On February 25 Originate appointed Lloyd Taylor, the former LinkedIn VP as their new CIO. Specifically, he was called up to provide insight and advice for companies seeking to scale successfully and avoid disasters.
Recently, Taylor penned a post for Originate about their 20% Time Done Right program to spark and help cultivate each individual’s passion and drive to create.
“Originate is passionate about innovation. We tackle tough transformational software challenges, helping our partners achieve things they never thought possible,” says Taylor, in his post. “Great innovation comes from passionate people – people who are excited and challenged by their work, their lives, and their opportunities – people to whom creation is as natural as breathing.”
One day per week, or one week out of every five, is entirely your own to work on a project that interests you. The upper brass at Originate believes that by empowering you to exercise your personal interests while at work, with no strings attached, they can create a fertile environment for world-changing ideas.
“Unlike other companies, we explicitly grant all intellectual property rights for work done on the 20% Project to you,” says Taylor. “Anything you build or develop on your 20% Time projects, even if it uses Originate resources, is yours to do with as you please. We hope that you’ll give us first shot at funding your great idea, but that’s entirely your call.”
It’s important to realize that this time is actually built into the normal work week. That is, it’s not 20 percent of 150 percent, but rather 20 percent of 100 percent. Originate manages their partner projects accordingly to ensure their employees get dedicated time to work on their passions.
The process is intentionally simple:
- Come up with an idea
- Bounce it off of your coworkers to refine and improve the idea, or recruit your coworkers to be part of the team
- Discuss with your supervisor to get feedback
- Write up a project description with milestones and deliverables, and complete the simple legal Agreementthat grants you all rights to your work
- Execute
20% Time is to be used for things that benefit not only you, but also Originate and the greater good. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get a salary, shared upside, and support for your idea all while working on other, interesting projects.