Insights

Key takeaways from our Innovator’s Sandbox event

Written by Marcus Fogg | 13/06/2024

Innovation insights from a cross-sector panel

How leaders can build a culture of experimentation

Emily Dent (&us Partner) shared four principles to help leaders build a culture of innovation and experimentation to combat the astronomical $8.8tn that is lost globally due to lack of employee engagement. Down below is a summary of the key lessons – inspired by nature and our experience of working with clients in large organisations.






To begin considering how this can inspire you as a leader, Emily encourages thinking about three network types in your career:

  • Operational network: How do you get things done in your organisation?
  • Personal network: Who will support, or guide you through the hard times?
  • Strategic network: How do you connect with the people outside of your organisation who know about the future of your industry?

To recap

Validating ideas starts with speaking to real customers, testing early and often, and building a mindset of testing and learning into the way you work. It can be difficult to integrate these ways of working into large organisations but it can be done if leaders make room in their own workloads to refocus teams on making, and create a safe space for teams to experiment.

Tied in with the learnings from the panel, it's also vital to consider the four principles detailed by Emily above to help streamline communication, ensure people understand the guardrails for experimentation, avoid unnecessary meetings and have time allocated time for making, all whilst considering the various networks you as a leader have at play. 

If you would like to find out more about the topics discussed, or how a culture of innovation could be fostered in your organisation, please get in touch here, or send us an email (hello@andus.co) and we’ll be in touch.

See the event in action