HR Driven Innovation

Ten minutes of a team meeting can change the conversation about the future. Vera Betz calls the format a Trends Snack: agree what a trend means, look at an example and discuss its possible impact on the company or the team. It is deliberately small enough to fit into existing work. The aim is to give people a shared understanding they can use.

In this episode of Innovation Rockstars, the HR Digital Transformation Manager at o2 Telefónica Germany explains why HR is helping connect innovation across the organization. There is already plenty happening, from startup collaboration to technology initiatives and business development. Her challenge is to help people combine that activity, recognize relevant changes and decide where to focus. The approach begins with the relationships and habits that make a process work.

Connect the innovation that already exists

Betz does not present innovation as a capability waiting to be invented inside Telefónica. She points to existing work across the organization, including Wayra, technology teams and business-development activities. The opportunity is to make those efforts more connected.

That distinction gives HR a practical role. As a function concerned with organizational development and culture, it can help employees find one another, combine strengths and develop ideas together. The intended outcome is customer value and strategic growth. Coordination is useful to the extent that it helps teams make better choices and use their capabilities toward those goals.

“HR really can support innovation with a focus on organizational development and culture.”

Asked whether people or processes should come first, Betz argues that both matter. People need a way to work, and a process needs people who understand and participate in it. A framework that ignores those relationships is unlikely to produce the intended behavior simply because it has been introduced.

Build a shared view before asking for more ideas

The approach she describes starts before idea collection. Innovation managers are already watching developments outside the organization. Connecting their trend work creates a chance to compare perspectives and discuss what deserves attention.

Different teams may interpret the same development differently. Bringing those views together helps explain why a trend has been prioritized and where it fits the strategy. Without that discussion, people may see the selected topics without understanding the reasoning behind them.

“Innovation is not done by one business unit; innovation is done by everyone.”

Betz uses two contrasting examples. Flexible working presents an immediate organizational question: how can a company maintain a sense of belonging when many employees work from home? Brain-computer interfaces sit much further from the team's immediate concerns. She describes them as something to keep on the radar, rather than an area requiring deeper work at that point.

The contrast is useful for R&D and innovation leaders. Monitoring a possibility does not commit the organization to develop it now. A shared view should help distinguish what needs action, what needs more investigation and what deserves continued observation.

Make the future part of an ordinary meeting

The Trends Snack gives that discussion a regular place. Its first step is definition. Before debating implications, the team makes sure it is talking about the same thing. A use case or example then makes the topic more tangible. Only after that does the conversation turn to possible consequences for Telefónica or HR.

The sequence keeps the discussion from becoming a collection of intriguing labels. It asks people to connect an external development to the work and decisions in front of them. It can also provide inspiration for a project already underway.

Betz recalls a conversation about diversity in which a colleague recognized material that could improve an existing initiative. That is a modest result, but a meaningful one: the discussion had reached someone who could use it. She does not attach a sweeping business outcome to the example. Its value lies in making a connection that would otherwise have been easy to miss.

For a team introducing a similar habit, that suggests a practical test of usefulness. After the conversation, can someone explain why the topic matters to their work or what they want to learn next? The format is short; the thinking it prompts does not need to stop when the meeting moves on.

Treat internal users as customers too

Betz returns repeatedly to listening. Asked what she would do if she had only four working hours each week, she chooses asking the right question, listening carefully to customers and acting on one thing that adds value.

That applies inside HR as well. She describes testing an internal change with the people who will use it, checking whether they understand it and whether the necessary information is there. The principle connects organizational development with the same customer focus expected in product innovation.

Her preference for in-person conversations also reflects a desire to understand context. She values the additional detail and mood that can be lost in a long email. The point is to learn enough about the person and the problem before assuming that the proposed solution fits.

One of her favorite innovation moments came when a colleague said Betz's way of working had encouraged her to include the customer perspective in her own daily routine. There was no major launch attached to that compliment. A useful practice had spread from one person to another.

That is a fitting illustration of HR's contribution in this episode. It can help innovation become something people understand, discuss and practice together. A shared trend conversation or a better question for an internal customer may look small, but each makes the organization's broader innovation effort easier to put into action.