Influitive's management and leadership lessons for the lab

Management and Leadership in the Startup and the Labwith Mark Organ, CEO, Influitive@markorgan

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A Great Scientist

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J. Robert “Oppie” Oppenheimer

And a Legendary Leader

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What can startups teach experienced PIs??

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I’m a serial entrepreneur and lead a global team of 140 people at a Toronto based startup - InfluitiveInfluitive helps companies accelerate revenue by mobilizing their army of advocates.

A little bit about us

300+ customers

$50M+ Raised from top-tier

Investors

140+Employees around the

world

Experiments can be valuable when they disrupt markets!

How I Spent My Undergrad Years

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The Great Dr. Barrie Frost

Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

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Expectations ≠ Reality

What my parents think I do What my friends think I do What society thinks I do

What my boss thinks I do What I think I do What I actually do

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Do rats get depressed? Yes.And there is a cure for that.

Pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10599833

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I faced a crossroad of whether to stayin the lab or venture into the business world

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Ultimately I chose business because…

Part of the teamInnovation Leadership and guidance Reward

But also…..But also…

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The Startup as a Laboratory

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Startup = Fractal of Experiments

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Our worlds are not that different!

Amazing People Discovery Constant Learning Leadership is Crucial

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High Growth Startups = Leadership Innovation

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6 Startup Leadership Principles for Lab Success

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1. Start with WhyDeveloping Mission, Vision and Values

20 Concept from “Drive”, Daniel Pink

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He who has a WHY to livecan endure almost any HOW.

- F. Nietzche

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PeopleFocus Area of Projects

and Research

Behaviours and Practices

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MISSION (FOREVER)

Be the platform for advocacy, featuring the best possible experience for all participants, especially advocates

Unlock the full potential of advocacy, for advocates themselves and the organizations they supportVISION (5 YEAR)

We all inspire and lead

The only road is the high road

A company ofowners

Manage for complete personal success

Design our business for scale Blaze new trailsTeam productivity

over individual gloryOpen, honest and

direct

Continuous improvement

through learning

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2. Align Your OrganizationObjectives and Key Results

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Our alignment processes could use improvement

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OBJECTIVE

KEY OBJECTIVEKEY OBJECTIVE KEY OBJECTIVE

PLAN-------------------------------------- -------------------

PLAN---------------------------------------------------------

PLAN---------------------------------------------------------

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OKR Principles• Should Vertically and

Horizontally Align• Annual and quarterly• Measurable, Stretch

Goals• ≠ Compensation• Be Selective: 3-5• 0.67 is the target

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• Should Vertically and Horizontally Align

• Annual and quarterly• Measurable, Stretch

Goals• ≠ Compensation• Be Selective: 3-5• 0.67 is the target

OKR Principles

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3. Develop the ‘Whole Self’ at Work

The Management Cascade

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Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs Applied To Employee Engagement

IMPORTANCE

BELONGING

SECURITY

SURVIVAL

SELF-ACTUALIZATION

MOTIVATORS

DE-MOTIVATORS

1. Highly Engaged“Working here makes me feel completely fulfilled”

2. Engaged“I am very important here but I would leave for something more inspiring”

3. Almost Engaged“I like the job but there are no development opportunities here”

4. Not Engaged“I’m here just for the money”

5. Disengaged“I’m leaving when I can”

IMPORTANCE

Highly evolved organizations enable self-actualizationat work

2 and 3 have a direct impact on engagement and can be moved up by the 4 enablers of engagement

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1 Life Plan

2 Career Plan

3 Skill Plan

4 Tour & Platoon

The Cascade: Alignment of activities with life and career goals

PlatoonsTours

Opportunities, Experience, Empowerment

Time-delimited missions Self-organizing & X-departmental task forces

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Growth and Evolution through Tours

Chief of Staff VP Talent Head of Global Expansion

18 months 18 months

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Exposure, Experience, Enjoyment through Platoons

Corporate Social Responsibility

Global Employee Experience

Geographic Expansion

Customer Experience Process

Designing Physical Office Space

New Industry Verticals

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Rapidly growing innovators Very high levels of autonomy and empowerment

20% Time Policy Hootsuite Labs Holocracy

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4. Communicate Openly, Honestly, Directly

Transparency drives trust.Trust drives experience and results.

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Open, honest and direct

“We are transparent and authentic with each other, our customers and investors”

-Influitive Core Value

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Open, honest and directDoesn’t mean insulting

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5. Establish Meeting CadenceRegular, high quality meetings

with specific purposes and agendas

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I can’t think of any other place

I’d rather be

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Quality 1:1 Meetings … it’s THEIR meeting

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We bring the entire global company together – Daily!

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Leadership Meetings – Weekly, Quarterly, YearlyQ1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan

Strategy

Leadership Checkpoint

Full Team meetings

Leadership Off-site(Aug 10- 13)

Leadership Strategy Meeting

Q1 Results Checkpoint

Q2 Results Checkpoint

Q3 Results Checkpoint

Q2 Town Hall

Team All-hands/Off-site-

Q4 Town Hall

Board Off-site(Sept 18-20)

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6. Build an effective cultureLive the embodiment of your values.

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Start with Why Alignment Whole Self

Open, Honest, Direct Meeting Cadence Live your Values

In Summary…

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Thank You

@Markorgan