Episode 11: How leaders can (and should sustain) grassroots innovation

Episode 12: Marta Jakab on Why problems matter more than ideas in corporate innovation

If you’re a leader who got excited and enthused to invite everyone in the organization to share ideas about innovation, please hold on, and don't do it.  It may feel like the right thing to do, it may give you the excitement that you haven't felt for a while. It may make you feel energized because you are finally permitted to tap into the brilliance and wisdom that is already inside the organization. You may wonder why stop when I just got the permission and the mandate? Because if you collect ideas that don't solve anything, instead of inspiring those internal innovators that you aim to activate, you will disappoint them, erode the trust, damage your own leadership.    Just  calling for ideas is the wrong place to start.  My guest today has spent her entire career inside corporate innovation. From very first idea management platforms to more elaborate intrapreneurship programs, which she’s built herself from the ground up. She has designed what she calls a marketplace of problems. And she has seen, firsthand, the difference between organizations that perform innovation and organizations that actually do it. She is Marta Jakab [https://www.linkedin.com/in/martajakab/], a software engineer by training and an innovation leader by calling who has helped corporations master implementation of innovation and intrapreneurship programs.  Marta [https://www.linkedin.com/in/martajakab/] says she speaks 8 languages. I say she speaks 10, including innovation and intrapreneurship.  But I think her favorite language could be the 11th one. The one of problem solving. I am your host Iliriana Kacaniku, an innovation strategist at heart, and this is the Activate Innovation Lounge, a podcast dedicated to all leaders with or without innovation in their title who want to activate innovators, innovation, and innovation culture in their organization. Let’s welcome Marta Jakab [https://www.linkedin.com/in/martajakab/] to the conversation.

Episode 11: How leaders can (and should sustain) grassroots innovation

In the first part of this conversation, Alexis Samuel laid out what he calls the Baker's Dozen. Twelve building blocks for activating grassroots innovation in a large enterprise. From the CEO's call to innovate to psychological safety. From branding a program to measuring how it generates its return on investment. It was a masterclass in the architecture of innovation at scale. Especially for corporations. But who are the people, that is the employees, that respond to such calls? Why do they respond? Do they all engage with such initiatives? That is the human story inside the architecture. And that is what this second episode is about. Today, we move from strategy to people. From building the system to understanding what it feels like to be inside it. We talk about who the grassroots innovators really are, what activates their curiosity and drive to engage with innovation calls, and what makes them stop participating.  I personally learned something new about this last one. Alexis Samuel spent 35 years in the corporate world ensuring excellent delivery of IT services. He never held innovation in his title. Yet he activated innovators throughout his career, and in his last chapter he shaped a program to activate grassroots innovators across a global company with over 250,000 employees. He is not your common go-to person when it comes to innovation. Yet his wisdom is priceless. I am your host Iliriana Kacaniku, an innovation strategist at heart, and this is the Activate Innovation Lounge, a podcast dedicated to all leaders with or without innovation in their title who want to activate innovators, innovation, and innovation culture in their organization. Chapters 00:00 Understanding Grassroots Innovators 07:12 Motivation and Engagement in Innovation 12:36 Hackathons vs. Extended Innovation Challenges 19:41 Setting the Stage for Successful Innovation 25:35 The Role of AI in Innovation Processes 36:19 Leveraging External Ecosystems for Innovation 41:07 The Future of Innovation Programs 46:43 Sustaining Innovation Through Leadership Changes 53:10 Activating Grassroots Innovators 55:18 The Future of Innovation Programs

Who knows best what needs to be solved?

There is a tension in how organizations think about activating employee innovators. Who knows best what needs to be solved? The leader who sees the business from the top? Or the employee who lives the friction every day? Alexis Samuel [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexissamuel2367/] spent over 35 years ensuring excellent delivery of global IT services for large technology enterprises. He activated thousands of grassroots innovators without ever holding innovation in his title. His answer is clear: go to the people doing the work. Ask them what can be done better, what needs to drop, what can be automated, what can be eliminated. Simplify, combine, automate, eliminate. That backlog becomes your innovation agenda. And today, it also becomes your AI roadmap. The employees closest to the friction are the ones who know where it lives. Now a question for you as a leader: Have you ever watched your team solve the wrong problem brilliantly — because no one asked them which problem actually needed solving first? What does it take in your organization to surface the right problems before jumping to solutions? Drop your answer in the comments. In the next episode of the Activate Innovation Lounge, Alexis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexissamuel2367/] unpacks this and several other sharp ideas on activating grassroots innovators at scale — including how AI fits into every stage of the process. Part two goes live this Friday. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 10: Why should leaders activate grassroots innovators with Alexis Samuel

