Natalie Neelan - Rebel at Work: How to Innovate and Drive Results When You Arent the Boss

This book is dedicated to my dysfunctional family. ;)

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NATALIE NEELAN is a longtime entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial strategist whos helped countless white-collar underdogs transform their personal and professional lives via her products, speaking engagements, and blogs. Natalie coaches, consults, and presents to emerging leaders from organizations including Mitsubishi Power, Bayer, Dell, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, PricewaterhouseCoopers, World Health Organization, World Bank, P&G, PNC Bank, Google, HP, and many more.

Natalie has developed practical and immediately implementable approaches to navigate the greatest internal obstacle in bringing initiatives to lifepeople. She writes with an inimitable sass and blunt practicality that has made her a global influence on innovation strategy and internal adoption.

Ms. Neelan holds an MBA with a concentration in strategy and entrepreneurship from Chatham University and is the founder and president of the Innovation and Strategy firm Straightline. She is based in Pittsburgh, PA. For more, visit natalieneelan.com.

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Copyright 2018 by Natalie Neelan
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Straightline Innovation. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be submitted to Diversion Books.

The material in the book cannot substitute for professional advice; further, the author is not liable if the reader relied on the material and was financially damaged in some way.

Different names have been used in reporting individuals feedback throughout the book. All efforts have been made to eliminate specifics that may unintentionally reveal the source.

For more information, email

First Diversion Books edition June 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63576-398-0

This book would not be in your hands if it werent for a stranger that I met at a conference.

I met Dr. Ade Mabogunje from Stanford University at the Global Innovation Summit in San Jose in 2013. There was a lot of excitement and positivity about innovation at the Summit which I enjoyed immensely. However, at a conference lunch table, I told Ade that I didnt have the same experience as others who were citing fun and success in innovation.

His response? He told me I had to write a book about my experiences. (What? Im not a writer!) He said that my book was morally necessary to help other people who struggle to advance ideas.

Now, Ade is someone that I hold in the highest regard. He is incredibly smart, insightful, and inspiring. Disappointing him was never an option. I had never written a book, but he thought I could do it. Therefore, I believed I could do it.

One day, he sent me an article to inspire me. It was written by Dr. Tea Lempil, a fellow researcher of his from Finland. Her article, Corporate Smugglers: Championing Ideas Under the Radar, was published in Fast Company and was the missing piece of the puzzle. Smuggling. That was it. That is what I was experiencing. That is what I was doing. I wasnt innovating. I was smuggling.

That article changed my life. The word smuggler alone was transformative. I wasnt alone. I realized that there were other people like me struggling inside of companies who were trying to advance their projects. I reached out to Tea immediately, and we became fast friends.

This entire book was inspired by the word Smuggler and her research. (By the way, her dissertation is amazing on the subject: Entering the Back Stage of Innovation Tensions between the Collaborative Praxis of Idea Development and its Formal Staging in Organizations can be accessed at http://epub.lib.aalto.fi/pdf/diss/Aalto_DD_2011_074.pdf. Check it out!) I know that Tea will continue to further the knowledge about Rebels turned Smugglers and how the corporate world might wake up to our strength in promoting healthy change.

Another person who gave me the courage to write this book was my dad, George Neelan. I told my dad that I was going to write this book. He immediately said that he wanted to support me in pursuing my dream. It wasnt a dream as much as it was a decision. But his sentiment was so sincere, so touching, that it meant that I needed to put forth my best effort to make him proud. I needed to publish the best book I could to help the most people. Im hopeful that I have achieved that goal. I am eternally grateful for his love and support.

From a practical perspective, my mom, Judy and sister, Jennifer, helped me shape my thinking and writing. They also edited a ridiculous amount of work over the course of this project. There is nothing more valuable than feedback from those who arent afraid to give it to you. If it werent for them, you would be reading a never-ending run on sentence.

My daughter Bridget was there to support me, especially during setbacks. It was a challenge when I was rejected time and again by agents, or when people would tell me I was crazy for even trying to break into the publishing world. She just kept up with the positive attitude that the book would be published. She never had any doubts.

Mike, my ex-husband, celebrated my successes right along with me. He is one of my biggest cheerleaders. He simply believed in me and supported our little family, and that made me want to do my best.

From the publishing world, I cant tell you how much it means to me that Mark Malatesta my coach, Matthew Carnicelli, my agent, and Lia Ottaviano, my editor, believed in this project. They took the idea, polished it, sold it, and brought it to life. They are the risk takers who had faith in this concept before it was even written.

Finally, I would like to thank my friend Marc Rigby, who was my emotional rock. He was there giving support and advice when the obstacles seemed insurmountable. He would always illuminate my options and his advice was practical and sound. I am fortunate to call him my friend.

It takes a village (of Rebels) after all.

Cheers,
Natalie

In American business culture, the emphasis placed by leaders and lower-level employees about how to cooperate doesnt seem to be nearly as important as how to dominate. Its time to change that. There is nothing wrong with healthy competition. But when people are competing for themselves over the benefit of ones team, you dont have collaboration, you have dysfunction.

No one should have to endure working in a dysfunctional environment just to pay the bills. It isnt enough to survive at work, accepting that we are powerless to change the status quo. New tools and mindsets are necessary to alter the course.

I am not a culture expert. I am not a paid speaker. I am a frustrated Rebel of the status quo who has a message to share. I want you to refine the concepts I put forth in this book and then build upon them. Take what you like and throw out what you dont.