Keynote Wrap-Up Make Time to Think and Be Accepting of New Ideas By Rachel Romines Duncan Wardle opened Virtual CONVO 2020 with a presentation I, personally, will not forget. Having spent 30 years with the Walt Disney Company, Wardle started as a barman at Rose and Crown Pub at Epcot. Moving into various positions with Disney, twenty years into his career, he was charged with the role of “Innovation and Creativity.” Wardle had no idea what that was or what it entailed, but for 10 years, he learned, listened, innovated, and created. After introducing himself, Wardle asked attendees what the biggest barriers to being innovative at work were. What would your answer be? Here are the attendee’s answers: Top barrier: no time to think. He went into detail on this a bit later in the presentation. Second barrier: we’re risk-averse. Being risk-averse will continue to be a barrier, like it has for 100 years, as Wall Street continues to dominate the way we do business. But… Wall Street dominating is coming to an end with Generation Z. As Wardle explained it, Gen Z cares more about purpose than profit. Not only will they not want to buy your products and services if they don’t believe in what you stand for, they won’t want to work for you either. How will you be relevant 10 years from now if a generation of new employees choose not to work for you because they don’t believe in what you stand for? But why is purpose so important? Wardle taught us that it is not necessarily philanthropic. It’s more about what you stand for and what you believe in. We should each be asking ourselves these questions: Why would someone want to be my client? Why would someone want to work for me? Wardle gave a perfect example of purpose, explaining to viewers that he recently spoke for the world’s largest tool manufacturer. In preparing for his speech, he studied consumers at the hardware store. What he found out was that people didn’t come to the store to buy tools. They came to build or fix. That was their purpose for entering the store. Not one consumer went in saying, “I’m buying this brand of hammer, and I’m paying this price.” They came in to find tools to assist with their purpose – building or fixing something. So that’s what he told his audience at that conference. Don’t figure out new ways to sell your tools. Figure out ways to help people build or fix things. Don’t sell a hammer. Sell the children’s playhouse they are building. While watching Wardle’s session, I thought, “Insurance agents are not selling something tangible.” So, I paused my recording and thought deeply about this. It clicked. Insurance agents are selling peace of mind. Their purpose 14
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is to make their clients feel safe, feel like they have something to fall back on in times of distress. The agent’s job is to make their client understand this – to make them recognize they are buying peace of mind, not just a policy. But on with the presentation… Duncan showed the following quote: “The habit of continually doing things in new ways to make a positive difference in our working lives.” He then asked what word stuck out the most. Viewers responded with “habit.” Nailed it. Wardle stated that “Creativity is a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it gets.” No matter your age, you can always learn NEW habits. Creativity and innovation may feel awkward... but it should! It’s something new to you, and you are unsure of the results you will get. But, it could lead to something big! Don’t be scared of “That’s not the way we do it.” Going back to the top barrier at work, Wardle polled the audience to find out when and where they do their best thinking and when the best ideas come to mind. The top two answers were “while commuting” and “while showering.” The bottom answer was, wait for it… at work. Your best work ideas do not happen while at work. Say what? I equate it to the “heat of the moment.” Wardle’s example was an argument. During the argument, in the heat of the moment, your brain is spinning and only thinking about those seconds in the moment. But five minutes after the argument is over, you start really thinking about it – what you should have said, what you shouldn’t have said. You understand what they meant, etc. So, transferring this thought to the office, during work hours, you are constantly in the heat of the moment: phone calls, emails, policy revisions, and more. You have work in front of you that needs to be done, and there is no time for any extra creative thinking!
Rivers of Thinking: Your Knowledge, Expertise, and Experience. The longer you’re in business, the more you know why ideas won’t work. Your own “River of Thinking,” as Wardle calls it, may allow you to make quicker decisions, but we are being challenged to get out of our own river… branch out, disrupt, and change the way we think. One solution may be diversity. Wardle said, “Diversity is innovation. If someone doesn’t look like you, they don’t think like you, and they can help you think differently.” He encouraged viewers to seek out people that do not look like us or have different experiences than us and invite them to our next thinking session. What if you asked your college-age son or daughter to brainstorm with you? Can you imagine how many different ideas they would have that you would have never thought of? Or, if you typically work with the ‘man of the house’ for a particular policy, november 2020
