About this session
Organizations often say they want innovation while rewarding predictability, overloading employees, penalizing failed experiments, requiring excessive approval, or allowing promising ideas to disappear after workshops.
A culture of innovation therefore depends on far more than creativity.
Participants examine innovation as an organizational system: strategic direction, leadership behavior, psychological safety, collaboration, decision rights, time, resources, experimentation, learning, incentives, and the pathway through which ideas are evaluated and progressed.
The session is particularly useful for leaders, managers, HR and People teams, transformation teams, innovation functions, project and product teams, and cross-functional groups responsible for creating more adaptive ways of working.
What your people take away
- Define what an innovation culture looks like in observable organizational behavior
- Identify cultural and structural barriers that prevent useful ideas from progressing
- Create conditions where challenge, curiosity, experimentation, and learning are safer
- Build clearer pathways from idea generation into evaluation, experimentation, and implementation
- Align leadership behavior, incentives, resources, and decision-making with innovation goals
- Measure innovation culture without reducing it to idea counts or one-off campaigns
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- What each length covers, 30 minutes to full day
- Everything that’s covered, part by part
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What each length covers
30 minutes
30 Minutes — Key Points: Define the Culture You Actually NeedA focused 30-minute session on three key points from Define the Culture You Actually Need: start with the innovation you need, turn 'culture' into observable behavior and distinguish creativity from innovation.
- Start with the innovation you need
- Turn 'culture' into observable behavior
- Distinguish creativity from innovation
Covers 3 of 4 points in Define the Culture You Actually Need.
60 minutes
What Makes an Innovation Culture Work?A focused introduction to the organizational conditions that enable or suppress innovation. Participants identify current innovation barriers and select practical changes that could make experimentation, challenge, and idea progression easier.
- Creativity versus innovation
- Observable innovation behaviors
- Common innovation culture blockers
- Leadership and psychological permission
- Idea-to-action pathways
- Innovation Culture Self-Check
- Live Q&A
Covers 1 of 4 parts: Define the Culture You Actually Need.
90 minutes
Diagnose & Strengthen Your Innovation CultureThe extended session moves from understanding innovation culture into practical diagnosis. Participants examine leadership, psychological safety, collaboration, capacity, experimentation, decision-making, and the systems through which ideas progress.
- Innovation Culture Diagnostic
- Strategic innovation focus
- Leadership behaviors
- Challenge and psychological safety
- Capacity and collaboration
- Idea progression
- Experiment design
- Culture Strengthening Action Plan
- Live Q&A
Covers 2 of 4 parts: Define the Culture You Actually Need and Create the Conditions for Innovation.
3 hours
Covers 3 of 4 parts: Define the Culture You Actually Need, Create the Conditions for Innovation and Move Ideas Into Experiments & Action.
Full day
Innovation Culture Design WorkshopA strategic full-day workshop covering all four modules. Participants diagnose the current innovation environment, identify cultural and structural barriers, redesign the idea-to-experiment pathway, and create practical actions for leaders, teams, and the wider organization.
- Module 1 — Define the Culture You Actually Need
- Module 2 — Create the Conditions for Innovation
- Module 3 — Move Ideas Into Experiments & Action
- Module 4 — Reinforce Innovation Through the System
- Innovation Culture Diagnostic
- Barrier Mapping Lab
- Leadership Behavior Review
- Idea-to-Action Journey Map
- Experiment Design Lab
- Innovation Measures Workshop
- 90-Day Innovation Culture Plan
- Live Q&A
Covers all 4 parts.
Also available as a 4-week or 8-week program, for change that lasts. Ask us about it.
What’s covered
Define the Culture You Actually Need
Every length- Start with the innovation you needInnovation can mean incremental improvement, new services, process redesign, new business models, technology adoption, customer experience change, or entirely new propositions.
- Turn 'culture' into observable behaviorCulture becomes useful when it can be seen in how people behave.
- Distinguish creativity from innovationCreativity generates possibilities.
- Find the real barriersInnovation can be blocked by workload, hierarchy, approval processes, risk aversion, unclear strategy, lack of resources, siloed teams, short-term targets, poor follow-through, or previous experiences of ideas being ignored.
Create the Conditions for Innovation
90 minutes and longer- Make challenge possibleInnovation depends on people being able to question existing assumptions, processes, and decisions without challenge automatically being treated as negativity or disloyalty.
- Build psychological permission to experimentPeople learn quickly whether an organization genuinely tolerates uncertainty or only celebrates successful outcomes.
- Bring different perspectives togetherInnovation quality improves when teams can combine different expertise, experiences, functions, customer perspectives, and ways of thinking.
- Protect time & attentionEmployees cannot continuously innovate on top of unlimited operational workload.
Move Ideas Into Experiments & Action
3 hours and longer- Create a visible pathway for ideasEmployees disengage from innovation when they submit ideas and never learn what happened to them.
- Use criteria before politicsPromising ideas can be lost when decisions depend entirely on senior preference, presentation skill, or who has access to decision makers.
- Experiment before overinvestingMany ideas do not need a full business case before anything can be learned.
- Learn from what does not workAn experiment that disproves an assumption can still create value if the organization captures the learning and changes direction.
Reinforce Innovation Through the System
Full day only- Leadership signals matterEmployees watch what leaders fund, reward, question, cancel, protect, and tolerate.
- Align incentives & performanceOrganizations can unintentionally discourage innovation by rewarding only short-term certainty, individual delivery, utilization, or error avoidance.
- Measure the health of the systemCounting submitted ideas tells little about whether innovation capability is improving.
- Build continuous innovationInnovation should not depend on an annual hackathon or the enthusiasm of one senior leader.
Tools and materials
- Innovation Culture Self-Check
- Innovation Behavior Canvas
- Barrier & Enabler Map
- Leadership Behavior Review
- Idea-to-Action Journey Map
- Innovation Criteria Matrix
- Experiment Canvas
- Innovation Culture Scorecard
- Innovation Culture Blueprint
How booking works
- Book online. Create a free Workbliss profile, then pay with session credits, by card or by invoice.
- Pick a date. Choose a date at least 14 days ahead, or book now and set the date later.
- Choose your expert. Within 3 working days, we send you profiles of the experts available for your date.
- We deliver it. Your expert is briefed on your people and goals, then runs the session live online or at your site.
Questions about Building a Culture of Innovation
How long is Building a Culture of Innovation?
Building a Culture of Innovation runs as 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, 3 hours or full day. You choose the length when you book. A 30-minute session covers three key points from Define the Culture You Actually Need: start with the innovation you need, turn 'culture' into observable behavior and distinguish creativity from innovation. A 60-minute session covers Define the Culture You Actually Need in full, with a live Q&A. A 90-minute session adds Create the Conditions for Innovation. A 3-hour session adds Move Ideas Into Experiments & Action. A full-day session adds Reinforce Innovation Through the System. It is also available as a 4-week or 8-week program.
Can Building a Culture of Innovation be delivered online or in person?
Yes, both. It runs live online, so every office can join at the same time, or in person at your site, in any country.
How do we book Building a Culture of Innovation?
Create a free Workbliss profile with your work email, then open Building a Culture of Innovation to see the price for each length and book it. You can pay with session credits, by card or by invoice, and choose a date at least 14 days ahead, or set it later.
Who leads the session?
A vetted Workbliss expert, briefed on your people, culture and goals before the session. After you book, we send you profiles of the experts available for your date within 3 working days, so you can choose who leads it.
Can it be tailored to our company?
Yes. Every session is shaped around your goals, your people and the benefits you already offer, and delivered by experts in your people’s languages.