How Serendipitous Encounters Drive Workplace Innovation

As I prepare for ASN Kidney Week 2025, I’m reminded why I personally strive to attend as many medical conferences as possible — and why I believe every leader should make the same effort to participate in industry events. Four reasons stand out. 1️⃣ You need to know your audience. Whether your stakeholders are physicians, patients, or payers, you can’t lead well from behind a desk. Conferences are where you hear the real frustrations: why a doctor hesitates to prescribe, what a patient finds confusing, and how a payer evaluates value. The best ideas aren’t conceived in the boardroom. They’re formed from insights that come out of conversations with the people who will be directly impacted by the medicines you’re trying to advance. 2️⃣ You need to keep the two-way dialogue going. Understanding isn’t a one-time occurrence. It’s a continuous learning loop. I’ve been attending medical meetings for over twenty years, and every year the conversations shift: new data, new pressures, new priorities. Being present where your stakeholders are produces insights you won’t gather in a conference room or behind a computer screen. It also lets you engage in a real-time, two-way conversation, opening the door to collaboration and partnership. 3️⃣ You need to make room for serendipity. The planned meetings matter, but the unplanned ones that only happen when you get out there often matter more. Some of the most valuable insights come from a hallway chat, a dinner table debate, or an elevator ride with a dialysis organization’s medical director. You can’t plan for the organic conversation that will spark your next idea, but you can put yourself in a position to allow those conversations to happen. 4️⃣ You need to keep iterating. Every incremental insight gained from stakeholder interactions is a vital data point. Publications, advisory boards, and casual conversations all shape how we refine and communicate our science. And often, it leads to iterating our approach in real time. Each encounter adds incremental insight that sharpens the next decision. As a leader, being there personally helps you see where your stakeholders are today, not where you assumed they’d be. It lets you allocate resources intelligently and evolve your strategy. If you’re leading a team, developing a medicine, or building a product, make time to show up, listen, and iterate. That’s where real progress starts. If you’ll be attending ASN, send me a note if you’d like to connect. Who knows where that organic conversation could lead 🙂. #KidneyWk

Lesson #9: "Favor serendipity." The best things that happened to me? I never planned them. The conversation that changed my trajectory. The person who introduced me to a co-founder. The random coffee that became a partnership. None of it was on my calendar. None of it was strategic. It just happened. Because I showed up. Here's what you learn: You can't force serendipity. But you can create the conditions for it. Say yes to the coffee with someone you don't know yet. Go to the event even when you're tired. Take the meeting that doesn't seem "strategic." Talk to the person who works in a completely different world than yours. Because opportunities don't announce themselves. They disguise themselves as interruptions, detours, random encounters. The firefighter who becomes your best hire? You met them at a party you almost didn't go to. The idea that changes your product? It came from a conversation that wasn't supposed to be about business. The investor who believes in you? They were introduced by someone you helped for free two years ago. You can't plan for this. But you can stay open to it. So stop optimizing every hour. Stop only networking "strategically." Stop saying no to anything that doesn't fit perfectly into your plan. Because serendipity doesn't work on your schedule. It works when you're present, curious, and open to the unexpected. The magic happens in the unplanned moments. Show up for them.

Cultivating a culture of innovation was not on top of Alexander Fleming’s to-do list, but that is exactly what he accidentally did. In 1928, when he returned from vacation to find mold contaminating his bacterial cultures, he could have discarded them as failures. Instead, his observation of the clear ring around the mold led to penicillin—saving millions of lives. I have found that innovation often emerges from unexpected places and careful observation, not just deliberate planning. This approach has transformed how I address engineering challenges. Examining anomalies that others might dismiss, questioning standard practices, and creating space for serendipitous discovery alongside methodical development are crucial to kindling innovation. Extraordinary things unfold when we pay attention to what actually occurs, not just what we expect to see. The next time you think that you have messed up, take a step back and look for potential innovation hiding within the apparent failure.

