Opportunity Knocks in Cumberland County

 We were hopping on March 11!  

We started at IDEXX in Westbrook, learned about the booming Companion Pet Care business and saw the large and impressive manufacturing operation that runs round the clock.

Before we left we got some great IDEXX loot, most unique was the keychain with a pooping dog..sure to be a hit with all of our children or students when we return to class!  Here is a picture of the famous keychain..you have to get your hands on one to see the magic!

Having once worked on the building design for a new middle school I was fascinated by the great use of space and collaboration areas that we saw throughout the building, here are a few examples...



I LOVED this idea board, these were ideas that the floor workers had about how to improve their experience.  Each idea was then sorted and some were implemented, or moved to longer term plans.  What a way to give voice to your employees!
Super quiet phone booth with its own ventilation system, perfect spot for loud talkers!


We learned all about LEEDS certified green buildings and natural light, look at this gorgeous spot to work!
What is brilliant here is the angled screen you can see on the ceiling, most of the way down the room.  There was also another entire seating area to the left that would also be able to view the screen if you were hosting a large event.  Very clever and flexible use for space!

Before we left we got some great IDEXX loot, most unique was the keychain with a pooping dog..sure to be a hit with all of our children or students when we return to class!  Here is a picture of the famous keychain..you have to get your hands on one to see the magic!

UNUM

COO Mike Simonds gives us a great presentation about leadership during the pandemic and his simple system to think about moving people (and himself) from below the line (negative) thinking to above the line (positive) thinking. He shared that the natural tendency is for people to move to the more negative side, but the job of leaders is to constantly move the trend in the other direction.   He concludes with some powerful messages he received from his sons teachers through the years and reminded all the educators what a difference they make every day.   

Elizabeth Ross gives us a crash course in Change Management and illustrates how many wonderful projects may never get the buy in needed, and without that you will never achieve the desired benefits.  We run through a case study of a long ago captain with a new way of building a ship.  This leads us to the ADKAR acronym for successful change.  We all think of projects in our own schools that have been poorly rolled out in the past.

We also get a great tour of UNUM's amazing spaces, and I snap photos of some fun places to work...

Reminded me of the spinning Ikea chair my kids had when they were little...

ROUX Institute

We head for downtown Portland and learn about all that is happening for Maine students after a quick tour.  

Getting ready to work or a time out?  You decide!
Gorgeous spaces, I regret not taking one looking out the windows onto the water!
We do a hybrid call shown above, then members of the faculty speak with us and share all the exciting areas they are working on with students.  The opportunity for Maine students to achieve advanced degrees in highly marketable fields is very impressive.   We learn graduate degrees in analytics, project management, computer science, life science and engineering.  There are also amazing scholarship opportunities for Maine students interested in graduate degrees all funded by an Alfond Grant.  

There is a summer camp experience coming for 50 lucky Maine students, they will work with Ripple Effect, stay on Cow Island and come to Roux during the day for Design Thinking and earn some college credits in this free program.   

Incredible what they have accomplished in their first two years, it will be amazing to see how they continue to grow, especially when they build a new campus that includes housing.

Last stop, A Start Up Panel

We visit the offices of Defendify and listen to a panel discussion by three start up founders.  It was nicely facilitated by Kate Shorey of Start Up Maine.  

For fans of the NPR podcast "How I Built This", it was really riveting to hear each founder talk about their company, how they got the idea, where they are now and where they are going.  

We learned about:

  • Cybersecurity for small businesses, Defendify with founder Rob Simopoulos. 
  • Visual Movement Analysis Software, Kinotek with founder Justin Hafner
  • Industrial Software Company, HighByte with founder Torey Penrod-Cambra

All had great words of wisdom for educators especially that we should all send a message to Maine students that there is great opportunity in Maine, they don't have to leave!

They gave us a great sense of hope about all the great things that are happening in Maine!  

What an exciting day, we learned so much it was hard to capture it all in one post!

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