“When companies don’t pivot, we know the stories,” Dr. Evans Baiya said. “They’re archaeology, part of history—we talk about them that way. That’s because pivoting is TIME-BOUND. Disruption can happen overnight, and you must always be ready to pivot.”
One year, seven virtual sessions, countless coaching and executive meetings, and a week together in-person in Boise, Idaho produced 19 more Innovator’s Advantage Academy graduates for Better Business Bureau Great West + Pacific. Dale Dixon, Chief Innovation Officer, said it wouldn’t be possible if he hadn’t heard Dr. Baiya say, “Your company is one disruption away from becoming irrelevant,” at a conference years ago. Since then, the company has worked diligently to create a culture of innovation and to disrupt its 100-year-old brand.
Part of that work included this second Academy (the first one concluded in 2019), where participants took a deep dive into the concepts of The Innovator’s Advantage book. The cohort learned about the Six Stages of Innovation and how to successfully navigate the innovation continuum with the goal of becoming innovation champions. According to Academy faculty, Dr. Baiya, Ron Price, and Tanja Yardley, learning how to think disruptively and futuristically—to pivot any one of the four types of innovation—is crucial in keeping up with today’s fast-paced market.
“Change at the speed of your customers,” Dr. Baiya said. “If you don’t go at the speed of customers, they don’t wait for you.”
Dr. Baiya shared stories from his experiences working with companies around the world, making the point that you must be brave enough to pivot on something significant every six years—or end up like Myspace, BlackBerry, TiVo, and other companies who didn’t react fast enough for their customers. He prompted participants to think about the technology from 14 years ago and about how much has changed. If you are giving your customers the same experience in 2021 as in 2007, your company is likely in trouble.
This, Dr. Baiya emphasized, was the point of the Academy. Everyone is an innovator and has the ability to enable both incremental and disruptive change. But everyone innovates differently, and knowing where along the innovation continuum you innovate best is key to each person in the company seeing themselves as innovators who can propel the organization forward.
“If you want to change your culture, if you want to change yourself, you need to think of yourself as an innovator, as a contributor of success,” he said. “Not as a unit of production.”
The week-long in-person session was the culmination of this transformative work. The cohort wrapped up the Six Stages of Innovation and reviewed their personal Innovation Fitness™ Reports. Looking at the skills, behaviors, and motivators best suited for each stage of innovation led to some lightbulb moments. They now understood why some tasks gave them energy and others made them want to run out of meetings in frustration—and how they could rely on each other in these situations.
Split into four teams with a healthy mix of people who matched the different stages, the cohort began work on company-wide initiatives. They were both learning how to take advantage of their personal innovation skills and preparing to apply what they’d learned to be innovation champions for their teams. Spreading these ideas throughout the company was critical to the purpose of the Academy.
“We really need to be intentional in creating the space for everyone outside of this room to practice these techniques and not leave the notes on paper and throw it away, but to bring what we’re working on with us so that it’s not wasted,” Cyndel Barnes, Academy participant and Dispute Resolutions Assistant Manager at BBB GW+P, said.
With full days of learning, brainstorming, and project work, the week was a lot to process. Graduation Day brought project presentations, favorite learning moments, and excitement for the future beyond the Academy. Cohort members shared feelings of confidence in moving forward on innovation projects, acknowledged new possibilities for connection and collaboration across departments, and skills they wanted to continue developing.
The BBB GW+P executive team was thrilled to see each participant recognize and grow into their own unique talents as innovation champions, and the IA team praised the progress another group made during the Innovator’s Advantage Academy.
“You are contemplating huge changes and I just want to remind you that you are part of the journey,” innovation and leadership coach Tanja Yardley said. “You took the time to contemplate what is meaningful and worth solving. You aren’t pigeonholed to a certain part—you can impact the whole process. Once you stretch your brain to think this way, you can’t put it back in the box.”
If you want to learn more about The Innovator’s Advantage Academy, you can read previous blogs from the 2021 BBB GW+P Cohort to learn more about what an Academy could look like for you. Make sure to stay in touch to learn about future Academies and programs on our social media.
