How to Build a Strong Foundation for Innovation

Early in my career, someone told me that innovation only comes from the top. Years of leading transformations across Fortune 100 companies have taught me otherwise: ➡️ true innovation emerges when we create an environment of trust where every voice matters. I was reminded of this during a recent work dinner discussing LEGO's remarkable turnaround. In 2004, when Jorgen Vig Knudstorp became LEGO's first non-family CEO, the company was losing nearly $1 million daily. What fascinated me wasn't just the financial transformation, but how he achieved it: by fostering a culture of "two-way trust." Three key lessons stand out that I've seen proven time and again: 1. Create psychological safety for continuous learning. When people feel safe to experiment and even fail, innovation flourishes. 2. Break down silos to encourage cross-pollination of ideas. Some of the most powerful solutions come from unexpected collaborations. 3. Build an idea-rich environment where testing and learning is celebrated, not just tolerated. These principles aren't just theory - they're fundamental to sustainable transformation. At Humana, I've seen firsthand how creating space for diverse perspectives and encouraging calculated risk-taking leads to breakthrough solutions in healthcare delivery. Organizations don't transform - people do. And people only transform when they feel valued, heard, and safe to innovate. https://lnkd.in/eMR92bWf

Yesterday I talked about the innovation standoff in multifamily. Today, this one's for the operators. You're not anti-innovation. You're anti-disaster. After watching pilots fail and "game-changing solutions" create more work than they solved - your caution isn't resistance. It's wisdom. But the operators who crack the code on piloting effectively won't just adopt innovation. They'll shape it. Here's the playbook: 1. Create a dedicated innovation budget that survives budget season. Not "we'll find money if something comes up." A protected line item. When you have to beg for pilot funding, you've already lost momentum. 2. Rethink the roles you need. The operators winning in 2026 are investing in: → AI/Automation leadership → Innovation program management → Change management specialists → Data & intelligence resources You can't bolt innovation onto people already drowning in their day jobs. 3. Fix your site selection strategy. Stop giving pilots your most broken properties. That property has staffing problems, deferred maintenance, and a team barely keeping their heads above water. The PropTech company walks into a hurricane and is expected to prove sunshine. Give pilots a property with a stable team, an on-site champion who wants to participate, and leadership that's bought in - not burned out. 4. Build your data lake. This doesn't eliminate integrations - you'll still need them. But when you control your data centrally: → You're not waiting on a PMS to prioritize your needs → Clean data makes new integrations faster → You validate solutions with YOUR data before committing → You negotiate from strength, not dependency That's sovereignty. Sovereignty accelerates innovation. 5. Align success metrics BEFORE the pilot starts. What does "success" look like? What KPIs? Who's measuring? Get this in writing. Both sides. Skip this step, and you'll end the pilot with PropTech claiming victory while your team says "it didn't work" - and you'll both be right. 6. Build in executive sponsorship. Pilots without C-suite air cover die. Not because leadership kills them - but because no one protects them from budget cuts and competing priorities. 7. Incentivize innovation at every level. Build it into performance reviews. Build it into promotion criteria. Celebrate pilots - even failed ones - because you learned something. 8. Design the exit strategy upfront. When there's no graceful off-ramp, people avoid getting on the road entirely. Make "this didn't work and here's what we learned" an acceptable outcome. The infrastructure for innovation is just as important as the innovation itself. Build the playbook. Then run the plays. Tomorrow: What PropTech companies need to do differently to earn the pilot. What would you add to this playbook? What's worked at your organization?

I've scaled AI and cloud across industries. Yet the real lever? Shaping a culture where innovation is instinctive, not an initiative. Here’s how I do it Tech alone doesn't drive change. It's the human element that sparks true innovation. Here's what I've learned about fostering a culture of innovation: 1. Embrace curiosity at all levels Encourage questions, exploration, and continuous learning 2. Reframe failure as feedback Create safe spaces for experimentation and iteration 3. Cultivate diverse perspectives Innovation thrives when different viewpoints collide 4. Empower decision-making Trust your team to take calculated risks 5. Celebrate small wins Recognize progress to maintain momentum 6. Connect tech to purpose Help everyone see how innovation impacts the bigger picture 7. Foster cross-functional collaboration Break down silos to spark unexpected ideas 8. Lead by Pizza Model the innovative mindset you want to see and award teams with Pizza parties. Remember: The most powerful tool in your tech stack is the collective mindset of your team. Shift your focus from just implementing new tech to nurturing the innovative spirit of your people.

