Innovation High-Five

This is a guest post by Tim Kippley, Geneca Vice President, Account Strategy and Growth.  In this post, Tim Kippley Tim shares one of the experiments Geneca is running to give its people opportunities to explore new ideas. So far, so good.  It is a journey and I hope we can follow Geneca's path of experimenting-learning-applying-iterating and learn for ourselves. 

By Tim Kippley:

Jeff Bezos, one of the planet’s greatest innovators, once said that: “You need a culture that high-fives small and innovative ideas and senior executives [that] encourage ideas.” 

The Value of Innovation at Geneca 

I have long felt that companies can’t survive without innovating. Fortunately, I work at an organization (a custom software development firm) that also views innovation as basic to our growth:

• It reinforces our company culture and promotes deeper Genecian engagement;
• It enhances our brand by allowing us to do more good within our communities and deliver more value to our clients;
• It improves the ability of our recruiting team to attract creative, out-of-the-box thinkers;
• And it drives growth by generating ideas that require new capabilities with the potential to create additional sources of revenue, whether direct or indirect.    

During 2012, creating a process for internal innovation moved to our priority list. Because the culture at Geneca encourages personal and professional development and there was buy-in from the leadership team, the preconditions for innovation already were in place.   

The Innovation Group is Born

The innovation initiative was born from our Organizational Growth Team, a cross-functional internal team formed in 2011 to focus on investing in Genecians, evolving our capabilities, and predictably delivering value to clients.

Early in 2012, the team created ideas to impact each of these areas and voted on innovation as the common denominator.  The team then hosted a brainstorming event with the entire company on how to encourage innovation at Geneca.  From this we developed an action plan for the year, starting with the development of a charter statement for our new innovation initiative:  

Innovation Charter: The innovation initiative is to foster a culture of innovation, creativity, and teamwork within Geneca.  Geneca’s pledge is to support this initiative in the form of time (e.g. providing time-codes to track innovation work), environment (e.g. space and tools that help drive innovation), and mindset (e.g. encourage Genecians to change the physics and challenge the perceived norms)

Our next step was kicking off our first Innovation Challenge.

The First Geneca Innovation Challenge

Shark Tank Winner, Jack Morrissey and Tim. Winning Idea is GRITThe first Geneca Innovation Challenge was divided into two events, an Innovation Meet-up followed by an innovation “Shark Tank” event for finalists.

The Meet-up was modeled after "Startup Weekend," the global grassroots for active entrepreneurs looking for feedback, knowledge, and support to launch successful ventures.  Each of the 15 participating Genecians had about 3 minutes to pitch their idea.  Each attendee had five votes to use on one or more of the ideas.  Although we did not specify the number of finalists, six finalists clearly emerged. 

There were no specific criteria posted for this event – purposefully.  We wanted this event to ignite enthusiasm and increase overall engagement within Geneca.  We wanted people to use their own criteria in voting for the ideas that they thought were the coolest, most fun and engaging, even if the idea had nothing to do with our business.

From social media tools to business process gamification to digital wallets, we received over a dozen great ideas.  Six innovations moved on to the Shark Tank:

• Internal recognition and award tracking system called  GRIT (Geneca Recognition Instilment Tool);
• iPhone app for drinking establishments to scan and detect alcohols level according to bottle size; 
• GPS augmented reality game;
• CrowdLunching application for local lunch deliveries; 
• Online tool to retrieve documents and track changes for project documents;
• Digital wallet with QR payments.     

Once in the Shark Tank, the requirements become more specific.

Bring in the Shark Tank

Geneca’s executive team met to discuss the objectives and criteria for the Shark Tank.  We made a clear decision to emphasize the positive aspects of each presentation and to encourage the finalists to continue working on their ideas.  We also told those not selected that it wasn't the end of Geneca's support -- they would continue to receive help and coaching if they wanted to further develop their ideas.  They had the option to resubmit at the next innovation event.

Next, the executive team defined the criteria for evaluating the ideas:

• Is the idea cool, fun, and/or does it provide learning opportunities for Genecians?
• What is the potential for monetizing the idea?  If not, are there nontangible benefits to Geneca?
• Does this support/enhance the Geneca brand? (If not, it must be higher on the monetization side)
• What is the overhead (cost of support/resources)?

After the criteria was defined, the Innovation Team met with each finalist individually to discuss the highlights of their idea and business plan.  Each finalist was expected to cover the following areas during their presentation: 

• Business Description (including the walk-thru /"day in the life" of the idea, etc.)
• Market Analysis and Customers
• Competitive Landscape
• The Company
• Marketing Strategy
• Sales Strategy
• Financial Projections – including cost to develop/build
• Operational Strategy
• Mgmt. / Ownership

The executive team conducted multiple one-on-one sessions with the finalists, coaching them on their business plan.  One unforeseen benefit was that each finalist really got the opportunity to learn what’s involved in developing a business and gained an appreciation for the strategic effort that goes into growing an idea into a business.  Not only did each finalist feel that this was a really positive experience, the excitement spread within Geneca as well.

And the Winner Is … GRIT  

In order to set expectations, the executive team made it clear that there was a possibility that we would choose none of the ideas -- or at most just one.

That said, the executive team selected one idea to support and develop, an internal recognition tracking application called GRIT.  GRIT was clearly strong on fun, cool, and learning.  Plus, it did a great job supporting Geneca’s brand and core value of giving and receiving feedback. 

What’s Next for the Geneca Innovation Group

As the group matures, we hope to get more Genecians involved from all areas of the organization.  Maybe someone on the marketing team can help the innovator come up with a marketing plan; our financial folks can help the innovator create a Proforma; etc.

