK! Don't forget to rate and comment on them!

The Edge Podcast - Summer Listening Challenge

Check out page 2 to nd out what the Summer Listening Challenge is and what you could win.

Meet an Active SPARK! User

Find out why it is important to EJ Ososki to be actively engaged in Acadia's innovation efforts.

Knowledge Check

Answer an innovation question for the chance to win a prize!

Innovation Behavior Highlight

Learn more about evidence-based decision making and nd resources to become certied in this behavior on the last page.

Dig Deeper Campaign Dig

Deeper and Stay Curious

Every Client Has A Problem. Do You Know What It Is?

Experimentation Bootcamp

Berkley kicked off the rst Experimentation Bootcamp in Greenwich and four Acadia employees were in attendance- Andrea Norton, Jennifer Towne, Lisa McPhail, and Matt Stopa. The bootcamp sessions are deeply interactive and engaging and are designed to rene the experimentation practice across the enterprise.

Here is what the four employees had to say about their experience:

Andrea Norton

"IappreciatedtheopportunitytogotoGreenwichandworkcloselywithindividualsfromacrossBerkley.Itwasencouragingto heartheenthusiasmaroundinnovationandhowimportantitisforourcontinuingsuccess.IlookforwardtousingwhatIhave learnedtohelpusconductfutureexperimentshereatAcadia."

Lisa McPhail

"InnovationBootcampwasanexcellentandengagingday!BillandSamanthadidagreatjobinvolvingthegroupwithhands-on teamworktocollaborateandlearnfromotherOU's.Theworkshopsseteachpersonupforsuccesswithdevelopingandcreating theexperiment.OneofthebestsessionsIhaveattended!Greatjob!"

Matt Stopa

"Thebootcamptaughtmehowtoproperlysetupanexperiment.Importantly,ittaughtmehowtosetupafastexperiment-one thatcanbeconductedquicklyandcosteffectively

Anotherkeytakeawaywasthatexperimentscan-anddo-resultinaconclusionthattheideashouldnotbeadopted.One commonpitfallofexperimentationistokeeptryingtore-worktheexperimenttomaketheideathat'sbeingtestedworkas desiredandleadtheimplementation;however,thatisnotthepointofanexperiment.Anexperimentisstillasuccessfuland informativeexperimentevenifitresultsinusshuttingdowntheideaandhypothesisbehindit.Thatjustmeansit'stimetomove ontothenextexperimentofanotheridea."

Recently Submitted Ideas

some of the recently ideas in SPARK!. Click on the ideas below to check them out, vote, and comment!

Quote Document by Luke Saan

New Ideas. New Opportunity. Dig Deeper

The Edge Podcast - Summer Listening Challenge

New Ideas. New Opportunity. Dig Deeper

W.R. Berkley is holding a challenge where your listens could be rewarded! The challenge is called the Summer Listening Challenge. At the end of this summer,  they will  be rewarding employees who have listened to all episodes of Season 3 of The Edge Podcast.

Employees who listen to all episodes of Season 3 of The Edge Podcast before September 1st will be eligible to win a Bluetooth speaker! Grab your headphones and start listening!

Meet an Active SPARK! User

Go to: The Edge | Season 3 page on the iLab to listen to podcast episodes and enter into The Edge Podcast- Summer Listening Challenge today!

We are continuing to highlight Acadia team members that are (the most) actively engaged in SPARK! The next active SPARK! user is EJ Ososki, CT Underwriting Director. WeaskedEJ:

Why is it important to you to be actively engaged in Acadia’s Innovation efforts?

"Developing and implementing strategies is a key component to leadership. Acadia's Innovation process offers the ability to practice leadership by testing strategies. If you want to practice being a leader, try innovation. Even if it fails, it will give practice around creating a vision, having a mission, and ultimately advising strategies."

Next Knowledge Check: How can you become eligible for the Summer Listening Challenge? Click Here to Answer the Next Knowledge Check! Knowledge Check

We had three employees correctly answer our last Knowledge Check questions, but Patricia Kafka was our lucky winner!  Patricia, please be on the lookout for your prize shortly. Answer our next Knowledge Check question to win a special prize! Click on the green button to the left to submit your answer

New Ideas. New Opportunity. Dig Deeper

Innovation Behaviors

As part of our Innovation journey, we continue to work on the seven innovation behaviors to strengthen our knowledge and skill sets. We will highlight an innovation behavior each newsletter and provide links and information on where you can learn more about this behavior

The fourth behavior we will highlight is evidence-based decision making To build our actions on data, on information, and on analysis as opposed to feelings, opinions or emotions means that we rst unpack the assumptions we automatically bring to any given situation - that we understand that the mental models that we create/construct out of habitual patterns are not necessarily reality. It means that we begin with facts - not opinions or judgements. It means that we then approach a question with a critical thinking process, applying scientic rigor and stress-testing our beliefs along the way, with data, with information, and with input from others. We evaluate the quantity and quality of that data, and we seek out the disconrming data that could prove our hypothesis wrong as we go - we remember that I am not my ideas.

As a reminder, you can use the Give A WOW platform to recognize your coworkers that have you've noticed exhibiting innovation behaviors. The innovation behaviors are the last seven options under the Nomination Category.