Getting innovators to 'fail fast' in the energy industry
May 28, 2024
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Kim Getgen, experienced in startups and tech innovation, discusses encouraging innovation and psychological safety within risk-averse sectors like utilities. She founded InnovationForce to guide innovators through a rigorous process for vetting new technologies. The podcast explores the importance of good rate design and preventing new decarbonization technologies from getting stuck in pilot purgatory.
Kim Getgen founded InnovationForce to promote workplace psychological safety for intrapreneurs in utilities.
She implemented the Hanger methodology to streamline innovation workflows and encourage 'failing fast'.
Deep dives
Kim Getchin's Journey from Silicon Valley to Founding Innovation Force
Kim Getchin, originally from Washington, D.C., transitioned to the booming dot com industry in San Francisco in 2000. After experiencing the dot com bubble burst, she launched her own cybersecurity company and ventured into the energy sector in 2011. Recognizing burnout in large organizations, she founded Innovation Force in 2021, focused on automating technology advances for energy companies.
Streamlining Innovation Processes with the Hanger Methodology
Kim Getchin implemented the Hanger methodology, inspired by an airport traffic control analogy, to streamline innovation workflows. Ideas are vetted by subject matter experts and ranked based on scoring, fostering a conducive environment for innovation within organizations. The Hanger process aids in selecting top ideas for test flights and maintaining a use case library for reference.
Fostering Psychological Safety and Innovation in the Utility Industry
Kim emphasizes the importance of psychological safety in engineering-driven cultures to encourage learning and agility in innovation. By promoting a culture of 'failing fast' and focusing on learning rather than fear of failure, innovation can thrive. She addresses barriers like pilot purgatory and emphasizes creating safe spaces for debate to drive successful innovation in the utility sector.
Kim Getgen moved to Silicon Valley from Washington D.C. in 2000, just in time for the dot com bubble burst. Despite her timing, she fell hard for the excitement and opportunity of startups and technology innovation.
Kim launched and worked at many startups, but also took roles in larger organizations where she gravitated toward “intrapreneurship.” But after suffering burnout four years ago, she started thinking about ways to encourage innovation among intrapreneurs in risk-averse sectors like utilities.
In 2021 she founded InnovationForce to guide innovators, and their teams, through a repeatable, rigorous, and democratic process for vetting and testing new technologies. Kim’s goals are to promote workplace psychological safety for intrapreneurs and to help utilities keep new decarbonization technologies out of pilot purgatory.
On June 13th, Latitude Media and GridX will host a Frontier Forum to examine the importance of good rate design – and the consequences of getting it wrong. Register at latitudemedia.com/events. See you there!
This podcast is produced by GridX in partnership with Latitude Studios. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.
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