Why do most innovation programs generate excitement but deliver nothing? You collect hundreds of ideas. Award the best ones. Then watch them die in handoff limbo. Alexis Samuel has spent decades building grassroots innovation programs at scale in global services firms. He reveals who actually shows up to innovate, how to set transparent evaluation criteria, and how to build scaffolding that carries ideas from submission to implementation. You will learn why doers—not managers—drive the best innovations, how to use AI for screening without eliminating human judgment, and why innovation programs need to rebrand every three years. This episode is for leaders tired of innovation theater and ready to build systems where ideas actually ship. Key takeaways: * Broadening the definition of innovation draws everyone in. * CEO sponsorship and clear vision are critical for grassroots programs. * Ring-fencing problems and setting measurable goals drive success. * Training and continuous refreshment of skills are essential. * Transparent metrics and psychological safety foster innovation. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Innovation Leadership 03:21 The Role of Grassroots Innovation 05:21 Defining Problems for Innovation 09:14 Activating Grassroots Innovators 14:13 Who should find the problem to solve? 18:21 The Baker's Dozen framework  32:01 How to motivate managers and create psychological safety for engagement in innovation? 37:02 How to manage reward and recognition for grassroots innovators? 42:05 How to measure the Return on Investment of grassroots innovation campaigns? 55:54 Success stories from grassroots innovation 01:04 Key Takeaway

Episode 9: How can leaders measure the business value of innovation with Simon Hill

Innovation is inherently uncertain because it is about the future. That uncertainty is also the reason innovation gets cut first when budgets tighten. Most leaders cannot put a number on the value innovation creates, so when finance asks, the room goes quiet. Simon Hill has spent fifteen years building the tools to end that silence. He is the founder and CEO of Wazoku, the innovation delivery partner behind Total Innovation and the InnoCentive marketplace, and the author of Expected Value: The System to Align Innovation, Strategy, and Value Creation. In this conversation, Simon and Iliriana unpack: * Why challenge-driven innovation is the most practical tool a leader has to activate innovators, internal or external * The xV framework: the four components that let innovation teams, strategy, and finance finally speak the same language * Why most innovation projects spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars to generate one dollar of expected value, and what to do about it * Kill credits and zombie projects: why stopping bad investments is as valuable as launching good ones * The case for intentional deceleration in a culture obsessed with speed * Why the wall between internal and external innovators is smaller than most leaders think * How AI has collapsed the cost of feasibility to nearly zero, and what that means for the bottleneck of innovation * Why Simon believes innovation is not a job but a mindset and a system * The first-time-public reveal of Wazoku's price point for the full open innovation stack Simon ends the conversation with a question for our audience, one he himself cannot answer cleanly: Why are so few organizations using open innovation when the cost of deploying it has dropped to almost zero, and the cost of not deploying it has never been higher? If you are a leader, with or without innovation in your title, working to activate innovators, build innovation programs, or measure what your innovation work is actually worth, this conversation is for you. About the guest Simon Hill is founder and CEO of Wazoku, an innovation platform serving NASA, HSBC, Novartis, Shell, the UK Ministry of Defence, and others. He is the author of Expected Value, shortlisted in the top five for Thinkers360 Author of the Year 2026. He is a five-time acquirer, a Founders Pledge member, and the Guardian SME Business Leader of the Year. About the host Iliriana Kacaniku is the founder of OpenSolve Studio and host of the Activate Innovation Lounge. She is an innovation strategist with over twenty years of experience helping organizations and their leaders activate innovators, build innovation programs, and create cultures where innovation becomes a practice, not just a moment. Connect with SimonLinkedIn: Simon Hill on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhill/]Wazoku: wazoku.com [https://www.wazoku.com/]Book: Expected Value: The System to Align Innovation, Strategy, and Value Creation Connect with IlirianaLinkedIn: Iliriana Kacaniku on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilirianakacaniku/]Website: OpenSolveStudio.com [http://opensolvestudio.com/]Newsletter: Activate Innovation Newsletter Subscribe to the Activate Innovation LoungeSpotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube