Midnight Lunch: How Context and

Coherence Propelled Edison's

Collaboration Success

Sarah Miller Caldicott CEO, Power Patterns of Innovation Great grandniece of Thomas Edison Books: Innovate Like Edison Inventing the Future Midnight Lunch

© 2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

© 2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

America’s Greatest Innovator,

Thomas Edison: 1847-1931

© 2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

Miller/Edison Heritage

Robert Anderson Miller

Mina Miller Edison

Lewis Miller

© 2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

Researching Edison’s Life and Work

The Edison Papers Archives at Rutgers University

© 2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

Midnight Lunch

Edison Built New Markets

Pioneered 6 industries, billions in market value

Document duplication (1873) Telecommunications (1876) Recorded sound (1877) Electrical power (1879) The Movies (1893) Storage Battery (1903)

Without Collaboration, Innovation Stalls

Today’s Conversation

• Shifts in global environment

• Why collaboration is crucial

• The power of context

• Creating coherent teams

New Book: Midnight Lunch (Wiley)

Learn how to collaborate in 21st Century How did Thomas Edison develop winning innovation teams? What new skills would Edison advocate for the digital age?

Midnight Lunch

in Jan ‘13 edition

of Fast Company!

bit.ly/VY7GkP Book

bit.ly/TlUz9r Article

World Innovation Forum

Changes in global playing field for business

• C.K. Prahalad: “Global Reset” (2009)

• Familiar business models shifting

– Media, Finance, Energy, Retail

• Merging of strategy, innovation,

value creation

• New ability of organizations to create with customers

• “Anticipate and create” vs. “Sense and respond”

Trends Propelling Collaboration

Collaboration central to staying relevant

• Rishad Tobaccowala - VivaKi

- Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer

1. Staying relevant

2. Innovating

3. Attracting and retaining talent

• Collaboration essential to all 3

• Edison’s use of flat teams to

power collaboration can help us today

Trends Propelling Collaboration

Shifts in composition of the global workforce

• 1 billion working age adults: 2020

- Gen Y to dominate: 2025

• Proliferation of smart devices:

- > 5 billion mobile phones globally

- Desire to “be connected”

• Virtual teams increasingly popular

- 40% now in virtual teams (Forrester, 2012)

- 56% in three years

• Organizational hierarchies flattening

Edison’s 4 Phases of True Collaboration™

Collaboration powered Edison’s innovation success

• Phase 1: Capacity

• Phase 2: Context (TODAY)

• Phase 3: Coherence (TODAY)

• Phase 4: Complexity

© 2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

Edison Saw Collaboration As…

Applying discovery learning

within a context of complexity,

inspired by a common goal or a

shared purpose.

© 2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

Collaboration vs. Teamwork

Collaboration and teamwork are NOT the same

“Collaboration is not the same thing as

teamwork. Teamwork is simply doing

your part. Collaboration involves leveraging

the power of every individual to bring out

each other’s strengths and differences.”

- Greg Cox, President,

Dale Carnegie Training - Chicago

Phase 1: Capacity

Edison transformed employees into colleagues

• Ritual blending social,

scientific language

• Low “social distance”

• Midnight lunches

• Generated trust, deep exchange via small teams

• Without Phase 1, all the other three Phases are harder

Phase 2: Context

Solutions Through Discovery Learning vs. Tasks

• Activate the brain’s “creating centers”

• Solo Meld:

- Reading, analogical thinking,

preliminary questions

“Are light and electricity related?”

• Mental models and flawed thinking

• Examining “how you think” (Peter Senge)

Solo Meld

Evaluate your mental model first

• Failure: electronic vote recorder

• Edison re-evaluated his thinking:

1. I am seeking utility

2. I will address needs

3. I am seeking radical solutions

4. I desire creative freedom

5. I am open to discovering new phenomena

Group Meld: Questions & Dialogue

Form master questions – not problem statements

Casual team dialogue engages creating

centers of the brain

- “How do substances burn?”

- “How does the eye perceive motion?”

- “How can I capture sound so it can be

replayed again and again?”

Form Hypotheses

Context allows creation from future states

Explore master question by forming

hypotheses: if/then statements

- If we could minimize…then…

- If it would be possible to… then…

- If we could increase the amount

of … then …

- “If I can mechanically capture sound, then I can create

a commercial market”

© 2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

Edison’s Botanic Laboratory - Ft. Myers, FL

Edison Valued Experimentation

Context emerges when solutions are still forming

• Don’t lock down too soon

• Platform of discovery, not tasks

• Dialogue: share outcomes, scenarios

• “No experiments are useless.”

- Thomas Edison

• Experimentation: common currency

Prototypes Embed Discovery Learning

Practice risk-taking, hands-on engagement

• Faster “learning cycles” by

combining experiments,

prototyping

• Iterating allows us to

“anticipate and create”

• Many prototypes possible:

• Notebooks

• Video

• Narrative

• 3D

Phase 3: Coherence

Diverse forms of leadership are essential • Inspirational leadership

- Different from “command and control”

“An inspirational leader anchors you at the starting point and at the ending point. The distance between those points feels long, it feels far. It feels impossible.” - Greg Cox, President Dale Carnegie, Chicago

Importance of Shoulder-to-Shoulder Leaders

Bridge knowledge assets within and across teams

• These leaders “emerge”

• Build innovation momentum within and across teams

• Catalysts: - Collegiality - Optimism - Expertise • Microcultures

- Microsoft Kinect - 3M - GRIT

Create a Culture of Progress

For Edison, diverse factors were linked to progress

Experimentation = Progress:

“The only way to keep ahead of the procession

is to experiment. If you don’t, the other fellow

will. When there’s no experimenting there’s

no progress. Stop experimenting and you

go backward.”

Today:

- Multi-generational workforce

- Diverse definitions of progress: title, pay, tenure, span-of-

control, “meaning”

How We Cognitively “Process” Progress

Progress links to purpose, the meaning of daily work

• “The Power of Small Wins”

- Theresa Amabile and Steve Kramer

• Consciously communicate progress

• Transparency crucial: Gen Y

- Not all the news has to be good

• Empowers shoulder-to-shoulder leaders

• EDISON ENABLED TEAMS TO OWN THEIR GOALS

Collaboration a Crucial Superskill

Foundations for Collaboration to Thrive

• Connecting small, diverse groups

• Create collegiality

• Develop new context: solo, group

• Experiments, questioning, hypotheses

• Coherence through common content

• Shoulder-to-shoulder leadership

• OWNING GOALS

Do a Team.Read™ of Midnight Lunch

Continue momentum - Edison’s Birthday Week • Do a Midnight Lunch Team.Read with your team or group

• LinkedIn groups • Project teams • Blog groups • “4 phases of collaboration in 4 weeks”

• Purchase copies of Midnight Lunch - www.powerpatterns.com/Books

• Receive a free Team.Read workbook and Midnight Lunch™ Kit!

©2007 - 2013 Sarah Miller Caldicott

Expand Your Network

Sarah Miller Caldicott

CEO, The Power Patterns of Innovation info@powerpatterns.com | www.powerpatterns.com

Twitter: @sarahcaldicott | LinkedIn: Sarah Caldicott

Facebook: Power Patterns of Innovation

Fast Company article: bit.ly/TlUz9r

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