Protect your job from innovation | Diana Kander | TEDxICC

How to create a culture of innovation and get the employees to think like entrepreneurs? “It's really scary being an entrepreneur. As a business owner, you're constantly worried that people are going to make fun of your products,” author of All In startup, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling novel, Diana Kander says. In her talk, Diana Kander examines how innovating yourself, your job, and your company is the key to success. By thinking about one of these three things, you can save yourself 5 hours per week at work.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Now, I don't want to complain,

but it's really scary
being an entrepreneur.

As a business owner,

you're constantly worried that people
are going to make fun of your products,

even if one of those products

is a book called Knitting with Dog Hair -

it's a real book.

I don't know if you guys
can see the call-out, but it says,

"Stop vacuuming and start knitting."

As a business owner,

you're constantly worried
that people are going to realize

when you didn't think of everything,

like the fact that the acronym
to your business name spells ASS -

it's a real hair salon.

And many like me are worried

that people are going to find out
that you've made a mistake.

I'm here to face
one of my greatest challenges

and admit that I lost 250,000 dollars

because I didn't understand
a fundamental principle

about how business products were made.

And I'm not here
just to get that off my chest;

I'm here because I think
that understanding my mistake

can help save your job -

save it from robots,

save it from downsizing,
globalization, all kinds of things.

Now, I'm going to explain,
but first we have to go back,

way back, to my first big business idea.

I was at Carhop at Sonic, 14 years old,

looked like I was a solid 10 years old

and very excited to embark
on my new career in the service industry.

So my first big idea
was to wear rollerblades to work.

I know, I was 14, okay?
That was my first idea, okay?

And nobody was wearing
rollerblades to work,

unlike what you've seen
in the advertisements

or the old-timey commercials.

And this was going to be a win-win.

I was going to make more money in tips
because of the novelty,

and my business's would benefit
for people would come from all over town -

none of the other fast-food chains
had anyone on rollerblades.

So it's a good situation.

The only problem was
that the owner of my Sonic said

that under no uncertain terms was anyone
allowed to wear rollerblades to work.

Small problem.

So after a number
of these fruitless negotiations,

one day I just showed up to work

in a pair of rollerblades,
with nothing to change into.

Yeah, I rollerbladed
the three miles from my house

to work, uphill,

with no other change of shoes.

The only thing I did bring with me

was a legal release of liability
that I had drafted,

channeling my inner lawyer at 14,

which I had presented
to the only manager on duty.

Now,

picture a 17-year-old
Napoleon Dynamite-looking character

with real greasy hair

who just stared at this document
for like a minute and finally said,

"Whatever. Just do whatever you want."

I was pretty proud of myself.

Big success, right?

Just up until the moment
that I actually had to start working.

So the way it works at Sonic is
you pick up this tray of food,

and then you back up

through these two really,
really heavyset doors;

they're made to close real fast
so that flies can't get in.

So the problem was
because I had rollerblades on,

I didn't have any traction
to actually open the doors.

I tried to go sideways,
but I just couldn't get them open.

A couple of times
my co-workers helped out,

but then they got quickly annoyed
because they had their own stuff to do.

So let's recap my big idea:

my manager is really upset with me

for putting him
in this difficult position;

my coworkers are upset with me
for giving them extra work to do

and holding up the line;

and I, I'm exhausted.

After wearing rollerblades
for five straight hours,

I had to rollerblade home

three miles, uphill,

in the snow.

(Laughter)

Okay, now this is
the audience-participation portion

of my talk.

What do you think it feels like to have
the world's dumbest business idea?

What do you think
it feels like in your body?

What do you guys think?

Audience: Sad.

Sad.

You're nauseous.

You're embarrassed,

like you don't even want
to go work the next day.

Yeah, that's what you think it feels like,

but it actually feels
just like the world's best business idea

right up until the moment
that reality smacks you in the face

and tells you otherwise.

So this big point, this big difference
of not understanding

that your ideas could feel really amazing
but actually be quite awful,

I didn't understand that
until I made a much, much bigger mistake.

So let's fast forward
to about five years ago.

I'm this eager 29-year-old entrepreneur
with a number of successes under my belt,

enough to have 250,000 dollars to invest.

Pretty good.

Now, did I put it away for a rainy day?

No, entrepreneurs don't do that.

Did I buy a fleet of Teslas
for my company?

Entrepreneurs do that, but I didn't.

Did I hire a marching band
to follow me around

everywhere I went for a year?

No, but that would have been
an amazing way

to start today's presentation.

No, it's actually a really funny story.

I took all that money,

and I invested it
in a young startup called Facebook.

And over the last five years,
I’ve actually grown my money

like a thousand times.

Yeah, that actually did not happen either.

(Laughter)

I wish.

No, what I did was I used the money

to build software for lawyers
and their clients, legal software.

And I would have been way better off
not just investing in Facebook stock

but hiring the marching band
because I lost all that money;

it was another one of those ideas
that felt really good at the time

but turned out to be
a terrible business idea,

and I didn't realize it
until all the money had been spent.

