Panel, Fireside Chat
Building a Culture of Innovation
- Hyatt plans to hardwire innovation into its culture via design thinking training for 90,000 colleagues and senior leadership, utilizing nine global "lab hotels" to test processes and launching a "women's experience" initiative based on insights gained.
- Hyatt expects to achieve growth at C-suite and Senior Vice President levels, while facing continued challenges with women reaching General Manager roles; the company intends to address family-related obstacles and industry barriers through 36 "Women at Hyatt" chapters, mentorship programs, and spotlighting successful female mothers in leadership.
- Hyatt will utilize storytelling, empathy interviews, and an innovation award to recognize scalable successes and remind staff of the necessity of empathy, aiming to avoid becoming a commodity by continuously redesigning guest rooms and teaching design thinking.
- Robert Keegan predicts that Deliberately Developmental Organizations (DDOs) must shift from a performance culture to a "spirit of practicing," where employees openly answer questions about personal weaknesses and are paid to work on self-improvement.
- Future hiring in innovative organizations will require significant time and investment to assess cultural fit, target candidates willing to "feast on their weaknesses," and serve as an educational experience even for those not hired.
- Keegan warns that companies that only pursue innovation for conventional business success or fail to manage the "second job" of impression management will lag in adult development science and struggle to become naturally innovative.
- Gulfstream intends to maintain an innovative spirit by investing in supersonic technology despite lacking a formal program, with payoff timelines extending decades into the future.
- Gulfstream plans to diversify its global workforce by hiring from local areas in Southeast Georgia and international locations, while engaging customers twice annually as sounding boards to ensure reliability and avoid innovation mistakes.
- The Gulfstream strategy includes building an acoustics chamber, investing millions in employee-generated ideas, and fostering a culture where failure is viewed as a chance for improvement and risk-taking is encouraged.
- Both Hyatt and Gulfstream anticipate that internal movement opportunities, such as multi-city or multi-hotel arrangements, will allow employees to gain diverse experiences without relocation, while Gulfstream notes a loyal workforce with employees reaching 25 to 50-year anniversaries.