“At Intuit, it’s everyone’s job to innovate.” This comment about Intuit from Glassdoor describes the culture of innovation I experienced a few weeks ago at Intuit in San Diego perfectly. During my visit to Intuit last week for their Customer Experience Meetup, I was amazed at the sense of psychological safety there that fostered a hearty exchange of feedback during nearly every word spoken at this 2.5 hour Design Critique event.
The point of this free monthly public event I attended was for a local growing company to receive expert advice from anyone interested in interaction design, usability, visual design, and prototyping. Audience members, especially one who fits the target audience profile, review the customer interactions in terms of the business’s target goal. The end result is a list of ways to enhance how to determine, develop, and deliver the customer experience for increased revenue and decreased cost.
What I learned was how important it is to develop a mindset where critique can be received as neutral and even helpful information so that the recipient can grow faster. I’d heard the platitude, “Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions” before, but it wasn’t until I visited Intuit that I actually experienced what an organizational culture of innovation felt like.
A culture of innovation is an open mindset where vulnerability is valued.
Even the 3-year regular facilitator of the event said that night, in particular, was full of active responders who had an inexhaustible amount of critique for this new company. For the organization presenting that night who might not be used a culture of innovation – in this case, receiving a firehose of negative critique for 150 minutes straight, the response could have been devastating, leaving recipients feeling overwhelmed with negativity.
But Intuit supported the process and the presenters so that they felt safe and resilient to use the critique as information to move forward with. But Intuit gets it- they have managed to create, even for the public, a realm where critical feedback is viewed as highly valuable information to build off of, to become better with.
What does it take for an organization to create a high-performance innovation culture? Ziksana has some starting points for you. We provide Appreciative Listening and Creativity & Innovation workshops to activate your company culture so that your teams are more willing to take strategic risks and give and be willing to receive informal, constructive feedback often.
For those interested, Intuit’s CX SIG meets at 5:30 pm on the fourth Tuesday of each month at Intuit Inc., 7545 Torrey Santa Fe Road, San Diego, CA 92129.
Watch Ziksana’s Founder, Akshay Sateesh, provide an introduction to sparking creativity and innovation that Intuit values so highly!
