The Showalter Group and the Public Affairs Council created the Grassroots Innovation Award in 1999 to reward Public Affairs professionals who implement innovative practices in the grassroots profession. The second annual Grassroots Innovation Awards were announced at the Public Affairs Council's 2001 National Grassroots Conference in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida on February 14, 2001.

"Being innovative is more than the desire to implement new ideas. It's a feeling of obligation to provide new tools, education, etc., to your members. Our winner this year exemplified the sense of obligation necessary to innovate," said Amy Showalter.

A committee comprised of five experienced Public Affairs professionals examined over 30 nominations. The committee members came from diverse industries, but were nearly unanimous in their determination of the winner. The committee members included:

Tiffany Adams, National Association of Manufacturers
Gina Bowman, Farmland Industries (2000 GIA winner)
Mike Malik, Triad Communications
Mike Morris, GlaxoSmithKline Inc.
Frank Ryan, American Dental Association

The committee examined over 30 nominations from across the country. The criteria?

· Will this practice change how grassroots is practiced in the future?
· Was the group flexible in their tactics?
· Is it appropriate to their members/audience?
· Did they attempt to measure their results?
· What types of resources were at their disposal?
· Is the innovation adaptable to other organizations?
· How was it used in an innovative way?
· Does the nomination clearly answer all questions on the form?

The committee reviewed the nomination in its context, not just examining one feature, gadget, speech, within the nomination. They looked at the innovations relative to how they impacted an entire grassroots program. "The trend this year is consistent with our winners from 2000. Authenticity and simplicity work. Further, the innovations were not grandiose efforts, but derivations of existing efforts that were used in an innovative way," said Amy Showalter.

Committee member Frank Ryan described the winners precisely when he said, "What I liked about the techniques of the winners was that they used innovative communications methods to almost disarm their members into participating in their cause."

The 2001 Winner: Southwest Airlines

The Southwest Airlines Legislative Awareness Department maximized their company culture by injecting fun and employee involvement to convey SWA's political messages to employees. They created a theater troupe named the "Political Players." Many of the actors in the Political Players are SWA employees. They are sometimes recruited to participate as an award for their previous legislative and civic involvement.

SWA employees retain the political and legislative information transmitted via the Political Players. It's commendable to convey information via grassroots training workshops; however, learning retention increases dramatically when employees learn in a humorous way.

Why is this innovative? In the words of committee members and advisors:

"Motivation is so important to a successful grassroots program. Most companies don't really make grass roots "fun" and I think this one should succeed in doing that."

"Not since the National Association of Manufacturers computer simulation game have I seen a company to come up with a brand new idea to get the political involvement message out to employees. They found a way to make humor an education tool for political reality. Their Legislative Awareness Program is very new and they are going about it the same way that they do business - with a smile."

"Memos, emails and announcements crafted properly can be an effective way to garner employee involvement in a new grassroots program. However, SWA's theater troupe produces a captive audience, which means excellent potential for follow up. When employees see that their coworkers are willing to be a member of the Political Players and go to such lengths to get the message out, they are more likely to be involved."

Outstanding Achievement Award: Caterpillar, Inc.

Caterpillar wanted to educate and activate their employees on facets of the Patient's Bill of Rights that would negatively impact their employee health plan. Caterpillar produced a video to distribute to their employees that explained the issue and provided motivation to get involved.

The video was not innovative. What the committee noticed was who appeared in the video. Caterpillar recognized that line supervisors have the biggest impact on employee workplace attitudes and beliefs.* They knew that a video with actual employees, unscripted, talking with each other about this issue would have an impact. They intentionally made the video rather "rough" because they wanted it to be an earnest communication piece, not a slick company video.

The video featured employees telling their own stories about health care, including stories of heart attacks and serious illnesses covered by the company to make their point about the importance of maintaining Caterpillar's health coverage in the future. The result was that Caterpillar's employees were more active and more "on message" for this issue than any other in recent memory.

In the words of the committee members:

"The video itself isn't that innovative, but you have to pay attention to what the video had to say. Large traditional manufacturers are normally loath to directly communicate with employees on issues like health care. Caterpillar was the leader and their video will encourage businesses across the country to communicate honestly, openly and directly with their employees on issues that effect the company and their pocketbooks."

"Peer to peer solicitation is always an effective grassroots strategy because it gives the organization's message instant credibility."

Outstanding Achievement Award: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota

The Blue Cross Blue Shield program was an employee led effort to educate employees on issues that impact their industry. This is not innovative, but the decision making process as they designed the program is innovative. BCBS integrated an eleven-member employee advisory group who determines communications, events, and advises the staff on how to increase involvement. It is this truly grassroots advisory panel of the Minnesota Blue Cross Blue Shield program that captured the committee member's attention.

The committee members had this to say about BCBS Minnesota:

"The peer to peer "call to action" certainly is not only innovative but effective. Having employees serve as advisory board members is a great way to get other people interested in the program. This is the type of plan any organization should be able to implement regardless of budget restrictions."

"Providing guidelines, tools, etc., to employee grassroots leaders and letting them run with it is great. It's not a traditional top-down program. It is truly a grassroots program run by the people it's meant to serve."

Lessons to Learn

What are the lessons from this year's winners?

Make grassroots fun and ask your employees to help you do the job (Southwest Airlines)

We have moved beyond the standard "employees/members won't be motivated unless the issue impacts them personally", to recognizing that employees are motivated by someone like themselves communicating important messages. (Caterpillar, Inc.)

Volunteer ownership is more than asking for volunteer feedback. It's asking for feedback and then implementing their ideas. (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota)

* There is research to support this from the Columbus Dispatch which shows that employees trust their first line supervisor after their local police and fire departments in their city, outranking seven other types of people and institutions! We share this information regularly with clients to show that corporate grassroots CAN work if supervisors are engaged in the program.

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