Lessons from an inspiring weekend at Google, Stanford and Microsoft
In March of 2016, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to fly out to Silicon Valley for the University Innovation Fellows annual meet-up. 300 students from across North America came together for three days of engaging workshops around making our campuses more innovative and entrepreneurial.
Play is Important
Having fun is one of the best ways to create bonds. We learn when we play because our fear is reduced. We aren’t afraid to make mistakes when the environment is forgiving.
Don’t be afraid to be you
I came back to the University of Delaware ready to take a stand and fight for what I believe in. Do you want to be remembered as you, or someone who saw the future, but was too afraid to share their vision?
Every University has silos
All Universities have trouble encouraging collaboration between colleges. The best way to address this seems to be creating a space in which people can all own and identify with. This needs to be a place where all can explore their intellectual curiosity and learn from each other without fear.
Stop waiting!
People wait too long to do stuff. Don’t wait to learn a language. Don’t wait to enjoy nature. Don’t wait do the things you love!
Move fast (and break stuff)
This goes along with the advice above.
“Whether you launch in 5 days or a week, quality will be about the same.”
-Sebastian Thrun.
Proto/pretotyping
Think about how the user will use the thing before you even have a rough thing for them to use. Play pretend.
Don’t fail fast, learn fast!
Rather than failing, let’s prioritize learning in whatever way possible.
Space is important
It’s the body language of an organization. The space you are in encourages certain moods, thoughts and perspectives.
We think in pictures
So we should communicate in them more frequently.
Get up, move around, meet people
“There are no facts inside the building.” — Steve Blank
Speak in process language, not outcomes
Outcomes are intimidating. Anyone can follow a process. A process demystifies all the scary things about creativity and entrepreneurship.
Experts are experts in the past, not the future.
Experts told google they couldn’t build a self driving car, so they didn’t hire any experts when they started building one.
There many lessons beyond those listed, but those are the big one’s that stood out to me. I’m working to bring what I’ve learned back to my campus and share this new knowledge with my peers and other stakeholders. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
