The Best Team Wins by Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton

Author:Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

FOUR

CHALLENGE EVERYTHING

Inspire Innovation Through Healthy Discord

A survey of Bell Helicopter’s customers showed the company’s copters were seen as reliable and safe, but not particularly innovative. If people knew the Bell name, they often associated it with the Hueys of the Vietnam War. New CEO Mitch Snyder wanted to break the eighty-year-old company out of its routine and habits, so within weeks of taking over as the company’s senior leader in 2015 he brought together an Innovation Team composed of engineers and paired them with graphic artists and creative designers, many of whom had worked in the video game or movie industry. The artists had backgrounds in creating out-of-this-world spaceships and military transports for digital storytelling, sci-fi movies, and video games, but had little idea about the technical requirements of flight. The engineers were used to creating helicopters that were safe and efficient but not particularly imaginative.

“It sounds like a simple idea, but it was anything but,” recalls Snyder. “We put the two teams together, and there was a lot of skepticism.”

Robert Hastings, the company’s chief of staff, sat in on some of the Innovation Team’s early meetings. He told us: “The designers would say, ‘What if the wings looked like this.’ And the engineers would say, ‘Nope.’ So the designers would try again, ‘How about if the wings looked like this?’ Engineers: ‘Nope. Won’t fly.’ It was like watching ping pong.”

Innovation team leader Scott Drennan recalls teasing the designers that they “were giving us the Buck Rodgers or Battlestar Galactica treatment.”

But Snyder wasn’t about to give up. “We moved them all together in one room, full time.” And he set some ground rules. “We created a safe area. I know it’s basic, but we made the debate open. We said there were no stupid ideas; you can throw anything out.” The team was told that they were expected to respond to all ideas, no matter how seemingly crazy or uninformed, respectfully. “The rule was: No one laughs or criticizes, and you must find a way to accept at least part of any idea,” he said.

Team meetings were fierce. The CEO recalls, “I would go into some of their working rooms and they’d say, ‘We think it’s better if you leave.’ Tensions were that high. But I’d go by one of our restaurants later that afternoon and they were all in there having lunch together. Fire in the trenches makes people tighter.”

Said engineer Drennan, “I knew it was working when all those ‘That’ll never works’ turned into this quiet little whisper in the corner that said, ‘You know, that might work.’ ”

The revolutionary ideas that emerged from this team will serve as “a roadmap for the future of rotary flight,” according to an article in one industry publication. Snyder is more than a little proud of that reviewer’s headline: “What if Lamborghini and Tesla designed a helicopter.”

In addition, the openness and collaboration have allowed team members to learn an extraordinary amount from one another. The CEO said, “The designers have learned more

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