The last word Innovation isn’t a luxury
Julie Brayson, Director of Transformation and Culture, believe housing
“By standing still, we’re actually doing everyone a disservice – whether it’s our customers, who depend on us to deliver in their communities, or even our own employees. But what, as just a single housing association, can we hope to do about it?”
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HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE JANUARY 2022
Perhaps it’s something about the discourse around services for the public in Britain that innovation is often seen as something that can’t be afforded, an add-on to be squeezed in at best – certainly not core business, or something to be trumpeted. But how can any organisation that’s charged with delivering for customers truly achieve that if it stands still? For housing associations, many of our customers are the people impacted first by any changes in the national or regional landscape. At believe housing our vision is to deliver a life without barriers – but in truth those barriers are constantly evolving. So, by standing still, we’re actually doing everyone a disservice – whether it’s our customers, who depend on us to deliver in their communities, or even our own employees. But what, as just a single housing association, can we hope to do about it? Quite a lot actually; we’ve just held our first Innovation Academy. Over three days, hundreds of our staff from every part of the business got together to tackle some of the biggest questions the organisation faces. They considered issues like induction of new staff post-coronavirus, and how best to communicate with customers in an ‘always-on’ world. The academy approach was about harnessing the creativity that exists in every part of believe housing and experimenting with new ways to bring out their innovative ideas. The academy brought in guest speakers to provide examples from fastpaced sectors like retail on how innovation made a real difference and gave their organisation a competitive edge. Each of the days took inspiration from science, art, or magic, posing questions about how different approaches to innovation could produce results. Employees from believe housing were then given the opportunity to pitch their ideas and solutions, in suitably creative ways. It might sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but innovation needs a process to get things started. You need to be certain you’re tackling the right issues and you need to make the solutions you devise deliverable. Ideas pitched included the use of algorithms to best match customers to the support they need, and virtual reality technology to ensure new recruits fully understand the organisation. The event was such as success that we’re already looking at expanding the concept and inviting other organisations in the region, and the affordable housing sector, to take part. Everyone now knows that the mythical ‘they’ aren’t in charge of innovation, we all are. But innovation is a journey and I can’t wait to develop things further. I’m confident that we’re on the route to some truly amazing ideas that’ll really change what people think is possible for a housing association to deliver, and how.
