Mainstreaming innovation culture

I was recently invited to speak at the second Innovation for Impact Network Open House, alongside colleagues from the UN Innovation Network and WWF (and chaired by another from Amnesty International USA). Such events often act as a forcing tool for consolidating the team's experiences as well as learning from others. 

The event brought together innovation leaders from around the world to share practical approaches for embedding innovation into organisations. We exchanged experiences, tackled questions like "Does AI help or hinder culture change?" in breakout sessions (we didn't reach a conclusion), and explored how our work drives impact-driven experimentation. It was a powerful reminder of how collaboration and creativity can help us face challenges together.

Lastly, I was struck at how effectively my colleagues in other NGOs were harnessing fear of missing out (FOMO) to encourage others to take part in their innovation initiatives.  Something to think about.

Here are some of the learnings I shared. 

Getting started

Unlike many similar teams, we don’t have an official role in building an innovation culture across Friends of the Earth - but that doesn’t stop us from trying. Sometimes we even succeed.

Our approach starts with building a culture of psychological safety, creativity and curiosity—both within our team and among those who work with us.  We do that through:

• Secondments Inviting colleagues to join our initiatives, even for a short time, is great way to spread our values. 
• Facilitating conversations for others We help facilitate challenging conversations across the organisation, often bringing new tools like Futures wheels. Some of these are still discussed by our colleagues years after they experienced them.
• Reflective Practices We use "no blame" frameworks like the Hotwash to review projects. 
• Yes, and...: Shamelessly stolen from improv comedians, this default answer to any proposal helps ensure no-one's idea gets squashed. 

Making innovation culture inclusive

One question that came up in the discussion was how to involve quieter voices in innovation, like those of introverts.  As a team co-lead who would probably identify as an introvert, it  won't come as a surprise that I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. As a result, we've re-tooled our meetings, workshops and overall approach accordingly.  Here are a few ideas:

• Participation via chat Options for contributing via chat instead of speaking out during remote sessions.
• Equal air time Everyone is asked for their view and given equal time to contribute. Colleagues can say "pass" or "come back to me later" if they're not ready.
• Asynchronous contributions More opportunities to contribute outside of meetings, such as through Miro boards and documents.
• Introvert-friendly decision making Experimenting with voting and other methods instead of high-stakes meeting discussions.
• Spaced workshops Deliberately spacing workshops on complex topics like population ageing to allow time for reflection and recuperation. 

Enabling experimentation

Different colleagues and parts of the organisation rightly have different appetites for risk. In some areas, like AI, we will work to unlock barriers to organisation-wide experimentation:

• Policy development We've collaborated with our IT team to develop policies that support safe yet ambitious experimentation with AI.
• Show and Tells These sessions are designed to normalise trying things out and celebrate those who do so. 
• Share thinking in progress By sharing draft principles like those in our Human + Technology manifesto, we aim to encourage our colleagues to think more deeply about the future and the choices we need to make. 

Conclusion

That’s a little insight into how we approach mainstreaming innovation culture within Friends of the Earth. We might not have “innovation culture development” explicitly in our job descriptions, but we try to nudge it forward every day. We'd love to hear more about ways that your team uses to help build the conditions for more innovation.