28. February 2012 by justdanika.

No matter the size of your company, the hurdles and issues we face are the same.  I’ve been tackling “innovation” inside of at&t for a year and a half now and these are the core take-aways for creating innovative practices inside of your company.

1. Make powerful decisions and keep moving

Someone on the team needs to be empowered to make decisions. These decisions need to be at every level from is this a good, innovative project worth exploring to what should the name be. Outsourcing a decision to a group that doesn’t have responsibility for the success or failure of a project is going to take time and stunt momentum.

A powerful decision creates a sense of excitement and buy-in as well. Nothing like some team spirit and passion to keep innovation brewing.

Examples:

-At AT&T, during a fast-pitch session with small companies, there is literally 3-5 high level execs who, as soon as they step out of the room, give you a thumbs up or down

-Outsourcing a name to a 3rd party brand consultancy resulted in a bunch of names that the whole team thought were completely off. It created animosity and a sense of failure. What’s in a name? EVERYTHING

2. Always listen openly to emotions of fear and anxiety

When you get wrapped up in a great idea, vision or execution of a great idea, you can’t forget that not everyone has the same needs from an innovative project. Brand, marketing, engineering, business development and other related teams are going to view your project with their own filter. If they work on this project with you, they need it to help them succeed and look good inside of the company. Make sure they are fully onboard with the entire project, not just their section.

Examples: 

-Speaking with the now owner of a project I worked on, they were fearful of if this could ever make money. Looking deeper into the anxiety, it seemed a handful of other projects that were shorter, quicker wins had also recently been hitting really bumpy roads. She needed to make some money for the company soon, not in a year. This helps frame the conversations, support and milestones of the project.

-We need to work with this vendor. We do? Yea, they are smart, can bring insightful value and they have been working in this space for a long time…oh yea and they are a close friend of one of the high-up c-levels. Keep probing positively and openly if you aren’t convinced of a choice.

3. Have some fun

Innovation, creativity and value live inside of passion, excitement and fun. The minute you add too many metrics, responsible parties or process is the minute you sacrifice the BIG win.
Even if you are looking for incremental innovation, having fun with the idea helps put ideas on the plate for 5 years from now. Being able to see the larger future and expression of a project drives investment into a project.

Examples:

-If you are still talking about it when you get home, you know you are on the right path.

-Working on a new project around the goal of the next 2 months was cool, talking about what it means for the future of mobile communication, is way cooler.

-Giving a project a stage recently, took a forgotten initiative back to the most interesting conversation at the lunch table.

-When you sit to make a keynote deck, do it with a co-worker. See how the story develops and use the collaboration to create investment into the presentation.

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26. March 2010 by justdanika.

I think I’ve finally got it…I might know what I want to do.

I want to help companies have a better culture that fosters innovation, collaboration and a more holistic view of the future.

I can’t think of a product or market I want to work in. It isn’t Apple, Google, GE, facebook, HP, or any other product or service industry. What I care about is that the people in there are being able to utilize their creativity, push the company and grow as humans that recognize the world as something larger than themselves.

That is what I care about. I can finally identify where I want to have impact. The question now is where can I go to do this…is it management consulting? design consutling? is there anyone out there doing what I want to do?

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26. March 2010 by justdanika.

I tried to start a social movement.

I failed,

but I still won the contest.

Social Movements are really complex to start. The points I have learned around how to/how not to start a social movement are more valuable than my social movement.

This is not the only guidelines but it should help get anyone started on a better foot.

1. Simplicity

You need to be able to pitch your idea in 30 seconds or less. The longer your pitch is the less impact you can have.

2. Urgency

If your movement isn’t urgent you can’t expect people to just start caring.

Urgent movements revolve around things like earthquake relief, trying to get a bill passed in an upcoming election, stopping removal of a large wooded area for development.

If your movement isn’t urgent there has to be other motivation. It has to be fun, enjoyable, easy, routine and provide feedback. Getting people interested and keeping interested needs something unique, catchy and viral.

3. Power of Groups

The reason you start a social movement is to get groups of people to make impact together. You can’t expect to get enough people to reach a critical mass when you invite people 1 at a time. Also a random group of people isn’t helpful, you need to get a group of people who know who is going to see their actions.

Get a group of people, who care like you do, to be in it together. Get a class of students, an existing organization, a meet-up group, people who take the same train. Whatever group is the most obvious to care about your movement is who you want to join, and you want to get them to join together.

4. Get Offline

Online platforms are a great place to get people organized and on the same page (literally). You probably aren’t making the next twitter though so don’t think your site is going to make the impact by itself.

Think about what you are asking people to do for your social movement. Think about actions and real world experiences then think of how to make that experience better. Be creative, think big and don’t be afraid to tackle complex social situations. People need to have a conversation started to talk about your movement, share it and help other be active. Give them that tool…

5. You aren’t Going to Get it Right the 1st Time

The worst thing you can do is become so attached to your movement you aren’t willing to change it, reshape it or refocus it. When things seem to be going poorly, step back, look at what is working and what is stopping you. If one little bit of it has gotten traction, focus on it! Make that little piece that stands out the starting point for the movement.

Be ready to fail, regroup and keep going.

Don’t give up. Perseverance trumps all.

Now…go change the world.

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