Episode 30: ‘‘The Ingenuity is Already There’’   

Most organisations have more ideas than they know what to do with. If only they knew it. Ingenuity is not the preserve of a gifted few. It is inherent in all of us – but as we grow up and enter the world of education, then of work, the systems and cultures around us can gradually dampen our creativity. We learn to stay within the lines, to avoid getting things wrong, and mostly to keep our ideas to ourselves.  

Tackling this is what drives Louise Kyhl Triolo who has spent much of her career working on that challenge, helping leaders and organisations rethink how they work, innovate and develop their people.   

As a leadership coach, organisational culture consultant and keynote speaker Louise’s career includes working with companies such as Heidrick & Struggles, Airbus, VMware and L’Oreal, with a significant part of it spent in Silicon Valley. Her experience spans leadership, people development, culture and innovation, and she has a particular interest in intrapreneurship: the entrepreneurial spirit that can flourish within an organisation, not just in start-ups or new ventures.  

The difficulty is creating the conditions in which people feel able to share – and in which ideas that challenge the status quo have a chance of being taken seriously. 

For Louise, unlocking ingenuity means more than running an ideas initiative. It asks leaders to make room for different perspectives and to recognise that they don’t have all the answers. And the need to draw on that ingenuity extends beyond any one organisation: the challenges we face are too complex and interconnected for companies, industries or sectors to solve alone.  

An example of the value of intrapreneurship is an initiative Louise ran at Airbus, called the Dream Big Initiative, where the environment and conditions were created for employees to feel inspired and safe to contribute ideas for the company’s future. The response was striking: 700 ideas came in, 150 were selected, and 30 teams developed and pitched their proposals to senior management. This initiative was taken seriously by the leadership, and three teams went on to be given time away from their day jobs to develop their ideas further. The result of this investment? One team went on to secure funding, and its proposal – a platform drawing on the collective intelligence of people inside and outside the organisation – became a new business model for Airbus at the time. 

It is a compelling example of what can happen when people are given the opportunity to think beyond their immediate roles. But Louise is clear about the tension involved. In large industrial organisations, where getting things right matters and mistakes can carry serious consequences, bold ideas can easily be dismissed as too risky. The challenge is to create enough space for experimentation without losing sight of what the business needs to deliver. 

 That requires more than an invitation to submit ideas. It calls for leaders who are prepared to question their assumptions, make room for different perspectives and recognise that they don’t necessarily have all the answers. 

For Louise, this matters well beyond any one organisation. The challenges facing us are too complex and interconnected for companies, industries or sectors to solve them alone. We need to collaborate across boundaries, draw on a wider range of human ingenuity and bring younger generations into conversations about the future they will inherit. 

Louise’s current ambition is to help bridge boundaries – including the one between today’s decision-makers and the younger generations who will live with the future those decisions create.