What if innovation wasn't reserved for a handful of "geniuses" in hoodies and turtlenecks? What if every person in your organization could solve real problems in bold new ways?
Today's episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, I'm joined by Richard Braden to explore how to democratize innovation inside the enterprise. We dig into his practical framework from "Innovation-ish: How Anyone Can Create Breakthrough Solutions to Real Problems in the Real World" which was co-authored with Tessa Forshaw to challenge the myth of the lone genius. Innovation stops being a mysterious black box and becomes a repeatable, teachable capability across the business.
Rich explains why most organizations over-invest in "innovation theater" and under-invest in mindset. Instead of obsessing over yet another step-by-step process, he focuses on the mental shifts that actually drive breakthrough thinking. From "shopping" vs. "buying" mindsets to the difference between learning, iterating, and executing, you'll get language you can use with your teams tomorrow.
We also unpack Rich's hybrid model for innovation: part consulting, part capability-building. You'll hear how a global quick-service restaurant brand redesigned its supply chain using cross-functional teams—everyone from restaurant crew to executives—working on real projects over nine months. The result? Tangible business outcomes and an enduring lift in problem-solving capability, long after the external experts left.
Rich shows that innovation isn't just about moonshots. It's about orbit shots, cloud shots, roof shots, and jump shots—small, targeted changes that add up to massive impact. Imagine your finance team "innovating" the expense-report process so it's fast, accurate, and painless. That may not land you on the cover of a magazine, but it can unlock time, energy, and engagement across the organization.
If you're tired of one-off workshops, "innovation labs" off in a corner, or expensive programs that don't stick, this conversation with Rich Braden offers a better path. You'll learn how to embed innovation in day-to-day work, build your own obsolescence into client engagements, and turn innovation from a slogan into a core competency.
Three Key Takeaways:
• Innovation is a teachable skill. It's not the domain of lone geniuses; with the right mindsets and language, you can help people across the organization solve real problems in new ways.
• Mindset beats methodology. Most organizations over-index on processes and "innovation theater," but sustainable breakthroughs come from shifting how people think, learn, and experiment in their day-to-day work.
• Capability-building must be tied to real work. The most effective innovation programs blend consulting with hands-on projects, so teams deliver tangible business outcomes and build enduring problem-solving muscles at the same time.
If this conversation on democratizing innovation resonated with you, your next listen should be the episode with Michele Zanini. In that one, we take the same core ideas—moving beyond "innovation theater," distributing problem-solving across the organization, and building real capability instead of one-off programs—and apply them to dismantling bureaucracy and unleashing talent at scale.
Listen to both episodes together and you'll get a powerful one-two punch: a practical framework for everyday innovation, plus a blueprint for removing the structural and cultural barriers that keep your people from using it. If you're serious about making innovation everyone's job—not just a select few in a lab—queue up the Michele Zanini episode next.
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