Innovate! (last session)
Susan
Murphy – moderator
Carolyn
Ferguson – President, WinMore Marketing Advisors
Bernice
Bako – Director of Marketing, Turner Construction Company
Ed
Hannan – Principal, HannComm
Mike
Reilly – Principal, Reilly Communications
Julie
Luers – Director of Marketing, HGA - Architects and Engineers
All panelists were
moderators for the Creativity, Promotion, Position, Respect, Differentiate
sessions.
Innovations don’t have to be huge. Think of Walt Disney – he
saw that the straight lines we wait in exacerbate the sense of waiting. He
figured out that if you curve/snake the line and provide some entertainment,
people won’t feel like they’ve been waiting in a long line (even if the wait
time is 60 minutes). Little innovations can have huge dividends.
And on the other extreme are people who want to innovate the
heck out of everything handed to them – even if it is working just fine.
And in another direction, how can you innovate with nothing?
On Susan’s walk from her hotel to the conference every morning, she noticed all
of the homeless people. They were incredibly innovative – about storing food,
about keeping the pigeons out, about figuring out where to sleep. These were
people with limited/no resources, being innovative out of necessity.
The best way to get innovative is to look around and notice
other things that are innovative. Be inspired. Don’t dismiss things as being
too superficial, silly, or ignored by others/leadership. If you USE it well, it
is innovative.
What did the
group/panel sessions learn at this conference, related to innovation?
Julie Luers –
Creativity Panel
1) Don’t
force the need to be creative. Look at those blank moments where your mind is
able to relax and rest. Those are the moments where creativity comes to the
forefront. Chanel the times you wake up in the middle of the night and capture
those “great ideas”. Your mind has been at rest, and is supplying you with good
stuff.
2) You
don’t have to be clever. Clever can help grab attention, but so do good ideas.
3) You
need a blended team – the person who comes up with the idea needs others to
kind of challenge it, and certainly to implement it, and others to review the
value. If you all think the same way, have the same thought, it will be totally
vanilla.
4) (Susan)
Be sure everyone knows who came up with the ideas. It is VERY motivational to
reward creativity. You will generate MORE.
Mike Reilly –
Promotion Panel
1) A
common problem in our industry if clients becoming more fee-focused. And a common
thread was that each firm was sort of allowing the clients to do that. We are
just conceding the point. So the innovations…
a. Go
out to the client to find out what would be the most memorable, valuable,
innovative to them. For example, the firm met with 10 clients as a focus group
to find out about the topic they want to know about, what questions to ask, and
what they hoped to learn. Then they asked 500 clients in their survey: Is LEED
still relevant? Controversial, engaging, simple. They will publish the results,
and do speeches, etc. And their clients WANT the results they find out.
b. Another
firm has an interactive iPad. It is loaded up with whatever a person would need
to talk to a client. And they let the client look around it at what is
available, the YouTube videos, etc. The client is engaged, clicking on things
of interest, and the firm person is learning what the client is drawn to, etc.
c. Another
firm interviewed students at a campus about what they liked (and disliked)
about their library experience. It was the first video the firm showed in the
interview, and they won the job. Client asks for the video repeatedly, because
it gives them the end-user perspective of what they want from the project.
2) Take
something you’ve learned from outside the firm and bring it back. What would
change?
Ed Hannan – Position
Panel
1) Think
about how you position in everyday life. For example, where are you sitting in
the conference room? And why did you pick that seat? Practical? Or psychological?
2) Think
about how you position yourself in your work. Do the job you have, work towards
the job you want. Prove yourself in the position you have/max yourself out. If
you are constantly looking for the next job, everyone will see it; you are not
“present.” If you are a high performer in your current job, you will be given
the next challenges.
3) Clear
is the new clever. Just be direct with the client. Don’t worry about the spin,
because the proof will be in the results.
Carolyn Ferguson –
Differentiation Panel
- Think about relationships. Carolyn is all about building the relationships. She tries to know people, on a personal level, first. If she can’t identify what is different about herself, how can she identify what is different about her firm?
- Build a memorable experience. [She is wearing jeans today and asking everyone to sign them. A memorable, personal connection with everyone in the room.] Build a memory – make it easy for the client to remember you, because they associate you with something fun, wonderful, quirky, whatever.
- Be persistent. “The Fortune is in the follow-up.” It took 8 years with one client before Carolyn saw any work.
- Have a goal, and have a plan. How many people are wandering around aimlessly, looking for a leader and a path to follow? Just having the idea and a path, even if it ends up being the wrong path, is different.
Bernice Bako –
Respect Panel
Respect is about who we are at our core.
1) Being
good at your job makes you bland. You have to be great at your job. Be
passionate. Be amazing.
2) Be
polite, believe/trust, empower the people you work with. Your respect to others
will flow back to you. Give praise. Give encouragement.
3) Be
vulnerable – open yourself to diversity, different ideas. Expose yourself to
“the new, different, uncomfortable” of the world.
4) Be
a good partner. Balance your work with your personal life. Carry the leadership/power
of work to home – they are your constituency every day. Give them the best of
you, too, so they can easily respect you.
Audience members then
shared innovations at their work, charities, and personal life. It was pretty
interesting, but nothing I felt I would take home and implement (either at
work or home). It was the kind of information that, given unlimited time and
some munchies, would have turned in to an amazing tips/tricks exchange. I see
some lunches in my future, to stimulate with colleagues these very
conversations.
It seemed a fitting
end-session for the conference. It was a nice summary of some of the insights
and themes built throughout the previous three days.
- Juggling – tackle one ball at a time.
- Don’t ignore the little stuff; there’s potential innovation there.
- Keep doing what you’re doing, believing that the result will come. Because it will.
- Keep assessing and course-correcting what you’re doing, because blind repetition will just make you blind. [If you’re in a hole, stop digging…]
- And probably the most interesting common thread – be true to who you are. Be authentic. Be yourself.
I spent most of the
past four days introducing myself as “Katherine Robinette. Yes, Frank’s
Katherine.” I found that incredibly flattering – that Frank had spoken of me so
often, to so many people, over the past year that people felt they knew me on
sight. There was no slight in my mind. I felt immediately welcomed into this
giant family of SMPS, because Frank has been telling stories about me. Frank
and I are a TEAM, in the truest sense of the concept. We are different, we are
complimentary, and we are ourselves. And the stories about me/us, reflected
that. His public compliments and comments at the events were touching, sincere,
and humbling.
And then, one person
at this last session changed everything... I had sat next to this woman at
several networking moments, and I knew her first name, and some of her
thoughts/beliefs. I really wished we could have spent more time together
because I thought we were very similar, and yet that I could learn a lot from
her. She said to me… “I can hardly wait until we hear about YOU, not as “Frank’s
Katherine,” or anyone else’s anything, but as Katherine. What you’re going to
do… It’s going to be amazing.”
Wow. One voice. One
comment. One game-changing moment. Thank you, Melissa Rysak, CPSM, for that. I
am honored, humbled, and inspired. Curse it that you are on the East Coast and
I am on the West…
And yet…
Bring it on, Monday.