Ever Evolving recently spoke at the Project Summit Business Analyst World Conference in Washington DC. Innovation was on full display. Organizations large and small spoke to the benefits and value they are receiving from implementing innovative practices and transforming into innovative companies. While some spoke to things like Design Thinking, Creativity, Agile, Artificial Intelligence, and Mobile others spoke to the importance of moving their business through the process of being more innovative. This conference was a great reminder that innovation does not necessarily need to be about the latest buzzword or technology.
Bob Prentiss – The Game Changer: It’s Time to Think, Learn & Work DIFFERENTLY
Bob the BA started the Project Summit Business Analyst World Conference with a great keynote about “The Game Changer: It’s Time to Think, Learn & Work DIFFERENTLY”. He implored attendees to embrace game-changing skills as they head into the future of business and analysis. According to Bob, “Game Changers anticipate what is coming and they work hard today so that they are prepared for tomorrow.” We at Ever Evolving would argue that EVERYONE in your organization needs to be a “Game Changer” and should be learning, preparing and improving so they can be ready for the challenges of tomorrow. Bob went on to say that attendees should strive to reimagine themselves and be innovative considering the business environment is changing so quickly with things like technology, hybrid business models, and advanced collaboration.
Clinton Ages – Become the 1%: How Your Impact Can Change Your Organization and the World
Coach Clinton Ages was the final act of day 1 of the conference. His keynote centered around the question “What if you and everyone connected to you could join that 1% of people who positively influence the other 99% within your organization?” Coach Clinton says that individuals should strive to influence those around them, but organizations should set the tone for everyone to foster and influence growth across the company. From an individual employee perspective, you must “understand how your thinking has both propelled you forward and held you back and to build the muscle that keeps pushing you toward your goals.” This is just as true for the organization as well.
Jamie Champagne – Life is Meant to be FUN!
Kicking off day 2 was Jamie Champagne with an inspiring keynote titled “Life is Meant to be FUN!” Jamie’s main argument was that you shouldn’t separate fun and work. Anywhere you have a high performing individual that innovates on the regular, you see someone who enjoys the work that they do. But she was quick to remind everyone that “Fun”, “Innovative”, “Creative”, “Entertaining” – “are all things we look for in our leaders, teammates and fellow collaborators, yet, rarely do we see job descriptions, duties or work place expectations ever mention these adjectives when describing the functions and approaches they expect their teams to take.” Having FUN at work is just one of many ways in which a company can establish a rewarding environment for their employees. Providing a safe place to constantly learn, grow, and even fail is yet another.
Rhonda Scharf – Transforming Business Excellence
Last but not least, Rhonda “Wonder Woman” Scharf closed out the conference with her presentation on “Transforming Business Excellence”. She spoke to how every individual can be a “super hero” within their organization if they focus on the many lessons learned at the conference and on Business Transformation. According to Rhonda, “Business Transformation consists of Innovation, Delivery, and Performance”.
Innovation Notes from the conference
As a note, if you are thinking of taking your company on the journey of creating a culture of innovation, Ever Evolving recommends that you start small and look to ways to make your organizations more innovative by improving upon the things that they are already doing. Great value can be found in things like Process Improvement, Lean, or even proper Business Analysis and Project Management. While those may not be the most innovative things you can do, for your organization these may very well be some of the first steps needed to implement cultural innovation.
Innovation is as much a “frame of mind” for a company and its employees as it is about technology and continuous improvement. Ensuring you can instill the right frame of mind starts with repetition and good business practices. Making sure your company is making the right “muscle movements” to make innovation a habit should be focus #1. Why do the Amazons, Googles, and Apples of the world continue to dominate in almost every market they touch? Innovation has become so habitual that the organizations think daily of ways to disrupt markets and even themselves! If you are looking for help pulling all the innovation pieces together into a congruent strategy, take a look at the presentation that we gave at the Project Summit Business Analyst World Conference or feel free to give us a call.
Editor’s Note: The slides we presented at the event have now been made available online. If you would like to download them, please go here.