[Music]
>> Brian Elms: Yeah. Innovation is a mindset.
Innovation is a mindset.
I hope you all saw this.
This is Stampy the Elephant.
 Remember, they have a magic wand.
Well, they also have Stampy the Elephant.
They believed that the process to hire and fill a
seat in this City and County of Denver was like
taking a bite of the elephant.
And they wanted to confront their elephant.
So, they built an elephant as
their production board.
Which, I still think is hil-ar-ious.
And every time they did something new or unique,
they would add a piece of the elephant to
demonstrate that it was getting done.
And they did this through crafting with felt
and I was dying laughing.
I was also not in the room because I don’t felt and craft.
But, I was –
[Laughter]
Thank you, it is my loss.
I – I’ll never forget this meeting.
I went down to the room and they were like,
“Hey, we want to build a production board.”
I was like, “Yeah, this is really cool.
What do you want to do?”
“Let’s do this like a teardrop or we could do
like a thermometer, like to prove that we’re
“accomplishing all of our goals.”
And they’re like, “No.
We’re going to build an elephant.”
And I’m like, “No, we’re not building
an elephant. I don’t know what to do.”
And they were dead set on making this elephant.
So, I left and left my artist there.
But, I was charged with finding felt.
Okay, I can find felt.
I’m a grown man.
[Laughter]
So, I actually knew where there was felt
because I knew that someone had it in a
supply closet that had never been inventoried.
So – that was a – a government inventory joke.
[Laughter]
Did you get it?
So, I stole all their felt because I knew it
had never been inventoried.
And I brought it down the room.
And this is what they created.
They put different pieces on Stampy the
Elephant to prove that they could actually
attack their biggest problem.
And they took a bite of this elephant,
so much so that I’m happy to tell you
they are at 47 days from posting to filling a position.
[Applause]
They have saved the City and County of
Denver over $1 million just by focusing on
this and taking a bite out of the elephant.
Took about a year-and-a-half for
them to get to this point.
But, they still continue to try to figure out
new ways to go after it.
Now, I had told you earlier that I wrote a
book about doing this type of work in a
municipal setting, in a government setting.
I encourage you to pick it up, even though
you may not read.
[Laughter]
Maybe it’s a good Christmas gift or a Hanukkah
gift for someone this year.
Don’t be afraid to – to pick it up.
But, I always want to end with
something that’s very real.
Everyone loves the concept of spreading innovation.
In fact, people talk about it, it’s like a new buzzword.
It’s like a new thing.
It’s the It phrase.
But, what it really means are long hours.
Confrontational meetings.
Angry emails.
The inevitable moments of self-doubt,
and no guarantee that you will be
thanked in the end.
That’s what real innovation looks like.
It’s not easy.
We don’t have quick wins.
There isn’t low-hanging fruit.
Those are buzzwords that consultants
say to make you feel better.
If it was easy, we would have done it before.
We have to take real risk and have massive
amount of courage to get it done.
You have to sit in a room with a magic wand and say,
“I have the courage to make this the
same as industry standard.”
“I have to have that courage.”
And we know that type of work is possible.
Remember, any time that you’re trying to innovate,
there’s always going to be a risk.
More than 50% of the innovations that I
worked on in the City and County of Denver failed.
More than 50% of the innovations I worked on failed.
Keep that in mind every time you want to
pull out that magic wand.
Thank you all for being here.
Before I leave, I want to say one quick thing.
We choose this work for a very specific reason.
We get to make someone’s livelihood better.
We get to help someone on their worst day.
We get to help a street reopen.
We get to help the waterway be better for our kids.
We get to fix the environment so
that people can breathe.
These are really cool jobs.
You have an amazing job.
Your job is to make that amazing job
even better every single day.
Take a little risk and get a magic wand.
Thank you for serving Washington.
