#bif2017

(via Different Is Always More. Not Less. – Denise Brodey – Medium)

Another post from the recent Business Innovation Factory Summit — #BIF2017 — held in Providence, R.I. You can read additional  #BIF2017 posts on previous pages of this Tumblr Collection. - C.H.

By Denise Brodey

I’ll write that again: Different is always more, not less. That one sentence changed my world a few weeks ago. Why? Because for literally decades, as a journalist, editor, author and marketer, I have wanted to see those words on a big screen in lights. And I did. At the Business Innovation Factory Summit (#BIF) held in Providence, Rhode Island, when A.J. Paron-Wildes got up to tell the story of inclusive design and how what may be normal for some workers is not normal for everybody else.

She inspired me to tell you how, after the conference, I truly started to see my own learning differences as positives—not the wrong way to think, but a different way. I began to appreciate what my neurotypical “average” colleagues were missing out on. I actually began to feel badly for average folks because…

…my colleagues probably don’t have dozens of ideas at one time. They often, have to sit, and wait and wait and wait, for inspiration.

..without a learning difference, the average employee probably wastes a heck of a lot of time wondering how to be unique and stand out. Not a problem for me. As Milton Glaser once said, “An idea is either yes, no, or WOW! Aim for WOW!”. I hit “WOW” a hell of a lot more often than the average person does; it’s one key to my success.

… and after years of practice, I know how to execute on those WOW ideas. For the average person, organizing projects may be fairly straightforward. But, without any serious challenges to the way you operate, your brain becomes rigid. You stop learning new skills as often and you’re less open to change. That can really gum up the wheels of change, according to experts.

…and you will never be a mentor the way I am. The kind who gets to say as I did to a colleague once, quietly, ‘It takes one to know one’ and with one look, I saw that person’s face start to shine again. We were both relieved to realize that we think, learn, process and work differently. And that we see our ‘difference’ as a huge positive.

Yes, I probably have ADHD, sensory processing disorder, a math learning disability or some other batch of labels they didn’t give out when I was a kid.

And I have no idea why I didn’t talk about it sooner. It’s my strength. As for the 1 out 5 with a learning difference, I believe the odds of success today are potentially really good. You, me, WE are crazier, smarter, braver, more resilient and more passionate than four out of five of you combined on most days. And we can change the world by speaking out.

I can’t thank every single average, normal, typical person I have ever had the pleasure of calling a colleague enough.

I am beyond confident that different is always more not less. I am positive that the more inclusive we are as a workforce, the more we will succeed. Thank you A.J. for making that crystal clear.

The lesson I have to share with you: If you are one of five adults with a learning difference, for goodness sake start celebrating. Say ‘thank you’ when people call you weird. Thank your lucky stars you are more like Richard Branson, Justin Timberlake, Jim Carrey, Jamie Oliver, Lisa Ling, Karina Smirnoff, Katherine Ellison and so many more.

If you are the one in five adults who has dyslexia, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, working memory or executive functioning issues, I promise you that your brand of uncool is now cool. Start loving those looks you used to simply endure every day  —  the face palms and sighs and eye rolls.

Think of those as reminders that you are, in the most positive, brilliant way, disrupting a project, a colleague, or a day at the office that would otherwise be boring as f*ck.

You are seriously amazing. Be you. Stay different. Now go change the world. You can start by sharing this article and listening to the #BIF2017 stories. You will not be disappointed.

[Entire post — click on the title link to read it on Medium.]

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Curator and Publisher:

~ Cathryn Hrudicka, Author, Founder, CEO and Chief Imagination Officer, Creative Sage™

By Dara Goldberg

I just returned from the Business Innovation Factory’s BIF2017 Summit, a 2-day, TED-style, simply amazing gathering of over 32 storytellers and over 500 attendees who BIF collectively refers to as ‘Innovation Junkies’.

And, innovation junkies is exactly what we all are: People deeply committed to turning what is on its head and challenging ourselves, uncomfortably at times, to come up with new or simply different ways of thinking, behaving and interacting with others; of creating products, services and whole systems; of making a mark on the world in some manner, be it our company, our family, our community, or simply one person whose life is all the better for our existence.

While our passion for innovation is what brings us all together, the real glue that connects us in a meaningful way and creates the sparks that lead to the most innovative and transformative ideas and a-ha moments is actually our differences. We are a group of people — storytellers and attendees alike — who may never meet otherwise, let alone have such inspiring, long-lasting and productive conversations.

We hail from different parts of the world. We work in all different industries. We range from entry-level to CEO, and some students as well. We work in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. We are sole practitioners, part of mid-size organizations, and embedded in large corporations. Our expertise runs the gamut, as does the specific business or social issues we are most concerned about.

We are what BIF affectionately refers to as ‘Unusual Suspects’ who have ‘Random Collisions’ with one another, interactions that knock down walls, bust doors wide open, create an entirely level playing field and unleash tidal waves of creativity, optimism, possibility and literally life-changing relationships, ideas and plans. We are a group of people who check our egos, our titles, our marketing hats, our hidden agendas, our judgments and assumptions, and our to-do lists at the door.

[Random Collisions ➜ Curiosity. Perplexity. Affirmation. Epiphanies. Caring. Challenging Assumptions. Transformation. Innovation.]

We come as strangers who share a commitment to innovation and transformation, and we leave with a bond that runs deep. We leave feeling we have been generous in offering our ideas and insights, often ones that spontaneously came to us during the event, and also grateful to the countless others who did the same for us. We leave with a sense of being connected to something larger than ourselves, something that has taken us entirely outside of our everyday, known world. We leave with a kit-bag of fresh energy, transformative ideas, and a reinvigorated desire to take it all home and share it with our existing networks.

The Benefits of Random Collisions with Unusual Suspects In a Nutshell

When we collide with people who are different from us, in any or in many ways, and we do so in a safe, welcoming environment, the impact on our creativity, optimism, confidence, self-concept, desire to add value to others, and sense of purpose is profound and boundless. Why? Because these types of collisions:

● Lessen our concern about ‘fitting in’ and instead compel us to be so generous with our perspectives and insights that we make others feel comfortable ‘expanding out’.

● Unleash our curiosity and capacity for wonder and fascination, which are all essential to maximize creativity and spark epiphanies.

● Help us let go of linear thinking and engage in circuitous conversations in which random thoughts and tangents are welcomed and relished, and ideas come from the fringes. This is where unconstrained ideation thrives.

● Significantly increase our comfort with not-knowing and with ambiguity, both essential for ideation and creativity.

● Help us feel that we matter and at the same time meet our need to feel connected to something much greater than ourselves.

● Force us to describe ourselves, our work and what excites and challenges us in new or different ways, which helps us see ourselves in a different and often reinvigorating light.

● Put us in an environment where the playing field is entirely level and judgment and expectations don’t exist.

● As Carl StØrmer, a storyteller from the BIF2017 Summit says, “You have to try new things. That’s how we learn. Life needs turbulence. It’s the only way to get comfortable with unpredictability.”

● Saul Kaplan, Founder & Chief Catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory explains why the best events are those that use a storytelling format: “Storying is the best way to authentically and fully engage and connect with others.”

● Deb Mills-Scofield, another BIF2017 Summit storyteller, calls for all of us to make an essential mindshift: “Don’t get out of your comfort zone. Keep growing it.” Random collisions achieve this goal.

[People need to feel they matter and, at the same time, connected to something larger than themselves. Random collisions of diverse groups of people create the conditions that meet both of these needs.]

Does Your Company Encourage Random Collisions of Unusual Suspects?

Knowing that some of the most transformational, innovative ideas, a-ha moments and truly meaningful conversations occur when people of all different interests, backgrounds and industries come together in a new, yet also non-threatening, high-energy and very inclusive environment and, at the same time, companies’ ability to compete and, in many cases, survive relies on people’s capacity and desire to be innovative, why, then, aren’t Random Collisions of Unusual Suspects part and parcel of every employee’s experience?