As we become more innovative in how we think about our innovation process, we plan to make small adjustments to the ideation and evaluation process.  We’ve already discussed alternating between entirely "open" ideation and more guided innovation challenges directly aligned with Geneca's brand. 

We also intend to continue our discussion of providing support for ideas not directly aligned with Geneca by developing partnerships with incubators in Chicago. We’d look to the incubator to further sponsor ideas originating from Genecians.  Additional support turning great ideas into actual products can play a big part in strengthening our innovation engine.

Based on the energy surrounding our first Shark Tank, we’re all excited about the prospect of creating a sustainable structure that gives us a way to support and reward innovation within Geneca.

It's not High School Anymore Guys!

It seems I’m spending more and more time in high school these days.  No, not my kids’ school, the business 21 - Sheesh! by Jess Esch world.  Perhaps the economy has increased insecurity, doubt and lack of trust in business; perhaps adolescence’s creeping into the 30’s is why its taking longer to grow up and be professional; or perhaps we’re so politically correct, or conflict avoiding, that we are sacrificing accountability and productivity for fear of offending.  

There are times I feel so “old-school” with my kids’ friends and and in the corporate world.  I see behavior that wasn’t tolerated in ‘my day’ and I’d never tolerate…from my kids let alone colleagues, including the C-suite.  The Harvard Business Review even ran an article “Rudeness at Work: What’s Your Story?” What the heck is going on? Are permissiveness and indulgence endemic everywhere?

Increasingly, the virtue I see that is most needed, aside from Courage, is Temperance.  I love that word.  It comes from Greek sophrosyne (moderation), which Cicero translated into the Latin temperantia.  By the mid-14^th C, it evolved from the Anglo-French temperaunce to mean “self-restraint, self-control, moderation.”[*]  I think we need a heavy heavy dose of Temperance today – in any business, be it for/not-for profit, ‘social’, entrepreneurial, etc.   We need to balance protecting wealth with creating wealth, efficiency with effectiveness, and yes, compassion with responsibility. 

Many workplaces are enclaves of aiding and abetting immature, disrespectful, even harmful behavior.  People end up spending more time working around or with these people instead of doing the jobs at hand. Physical and emotional energy is sapped; time is spent in the weeds providing unnecessary levels of detail and hand-holding because people want to be told exactly what to do instead of taking the initiative; and employees are not asked to step up their game, limiting their professional growth and burdening the entire organization culturally and productively.  Trust declines, morale declines, and the company’s ability to attract and retain talent erodes.

What is the outcome? Increasing risk in delighting the customer.  Plain and simple.  At the end of the day, that’s what matters, because otherwise there is no business.  While it may be ‘easier’ in the short term to aid and abet, it will destroy your organization in the long term.  At some point, it’s very difficult to prevent this behavior from affecting your customers in some shape or form.  And let’s face it, we’re not helping anyone by avoiding the issue…we’re kicking the can down the road. 

So, please think about how you can apply Temperance in 2013.  Apply to yourself first, your team, and your organization. As the leader, you set the tone. This may not be easy, but it is so important to create and sustain a culture that continually delights it customers…because of it’s people, it’s culture.

A special Thank You to my friend, Jess Esch, for letting me use her fabulous sketches in my posts! 

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[*] temperance. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved December 11, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/temperance

True Leadership is Social

Every once in a while, you are privileged to witness the embodiment of what has become a buzzword, Servant Leadership - someone who is innately wired as a servant leader – authentic, genuine and sincere.  I’m privileged to have met a few of these people in my career – in fact, five “someones” recently at a warm, welcoming, generous visit to Enterasys’s headquarters in Andover, MA.  Two of the five, Vala Afshar and Brad Martin, have just written a 2012 & 2013’s Must Read book, The Pursuit of Social Business Excellence.  To understand the power of this book, I need to tell you a story…of how I met them.

Last spring, I started noticing Vala’s insightful, kind, wise, and very human tweets.  I reached out and he invited me to visit him on my way up to Maine this past September.  I arrived and was greeted like a queen! To my incredible surprise, because Vala remembered our tweets about lobster, Brian Townsend, Director of Global Services and Ops, had prepared a feast of lobster tails with a risotto and an unimaginable dessert.  How did Vala remember that I loved lobster? Because that’s how Vala, and Brad, and the rest of the team, are wired (no pun intended) – to be social, to care, to make sure others matter.

Brad and Vala don’t preach about why businesses must be social – they live it, everyday.  Theirs is a real, living, breathing, continuous narrative about how a mid-market company refocused their culture to delight their customers by respecting and trusting their employees to focus on providing meaningful outcomes for their customers.  They detail the why, how, when, and what in transforming the culture and flattening the organization.  Vala and Brad share the culture’s benefits to their top line, bottom line and most importantly, human line.  If you’ve read Steve Denning’s book, The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management, you’d think he was writing about Enterasys – and he was!

When you read this book, as you should, don’t start making excuses as to why it doesn’t “really” apply to.  You’d be lying to yourself and closing the door to creating an excellent company.  The pursuit of social business excellence applies to any company making any thing that touches any one in any form, not just technology companies. The fundamental building block of Enterasys’ success is not technology – they make that loud and clear – it’s people.  Technology can make being a social business easier, but it can’t make it happen.  People do.

Please read The Pursuit of Social Business Excellence.  Think about how you can adapt some of these ideas for your own organization.  It may seem scary – you may lose the perception of the control you never really had; you may realize you’ve made some bad hires and constrained some great ones; your customers may see behind the curtain.  Yet, overcome the fears, because the rewards are so great, on so many levels.

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