Innovation Culture Roadmap: What Works and What Doesn't

Oh, that’s a tricky one. It doesn’t always work. We, as researchers, also get caught up in routine. Here’s what I do:


1. I look for every opportunity in the company. I literally tap into every person doing something cool. It’s often not relevant at the moment, but it pays off later. It’s like startups—1 out of 100 turns into a unicorn. For example, I have coffee with data analysts and see if there's something we can collaborate on. Four months later, they start using ChatGPT and tell me it’s the perfect time to start the project we discussed.
2. I work closely with my team, using a skill map to help them grow in specific directions. Two key areas are side projects and self-promotion. It’s all about trying new things and sharing your work as much as possible.
3. To make time for this, I negotiated 15% of our working hours to be dedicated to education, side projects, and attending events. Initially, I did this a bit under the radar and then showed the results to my boss. If management sees the potential in new ideas, this approach works.

It’s like taking 100 small steps with no immediate result, and then suddenly, you find yourself with a successful case at the top. What do you think?

Thank you for the question. We worked a lot with spreading our best cases inside the company so that to create a demand inside other departments. We also started a discovery accelerator for teams ready to start their own innovations. The last one was harder, because you actually can’t use the information you learned in you department doesn’t have kpi for new ideas. That we are trying to solve directly with the management. So, it’s cases, pr, education and the management support. Maybe in some cases the focus can be different. I’d recommend not to try to sell the idea of the cultural reformation at first as the best strategy, it’s better to talk using business language - metrics, numbers.

Anna Pilyutik