We lost something valuable when we moved to remote work. We lost the spontaneous interactions. The moments where you’d run into a colleague or someone you hadn’t met in the hallway or kitchen, and it would lead to a chat and maybe a new project. That serendipity is often a small but meaningful part of company cultures. When we went remote at Meta, I realized how much I was missing this. We had all the tools for collaboration, but how can you recreate the genuine and simple connection that comes from “bumping into each other”? So I create a concept called “Coffee Convos.” A randomized 15-min chat, once a week with people across the department. The goal was to replicate the feeling of running into someone you don’t know that well. But what happened was so much more. By intentionally creating a space for these conversations, we not only duplicated serendipity, we enhanced it. People from different teams and locations that would have simply never met in person, started connecting. It led to more collaboration, new friendships (some of whom I’m still friends with years later), and a powerful sense of community that went far beyond the pre-pandemic office. The secret was the intention and structure behind it. We learned that while spontaneous encounters are great, genuine connection can be designed. These days, I’m more into matcha, but still open to serendipitous chats 🤍

One thing most founders don’t talk about enough: Luck matters. Yes, hard work, clarity, and execution are vital, but at every company I’ve built, chance encounters ended up being the difference maker. My last company was acquired because a former colleague happened to see a LinkedIn post I wrote. That led to an intro, which led to a deal, which led to an acquisition. At Assembly Industries, an investment + strategic partnership came from a conversation at a child’s birthday party. Totally unplanned. If those collisions didn’t happen, these trajectories would’ve been completely different. What does this mean for founders? 𝟭. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 No matter how busy you are, you never know who will turn out to be your next customer, investor, or acquirer. 𝟮. 𝗔𝗰𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗹𝘂𝗰𝗸 Build like it all depends on you, but stay open to the fact that serendipity plays a role. The truth is, every successful founder has a few “lucky breaks” baked into their story. The key is to do enough of the work that, when luck shows up, you’re ready to seize it.

𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. 𝐈𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬. 📌 Why This Matters Too many organizations still believe innovation comes from scheduled brainstorming sessions and PowerPoint decks. But research tells a different story: 📊 A 2025 MIT Sloan study found that 70% of breakthrough innovations emerge from informal interactions — coffee chats, cross-functional collaborations, and chance encounters, not boardroom meetings. Innovation isn’t a scheduled event. It’s a culture of curiosity, openness, and unexpected collisions. 💡 𝟑 𝐖𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 1️⃣ Create Serendipity Spaces → Encourage conversations beyond silos. → Some of the best ideas are born in hallways, not conference rooms. 2️⃣ Value Questions Over Answers → Innovation thrives when people are safe to challenge norms. → Instead of asking “what’s the solution?” ask “what are we missing?” 3️⃣ Mix Unlikely Perspectives → Pair engineers with marketers. Pair creatives with analysts. → Different lenses create the sparks that ignite big ideas. 📖 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞 Some of the most impactful ideas I’ve been part of didn’t come from a whiteboard session. They came during casual conversations — a shared frustration, a curious “what if,” or even a late-night coffee break. It reminded me: Innovation is less about structure, and more about freedom. 🎯 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 You can’t schedule breakthroughs. But you can design environments where collisions happen naturally. The leaders who embrace this won’t just run better meetings — they’ll build more innovative companies. 💬 What’s the most unexpected place you’ve had a breakthrough idea? Drop it below 👇 ♻ 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. 👋 Follow ASHISH SHUKLA for more on innovation, creativity, and leadership. #leadership #creativity #innovation

Sometimes my best ideas come in the most unexpected moments 💡 The shower. A random conversation. A new city street. But here's what I've learned after years in business: Inspiration isn't random. It's the result of staying open and curious 🤔 Those shower thoughts? They happen because your mind finally has space to wander. Those conversations with strangers? They bring perspectives you'd never encounter in your usual circles. Those travel moments? They force you to see familiar problems through fresh eyes 👀 The pattern is clear: → Give your brain permission to explore → Step away from your desk → Change your environment → Talk to different people Most leaders stay trapped in their routines. Same meetings, same people, same thinking 🔄 They wonder why innovation feels impossible. But breakthrough ideas need breathing room. They need diverse inputs and unexpected connections. So schedule that coffee with someone outside your industry 📈 Take that walking meeting instead of sitting in conference rooms 🚶♀️ Travel somewhere that challenges your assumptions 🌍. Your next big idea is waiting. You just need to create the conditions for it to find you ✨

