Michael Lee Stallard

The sun is shining here in New York City where I’m attending HSM’s World Innovation Forum as a designated blogger.

As readers of my blog know, I focus on the importance of human connection among management, employees and customers. Connection stimulates innovation.  And connection is omnipresent at this event. Yesterday morning, Stanford professor Paul Saffo, during his presentation on innovation, brought up issues I’ve written about that are related to connection. Near the end of his remarks Saffo stated that “leadership has never been more important.” He went on to recommended reading Hermann Hessee’s novel The Glass Bead Game and said that the servant leader in the novel is the type of leader who inspire others, the type of leader who is badly needed today in order for organizations to thrive. Leaders who connect through inspiration reflect the first element of a Connection Culture, i.e. the element of “Inspiring Identity” or “Vision” for short.

As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, Paul Saffo said it takes 20 years to move from idea to take off. That’s a long time to persevere. I’m certain that few entrepreneurs persevere for 20 years unless they’re supported socially and emotionally with connection from a group of family members and close friends. Connection has been shown to reduce stress hormones in the bloodstream and I can tell you from experience that starting a new business is stressful.  

Later in the afternoon, Dartmouth Professor Vijay Govidarajan touched on several issues related to connection. He noted the importance of accessing and mobilizing talent as critical factors to organizational success. Attracting, engaging and retaining talent requires creating a Connection Culture.  Govidarajan spoke of personalized co-created experiences. He noted that the “roof of the new house of innovation” is the “social architecture of the firm.” These points relate to connection too.

The head of marketing at Glaxo Smith Kline spoke about the need to develop emotional connections with clients.

The chief technology officer of Cisco described the “cross-company councils ” that stimulate collaboration.

The aspect of connection I most enjoyed at the conference was being a part of small group of designated bloggers. George Levy, eBusiness director at HSM Americas, connected the bloggers in a “World Innovation Forum Bloggers” group on LinkedIn. We bloggers sat together in special seating areas. Pitney Bowes treated the group to lunch yesterday.  The result was that new friends were made, new connections that I will enjoy in the years ahead.

Although connection was not the star of HSM’s World Innovation Forum, it was very much present.