Transcriber: Leonardo Silva Reviewer: Denise RQ
Each of us has an incredible capacity
for problem solving,
for creating new things,
for building.
And, when we combine that energy that we naturally have
with those around us, it can multiply.
I've always thought it's interesting, though,
that the moment so many of us step into the workplace or log on,
that will to innovate, the desire to innovate,
is actually suppressed more often than it's inspired.
I think the biggest question about that
was 70%, by some measures, being disengaged in the workplace.
The big question is: what do we do about it?
How can we actually go from the desire
that we all have intrinsically to innovate
to a discipline of innovation in our workplaces,
in our organizations?
Well, four years ago,
my company was feeling that suppression,
was feeling the grind of project work.
We do great work, we've done great work for ten years,
but still, even in an open, transparent culture,
it became very present
that we weren't unlocking the full potential of our team.
That's when Zack, one of my right-hand teammates at the time,
came to us and said:
"Hey guys, what if we just set aside project work for a day?
Just set it aside, don't answer emails,
just do projects of your own choosing,
form small teams,
and see what we can build in a day?
What do you say?"
Well, we said yes,
and it took some guts because that costs money
when you don't build to the clients, right?
Some of you are thinking right now: "Innovation is great,
but what about the hard work
of getting projects done and keeping the business running? "
But we said yes, and I'm so glad that we did,
because, four years later,
that process we now call our "lab program"
has led to 100 prototypes,
some of which have become products
that are on the market now,
and some of which have led to amazing partnerships
otherwise not possible,
like the work we're doing with Lego right now.
So, how did that happen?
And what have we learned in the past four years
that any organization can take
to turn innovation from a desire into a discipline?
I believe there's actually three things you can do.
Number one: drawing board.
Drawing board is something we do,
once a week, 30 minutes,
on a Skype call or in person,
where we leave the dust of the day behind,
set aside project work, clear some time
just to talk about ideas
under our broad umbrella of using technology for good.
We keep it really positive, we keep it really informal,
and it's a very energizing time.
Any idea goes. That's drawing board.
The only thing you can't talk about is projects
that you're doing outside that.
Number two: lab day itself.
So, on lab day,
all that ideation that happened
each Thursday on drawing boards culminates:
teams form,
a scope for something you could try to tackle on that day forms,
and teams get to building.
And it's so very fun.
Some teams have a working prototype at the end of the day.
Some teams work on process improvement
for what we do every day.
Whatever happens, by the end of the day,
they have something tangible, visual,
that gets their idea out of their heads into reality.
It's a kick-start.
And number three
is show-and-tell.
That's right, just like in elementary school.
We take all the projects done,
and, within an hour, we divide by the number of projects we did,
and each team gets to demo what they did,
show it off to the rest of the team.
We give positive feedback. Again, pretty informal.
We give them a little bit of a structure for how to pitch it,
and maybe they get some ideas for how to extend that
in the next lab day, or through the next drawing boards.
Drawing board, lab day, show-and-tell.
And one of the coolest stories to come out of our program
is a little iPad app that occurred,
called My Story.
My Story began as Brian Vanaski, one of our designers,
[came up] with an idea to use an iPad for kids. That's it.
I wonder if there's some way we could use the iPad to help kids.
Then, he notices his eight-year-old sister
had trouble with a story one day.
She was trying to tell a story --
really intelligent and innovative thinker.
But she's frustrated, she came into the room
and couldn't get the story together and organized.
The light bulb came on
and that became a lab day project
that became the app My Story,
which you could download today.
It's been around the world. Over 250,000 downloads.
And it has been used in education scenarios all around the world.
One of the most poignant stories we have
coming out of this innovation
is a special education teacher,
who twitted us and said that a young girl, in her class,
who hadn't spoken for the entire year so far,
pressed the recording button in My Story
and found her voice for the first time.
(Applause)
And that right there is what brought her home for me,
because you can't dictate innovation.
You can't think of it as a program for the bottom line.
What you can do is provide a space for it,
turn the desire into a discipline,
and watch the "My Stories" that happen.
You might be thinking, and I'll forgive you for thinking it --
(Laughter)
you're forgiven, pre-forgiven --
that, you know, "That's all well and good for a creative team like yours, TJ,
but I'm in a corporation, organization,
big non-profit, big bureaucracy. What can we do?"
Well, I think it's about a choice.
Even Pixar, one of my most beloved organizations,
did what I would call a lab day.
Last year, in March,
they were facing a problem.
They needed to cut production costs by 10%,
because of lower DVD sales
and a variety of other costs rising in the production scene.
But they wanted to keep the Pixar quality
that we all know and love very high.
So, rather than kind of meet in the boardroom
and figure out a way to cut the costs
and then usher that message down to the ranks,
they said, "We're going to take a day,
we're going to break into small teams,
we're going to let the people of this beautiful company
figure out the solutions and bubble them up from the bottom.
They called it "notes day".
Thank you, Pixar. Thank you.
(Applause)
They called it notes day
and they had pretty much a series of drawing boards to plan it out;
organization goes into it.
And the ideas, as Ed Catmull writes in his book "Creativity Inc.",
which I urge you all to read,
the ideas were able to be implemented within weeks or months,
some of them hugely disruptive.
They came up with apps that changed
the way they did some of their post-production work,
but some of them -- and this is what I love the most,
about discipline and innovation --
is a resurgence of energy within Pixar
that he said was unparalleled and sorely needed.
Raise your hand if energy and rejuvenation in your company
is sorely needed.
I'm reminded of a quote
often attributed to Gandhi, that says,
"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
I think if Albuquerque
and all the organizations we all serve
and spend our lives with every day
embrace a discipline of innovation
through some structure like what I've talked about,
if we embrace that,
I believe we can build
the change we want to see in the world.
(Applause)