SINTRA Training Guidebook – Intrapreneurship for sustainability

SINTRA – Achieving Sustainability through INTRApreneurship was a two-year Erasmus+ KA2 adult education project aimed at providing integrated support tailored to the needs of organisations for developing intrapreneurship-related skills, competencies and attitudes among both employees and employers for improving the organisations’ environmental impact and their social and economic sustainability.

This training guide is meant to support employers, employees, trainers, and consultants in using intrapreneurship to develop and implement sustainability projects.

The guide offers navigation through the SINTRA training material, toolkit and the O! SINTRA App to enable users to develop innovative ideas for sustainability projects within any organisation.

Each section of the guide correlates to the other sections in one way or the other. Therefore, it is important to establish a good understanding of the SINTRA content in order to be able to choose the methods, tools and information needed to meet each user’s needs to develop a suitable sustainability project for an organisation.

To use the guidebook effectly, it is recommended to browse through the sections and then register on to the SINTRA e-learning platform to get access to all the project’s training material and case studies in one place.

The training takes about 25 hours to complete, and it is possible to organise it as face-to-face training, blended learning, completely online training, and self-regulated learning.

The training delivery must meet the needs of each organisation; however, trainers need to think of ways to enhance practical skills equally or even more than the theoretical part of the training.

2.1 Ideal training delivery

It is recommended that The SINTRA training material is delivered within a blended learning setup by using both the e-learning platform and face-to-face training sessions. Participants can go through the theoretical part of the e-learning platform, get immediate feedback on their knowledge through self-evaluation questions, and attend sessions with a trainer to work on practical training in groups and teams to develop their ideas and projects.

2.2 Modules

The modules give an excellent theoretical and practical overview of intrapreneurial activities and sustainability development. Within the modules, the learning activities and examples support the development of understanding and skills for intrapreneurial practices and the development of sustainability projects.

2.2.1 Example of training activities

The learning activities give the training a deeper purpose, and it is recommended to give time and space during the training for the learning activities.

The best way to access the activities is to log into the e-learning platform and select the correspondent module described here.

• Module 1 – Understanding the organisational context – Chapter 5 – Training material – Activity 1 – To understand the organisational context.
• Module 1 – Understanding the organisational context – Chapter 5 – Training material – Activity 2 – Intrapreneurship for sustainable development I.
• Module 1 – Understanding the organisational context – Chapter 5 – Training material – Activity 3 – Intrapreneurship for sustainable development II.
• Module 4 – Assessing one’s own potential to innovate and add sustainability value – Annex 1 – SINTRA personal innovation engine.
• Module 4 – Assessing one’s own potential to innovate and add sustainability value – Annex 2 – Personal plan to enhance one’s own potential to innovate.
• Module 4 – Assessing one’s own potential to innovate and add sustainability value – Annex 3 – Value proposition canvas.
• Module 6 – Formation and operation of intra-organisation intrapreneurship teams for sustainability-focused development – Chapter 5 – Proposed group activities – Hypothetical SDC operation’s simulation
• Module 6 – Formation and operation of intra-organisation intrapreneurship teams for sustainability-focused development – Chapter 5 – Proposed group activities – Plan for sustainable development

2.3 Use of case studies

The case studies are beneficial as a demonstration of good intrapreneurial practices for developing sustainability within a different organisation. The case studies can help participants in the SINTRA training understand and get ideas that could support their sustainability endeavours.

2.4 Self-assessment questions

At the end of each module, participants can answer self-assessment questions to evaluate their understanding of each module’s content and get immediate feedback.

2.5 Use of glossary

The glossary gives general explanations of concepts used in the training material. It is good to read the SINTRA glossary before entering the modules or use it alongside the training modules.

2.6 Additional training material

Each training module has a list of additional training material for those who want to go deeper into the training.

2.7 Trainers

To deliver the SINTRA intrapreneurship training for sustainability within an organisation or in another setting, trainers should use this guidebook fully and log in to the e-learning platform to better understand the flow of modules and other supporting material.

2.8 Selection of participants

It is good to select 3 – 4 people from each organisation to participate in the knowledge and skills training for intrapreneurial teamwork to develop sustainability projects within an organisation. The ideal is to have a management representative participating in the selected group.

Everyone interested in the SINTRA training material can register to the e-learning platform and start self-regulated learning.

The e-learning platform is suitable for blended learning, e-learning and self-regulated learning. The platform contains all the training material developed within the SINTRA project; modules, learning activities, self-assessment questions, case studies, glossary, and additional learning material. The SINTRA innovation toolkit is also accessible on the platform.

