Back
Skunk Works
A company’s ability to innovate—to tap the fresh value-creating ideas of its employees and those of its partners, customers, suppliers, and other parties beyond its own boundaries—is anything but easy.
I am sure we have all been in a position where we have met with the response, “It’s how we have ALWAYS done it around here. Why change it?” In most corporate cultures change is viewed as painful and problematic, and while innovation may be dabbled in, it is rarely viewed as attainable. So, how does a leader overcome the “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality that plagues many corporate environments? In my experience I have come to be certain of one simple truth: Opportunities for innovation can be found anywhere or created by anyone.
In my career I have had firsthand experience with leveraging unexpected and unconventional forces of change. I am reminded of the environmental and engineering consulting firm I had the privilege to work for. In my role as CFO, one of my responsibilities was to challenge the status quo. We were an organization that had begun to slip in the market. The driving force of the company was the people who held the technical skills; they were the engineers, environmental scientists, and architects. Many did not have the mind set to incorporate innovative behaviors into their daily routine. As an outsider looking in, you could see this was hindering our growth and profitability. Therefore, I knew it was going to be a challenge to bring fresh thinking into the field to produce the required work results. I knew that I was going to need help in order to bring the needed change and energy to the culture.
One day in my office it hit me - “Skunk works”! The designation "skunk works", or "skunkworks", is widely used in business to describe a group within an organization that is given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy. The group’s objective with any project is primarily for the sake of innovation. This term has a rich history. It was officially coined by Lockheed in the 1940s to describe their elite group of engineers working on designing top secret aircrafts for the war effort. Remarkably, the program was so successful in developing new aircrafts and prototypes that it is still in utilization today.
I thought a skunk works team was a perfect way to break our organization out of its lethargy. I hired six new college graduates. They had diverse academic backgrounds such as marketing, English, and biology. The group did not have any knowledge of the industry standards or structure.To ensure that they did not break any federal and state laws, a civil engineer was hired to manage them. However, he was given strict instruction to never impede their work, just keep them out of trouble.
The challenge presented to the young recruits was to build a faster process, with equal quality, for the company to turnout their assessments and testing done on job sites. Their only rule was that they were not allowed to base it on any current procedures. When the team was first introduced to the company, they were dismissed. No one paid attention to them or thought that they could enhance the company. I’m sure many thought, “What can these young professionals do differently than the firm’s highly skilled and experienced practitioners?” Six months into the project certain departments started to take interest. They saw the potential in the ideas being set forth from the group and actually supported implementing them. The “Skunks”, as the group dubbed themselves, brought not only marked improvement to the firm, but an energy that had not been seen in a long time.
This unlikely team became seen as a resource for the technical people, to help them “think outside the box.” Over time, the Skunks led a shift in the firm’s mentality from complacency with the traditional and established to progressive and forward thinking.
The point of my story is not to go out and build your own think-tank, but to be innovative around your resources. Who would have thought that a group of new graduates, people to whom the company and industry were completely foreign, could produce such beneficial ideas and improvement? What unlikely resources are you using in the workplace to drive innovation? I would love to hear about them.