>> From Phoenix, Arizona The Cube
at Catalyst Conference.
Here's your host, Jeff Frick.
(upbeat music)
>> Hey welcome back everybody.
Jeff Frick here with The Cube.
We are on the ground in Phoenix, Arizona
at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference.
About 400 people, fourth year of the conference.
They're going to be back in the Bay area next year.
Really a lot of good things going on
around the Women in Tech theme that we cover
on The Cube, so we wanted to come down,
check it out.
Our first time here, I'm sure we'll be back again.
And we're excited by our next guest,
Hilary Weber, the founder and CEO
of Opportu.
Welcome.
>> Thank you.
>> So what is Opportu?
>> Opportu is an unusual company.
It is a coaching and consulting company
that focuses on innovation.
So I have two main audiences that I work with.
>> Okay.
>> So startups are one because startups
are innovation in essence,
but 95 percent of them fail,
so we're trying to make sure that
less of them fail.
And we're focusing on sort of innovating
their innovation by a culture focus.
>> Mm-hmm. So it kind of process of innovation?
Culture of innovation? There's a lot of kind of
way to slice that.
>> It's both, but it's all around people.
It's all around people.
And not just startups' struggle with innovation,
bigger companies struggle with it too.
So what we're trying to do is kind of
help startups act a little bit like bigger companies
'cause that's what they're aspiring to be.
But really preserving that wonderful culture
that they usually have and if they don't have
a wonderful culture, making sure we
work on that right away.
>> Right.
>> And then the bigger companies,
as companies get bigger and bigger and bigger,
they tend to lose their innovation edge
and it typically is rooted in culture as well.
So we have some interesting tools
that we work with.
I've been partnering with UC Berkeley
on some really cutting edge innovation tools,
being able to actually measure a company's
propensity for innovation, their
capability to innovate.
So it's brand new, right?
>> Right. Right.
>> So that's very exciting.
So that's what we do.
>> That's great.
One of my all-time favorite interviews
was with the San Francisco Giants
and we interviewed them specifically
around the kale garden.
Which, I don't know how much kale you eat...
>> A lot.
>> They put the kale garden behind
the center field wall.
>> Wow.
>> Where you can now go get a salad,
and they'll pick it off these hydroponic things
growing all the lettuce.
It has nothing to do with baseball,
but to me it was a fascinating story
on a culture of innovation.
The Giants are really innovative,
Bill Schlough over there, the CIO.
To me, it was, who came up with this idea, A,
and then was able to get it through their organization
to have the confidence to say it,
to get it funded, and to actually get it
implemented where now you can go stand
at the Giant's game and pick a piece of lettuce
and they'll put it in a bowl, put some salad dressing
and you're eating salad.
What are some of the secrets of having
a culture of innovation as opposed to just
innovation in terms of making interesting things?
'Cause it's really about the culture.
>> Well it is.
You mentioned the confidence word.
Confidence is a big focus.
A lot of people think that hiring millennials
is going to solve their innovation problem.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
It's really the mix.
It's how are these people collaborating,
how free is that newest newbie to share an idea?
If you get in there and you realize
this company operates by having ideas
come from the top down, and I'm
not going to stick my neck out.
>> Right.
>> And especially for women.
And especially for women, since we're here
at Girls in Tech, where they're by far
the minority around the table, so the risk
of them speaking up is higher for them.
They feel more of an outsider.
>> Sure.
>> So, figuring out ways to honor the diversity
rather than make it be a problem
and creating a team that just fires
on all cylinders, and so ideas just come.
>> So if I'm running a company,
and I know I've got a disproportionate,
a bunch of male engineers of the tech company,
what are some of the things that I can do
to help to encourage that young woman
with this great idea to get it out of her?
To make it comfortable for her to share?
What are some of the things that I can do
from this side of the table to really enable that?
>> I think part of it is really raising
the awareness of what it's like for others.
There are multiple tools out there
that you can use but sometimes
working with someone from the outside
that can help them see things differently.
The function of a coach is often
holding up a mirror.
And when you're inside of something
it is really hard to see what's really going on.
Sometimes I'll describe to the startups
that we work with, I'll say,
"If you're on the inside of an apple,
it looks all white with these big black seeds.
