You leave your mark on a business by showing initiative. That works best when the business is open to your intrapreneurship. The Young Innovation Board (YIB), a TriFinance creation with a hotline to the company's Leadership Team, proves that our organisation practises what it preaches: helping the people they work with to develop their careers.
The Young Innovation Board has a hotline to the Leadership Team at TriFinance
TriFinance works with people who are in charge of their own careers: Me inc.®’ers (me incorporated). The international network organisation helps them progress, essentially by offering challenges in the form of projects. Mentors, coaches, courses, training and online tools - yet more of the resources our project consultants can draw on to grow in their professional capacities.
It was the constant search for better ways to serve its employees and clients that brought TriFinance to the idea of a Young Innovation Board that would debate and consult with the heads of the organisation. “The YIB is an advisory committee of six young Me inc.®'ers who get together with senior managers and leaders to work on strategic initiatives. They contribute ideas about how we can deliver and improve on our commitments to employees and markets. This way, young people get to represent a large group of colleagues through their valuable and innovative ideas”, explains Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer (MD/COO) Xavier Gabriëls. He meets every two months with the six young Me inc.®'ers, who also meet without him.
“The Young Innovation Board is a tool that allows colleagues to have an impact on the business.”
The YIB has made it through the early stages and is shifting up a gear. “We want to give our views resonance. We discuss our colleagues’ ideas, wishes and concerns around the table with Xavier. And then we report his contribution back to base”, says project consultant Sanne Boone. Her colleague Lien Van Rechem stresses that the Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer shares a lot of information about the business and is open to questions. “The Young Innovation Board is a tool that allows colleagues to have an impact on the business”, she points out.
Strengthen your visibility in the company
The six YIB'ers respond similarly to the question of how to leave your mark on your organisation, your project. “Take the initiative. Be proactive”, they chime in unison. “Be proactive and share your knowledge, strengthen your visibility in the company. The more people you know, the more approachable you are. And the more opportunities come your way”, posits project manager Wouter Spitaels. The six young Me inc.®'ers agree that becoming an expert, assuming that role to the full and propagating your knowledge as an ambassador, are what put you on the map.
“Even as a young employee with marginal experience, you can have an input and steer a course.”
Good, transparent communication is a great help. The YIB'ers see this as another tool to make things happen internally. Project consultant Lander Coene believes that everything starts as an idea, and to make it a reality you have to go looking for the right people in the organisation. “Even as a young employee with marginal experience, you can have an input and steer a course. Keeping an ear to the ground on the shop floor can be very useful.”
“As a beginner you shouldn't be fearful at TriFinance anyway. You can ask anyone for help, especially your mentor. See the opportunities, take action, follow a course if needs be”, says project consultant Anaïs Adriaenssens.
Avant-gardist
“TriFinance is a flat-network organisation. Contact is informal and relaxed, even in the hierarchical element. This encourages questioning and creates trust. The people-mix in the YIB drives the dialogue. It is avant-gardist of TriFinance to give young employees a voice through that board”, stresses business consultant Charlotte Dulait.
The six young Me inc.®’ers are developing their group as a hub, a place to exchange ideas through which they help to create the order from which those ideas can be realised. In parting, they share the wisdom that to make your mark you need to be realistic and consider every point of view, for not everything will be possible.