3.1 Trainer’s manual for the e-learning platform 
3.2 Trainee’s manual for the e-learning platform

The purpose of SINTRA TOOLKIT is to introduce a set of tools that can be used for assessing the entrepreneurial orientations of intrapreneurs and their readiness to collect ideas in a business/organisation for sustainability purposes. These tools can help approach innovation more systematically, keep track of progress and find new approaches to sustainability, both in an environmental and economic context.

4.1 Handbook for organisational/business model’s sustainability assessment

This handbook offers ideas and insights for sustainability assessment and makes a case for intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship. In the “consideration” chapter, you can find valuable tips for assessing a business’s sustainability or intrapreneurial idea.

4.2 Guidelines for involving talents to open innovation projects in cooperation with intrapreneurs

This document provides an overview of open innovation and involving young talent, which is aimed to help support intrapreneurial projects in organisations. It provides guidelines that will help organisations and intrapreneurs identify and understand the most efficient and resultative ways of collecting ideas and input from various sources within the organisation, to enhance intrapreneurial activities focused on sustainability in environmental, social and economic terms.

4.3 Toolkit for assessment of intrapreneurs’ readiness to collect ideas by using open innovation tools

This toolkit presents a few useful tools which can be used to define and align sustainability and innovation strategies, map a strategic decision, and remove the most critical uncertainties related to an idea, business or concept.

4.3.1 The Strategy Choice Cascade

The Strategy Choice Cascade is often used to create a differentiated strategy through a set of questions.

4.3.2 The Sustainable Business Model Canvas

Sustainable Business Model Canvas is a tool that helps to create and implement sustainable innovation projects. The canvas is a scheme that allows you to describe and synthesise business models that are both innovative and sustainable.

4.3.3 The Sustainability Manifesto

The Sustainability Manifesto will give you the strategic rationale and development plan for your sustainable and innovative programme.

4.3.4 The Intrapreneurship Skills test

The SINTRA intrapreneurship skills test assesses the intrapreneur’s skills in a team, company, or partnership context.

4.3.5 Sustainability Need

Successful innovations satisfy a need – a real and specific user need that is currently not met or could be improved. This tool helps to define an unmet need that will naturally give rise to relevant and sustainable ideas or innovations.

4.3.6 The Sustainable Idea Roots

The Sustainable Idea Roots is a neat way of defining an idea to summarise it quickly and concisely. It’s important to be able to do this as it will help us recall our idea, communicate it better to others and make decisions about the idea.

4.3.7 The Innovation Template

The Innovation Template helps to clarify and communicate an idea and create a pitch that justifies an investment of time and money in order to achieve goals related to different aspects of sustainability.

4.3.8 Prototyping Sustainability Evaluator

This technique is designed for a collaborative workshop setting or a shared online environment.

It is recommended to follow up on the SINTRA training workshops with counselling services to provide advice and support to employees and employers for the development and implementation of sustainability-oriented intrapreneurship initiatives

The SINTRA open Innovation toolkit is very useful during the counselling and implementation of sustainability projects. The O! SINTRA App is also beneficial for collecting and managing novel ideas from employees that can lead to the next innovative endeavour for sustainability.

5.1 Organisation of counselling sessions

The counselling sessions should be organised to meet each organisation’s and intrapreneurial team’s needs. The sessions can take place online or face to face. A blended approach can also be appropriate. The time for the counselling must align with how extended or complicated the sustainable development project is and the actual need for counselling and support.

The O! SINTRA app is an online application for gathering sustainability-related ideas, inputs and trends from people within an organisation. The app is available via internet browsers, both with computers and on mobile phones.

6.1 How to use the O! SINTRA app

The Application requires Sign-up for the users. This allows the users to setup their account with a Username and Profile Picture.

The application allows for simple posting of ideas based on the setup. The ideas posted will be visible to everyone and other users will be able to Make Suggestions, Share and Like ideas posted.  The user can post idea as Anonymous as well.

Use

The application can be used in 2-step process.

Step 1: Where the application itself is used to gather the ideas from the employees/ Users.

Step 2: The ideas gathered are filtered and selected ideas are further discussed using the SINTRA toolkit and templates with the employees/ users. Where they are further asked to expand on their idea.

Setup

To setup the application for company purposes, the following ways can be used:

Setup 1:

The company can setup the application to gather ideas defining a specific problem it is facing and needs fresh ideas. For this, they define the problem, the requirements, set time limit and incorporate the application on the company’s intranet system, later asking the employees/ users to use the application into post their ideas.

Setup 2:

The company can in similar way setup a competition for gathering ideas for process improvement or advancement on their intranet and incorporate the application to gather ideas.

Setup 3:

The company can have monthly theme-based competition setup on their intranet for gathering ideas and incorporate the application for gathering the ideas.

Setup 4:

The company can also have the application incorporated on their intranet for gathering ideas year around. Which can be regularly viewed for interesting ideas.