[Why aren’t Random Collisions of Unusual Suspects part and parcel of every organization’s culture, physical environment, operations and reward system?]

There are organizations that have taken strides to help encourage creative collisions, or what I sometimes refer to as ‘fresh insight opportunities’. Cornell Tech, for example, used the notion of fostering creative collisions as the organizing principle for the design of its new campus. The design of the buildings makes it not only possible, but necessary for people from many different disciplines to ‘collide’ with one another on a daily basis.

Other companies, large and small alike, have created interdisciplinary teams comprised of people with varied areas of expertise and levels of experience who work together on discrete projects as a way to create creative collisions. Companies that are more advanced in their efforts to support random collisions of unusual suspects provide their employees with dedicated free time in their workday to ‘collide’ with people in other parts of the company who do work and possess expertise in areas very different than their own.

While these efforts are commendable, for random collisions to have a lasting, positive impact on employee engagement, morale and relationships, and overall corporate culture and climate, companies need to go deeper and be even more deliberate. They need to provide employees, at all levels and in any position, with the time and encouragement, and underwrite the cost of sending them to places where these collisions will most occur in an organic, non-threatening manner. Not corporate events or conferences. Not webinars. Not trainings or professional development workshops. Not even the occasional TED-talk. In-person, high-energy, non-hierarchical, highly interactive, structured yet unconstrained events where people thrive on what they learn, what they share and the diverse group of ‘suspects’ they meet.

Some Steps You Can Take

1. Send your people to the Business Innovation Factory’s Summit in 2018, and every year thereafter.

2. See if the Business Innovation Factory would be willing to help you organize a storyteller summit of your own, one that brings people (storytellers and additional attendees alike) from outside the company to collide with your employees of all levels in magical ways.

3. Send your employees to visit completely different types of organizations, people and initiatives that show what innovation looks like from many different vantage points and helps your people gain inspiration and motivation and come up with new or rethink ideas they never would otherwise. Just a few suggestions among the melting pot of options out there:

a. Yarrow Kaner and HATCH, a global network and series of experiences Kaner founded to ‘catalyze creativity to HATCH a better world’.

b. Mark Brand and his ‘Greasy Spoon Series’, ‘Token Program and ‘Save On Meats’ initiative.

c. Jeff Sparr and the PeaceLove Storytelling Summit

d. Coss Marte and his ConBody Company

Photo: Composer/Musician Philip Sheppard wowed the #BIF2017 audience with his storytelling, his sense of humor, and his amazing electric cello compositions.

“It’s okay to cry at an innovation conference.”

- Saul Kaplan

And I did.

Ami, Carl, Teny, Courtlandt, Mark and more all brought me to tears sitting in the Trinity Repertory Theater in Providence, Rhode Island.

A good story can change the world

These were the words written on the website for the event Business Innovation Factory Summit 2017 (referred to affectionately as “BIF” from here on). What set BIF apart from being another player in buzzword bingo was their commitment to storytelling throughout the event.

There were no speakers or keynotes — there were only storytellers. Each of the sessions featured people from education, government and social entrepreneurship. Some were professional speakers, but all were asked to throw away their canned talks and tell us a story.

And the storytellers didn’t just use words. They used props, music and most importantly, emotion. Former Patriots lineman Joe Andruzzi told us about a battle with cancer and how it led him to start a charitable foundation. Antoinette Carroll wasn’t afraid to share amazing ideas and how failure encouraged to keep innovating. Carl Stormer taught us how control is for beginners and that we need to accept what world gives us.

Everyone told a story. Though we stayed seated in the theater, we were transported to other places with their words.

A room full of empathy

Mark Brand is a restaurant entrepreneur who started “cool guy restaurants” before he found his purpose. Mark put his ego aside and talked to a homeless man he’d seen on the streets in his Vancouver neighborhood. He learned about the difficulties facing people without a home, the struggles they have in finding employment and living their purpose.

He didn’t step away from food, but he saw problems in the system and decided he could start to make a change.