Serendipity over structure - The power of chance learning A reflection on the power serendipitous learning and this week's #appreciationcall. I have vivid memories of childhood holidays exploring rock pools at the beach, lifting stones to uncover hidden creatures. I can almost hear myself calling out with excitement “Look a crab! Now what kind is that?” The thrill was in serendipitous exploration; something we excel at as children! The challenge in adult learning is we're often reliant on structure such as courses, content and competency frameworks. But here’s the thing, too much structure can limit development! Research shows our powerful learning often happens by accident. In everyday moments, we stumble upon lessons that are far more impactful than those structured training can deliver. The evidence shows #serendipity supercharges learning by … Increasing learner engagement through personal exploration. [1] Enabling new connections from diverse information. [2] Sparking insights that enhance critical thinking. [3] Fuelling creativity with information incubated for future use. [4] Expanding learning beyond the original query. [5] Allowing for the powerful intersection of chance and wisdom. [6] And with #AI this is now more possible where adaptive models can outperform fixed approaches helping learners discover valuable personal learning journeys [7]. (References in the carousel below). Serendipity may be rooted in chance, but - perhaps counterintuitively - we can “design” environments that encourage learners to go “off piste” to benefit from unexpected learning. Here are 7 ideas and I'd value you adding your ideas in messages below … Learning safaris to shadow other peers or team for cross-pollinated ideas. Embedding reflective prompts into workflows to spark unplanned insights. Allocating “serendipity slots” in meetings for unplanned discussions. Inviting diverse or provocative voices into the mix to expand insights. Facilitating “working out loud circles” for interactions on work opportunities. Creating shared walls for posting ideas, images, quotes or articles. Unlikely book clubs where a text from a very different discipline is explored. The truth is great learning is messy because it’s human. In a world that demands greater #agility, #curiosity and #criticalthinking we often don’t need more structure - we need more space to explore. This isn’t about chaos. It’s about deliberate #unpredictability. So, a challenge … in learning is it time for less structure and more purposeful wandering? A thanks and #appreciationcall to the following people whose interactions and posted thinking (much serendipitous for me) have energised my week: Virginie Chassériau Sylvia Malo Phil Willcox Margaret Burnside Jos Arets Vivian Heijnen Emma Weatherly Michelle Ockers Hannah Clark Nick Richmond Andrew Jacobs FCIPD David James Jess Almlie Gaenor Aitken Laura Giles Karen Cureton Social Media Trainer Kathryn Swandale CIPD Julie Dirksen

What if simply stepping outside your routine could unlock your next big idea? I’m in Montréal this week for Corporate Rehab —and the amount of ideas that come up when I'm strolling or immersed in a different scenario STILL surprises me. Studies show that shaking up your context by exposing yourself to new perspectives and environments boosts creativity and innovation. And 56 % of leaders at global companies say diverse experiences drive their innovation strategy. You've probably felt this yourself - how many of us have had our best ideas on a run, in the shower, or pinch hitting in a different role? I've sent a Partner in a $6Bn firm to improv classes to get out of their comfort zone, and a VP client of mine assigns his team a "context switching" day, then they all share what ideas came up. Here's a few tips to get started: 🧭 Change your view: Take your laptop to a café, park, or different office floor. 🤝 Cross-pollinate: Grab coffee with someone in a completely different role or industry (great for internal networking!) 🎯 Mini-experiments: Try a new routine—start your day with a 15‑minute walk or midday stand-up outdoors. 📚 Learn outside your lane: Listen to a podcast or read an article from a field you don’t know. What patterns do you notice? When was the last time you intentionally stepped out of routine, and what emerged? Share your story or add to the tips! #leadership #performance #innovation