In 2018, France Télévisions launched « Hacktion ! », an intrapreneurial program for a first experimental season.
This program aims at making each employee of France Télévisions a player for transforming the company by allowing them to transform their ideas into concrete actions independently, as long as they are in line with the company’s strategic orientations.
The goals :
- encouraging innovation and internal problem solving ;
- making the company more agile, encouraging cross-functionality between teams ;
- unleashing the energy and the creativity of the employees ;
- fostering and facilitating initiatives, autonomy, « trial and error » logic ;
- contributing to the employer brand in order to attract and retain talented people.
In 2018, the « Hacktion ! » program therefore proposed a 6-month course to help develop and accelerate projects on 3 issues :
- media education ;
- resolution of everyday problems or quality of life at France Télévisions ;
- any project that is more generally in line with the company’s strategic orientations.
This first experiment validated the relevance of the program and demonstrated that the company could rely on it to foster the transformation :
- 20 participants, 5 selected projects, 2 of them are accelerating thanks to the determination of the teams ;
- an overall satisfaction of the stakeholders, with its goals as well as with its implementation, the support provided and the skills acquired by the intrapreneurs ;
- successful achivements : cross-functionality, decompartmentalised organization, creativity, initiatives, right to make mistakes…
- creation of a first internal community sensitive to the issue of intrapreneurship and a program recognized externally.
However, difficulties were noted during this first experimental season :
- the lack of time dedicated to carrying out projects, a real difficulty despite the commitment and the determination of intrapreneurs ;
- the role of managers needs to be refined, as this new form of management can generate an exit from their traditional comfort zone ;
- the limited visibility given to « Hacktion ! » prevented us from federating around the program but could also slow down intrapreneurial projects ;
- the support of the program and the intrapreneurial projects requires time and tools from the organising team.
The keys to the success of intrapreneurial projects, which are currently in the prototyping phase :
- the ability of project leaders to federate, to build a team to help them ;
- the integration into an internal and external community of intrapreneurs ;
- the human qualities of intrapreneurs ;
- multiple and varied supports, especially internally ;
- an internal recognition of the intrapreneur allowing him/her to act in all legitimacy and confidence ;
- an internal and external coaching ;
- an iterative approach that makes it possible to achieve projects.
The success of this first experimental season clearly encourages the continuation of the experiment. Some proposals and recommendations are made to develop the program and adapt it to a larger scale :
- during season 2 launched in the 2nd quarter of 2019, open the program to more people, with a maximum of 10 projects supported ;
- strengthen and consolidate the organizational team ;
- mobilize more financial resources to ensure more supports but also to contribute to the financing of the projects in their prototyping phase ;
- earn the sponsorship of the top management, thanks to the support of the Transformation Department, so that « Hacktion ! » becomes a project for the whole company ;
- amplify communication about the program to increase awareness and to facilitate the action of intrapreneurs ;
- establish a tripartite Charter (intrapreneur, manager, HR) to precise the role of each stakeholder ;
- allow each intrapreneur to benefit, over his working time, 9 days dedicated to his project during the 6 months of acceleration ;
- redesign the intrapreneurial path for more support, more commitment from the managers and better anticipation of the post-acceleration phase ;
- foster the community spirit between intrapreneurs from France Télévisions ;
- enhance sponsorship of each intrapreneurial project by a member of the Executive Committee or a high-level manager.
More about “Hacktion !” (in french) on france tv lab : https://www.francetelevisions.fr/lab/transformation
