Innovation Visit

As part of a Change Leadership program that I am in for work, we visited Silicon Valley in California a few weeks back. We went to see LinkedIn, The Institute for the Future and Electronic Arts. My last two employers have been 200-year old insurance companies, so Silicon Valley companies are very different than what I am used to. They offered free meals and snacks, sleeping areas, bikes for their campus, onsite crossfit locations and even a music studio.

As we learned about these companies and discussed their values, we heard very common themes…

• Focus on the customers…which means know them as individuals
• Team members feel a sense of purpose in their organizations

These themes make a lot of sense that these companies focus on their customers and have passionate employees which is probably a good receipe for success regardless of being in Silicon Valley or a 200 year old company. This was a very insightful visit and now I just need to convince my management that we need a music studio so I can perfect my guitar skills at work.