 From Phoenix, Arizona, theCUBE at Catalyst Conference. Here's your host, Jeff Frick. Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We are on the ground in Phoenix, Arizona at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. About 400 people, fourth year of the conference are going to be back in the Bay Area next year. Really a lot of good things going on around the women in tech theme that we cover on theCUBE. So we wanted to come down, check it out our first time here. I'm sure we'll be back again. And we're excited by our next guest, Hilary Weber, the founder and CEO of Oper2. Welcome. Thank you. So what is Oper2? Oper2 is an unusual company. It is a coaching and consulting company that focuses on innovation. So I have two main audiences that I work with. So startups are one because startups are innovation in essence, but 95% of them fail. So we're trying to make sure that less of them fail. And we're focusing on sort of innovating their innovation by a culture focus. So is it kind of process of innovation, culture of innovation? It's both, but it's mainly, it's all around people. It's all around people. Yeah, and so not just startups struggle with innovation though, bigger companies struggle with it too. So what we're trying to do is kind of help startups act a little bit like bigger companies because that's what they're aspiring to be, but really preserving that wonderful culture that they usually have. And if they don't have a wonderful culture making sure we work on that right away. And then the bigger companies, as companies get bigger and bigger and bigger, they tend to lose their innovation edge. And it typically is rooted in culture as well. So we have some interesting tools that we work with. I've been partnering with UC Berkeley on some really cutting edge innovation tools, being able to actually measure a company's propensity for innovation, their capability to innovate. So it's brand new, right? So that's very exciting. So that's what we do. That's great. One of my all time favorite interviews was with the San Francisco Giants and we interviewed them specifically around the kale garden, which I don't know how much kale you eat, but they put the kale garden behind the center field wall where you can now go get a salad and they'll pick it off these hydroponic things growing all the lettuce. And it has nothing to do with baseball, but to me, it was a fascinating story on a culture of innovation. The Giants are really innovative. Bill Schlau over there, the CIO. And to me, it was, who came up with this idea, A, and then was able to get it through their organization to have the confidence to say it, to get it funded, and to actually get it implemented where now you can go stand at the Giants game and pick a piece of lettuce and they'll put it in a bowl, put some salad dressing and you're eating saladed. So what are some of the secrets of having a culture of innovation as opposed to just innovation in terms of making interesting things? Because it's really about the culture. Well, it is. And you mentioned the confidence word. Confidence is a big focus. A lot of people think that hiring millennials is going to solve their innovation problem. Maybe yes, maybe no. It's really the mix. It's how are these people collaborating? How free is that newest newbie to share an idea if you get in there and you realize this company operates by having ideas come from the top down. And I'm not gonna stick my neck out, right? And especially for women. And especially for women, since we're here at Girls in Tech, where they're by far the minority around the table. So the risk of them speaking up is higher for them. They feel more of an outsider. So figuring out ways to honor the diversity rather than make it be a problem and creating a team that just fires on all cylinders. And so ideas just come. So if I'm running a company and I know I've got a disproportionate bunch of male engineers of the tech company, what are some of the things that I can do to help encourage that young woman with this great idea to get it out of her to make it comfortable for her to share? What are some of the things that I can do from this side of the table to really enable that? I think part of it is really raising the awareness of what it's like for others. I mean, there are multiple tools out there that you can use, but sometimes working with someone from the outside that can help them see things differently. The function of a coach is often holding up a mirror, right? And when you're inside of something, it is really hard to see what's really going on. Sometimes I'll describe to the startups that we work with, I'll say if you're on the inside of an apple, it looks all white with these big black seeds. From out here, it looks shiny and red. It's still an apple, right? But it looks very different from the inside to the outside. So having a different perspective, the other thing is that kind of vibe starts with the leader, right? They have to model the behavior. They have to look at their own behavior and see what am I doing or not doing that is encouraging that and enabling that and maybe hire some more women. Have women on your board, it's proven. You have a woman on your board, you get 20% more revenue and productivity. There's statistics all around that. So do you find the value in what you do? A large part of it is simply putting the mirror on. I mean, there's techniques and stuff, take a minute, take a breath, look at what's happening here from the outside and you'll see and it'll be more obvious. If people just get kind of wrapped up in the way they've already always done things, they're busy, they don't really have time to lift their head up and take a breath, what do you find in your clients? Awareness is the first step, certainly. They wouldn't bring you in, right? If they didn't want to make improvements. Precisely, precisely. If there's a lack of awareness, then a lot of times it's really hard. Yeah, exactly, but a lot of times there'll be sort of a moment that will happen. Unfortunately, sometimes where somebody's super unhappy or there's a lawsuit or something like that, that's an extreme case, but... Sometimes it takes a catalyst like that, unfortunately, right? Sometimes, but hopefully you've got one or two people who are, you know, we're at a certain stage where I think we need to really up our leadership game, up our professional development, look at things differently. We're losing too many people, right? Those kind of things. Right, and then what tips for the woman on the other side of the table? You're by yourself, you're outnumbered, maybe you're not as loud, maybe you're not 100% sure that this is the answer that you want to give or the suggestion you want to make, but you think it's got legs. What are some of the tips and tricks that you give them to get your voice out? Get, you know, how do you kind of counsel ways that they can get that out? Well, confidence comes in all forms. Women tend to have been successful in their lives, there's statistics on this too, where we tend to be rule followers when we're younger, right? We get all A's, we get the praise of the teacher, and we finally get to the workplace and kind of following all the rules really doesn't work. So they haven't had a lot of chances to fail, basically. So I kind of give them failure lessons, you know? Learn how to fail at something small. One of my clients went out and did trivia night with her friends and she knew she was going to not do well in some categories, even though she's super smart. Practice doing that. And, you know, to kind of flex the failure muscle and be okay with like, not all your ideas are gonna be winners and it's okay. The other thing I would really say is, take a look at your own values. I have a values assessment that I put on my website so anybody can do it. I think it's really underutilized for individuals and for companies to do a values assessment. What do I really care about? What are the battles that I am going to, you know, go to the ends of the earth to get to? Right, right. What are the things I really wanna promote and why? Like if you know that inside of yourself, that can really fuel your confidence when you're sitting in a meeting where it's a little bit scary. Right, but that almost, again, sounds kind of like the mirror thing that you talked about before. It's, you know, reconnecting with those values in the context of the moment as opposed to, you know, we all just get so busy, you know, you're just wrapped up with getting stuff done and trying to get through whatever you're trying to get through. Exactly, and I think a lot of people either go through their day kind of just trying to get through the day, right? Kind of please just get me to, you know, get me to the end or they get into fight mode, you know, like where they're just like, you know, it's me or you, you know? And that doesn't really work. You know, trying to get out of that sort of overly me orientation and starting to think about how can we make this something better? How can we be more than the sum of our parts? Right, right. Important stuff you're working on there, Hilary. So how can people learn more? How can they reach out and connect with you? They can go to oper2.com, O-P-P-O-R-T-U.com. They can email me, hweber, with 1B, H-W-E-B-R, at oper2.com or, you know, find me on Twitter or Facebook. Excellent. Well, thank you for taking a few minutes. Really important stuff you're working on. Thank you very much. All right, Hilary Weber, I'm Jeff Frick. We are at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. You're watching theCUBE. Thanks for watching.