I am constantly thinking about how to foster innovation in my product organization. Building teams that are experts at execution is the easy part—when there’s a clear problem, product orgs are great at coming up with smart solutions. But it’s impossible to optimize your way into innovation. You can’t only rely on incremental improvement to keep growing. You need to come up with new problem spaces, rather than just finding better solutions to the same old problems. So, how do we come up with those new spaces? Here are a few things I’m trying at Duolingo: 1. Innovation needs a high-energy environment, and a slow process will kill a great idea. So I always ask myself: Can we remove some of the organizational barriers here? Do managers from seven different teams really need to say yes on every project? Seeking consensus across the company—rather than just keeping everyone informed—can be a major deterrent to innovation. 2. Similarly, beware of defaulting to “following up.” If product meetings are on a weekly cadence, every time you do this, you are allocating seven days to a task that might only need two. We try to avoid this and promote a sense of urgency, which is essential for innovative ideas to turn into successes. 3. Figure out the right incentive. Most product orgs reward team members whose ideas have measurable business impact, which works in most contexts. But once you’ve found product-market fit, it is often easiest to generate impact through smaller wins. So, naturally, if your org tends to only reward impact, you have effectively incentivized constant optimization of existing features instead of innovation. In the short term things will look great, but over time your product becomes stale. I try to show my teams that we value and reward bigger ideas. If someone sticks their neck out on a new concept, we should highlight that—even if it didn’t pan out. Big swings should be celebrated, even if we didn’t win, because there are valuable learnings there. 4. Look for innovative thinkers with a history of zero-to-one feature work. There are lots of amazing product managers out there, but not many focus on new problem domains. If a PM has created something new from scratch and done it well, that’s a good sign. An even better sign: if they show excitement about and gravitate toward that kind of work. If that sounds like you—if you’re a product manager who wants to think big picture and try out big ideas in a fast-paced environment with a stellar mission—we want you on our team. We’re hiring a Director of Product Management: https://lnkd.in/dQnWqmDZ #productthoughts #innovation #productmanagement #zerotoone

Many organizations approach innovation the way they approach budgeting or operations. They create roadmaps, timelines, and committees designed to produce breakthroughs on schedule. But the history of technology suggests something different. Most meaningful innovations do not arrive neatly on a calendar. They appear unexpectedly. A new idea. A technical breakthrough. A surprising connection between two things that previously seemed unrelated. The real challenge is making sure your organization is ready when those moments appear. The companies and institutions that consistently innovate tend to invest early in talent and technical capability. They build cultures where experimentation is encouraged and where people are willing to test new ideas. They maintain the flexibility to pursue unexpected opportunities and move quickly when promising ideas appear. Innovation rarely begins as a fully formed plan. More often it begins as a possibility that only a few people recognize at first. The advantage goes to the organizations that have prepared themselves to recognize that moment and act on it. You may not be able to schedule inspiration. But you can build teams, systems, and cultures that are ready when it shows up. #SchmidtSights

Most corporate incubators fail. Here's why, and how to beat the odds. After watching countless innovation labs launch with fanfare only to quietly disappear, I've identified patterns that separate winners from the "Innovation Man in tights" disasters. 10 Principles for Building Incubators That Actually Work: 1. Think Like a VC, Not a Planner -- Expect 6 out of 10 projects to fail completely. If everything succeeds, you're not taking enough risk. 2. Build a Portfolio, Not Pet Projects -- Spread bets across multiple ventures. One executive's favorite idea ≠ a diversified innovation strategy. 3. Separate the Budget -- Don't make business units choose between today and tomorrow. The corporation must make that choice. 4. Focus on One Risk at a Time -- Stop trying to solve everything simultaneously. Address the biggest, cheapest-to-test risk first. 5. De-emphasize the Revenue Projections -- As one VC told me: "We look at the revenue picture, then throw it out the window. It's a dream at best." 6. Create Cross-Functional Governance Early -- Waiting until commercialization to involve other departments is a recipe for political disaster. 7. Partner with "Ball Catchers" -- Involve the people who'll eventually scale your venture from day one, even if it's just a small allocation of their time. 8. Measure "Return on Knowledge" -- When ventures are 2+ years from launch, track learnings, not just financials. 9. Awards, Not Rewards -- Entrepreneur-style financial incentives create internal warfare. Recognition works better. 10. Move Fast on Setup -- Spend 4 months max designing your program. Then launch and let real projects set the precedent. The hardest truth is that culture follows systems, not posters or people in costumes. Change your processes first, and the innovative mindset will follow.