Mark redesigned the way he hired people in his restaurants. He partnered with ethical farmers. He trained people to work in the kitchen and gave them a place to belong. He even reinvented what it means to donate to someone on the sidewalk by creating special meal tokens. The tokens can be redeemed for a free sandwich at his restaurant, encouraging mutual trust between those giving and those receiving.

Through initiatives like the token program and other hunger relief efforts, Mark has given over one million meals to those in need. It all started with a little empathy. He took a minute to listen.

A commitment to transformation

Mark Brand took us somewhere new by challenging our preconceptions of poverty, homelessness and hunger. Teny Gross did the same for our notions of inner city violence. Teny doesn’t study non-violence as part of a master’s thesis; he’s just committed to the multi-year process of making a change.

As part of an long-term initiative in Boston, he helped the city reduce the number of homicides in a year from 150 down to 30. Then he moved to Chicago to implement a similar anti-violence program. When he arrived in Chicago he interviewed over 500 city residents to learn about their circumstances. Initially he felt resistance — interviewees didn’t trust his intentions. They asked “Are you going to be at the University doing a two-year study and then leave?”

Teny’s commitment is on a deeper level. He’s dedicated to being a figure people can trust and providing a sustainable solution to a terrible problem.

Commitment to the long-term process of understanding people is at the heart of transformation.

Technology won’t save us

The stories from BIF suggest that technology isn’t going to save civilization. Silicon Valley can’t innovate us out of not caring about public service. A faster micro-processor won’t reduce inequality in the healthcare system. Self-driving cars won’t help increase empathy for people who don’t look like us.

Like Angela Blanchard said, “We may not be at fault, but we are all responsible.” It’s on us to start making the change we need to see in the world. At the end of the day what can save us is our humanity.

We may not be at fault, but we are all responsible.

Angela Blanchard

If we have any hope of changing the world, we need to bring humanity back to innovation. People need to be seen for who they are, not just as consumers and users. For that to happen, we need to take a risk. We need to jump into an empathetic interaction without the protection of a screen. We need to commit to a multi-year process of caring about people. When we can do that, real change starts to happen.

It happened for two days at BIF 2017, but it needs to happen every day. With the person bagging your groceries. With the neighbor you pass on the way to your car. With the people you see each and every moment.

We think of changing the world in a grandiose way. Every single action we take is changing the world — it’s up to us whether it’s for better or for worse.

Antoinette Carroll

Be ready to feel, be ready to challenge your perspectives, be ready to break down and just be.

(via BIF 2017: Five Lessons for Innovators | Rachel Happe | Pulse | LinkedIn)

By Rachel Happe, Principal and Co-Founder, The Community Roundtable

The Business Innovation Factory Summit is my annual break in programming to sit back and process the world. This year, I went to BIF at a point where I am increasingly frustrated with the choices of so many of our leaders. Here are my lessons from this year's summit:

We Need More Rebels

Don’t accept the expectations that others hold for you. Try something weird. Play. Erase. Stop. Go. Ask for more.

Why does this matter? Because every day we learn and see the implications of old decisions. The systems we have created are not serving us well — and they are oppressive to many. More people seem to be hurt by our educational, political and economic system than benefit from it. We do not have a democratic economy. By questioning things, we can expose the issues — and address them.

This one is pretty easy for me. I don’t like to be told what to do. I question. What I do need to do more is to play - to bring more joy into my rebellion.

We All Desperately Need Art

Art trains us to make decisions in ambiguous situations. As machines take on more of the unambiguous decisions, people will be left with decisions where there is no one right answer.

Art requires that you decide whether to do more or stop at every moment - making millions of tiny decisions with no right answer. This was beautifully discussed by Carl Størmer.

This is one of the most profound reasons to invest in art and music education - and to stop focusing so maniacally on training children to get the 'right' answer. The process and behaviors matter so much more than any one outcome.

Our Systems Create Pessimistic Cultures

What we measure is how we manage — and we manage pessimistically.

We measure students by how much they deviate from a ‘perfect’ 100. We manage employees based on all they ways they don't succeed - and the definition of success is rigid (AND racist. AND sexist). We fix disease and broken bodies.

