Pathways to growth: the culture and the individual

Innovation. Culture. Growth hacking. These words are thrown around mindlessly by businesses hoping to sound like they know what they’re talking about.  

Instead, these words have lost all meaning. Well, near enough. Companies have used them to replace real  cultural change. What we need is to match these words with action. 

Microsoft are getting it right. Instead of aimlessly stuffing buzzwords into every conversation, they’re building the infrastructure that facilitates more innovation, and tangible growth.  

During the summer, I spoke with Linda Thackeray, senior director of Microsoft’s The Garage for Dublin Tech Talks. We discussed the need for action – not just conversation, policy, or press statements – around building a more collaborative team of inventors. These changes need to happen on two levels; the company and the individual.  

There’s no magical formula or training technique that’s going to make your business more innovative. But the solution isn’t complicated. As Linda puts it, you just need to build more stuff.  

The Culture 

So, you want to build a company of inventors, who know how to collaborate and contribute the growth of your business. Join the club. 

Or instead, start the club. Business leaders have a responsibility to facilitate the culture they want to see. One way Microsoft does this is through their yearly hackathons.  

Microsoft hackathons are unique because there aren’t any rules. Senior leaders come down for some face-to-face time with the entrants, too. It’s an opportunity for employees to get out of their day job, take an idea they’re passionate about, and move it forward.  

Previous winning ideas include the Xbox adaptive controller that makes gaming more accessible for people with disabilities. 

Projects don’t have to be linked to work, but employees still learn about growth mindset, embracing challenge, and moving on from failure. All of this contributes to the spirit of collaboration. People are talking, designing, and creating without boundaries, from all corners of the organisation.  

If you want a culture that thrives at creating great stuff, you as a leader, need to create to build an environment where your teams can do that. Shift focus away from the day to day job and bring your people together to cocreate and experiment without consequences.  

Culture will stay a buzzword unless employers make structural changes to the business, and continuously implement programs where employees can exercise their creative muscle.  

The Individual 

Linda has been with Microsoft since 1998. Majoring in political science, she’s often asked if someone without a tech degree can be successful in the industry.  She has six tips for individuals who want to make it in the industry.  

First of all, you need to take ownership of your career. Embrace success, and failure. Think on a systems level and learn who the influencers are in your team.  

Leverage your strengths and embrace what makes you unique. It’s cheesy, but there’s a reason you were hired in the first place. If you’re not showing off what you can do, someone else will be.  

Your technical knowledge will only take you so far. Develop the soft skills that help elevate your technical ability. Things like empathy, integrity, communication, and team orientation will help you progress through the business.  

Take risks. One way Microsoft is making their employees feel safe to fail is through informationals, where workers can schedule a slot with someone to find out more about their role and whether it’s something they want to do. Employees need to take risks in order to grow, and employers need constructive ways to support risk taking.  

Employees can get an informational for any position – it doesn’t need to be connected to their current job. Lateral movement is a powerful tool for self-development, just ask Linda (a political science grad).  

Connect with as many people as you can. In her early days Microsoft, Linda had a corporate VP who wanted everyone in his team to have at least 500 connections on LinkedIn. She couldn’t see the value of it at the time but has gone on to collaborate with many of the people she connected with.  

Last but not least, you need to stay curious. What’s relevant today is irrelevant by tomorrow. The more you can learn and engage with the things around you, the easier it will be to come up with fresh ideas.  

When Microsoft kicked off their yearly hack, the organisers originally thought prize winners would want money as their reward. They didn’t. They wanted time with the senior leadership team, and the executives. Now, winners get time with the executive who most closely aligns with their project, and who can help them move it forward.  

There’s something we can all take away from this. If you want to build a more “innovative��� culture (read: you want your people to make more good stuff), you need to give them your time, and plenty of space to do so.