Innovation: The Art of Being Wrong

Stefana Saxton

Summary:

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So, your company wants to be innovative. Are you comfortable with failure? The word failure is littered with negative connotations. Elon Musk financed three failed SpaceX rocket launches. Edison designed more than 2,000 light bulbs that did not work. The Wright brothers crashed dozens of planes and gliders before one took off. And the Americas were discovered through failed circumnavigation. Some failed small and learned. And some failed big but survived and thrived. The lesson is that organizations must embrace failure to accelerate innovation. Join Stefana Saxton to learn how to create freedom from the fear of failure using adaptive analytical perspectives that encourage ideas and discovery. She will show you how to keep your organization innovative and successful by creating a culture of passion, drive, and ambition in the midst of failure. You’ll also learn practical and applicable ways to create a safe environment for innovation in your workplace while being able to identify what types of failures are acceptable. You’ll leave with the ideas and tools to design your future mindset for growth to sustain a culture of innovation.

Presenter Bio:

Stefana Saxton serves as a Business Excellence Innovation Leader for Business Excellence (BEx®) at Black & Veatch, where she works with internal and external clients to identify, prioritize, and execute mission-critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, its business partners, and clients globally. She has worked with clients in health care, finance, engineering, programs, operations, information technology, manufacturing, and development. Prior to her current role, Saxton held leadership positions in Department of Defense (Alliant Techsystems), aerospace (Ultrax Aerospace), Department of Energy (Honeywell FM&T), and telecommunications consulting (Akinnovate). She holds Bachelor Degrees in Electrical Engineering and Music, and a Master in Business Administration. She is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Project Management Professional (PMP) and has supported STEM activities as a FIRST FLL robotics coach since 2009.