Innovation management and improving process efficiency are two very different endeavors. Here are some lessons learned on getting the most from a team in both situations. I was born and bred here in Perth and started my career as an electrical and electronics engineer at the big mining sites out here in Western Australia. At the height of the mining boom, I designed and built transportable switch rooms, flying in and out of very distant operations. I got a bit sick of that lifestyle, so 11 years ago I joined Western Power, Western Australia's electric power utility. We transmit and distribute electricity to a community of 1.1 million people over an area of 158,400 square miles. Half of our overhead distribution network supplies less than 3% of customers, and the sparseness of the network poses unique challenges as we replace aging infrastructure with new technology. My first position at Western Power was as a customer account manager, and my job was to help our large customers connect their power generation plants to the electricity network. One of the many things I learned at this job was that I didn't like things that didn't work efficiently. I TRY TO HOLD MY TEAM IN THE "DISCOMFORT ZONE" TO MAKE SURE WE'RE GETTING THE BEST ANSWER TO THE BEST QUESTION. I wanted to get in there and fix them, to make life easier not just for myself or the team, but also for our customers. And that's when I began my journey in process improvement. I'd do my day 73