Breaking Silos, Building Innovation: How SEA Milano Airports 🇮🇹 Transformed with FORTH … When SEA Aeroporti di Milano set out to innovate, they weren’t just looking for new concepts—they wanted to embed innovation into their culture. With 35 million passengers a year and a complex, diverse workforce, SEA faced a challenge familiar to many large organizations: how to break down silos and make change truly happen. Guided by Evidentia , a human-centered innovation boutique in Italy, SEA applied the FORTH Innovation Method to tackle diversity and inclusion in a structured, results-driven way. Instead of vague discussions and stalled initiatives, they focused on measurable impact, rapid implementation, and broad internal involvement. The Power of FORTH in Action • Over 600 employees participated in research, interviews, and testing. • 2,233 ideas were generated, leading to 43 concepts. • Seven innovation projects were selected, three of which were launched immediately. What made this a success? Top-down sponsorship and bottom-up engagement. From shift workers to senior executives, everyone had a voice. The process not only delivered concrete innovation projects but also created a lasting mindset shift—embedding inclusion as a core value at SEA. It was lead by three great skilled facilitators Anna Forciniti, Letizia Migliola (she/her) and Maria Vittoria Colucci. Key Takeaways for Innovating Across Silos 1. Engage all levels—from frontline staff to top leadership. 2. Create psychological safety—so diverse voices are truly heard. 3. Ensure fast implementation—so innovation doesn’t stall. 4. Build strong sponsorship—leaders must actively support change. 5. Use a structured method—like FORTH, to align teams and drive action. By applying FORTH, SEA Milano Airports didn’t just generate new ideas; they built an innovation culture that lasts. Want to see similar results in your organization? Let’s talk about how structured innovation can work for you! #Innovation #FORTHMethod #DesignThinking #DiversityInclusion #SEAInnovation

Your company isn’t starved for talent. It’s drowning in untapped potential. What you call ‘underperformance’ is often brilliance left uncultivated. Potential caged by outdated culture. Ideas abandoned before they ever take flight. After studying hundreds of high-performing organizations, I've identified five critical elements that separate companies that consistently innovate from those that consistently stagnate: 1. Create a Culture of Possibility Create an environment where new ideas flourish from every direction and level, with everyone challenging the status quo. 2. Embrace Crazy Ideas Encourage your team to dream up unprecedented solutions and transform abstract ideas into tangible reality. 3. Welcome Conflict Create space for your team to practice radical candor. Discuss issues, identify solutions. See it as an opportunity for improvement. At Motto®, we define, discuss, and decide on company-wide topics. 4. Reinforce the Vision Ensure everyone regularly understands the vision and sees their personal role within it, getting fired up about big ideas. 5. Build an Adaptive Culture Develop an organization that pivots quickly, nurtures wild ideas, and brings disruptive energy to all aspects of the business. Focus "inward" by reshaping culture to counter external disruption with internal innovation. The most dangerous competitors in your industry aren't the ones with the most resources, they're the ones who've mastered these five cultural elements. What if innovation isn’t a department, it’s your default?

Building without solid foundations 🤔 Many companies approach Artificial Intelligence (AI) superficially, focusing on tools like ChatGPT without delving into the fundamentals and organizational culture necessary for true innovation. The reality is that AI is much more than a tool: it's an opportunity to transform the way we work, innovate, and grow. However, if we only focus on the surface, without working on our teams' mindset and company culture of innovation, we risk building on shaky ground. The facade may seem impressive at first, but without strong pillars to support it, it's only a matter of time before it crumbles. The same applies to AI adoption. If we only focus on cutting-edge tools without working on processes, mindset, and company culture, we won't unlock AI's full potential. What can we do to change this? - Dive deeper into understanding AI and its applications in your industry. - Foster a culture of innovation and experimentation within your team. - Work on your collaborators' mindset and skills to maximize the opportunities AI offers. - Simplify processes and automate tasks to free up time and resources for innovation. AI is a journey, not a destination. By focusing on building the solid foundations we need, we can unlock its full potential and create a more innovative and prosperous future for our companies. #AI #Innovation #OrganizationalCulture #DigitalTransformation #Leadership"

Most companies claim they embrace failure. But walk into their Monday meetings, and watch people scramble to hide their missteps. I've seen it countless times. The same leaders who preach 'fail fast' are the first to demand explanations for every setback. Here's the uncomfortable truth:  Innovation dies in environments where people feel safer playing it safe. But there's a difference between reckless failure and strategic experimentation. Let me show you exactly how to build a culture that genuinely embraces productive failure: 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 Stop asking "Who's fault was this?" and start asking: "𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘺𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨?" "𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴?" "𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?" 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 '𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬' Monthly meetings where teams present their failed experiments and the insights gained. The key? Leaders must go first. Share your own failures openly, specifically, and without sugar-coating. 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 "24-𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞" After any setback, give teams 24 hours to vent/process. Then require them to present three specific learnings and two potential next steps. This transforms failure from a dead end into a data point. Most "innovative" teams are just risk-averse businesses in disguise. They've mastered innovation theater, not actual innovation. Don't let your people think they need permission to innovate. Instead, start building systems and a culture that make innovation inevitable.