IN THIS ISSUE:

• Letter From Sarah
• Feature Article - Creating a Flat Organization
• Out of the Box
• Events and Resources
• About Sarah Caldicott

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Dear Innovator,

I’ve been captivated these past 10 days by the mind-bending accomplishments of Team U.S.A. swimmer Michael Phelps.  It must be an extraordinary feeling for Phelps to wake up every morning, realizing he is the most decorated athlete in Olympic history!

One key to Phelps' success - in addition to his born-for-the-water physique and Speedo LZR Racer bodysuit - is his "flat" butterfly stroke. Several commentators have noted how efficiently he lifts his head to breathe without ever bringing his torso above the waterline.  This "flat" stroke allows Phelps to cycle his arms faster and with less effort than his competitors.

In this issue you'll read about why "flatness" wins in the 21st century.  Included are three "flattening" tools Edison used to keep his organizations innovating faster than his competitors. 

"The World Is Flat" author Thomas Friedman and business strategist Gary Hamel have both written about the virtues of flatness to add speed.  I hope you'll find a few gems you can use to bring "flat thinking" to your organization - in world record time!

To your innovation success,

PS: Please share this newsletter with a co-worker or a friend!

Feature Article - Edison's Notebook: Creating a Flat Organization

(click here to view past newsletter issues)

Three decades before I read Thomas Friedman's classic "The World is Flat," or learned that Gary Hamel's recent book "The Future of Management" heralded the benefits of flat organizations, I read "Sail It Flat" by avid sailor Larry Lewis.  "Sail It Flat" is a sailing primer built around a counterintuitive principle: you can win more races by keeping the hull of your boat flat on the water rather than allowing it to heel over to one side.  In other words, the flatter you sail your boat, the faster you'll move.

Before reading Lewis's manual, the prevailing wisdom was that "hiking out" to balance the pull of the wind in the sail was the best strategy to achieve speed.  But not so, according to Lewis's studies.

At age 15, I was still learning to race small sailboats - and trying to beat the hunky 18-year old guys who also raced.  That summer in the mid-70's when "Sail It Flat" became the rage, my best friend Lucy and I both read it, and won two races - beating seasoned competitors several years older than us.  They weren't happy, but we were!

Edison's Organizations Were Flat

All these years later, the message that "keeping things flat allows you to move faster" has become a key part of my business radar.  It was thus all the more extraordinary that I noticed the flat structure of Edison's organizations during my research at Rutgers several years ago. 

Although the innovation culture Edison fostered nurtured creativity and breakthrough thinking, Edison also loved order and speed.  He did have multiple pay grades, but worked hard to avoid designing overly-layered structures that would cause thousands of employees working in any of his 150+ organizations to slow down unnecessarily.  He used several tools to help him carve communication pathways that engaged employees, motivating them to contribute their ideas while also moving forward quickly.  Integrating these tools today can offer your organization a balance between the power of creativity to build competitive advantage, and moving with speed.

Here are three tools that will help you build an organization that feels flatter and "thinks" flatter, taken from Edison Innovation Competency #2 (Kaleidoscopic Thinking) and #4 (Master-mind Collaboration):

1. Express Ideas Visually: Edison used hand-drawn images as well as 3-dimensional prototypes to advance his thinking.  These tools helped him not only visualize what a final product might look like, it aided him in parsing out assignments to his teams.  By using visuals to show each team which aspect of the design he wanted them to focus on, he allowed them to see the whole and its parts, opening up their imagination and engaging the right brain of each employee.  By using pictures rather than words, Edison cut across the language barriers in his lab - which was a melting pot composed of many cultures. The use of visuals allowed employees to feel they could contribute by drawing their ideas on paper, and not be held back by an inability to verbally express themselves.  Edison's focus on visual expression allowed teams to feel "flat" because every team member felt they could add to the success of any product's design.  
   
