Innovation Starts with People
By: Bill Dollins
Tags: Leadership, GIS, Software Development, Startup, Geospatial

“You manage things, you lead people.” - RDML Grace Hopper, US Navy

I am reminded of the above quote when I think of my onboarding at Spatial Networks, a little over two years ago. That event was the culmination of a process in which I learned a lot about myself and what I had previously thought was important. But first, a story…

About a decade ago, while I was still with my previous company, I was staffing a booth at a local job fair, where we were looking for software developers and other technical staff. This was shortly after the onset of the Great Recession. We weren’t having a lot of luck finding programmers, but there were a lot of senior program managers who were looking for work — so many that it caught my attention. One particular exchange, which I will paraphrase, was telling.

Candidate: Do you need any program or project managers? Me: I’m sorry, we’re really looking for software developers. C: I used to program, but I haven’t done that for 20 years, since I went into management. Me: Well, there are a lot of companies here, maybe you’ll find something with one of them. C: I’ve already been to all of them and no one has anything. I was retired for the last five years and my retirement fund just disappeared. I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I was creeping into early middle-age, but I was still deeply involved in programming and that exchange left me with what became my mantra for most of the next decade:

Never stop coding.

Fast forward to a few years ago, when I decided it was time for a change. There was a lot of activity in the geospatial job market, with a lot of companies doing innovative things. As a small business owner, I felt like I was what is referred to in consulting as a “triple threat” — I could get the work (business development), I could run the work (management), and I could do the work (programming). So, I started putting out feelers across the network I had built by circulating in the geospatial industry and through social media.

Because I had maintained my technical capability, many of my contacts held technical roles in their companies. They forwarded me into the hiring apparatus of their organizations.

It had been over fifteen years since I had looked for a job. The first couple of meetings were what could be charitably called “rusty.” I learned and adjusted. Eventually, I met with recruiters from a couple of companies that were considered innovators in the geospatial market. In this setting, I found that being a “triple threat” led to confusion. I was dealing with people who were being told to fill specific boxes and I didn’t fit neatly into any one of them.

Of course, I had a number of people in my network who were senior leaders. Most didn’t have an opening they felt was appropriate. One of those leaders, Spatial Networks CEO Tony Quartararo, also didn’t have an opening at the time, but he still wanted to meet and learn about my goals and what kind of role I was seeking. This was the beginning of a fairly long-running, sporadic series of conversations.

We both had parameters that didn’t necessarily mesh when an opportunity arose, but it was “no harm, no foul.” At all times, our conversations were based on respect and professionalism. As a small business owner, Tony seemed to have a good understanding of the way my career had evolved and I always got the sense that he was thinking about how to craft a role that made sense.

During this time, I had also sent my information to the industry’s 800-lb gorilla. People I knew there told me the process was moving, but that it moved very slowly. Nothing was really happening and I was beginning to question the merits of my decade-old mantra and my self-perceived “triple threat” status. Had I become a generalist? Should I have pushed all-in on one of those three disciplines?

Eventually, I got a call from Tony with a concept for a technical leadership position. The concept he outlined was very much in line with what I was seeking. He had moved from some of his parameters, so it was time for me to shift some of mine, which I did. We came to an agreement and I joined Spatial Networks.

I came into an extremely talented technical team full of people whose work I had admired for years. They certainly didn’t need me telling them how to write code. I also found an organization that was in growth mode and needed to transition from ad-hoc approaches to more formalized processes that could scale. I found a lane that skewed more toward leadership and I have been in that lane ever since.

Over the last two years, as the company has grown and our leadership team has expanded, I have watched Tony take a similar approach with others that he took with me. That includes not only outside hires, but people who have been on staff for years. In the spirit of leadership articulated by RDML Hopper, Tony leads people to place where he sees them being their best and he expects all of us in leadership roles to do the same for those on our teams.

There is a lot of technical innovation happening at Spatial Networks right now, but none of that would be possible without the culture of innovation regarding people that exists within the company. Innovation is about seeing possibility and then making that possibility real. The culture at Spatial Networks encourages us to see the possibility in each other and work to make it real. As a result, technical innovation is almost a natural byproduct. To be sure, the environment is challenging and not for everyone, but, if you are willing to be honest with yourself and those around you, there is little you can’t accomplish here.