Words of Women, Part 3

Part 3: Innovation & Culture

September 22^nd marked the 37^th American Women’s Business Day, a celebration to honor, support and generally admire the women driving and thriving in business. The EverView family of companies is no stranger to amazing women making key strategic and tactical decisions that push an organization forward. In this blog series, we tap into those powerful minds, gaining insight on everything from the inspirational to the creative to the career advancing – and you can quote us on that!

How do you foster innovation in your team and in yourself?

• Terri Cunnion, Account Relationship Manager, Miria
  • As an Account Executive, I look for innovation in two ways: through our customers and through industry market trends.  Assisting Miria’s customers is job number one, we need to understand their business goals and challenges in order to deliver the best solutions.  By listening to our customers, and relaying it to the team, we can bring innovative solutions at the right time.  Additionally, in order to bring and drive our customer innovation and continued success, I keep an eye on market trends, economic indicators and industry analyses to inform and educate our customers on being competitive leaders in their space.  Personally, I pride myself in adapting and accepting change both professionally and personally. I find that keeps life interesting whether exploring a new city, its people and culture or learning about something new that can benefit our customers.
• Buffi Aguero, Creative Director, WhatCounts
  • To start, I pull inspiration from wherever I can find it. This includes anything and everything – from digital, to weird stuff like band flyers and book covers. Inspiration is the key to getting the creative wheels turning and exploring new directions. Next, I brainstorm with other people in my group to get unique perspectives. Someone invariably comes up with an idea or production method you hadn’t thought of. Lastly, I iterate. As creative professionals, we are trained to assess our work constantly and incorporate feedback from a variety of sources. This iteration is a huge advantage when it comes to fostering innovation, because projects are always evolving.

• Ashley Sherrow, Manager of Production Graphics, EverView
  • I believe it’s important for all businesses to engage creativity and innovation amongst their employees – it’s a vital piece of business success! Engaging my team is the first step to getting the creative juices flowing. Having an open dialogue tends to motivate my team and gives them the inspiration to keep going or try again. Encouragement can go a long way, which tends to result in creative solutions! As a manager, I make sure to take the time and really listen to my team. It’s important to understand their struggles or concerns and ask questions to engage the conversation. Good communication helps the team work together as a whole, as well as grow individual relationships. I find these thing are valuable to the accomplishments of your team and your business!
• Candice Scrivanich, Product Manager, EverView
  • I believe the two very important key concepts in the Product & Technology world are constant communication and encouraging evolution. My team is always working to improve existing products and create new ones, and I’m glad to be part of a team that has the courage and the ability to take calculated risks, always evaluating ideas and opportunities. We encourage communication and are constantly looking for insights and trends on how we are adapting industry standards, but also paving our way as innovators. Additionally, no product or industry can stay the same forever, so it is crucial to always iterate. We find that taking smaller steps always lead to larger breakthroughs.

How have you created an inclusive workplace culture?

• Dawn Mellas, Senior Vice President, Diamond
  • Empowerment and guidance are key factors to inclusivity.  An inclusive workplace culture starts by ensuring everyone has a voice, no matter what their title, gender or age may be. Encouraging employees to use their voice lets them know that they are an important part of the organization and that their opinions and ideas are valued. One-on-one mentoring is also a key factor, as it is important to guide individuals in positive and professional ways of communicating their ideas, respecting the ideas of others even if they contradict your own and how to appropriately react to disappointment when their ideas are not implemented.
• Chrystel Adams, Head of Client Services – Brand Deployment, Communisis
  • As a leader, I have always recognized and embraced the importance of diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the workplace, but also in the marketplace. In the most recent months, I took an active part in multiple high-profile events including the Paris Women’s Global Conference on Gender Diversity as well as the P&G Supplier Citizenship Summit on Diversity and Inclusion in Cincinnati. These activities have energized and inspired our own Communisis Gender Equality activity, allowing us to push harder and faster through the business. Combined with our own workshops and workstreams, we now have a thorough D&I strategy with steps which we will take us through 2019 and beyond and look forward to the positive impacts we anticipate it bringing to the business.

• Laura Sulak, Communication Coordinator, AppRev
  • An inclusive workplace culture results from deliberate effort. As Communication Coordinator at AppRev, I’m privileged to work closely with each of our teams, and I make an effort to include every team member, regardless of title or seniority. In order to develop a diverse point of view, it’s important to gain feedback from ALL members of the company, not just management and leadership. AppRev team members transform our day-to-day operations into a finished product we can be proud of, and their feedback is vital to our progress. I try to sincerely thank each person for their contribution. Without our teams’ efforts, communication and productivity simply wouldn’t exist. Inclusion involves recognizing, acknowledging and expressing gratitude to the women and men who make AppRev a success.

• Lucy Bradford, Project Manager, MDG
  • To me, the beauty of having diversity in the workplace is the power to create a talented and interesting work environment. Diversity sets us up for success. A diverse staff does not necessarily mean it is inclusive; however, promoting creative and innovative thinking from a diverse workplace creates an inclusive environment.  I am able to participate in meetings that are co-mingled with other staff members from different departments and am able to work in an environment with professionals who roll up their sleeves to make things happen.