   
2. Design Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration Teams: Edison intentionally trained a cadre of 10 to 12 key employees who became his right hand executives.  These individuals understood Edison's ideation methods, his culture, and his experimentation techniques.  They were part of what I call Edison's "First Circle." First Circle members led all his innovation efforts.  Their teams were each staffed with "Second Circle" employees - individuals who had a mid-level of understanding of the innovation process, and who were still learning the ropes.  New employees sometimes also worked on these teams. 
   
   

Importantly, new hires with a high level of experience in a given industry weren't automatically placed in the First Circle.  This designation had to be earned over time.  But by exposing each team to First Circle leaders with a high-level of knowledge, Edison motivated people at all levels of his organization, allowing them feel they could contribute ideas from whatever position they held because they had a "line of sight" into the First Circle - and thereby the inner workings - of his operation.  By using the First Circle/Second Circle structure, Edison's teams felt flat.



3. Reward Collaboration:  Edison used both monetary and non-monetary incentives to reward his innovation teams.  Non-monetary rewards included the opportunity to attend his lunchtime lectures, as well as access to his 10,000 volume library at the West Orange laboratory - one of the top 5 largest libraries in the world at that time. 
   
   

But monetarily, he enabled promising employees to serve as internal contractors for projects that might otherwise go to more senior employees, or be outsourced.  This gave newer employees the opportunity to advance their pay grade while offering ideas that could be viewed by Edison himself. This practice encouraged "flatness" because employees realized they had a fair shot at speaking to directly Edison without going through a complex filtering process. A similar "flat" reward system is used at Google today, where co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin make themselves available for several hours each week to listen to ideas directly contributed by employees.

What You Can Do Starting Now

Consider placing a high priority on these methods in your own organization to build "flat-ness" into your structure and your thinking.  The flattening pressures of social networking and other forces are already impacting vertical structures of the Industrial Age, so give yourself a head start by:

1. Emphasizing the use of visuals at all your meetings - even weekly management sessions.  As I noted in last month's newsletter, "brevity wins," so keep the verbal part short!
   
   
2. Identifying who the First Circle employees are in your company, and find ways of giving them leadership responsibility for new initiatives.  Remember that First Circle members aren't always the Vice Presidents in your operation!  They can come from any level.
   
   
3. Motivating new hires - particularly from Generation Y - by giving them added responsibilities that offer extra salary or bonus perks.  This will help them move into the Second Circle faster, and motivate them to stay with your organization rather than skipping to another organization.

In the next issue:  The Innovation Power of Play

Out of the Box

When Edison and his teams achieved an important milestone at the Menlo Park laboratory, Edison would take all his employees to a nearby water hole for an afternoon of fishing.  Spending time with rod and reel genuinely relaxed Edison. 

And although he enjoyed competing to see who could catch the biggest fish, just as often Edison fished with a baitless hook.  That's right...no worm, just a bald hook hanging in the water.  He did this to ramp down his mind, and lose himself in the quiet lapping of the waves.

Events and Resources

About Sarah Caldicott

Sarah Miller Caldicott is a great grandniece of Thomas Edison, a 20-year marketing veteran, and co-author of "Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor." She has assembled teams of highly experienced consultants and trainers to assist her in bringing Edison's Five Competencies of Innovation™ to organizations of all sizes. Sarah and her teams are capable of addressing business challenges from a diverse array of industries, in either a business-to-consumer or business-to-business environment.

Sarah is a dynamic and award-winning speaker, whose engaging style combines substantive business content with humor. Her invaluable experience offers an ideal resource for organizations seeking innovation success in today's rapidly integrating global marketplace.

Born and raised in the Midwest, Sarah received a BA from Wellesley College, where she was named a Wellesley College Scholar. She also holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Sarah resides in Oak Park, Illinois, and has two teenage boys, Nicholas and Connor. For additional information on Sarah, click here.

©2008 by Sarah Miller Caldicott. All Rights Reserved.