In all these areas we pay to fix disease, not to enable wellness. The result is that we constantly manage from crisis to crisis. We do not focus on investing in the things that allow people to thrive, that are required all along their journey, not just at a single point of failure or crisis. By focusing most of our attention and resources on the failures, we miss the enormous opportunity to help people live their best lives.

This was most beautifully articulated by Taliq Tillman, who helped everyone see what he has felt his entire life - that our systems are all set up to make him and other children of color feel worthless. It is heartbreaking to see that experience through his eyes. What is so inspiring is that he can see and empathize with the people in the system and yet understand how the system needs to be fixed.

If we want to enable human potential, we need systems that measure generative behaviors - and help people see all the ways they are succeeding first. Only then, when people feel supported for who they are, can you effectively critique. This is one of the primary reasons I believe in community solutions.

Want to fix your culture? Fix how you measure and reward 'success'.

Everyone Has Power

Everyone has immense power. Not enough people use theirs. Keeping pushing until you get what you need and when you have that, use your power to shine a light on others — helping them understand their power.

The human spirit is truly remarkable. Ironically, the people who seem to soar the highest are those that have experienced some of the most suffering and pain and also recognize how to use that pain to dig deeper, explore higher, own their power, and help others understand their humanity.

There are people who thrive despite such heaping loads of BS thrust upon them by society. Yet we are loath to give people 2nd, 3rd and 4th chances regardless of what they had to deal with in the process. Yet those resilient individuals are the ones most capable of creating equitable solutions and business models that allow us all to thrive. THEY should be our leaders.

The Business Model Matters

One of the most inspiring speakers this year was Mark Brand, who is bold enough to see the individuals behind the trappings they inhabit at any given moment. Instead of seeing homelessness as the consequence of broken people, he sees homelessness as the consequence of a broken system. So he’s built a system - complete with multiple, dependent business models to give people access to meaningful work and the resources they need to thrive - all wrapped around a simple concept that we can all agree on: hungry people need food, so feed them.

It’s worth all of us thinking about our business models in the context of power — who do they support? Who do to they miss? Who do they hurt? Can you create models that hurt fewer people and help more?

While the storytellers at BIF this year were excellent — it was the side conversations that really got me thinking and allowed me to process these themes. In particular, I want to thank Nancy Oriol, Shana Vija Bourcier, and Lois Kelly for sharing your wisdom and power with me.

So. What did I learn? Identify what matters to you, ask lots of questions, DO something and, as demonstrated so well by Phillip Shepard, have fun doing it!

Thank you also to Phil McCreight for the artwork used here [above], Saul Kaplan for shepherding another amazing collection of people, and Renee Hopkins for including me in the #RCUS [Random Collision of Unusual Suspects]!

[Entire post — click on the title link to read it at LinkedIn.]

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We’re glad that overall, the U.S. economy has significantly improved in the past few years, and that “new Silicon Valleys,” or place-specific innovation centers, are growing all over the world, at least in terms of innovation and the development of creative economy ecosystems — and we would love to visit them all! We all learn best by exchanging ideas across cultures and industries. We fully support complete diversity in the workplace, and overcoming the inequality challenges that are still too prevalent in our world.

Now, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and organizational leaders from other cities and countries who are visiting the San Francisco Bay Area can have access to Silicon Valley companies to learn from their cultures, hiring, leadership and innovation methods. Come join us for a dynamic, unforgettable, and very enjoyable Innovation Tour in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, the East Bay (Emeryville, Oakland, Berkeley, and more), in the Wine Country, or on the beautiful, rural Northern California seacoast in Mendocino County, including Fort Bragg, California, where we have worked on business, arts and tourism projects.

At Creative Sage™, we design high impact, customized creativity, innovation, and leadership programs, and we are now offering related tours, events and workshops in wonderful urban and rural settings that will spark your imagination — and your team’s — to come up with brilliant ideas and plan how to implement new innovations in services, products, your organization’s business model, operations, or in any other area.

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