Artists, Brands and the Benefits #DIGART

“As it applies to advertising, I’m here for a specific purpose: to innovate the way we communicate through a combination of art, storytelling, and technology, and to make money so I can self fund and OWN my personal projects,” says Kenzo. 

This is my favorite quote from an article about artists working with brands, which Nicole Smith recently shared with our Digital Innovation Group at Engauge. 

Interesting stuff. Check out the article below.

[#DIGART] Are Brands The New Medicis?

 

Atlanta Innovation Conference: June 19-21

I look forward to attending this conference with Engauge's Digital Innovation Group. Check out the details and let me know if you have any questions!

CPSI 2012 IDEAS/ACTION International Conference on Creativity and Innovation

Click here to download:
lnnovation_Conference_Flyer.pdf (1.04 MB)
(download)

Serving as a Leadercast Volunteer

I had the pleasure of volunteering at Chick-fil-A's Leadercast conference last Friday. It was a great opportunity to represent my agency, assit my friend, make the conference logistics possible, meet great people and learn from the great speakers.

The conference itself was incredible. I tweeted and took notes as I listened to all the speakers from Football star, Tim Tebow, to the CEO of Burbetty, Angela Ahrendst.

My learnings from listening to the speakers were great, but the insight and experience I took away from volunteering were invaluable. 

(download)

A few months ago, I was able to connect my good friend, Lindsay, with Giant Impact, the company that puts on Chick-fil-A's Leadercast and many other great events. Of course, Giant loved Linds and offered her a job.

On Friday, I was able to see my friend on the job and help her with the action. I was an usher and helped the Giant Impact team and the other volunteers seat company groups, VIPs and all the attendees and answer questions.

It is always encouraging to see so many different individuals volunteer their time to make an event possible. 

Last night I received a sweet thank you text from Lindsay. She mentioned that simply having a friend volunteering at the event energized and encouraged her. The funny thing is... I was energized by seeing the fruit of her hard work. I thought I was simply serving as another part of hands and feet, but my simple presence made a difference in Lindsay's day.

Congrats to Chick-fil-A, Giant Impact and everyone involved in making Leadercast happen!

 

 


 

Innovation Factors In Companies

This morning an article in Fast Company caught my eye. The article’s title: How Do You Create A Culture of Innovation?

As a member of Engauge’s Digital Innovation Team, the topic of innovation in (and outside) of company culture is a top passion and priority of mine.

I copy and pasted quite a few pieces of the article below. In school, I was the girl that highlighted and wrote all over my books. Copying important text in articles helps me remember key takeaways. It also helps me efficiently archive my learnings and refer back to them on this blog. 

See my notes below and check out the full article on Fast Company. I cannot wait to discuss and implement these points with my team and our agency as a whole!

  • Subtle miscommunications can impair a company’s effort to move in a common direction. 
  •  Having everyone understand what innovation is—and what it is not—is critical for culture change.

4 ingredients for a culture of innovation:

  1. The right people
  2. Appropriate rewards and incentives
  3. A common language
  4. Leadership role-modeling

At the core is what the professors call “associational thinking.” That is the ability to make connections between seemingly unconnected things.

"Innovator’s DNA" - What are the time-tested approaches successful innovators follow?

  • Questioning: Asking probing questions that impose or remove constraints. Example: What if we were legally prohibited from selling to our current customer?
  • Networking: Interacting with people from different backgrounds who provide access to new ways of thinking.
  • Observing: Watching the world around them for surprising stimuli.
  • Experimenting: Consciously complicating their lives by trying new things or going to new places.

If you are trying to transform your company or your industry you likely need to bring in at least a handful of outsiders who will look at the world in new ways.

How to Motivate Innovators:

  • The key is to thoughtfully blend the unique rewards at their disposal with a failure-tolerant culture. 
  • Provide people with a sense of autonomy, allow them to master their trade, and give them a sense of purpose.
  • Companies need to be more tolerant of failure. The most successful businesses come out of a process of trial-and-error experimentation.

How to Spot Innovators:

  • Instead of looking at someone’s results, you have to look at the process they follow they achieve those results. 
  • Look for innovators that invest time to understand their target market, think holistically, design and execute smart experiments, and demonstrate a willingness to change course. Even if an individual effort doesn’t succeed, innovators who follow these behaviors are more likely to succeed in the long term.

How to Lead in Innovation:

  • The most senior leaders seeking to make their culture more tolerant of innovation need to regularly demonstrate that intent with their words and actions.
  • These aren’t lean-back leaders that wait for change to happen. They roll up their sleeves and lean forward into specific innovation efforts.
  • Active participation helps them spot inflection points that team members might otherwise miss—and gives them deeper intuition that helps when it is decision time. 
  • Active participation also speeds decision-making. 
  • Leaders also help shape the context in which innovation occurs by making clear strategic choices. 
  • Lean-forward leaders break dysfunctional processes.

 

 
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo