2015
Innovation
Laboratory
mercur
Specialty
_ Innovation strategy guidance
_ Employee learning process
_ Change management
Result
The first Social Innovation Laboratory proposed by an industry in Brazil.
Structuring the Social Innovation Laboratory, as a space for the reinvention of the industry's innovation strategy, peer-to- peer learning of employees and an open relationship with the community in the discovery of solutions to improve life.
Team
The project included the integration of employees from the Sesi team in the stage of writing and approving the Public Notice project.
" The Lab emerged from the demand for a space that allowed 'doing with' people. A space that provoked experimentation supported by co-creation and cooperation, taking, in the future, these logics to the company's internal processes. (...) the great differential of the work you developed at Mercur is in the way you did it. Nômade is a consulting company, but a different consulting. You built a process of co-creation from the beginning, never imposing ideas, but developing them together.
João Vogt, Coordinator of the Mercur Innovation LAB
_ Moments of co-creation with employees.
First
Innovation
Laboratory
Mercur is the first industry in Brazil to create a Social Innovation Laboratory. The LAB, as it is affectionately called, is a place to experience discoveries. It works as a learning space, where people develop through the exchange of knowledge, and also through network co-creation. The environment provides conditions for the creation of new methodologies and innovation processes inside and outside the industry, always focusing on doing “WITH” people, in a participatory and collaborative way, and no longer “FOR” people.
Initial
challenge
When looking for a new way to create solutions, the rubber-derived materials manufacturer joined Estúdio Nômade to devise a space to redefine the relationship with the industry employee and get closer to the community, and together co-create relevant solutions for everyone.
The design of the Laboratory began in 2013, when the industry based in Santa Cruz do Sul (RS) was looking for alternatives to innovate in the way it develops its solutions. It was then that the company came across a public notice from Senai/Sesi with the objective of encouraging and enabling innovation initiatives. It was the excuse that was needed to create a project of this type.
After a construction process and discussion rounds, which involved several people from Sesi, Nômade and researchers from Universities, the Mercur Social Innovation Laboratory project was written, sent and ended up being selected with one of the best scores that year. in Rio Grande do Sul. The following year, the initiative began to be put into practice and, in 2015, it gained a physical space, operating in two pavilions that once housed factory machinery.
Our Process
The Social Innovation Laboratory has two areas of activity, one called Learning and the other called Creation.
LEARNING
In Learning, various activities related to “knowledge sharing” are stimulated, dedicated to redefining the employee's relationship with the industry and among themselves, discovering and developing new skills.
A learning experience for life, as it affects people's behavior and allows the advancement of a culture of sustainability in the organization.
CREATION
This is where the projects related to the
development of new products and services are put to practice, based on co-creation between Mercur and the Community (people, professionals and institutions). It is the company's new way of developing its business.
The company operates through projects developed from the Lines of Work (LWs).
The LWs are made up of employees from different areas who put their expertise at the service of the organization. They study themes related to the health and education segments, seeking to relate to people who have connections, experience and/or have knowledge about these themes. This way of working provides more fluidity in working relationships and in co-creation processes for the development of products and services.
Nômade participated in the entire project, including the design of the physical space. It has been helping to improve the experience and functioning of the LAB in its relationship with the company and the community. In addition, we were responsible for formalizing the methodology for the lines of work used. The diagram below summarizes how the LAB works.
_ Mercur LAB and its different environments, which are adapted according to the needs of the activity.
_ Co-creation workshops with the network of the different projects that are part of the LAB.
Benefits for the community, industry and employees
In addition to being a creative environment for the industry and the community to develop research and development processes and methodology, the LAB has also generated new lines of work that put Mercur in direct contact with users. Initially open to employees, the location increasingly connects the industry to the community. Any interested citizen, institution or company can look for the laboratory to participate in an ongoing project or propose a new initiative. In addition, the space promotes conversation circles, meetings and events.
The benefits are also visible within the industry. By using collaborative tools, the Social Innovation Lab changed the company's culture in the way of doing things. Participants report positive personal changes such as an improvement in self-esteem from working at Mercur. They feel good about being part of a company that values people, their stories and their knowledge.
Transformation
reference
Sesi follows the LAB activities and has the initiative as a reference for transformation. The initiative has been transforming the way the industry operates and serves as a source of inspiration and an example to be followed by other companies.
Mercur found a new way of acting, breaking the logic of the historically known way of being an industry, allowing workers to be creative beyond their daily work.
_ Co-creation workshops with the network of the different projects that are part of the LAB.