R&D: What does it mean in your organization?

There are certain terms that businesspeople tend to throw around a lot. Terms that don’t really mean anything if you really think about:

“Synergy”
“Aha Moment”
“Paradigm”
“Thought leader”
“Strategic partnership”

Another one you hear a lot is “R&D”. It’s usually a generic term that I dislike, but we have been using it a lot around our office lately – not to mean research & development, but to mean something else: Rip off & Duplicate.

Now before you go calling a copyright lawyer on me, let me explain. This version of R&D is how the non-profit world works. There are no new ideas in non-profit organizations. Ideas are circulated around, finessed, finagled, and made to work for each different organization. These people have been recycled and recreating ideas, projects, and events for years.

I’ve been working on getting my “IOM” certification for several years. It’s a certification that doesn’t mean much to most businesses, but for Chambers of Commerce, it’s the Institute for Organization Management, and it’s kind of a big deal. Every year for 4 years, I spend a week at the Midwest site, which happens to be in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, with a class of about 30 other Chamber and Association professionals from all over the country. It’s a chance for us to share ideas, learn from one another, and gain knowledge to bring back to YOU, our members.

I have made some great connections through Institute, and I’m looking forward to returning this year for my 4^th and final year. But the best part of Institute has been the emails that our class circulates the other 51 weeks out of the year. We ask questions of each other; we ask for feedback; we share successes and commiserate losses. Ideas get tossed around, and everyone weighs in on what they have done that worked and what didn’t work for them. When our staff first started talking about putting on Savor the Flavor of Waukesha County last year, I went to this group of friends and colleagues and I got some great suggestions, feedback and advice.

I’m attending an event in a couple of weeks that another large Chamber of Commerce in the area is presenting. I called their events manager to make sure it was ok with her. Her answer: “Of course! You know you never have to ask to attend any of our events!” The event they are doing is one that I’ve considered presenting for our members, but I want to see how they do it first. She even told me that if I want to get together with her afterwards, she would love to sit down with me and talk about what has worked for them in the past.

Her attitude really encouraged me. She knows that I’m coming to check it out and see if it would work for our members. Even though we have a lot of mutual members, she welcomed me, knowing that there are no new ideas in this field.

What about in your field? Do you work for an organization that is the trendsetter, constantly coming up with brand new ideas and new ways of doing things?

Not to be critical, but I kind of doubt it… I would be willing to bet that you do your own version of R&D every day!!

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PS – I mentioned Savor the Flavor of Waukesha County. There are still tickets available, but they are going fast! Don’t miss out on this food tasting event, unique to Waukesha County (but not completely unique!) Click here to see the participating food vendors and sponsors, as well as to buy your tickets!

Also: Visit www.unsuck-it.com to learn ways to get rid of that pesky business jargon!)

Practical Environmentalism: What does that mean?

When we first started planning our most recent Manufacturing Alliance event called “Practical Environmentalism” I knew it was going to be a good one.  Environmentalism is a hot topic right now, as we all know.  It’s a buzz word.  It’s a catchy phrase and many companies are trying to pass themselves off as environmentally conscious because they have recycling bins in the front office or they planted a couple of trees out front.

Our three panelists at the event on Tuesday were real champions for the environment.  They represented three members who truly understand what “going green” means.  They don’t do it because it’s cool or catchy or earns them rewards.  They do it because it’s good for the environment and it’s good for business.

Joel Quadracci, chairman, president & CEO of Quad/Graphics, started the meeting by greeting attendees and sharing with them about the sustainability journey Quad/Graphics has been on, then he introduced Paul Oswald, President of Environmental Systems, Inc., who served as moderator for the panel.  Environmental Systems, Inc. provides building systems solutions to help clients save energy and improve building performance.

Eric Van Den Heuvel shared how his company, Dean Foods/Golden Guernsey Dairy, studied their water usage over a normal week.  Realizing opportunities for improvement, his employees had ideas about recycling clean water and reducing the amount of water and detergent used to lubricate machinery.  They also fixed one of three HTST machines (don’t quote me, but I think it has something to do with the pasteurization process!) so that it now uses the same amount of water as the other two.  They made a couple of simple changes and were able to reduce their water consumption by 250,000 gallons!

Next was Todd Stair, chair of Wisconsin Water Conservation Coalition, who spoke about the potential for water shortages in the near future, and the importance of conserving water to save electricity.

Finally, Joe Muehlbach focused on Quad/Graphics’ initiatives.  Because Quad partners with many environmental organizations such as Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, and The Nature Conservancy, they have long seen the need to be environmentally conscious.  Quad/Graphics’ average output is 2000 pages printed per gallon of water used.  At a different facility, that number has reached as high at 6000 pages printed per gallon of water.

Anyway, these three panelists really inspired me.  I’ve been known as the “staff tree hugger” for a while.  I’m the one who brought in a recycling bin for my office because I knew that I would have a lot of recyclable things, and without a separate bin, that stuff would just go into the trash, and I’m not ok with that.

I recently told our staff that we should stop using Styrofoam cups in the conference room.  Instead we have a collection of mugs with our members’ logos on them.  Now when we have meetings in our conference room, we are being environmentally conscious, AND we are promoting our members!

I’m serious about this.  We need to all think about the impact we are having by simple things like cups in the conference room and scraps of paper in the trash instead of the recycling bins!  It doesn’t have to be huge steps like reducing our water consumption by 250,000 gallons (although that would be great!), but it’s the small steps that will make a difference!  That’s what the event was about: Practical Environmentalism.

If you would like a copy of the PowerPoint presentation or the program from Tuesday’s event, email mbaer@waukesha.org.

Here is a link to the article from yesterday’s Freeman about the event: Waukesha Freeman: Practical Environmentalism

Now get out there and RECYCLE!!