De-Risking Innovation with ISO 56002   

“HYPE gave our teams the structure and speed they needed to collaborate, iterate, and move their ideas forward without bottlenecks.”

– Erin Regala, Program Consultant in Integration and Innovation in the Digital Health Program at the Ministry of Health (Ontario)

MOH faced challenges stemming from a history of IT projects in healthcare that didn’t fully meet their objectives, causing a heightened sense of caution around digital innovation. 

This cautious sentiment among senior decision-makers presented potential barriers for new transformative projects in a sector that is traditionally risk-averse and heavily-regulated. Consequently, MOH’s challenge was twofold: 

• to reduce the actual and perceived risk linked to innovation; 
• to promote a systematic, standardized method of managing these initiatives, seen as critical for securing support and investment. 

“In our world, innovation involves risk-taking. So, part of the challenge lies in convincing senior executives that funding innovation is value for money and not some type of high-stakes poker game. How do you convince them that it’s money in the bank and not money down the drain? This is where the standard comes in.”   

– Paul Pirie, Senior Manager for Integration and Innovation in the Digital Health Program at the Ministry of Health (Ontario)

MOH aimed to instill a mature, robust, and systematic innovation management program, aligning with ISO 56002 Guidance Standard for Innovation Management Systems (IMS). 

Understanding the complex interplay between partners and activities in innovation management, MOH identified the use of an innovation management platform, HYPE Innovation, as a key enabler. 

Leadership was identified as crucial in this process, requiring a clear vision of how innovation management supports the Ministry’s priorities—and adhering to an international standard was recognized as instrumental in securing funding and support. 

“An organization can be consistently and predictably innovative if they have the right principles that they align to and if they put the right processes in place. We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think innovation was key to making our healthcare system better and more sustainable.” 

– Paul Pirie

An integral part of MOH’s strategy was to perform an internal assessment, determining their alignment with ISO 56002 principles and processes to identify areas for improvement. 

This in-depth analysis, backed by expert panel evaluations, provided insights into the Ministry’s innovation management system. Complementing this, MOH also employed HYPE’s Innovation Management Assessment, a quick online self-evaluation tool, enabling a broader evaluation across strategy, culture, processes, tools, techniques, and metrics. 

“The value proposition of using an international standard was something one of our top executives immediately got, and he immediately realized that would help us to secure funding to build this program. So, in a sense, it sells itself.”

– Paul Pirie

Putting its ISO 56002 initiative to the test, MOH deployed ‘Idea Campaigns’— innovation challenges—intended to collect implementable ideas from its employees to tackle relevant organizational issues. This approach gave the staff a platform for unconstrained thinking and the opportunity to have their unique experience and expertise recognized. 

HYPE Innovation supported the process by providing tools to monitor campaign activity, surface high-potential ideas, and highlight the most engaged contributors. 

“One of the neat aspects of the platform is the overview of participation and idea activity, which helps our team understand how users are engaging in the campaign against set goals, and which ideas are most active and popular among our employees.”

– Erin Regala

 As the campaign progressed, ideas were refined and matured through several evaluation rounds, leading to well-developed project proposals. Reviewers assessed ideas comparatively using structured evaluation techniques that helped facilitate discussion and ensure alignment with organizational priorities.   

Visual overviews made it easier to discuss and prioritize submissions by showing how each aligned with organizational goals and practical needs. 

“Another useful aspect is the way the platform supports comparative review, which allows for an efficient way to evaluate a large number of ideas and facilitate discussions among the reviewers and evaluators.” 

– Erin Regala

One of the more unexpected yet rewarding outcomes of the campaign was when the highest-ranking executive at MOH, unprompted, conveyed to the innovation team how highly he valued their work.  

According to Pirie, this senior executive expressed his appreciation for their efforts in a manner even more articulate than Paul could have imagined, stating: 

“I really value how you’re institutionalizing the pursuit of innovation. It’s not a mystical process where a lone visionary tinkers in their garage. It’s a repeatable process that can be sliced into the DNA of an organization.”

– Paul Pirie