Now, legal software is kind of difficult
to explain in a 10-minute talk

so I wanted to come up
with an equally bad analogous product

so we just had something
that we mutually understood

was kind of like the product I created.

So let's just assume for the sake
of this talk that what I invented

was the poo trap of legal software, okay?

(Laughter)

So yeah, I, Diana Kander,
created the SNM-looking,

"never have to pick up after your dog

but none of your friends or neighbors
will make eye contact with you

while your dog is wearing it"

poo trap of legal software.

Now do I have to take it off the screen
so you guys will listen? Okay.

So ...

the problem that I had made
was I misunderstood invention

for innovation.

You see, here's the key difference.

Invention is when you come up
with a brand-new idea

but nobody cares.

It doesn't actually
provide value for anybody.

It could actually cause havoc for people.

And innovation is where you
come up with a new idea,

and it actually creates value
for your intended audience.

That's the key difference:

whether or not your big idea
is actually valuable for your customers.

And the thing is, you can't decide;

only your customers can tell you.

And while the poo trap
of legal software was a novel idea

and had never existed before,

it provided about as much value
as - well - the actual poo trap.

It was a Frankenstein-level invention

that the world didn't want.

My customers didn't think

that it was worth
their time or money to use.

And this difference
between invention and innovation

and whether or not
what it is that you're doing

is actually creating value,

it doesn't just haunt entrepreneurs;

it affects all of us
in our jobs every single day.

Let me explain.

At work, we confuse doing stuff,

doing our best at the tasks
we've been assigned -

that's invention -

with actually creating value
for the company where we work -

that's innovation.

So about two months ago,
I conducted a study

where I asked over 1,000
business owners and managers

how many of their employees
were irreplaceable.

An irreplaceable employee
is somebody who's so valuable

that no matter what happens
to the business, to the economy,

they're the absolute last person
you would ever want to let go.

They're like the Chewbacca
to your Han Solo,

the Mr. Smithers to your Mr. Burns.

Pretty important.

And these managers,

they talked about irreplaceable employees

as people who created value
outside their job description.

They didn't actually talk about people
who were incredible at their actual jobs;

they talked about what they did
above and beyond:

how they constantly found
new opportunities for the business,

how they created efficiency

and solve problems
that other people didn't notice.

They talked about these employees

as having this entrepreneurial mindset,

like they saw their work as a product
and their company as their customer,

and they were constantly checking

to see whether what they
were creating was of value

or whether they needed to adjust it.

So ...

think about that for a second.

We all know that company
you currently work for

needs to change to stay relevant.

They do.

Well, the same is true for your job.

In order to make it relevant
on an ongoing basis,

in order to become irreplaceable,

we have to innovate our work
and what it is that we do.

My research shows

that if you want to make this transition

from being a liability
on the payroll books

to actually being an asset,

then you need to transition your thinking

from just showing up to work every day

and going down your to-do list,
of what it is that you have to do,

to actually thinking strategically

about what you should be doing, right?

You need to go from playing defense
with your to-do list

to playing offense
on how to create value.

So it's great to talk about it,
but how do you actually do it?

Well, I have a few suggestions.

I think you should spend
at least 15 minutes each week

thinking about one of three things:

innovating yourself, innovating your job,
and innovating your company, okay?

Let me give you some examples.

So if you're thinking
about innovating yourself

as a way to create more value
for the company,

why don't you make a list of 10 reasons
you should be fired today?

I know, we don't spend much time
thinking about this topic,

but think about it.

That list is like a blueprint
for how you could create

new value for your company.

Next, think about how to create
new value by changing your job.

Think about 10 ways you could change
what you do at work every day

to save yourself five hours per week.

We've all got efficiencies,

but we don't spend enough time
thinking about them.

And finally,

think about how to create new value
by innovating your company.

Why don't you make a list

of 10 different things
your department could do

to engage the employees

and then maybe offer to lead
one of those initiatives.

These are incredible ways
to create value for your organization

and become one of those
irreplaceable employees,

but the list I've given you
is just three suggestions.

The reality is

there are hundreds
of questions you can ask

in each one of these categories.

The trick is to turn it into a habit.

The trick is to go from going down
your to-do list every day

to thinking about
what you should be doing,

like, Should you be going
to all those meetings?

No.

Is this project the absolute
best use of your time

or is there something on your wish list

that you think could create
even more value to the organization?

I've come a long way

to deciding to wear
rollerblades to work at Sonic

and coming up with a poo trap
of legal software,

and it's all because I stopped inventing
and started innovating.

This focus on creating value
has allowed me

to not only get over my big failure

but write a New York Times bestseller,
start and sell a company,

and become an innovation consultant
to Fortune 1000 companies.

It's been an incredible journey
but it doesn't just have to be my story.

I implore you

to take off the metaphorical rollerblades

and stop asking yourself,

Am I doing a good job?

Am I working hard at the things
they've asked me to do?

And instead, ask, Am I creating value?

Thank you.

(Applause)