Theme.
This week's #founderhacks are on the theme of innovation.
Seen.
Flow
This week we saw a company expertly managing the flow of innovation. The way the did this was a million miles away from the old fashioned suggestion box, which is so often a death knell to creativity.
They held a weekly 1 hour meeting, hosted by a team of three. Anyone in the company was free to attend and present any new idea.
There were rules. People had to present the idea at the weekly meeting, not just talk about it. This made sure only ideas people were willing to work on made it.
The team of three (which rotated once per quarter) selected the best ideas and presented them in the monthly whole company meeting. From there, the relevant department head would pick one each to sponsor and make happen.
The interesting impact of this was on their culture.
Setting this all out told people the company wanted to innovate - and do so on purpose. Knowing that ideas would be heard and acted upon meant people were more likely to invest the time to come up with them. It also encouraged people to spend time to understand the business better. This in turn grew people's appreciation of their own roles and of their value to the business.
Do you innovate on purpose, or do you leave it to chance?
Read.
Enter the Matrix
From Jim Collins' Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0:
"For Bill, staying at the accountancy firm would have been the paint by numbers approach to life where everything is laid out for you and as long as you stay between the lines, you're more or less guaranteed to have a nice picture at the end.
But there's another choice, the choice that Bill made. You can forego the certainty of making your life a pretty little painting, one that looks like a whole lot of other people's pretty little paintings, and instead start with a blank canvas, where you just might create a masterpiece."
We felt this a wonderful reminder that the act of founding a business is, in itself, an act of innovation.
Whether what you create will be a masterpiece is far from certain. You may end up with the Mona Lisa, or half a cow in formaldehyde.
But for us, it will have always have beauty and value, because it is your creation. To us, bravery to try is worthy of as much respect as may be afforded to success. Be proud and keep creating.
Learned.
Setup and Closedown
One of us began his career (as many do) in hospitality and retail.
These businesses do something that sticks in people who work in them. Every day they set up, and at the end of every day they close down. They do it the same way, every day, and everyone does it in the same way.
The benefits of doing are maybe obvious, but applying the same discipline to your own routine can also be profound.
Could a personal close down process every evening, and opening process every morning, add a level of clarity and calm to the roller-coaster ride of growing your business?
And finally.
We're bored of zoom socials. We expect we're not alone. We don't want to do any more quizzes, treasure hunts or Q&As.
However, a recent Zoom social one of us joined we thought was rather clever, and a lovely activity for a team.
Using screen share, and Google Street View, encourage each team member to give a tour of places that are meaningful to them. Their first workplace, for example, or the best place they ever holidayed. For closer teams, sharing places from childhood, where they went to school or the street they grew up in, can be a great way to get to know each other even in pandemic times.
We thought we'd share.
Don’t forget to check out the accompanying podcast version of #founderhacks for a tantalising live experience of team atomex!