From out here, it looks shiny and red.
It's still an apple, but it looks very
different from the inside to the outside."
So having a different perspective.
The other thing is that kind of vibe
starts with the leader.
They have to model the behavior.
They have to look at their own behavior and see,
what am I doing or not doing that is encouraging
that and enabling that.
And, maybe hire some more women.
Have women on your board.
It's proven.
You have a woman on your board,
you get 20 percent more revenue and productivity.
>> Right.
>> There's statistics all around that.
>> So do you find the value in what you do,
a large part of it is
simply putting the mirror on?
There's techniques and stuff but just get,
take a minute, take a breath, look
at what's happening here from the outside
and you'll see and it'll be more obvious.
Do people just get kind of wrapped up in the way
they've always done things,
or busy, they don't really have time
to lift their head up and take a breath?
What do you find in you clients?
>> Awareness is the first step, certainly.
>> They wouldn't bring you in, right,
if they didn't want to make improvements.
>> Precisely.
Precisely.
If there's a lack of awareness,
then a lot of times it's...
>> A self perpetuated thing.
>> Yeah, exactly.
But a lot of times there'll be sort of
a moment that will happen, unfortunately sometimes
where somebody's super unhappy or there's a lawsuit
or something like that.
That's an extreme case but...
>> But sometimes it takes a catalyst
like that, unfortunately, right.
>> Sometimes, sometimes.
But hopefully you've got one or two people
who are, "we're at a certain stage
where I think we need to really up
our leadership game, up our professional
development, look at things differently.
We're losing too many people."
Those kind of things.
>> Right.
What tips for the woman
on the other side of the table?
You're by yourself, you're outnumbered,
maybe you're not as loud,
maybe you're not 100 percent sure
that this is the answer you want to give
or the suggestion you want to make,
but you think its got legs.
What are some of the tips and tricks
that you give them to get your voice out?
How do you kind of counsel ways
that they can get that out?
>> Mm-hmm.
Well, confidence comes in all forms.
Women tend to have been successful in their lives,
there's statistics on this too,
where we tend to be rule followers
when we're younger, right?
We get all A's, we get the praise of the teacher.
And we finally get to the workplace
and kind of following all the rules
really doesn't work.
So they haven't had a lot of chances
to fail, basically.
>> Right, right.
>> So I kind of give them failure lessons.
Learn how to fail at something small.
One of my clients went out
and did trivia night with her friends,
and she knew she was going to not do well
in some categories, even though she's super smart.
>> I should practice doing that.
>> To kind of flex the failure muscle
and be okay with, not all your ideas
are going to be winners, and it's okay.
>> Right, right.
>> The other thing I would really say
is take a look at your own values.
I have a values assessment that I put
on my website so anybody can do it.
I think it's really underutilized
for individuals and for companies to
do a values assessment.
"What do I really care about?
What are the battles that I am going to go
to the ends of the earth to get to?
What are the things that I really want to promote
and why?"
If you know that inside of yourself,
that can really fuel your confidence
when you're sitting in a meeting
where it's a little bit scary.
>> Right, but that almost, again
sounds like the mirror thing
that you talked about before.
It's reconnecting with those values
in the context of the moment as opposed to,
you know we all just get so busy.
You're just wrapped up with getting stuff done
and trying to get through, whatever
you're trying to get through.
>> Exactly.
And I think a lot of people either
go through their day kind of just trying
to get through the day, kind of please
just get me to the end,
or they get into fight mode,
where they're just like, it's me or you
and that doesn't really work.
Trying to get out of that sort of overly me
orientation and starting to think about
how can we make this something better.
How can we be more than the sum of our parts?
>> Right, right.
Important stuff you're working on there, Hilary.
So how could people learn more, how could they
reach out and connect with you?
>> They can go to Opportu dot com.
O-P-P-O-R-T-U dot com.
They can email me, H Weber, with one b,
H-W-E-B-E-R at Opportu dot com
or find me on Twitter or Facebook.
>> Excellent.
Well thank you for taking a few minutes.
Really important stuff you're working on.
>> Thank you very much.
>> All right.
Hilary Weber, I'm Jeff Frick, we are at
the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference
in Phoenix, Arizona.
You're watching The Cube.
Thanks for watching.