How To Create A Culture Of Innovation
Entrepreneurs love to declare that they want innovation. But most just hope for it—while running teams on busywork, fire drills, and a thousand small “maybes.”
Real movement-minded brands build innovation as a habit: A culture of questioning, risk, and clarity that makes every idea a candidate for breakthrough.
If you’re done waiting for your “best idea” to magically appear, here’s how Un_Standard builds innovation from the inside out.
Make Clarity Your Innovation Launchpad
Innovation doesn’t start with more chaos. It starts with ruthless clarity.
- Align your team to the customer’s problem and mission, not just products.
- Start every quarter by naming a big question or pain point you’ll attack.
- Kill meeting bloat—give thinkers time to chase ideas instead of endless status updates.
A movement ignites when everyone knows why they build—not just what.
Reward Experiments—Not Just Outcomes
If your team believes only perfect ideas are celebrated, they’ll play it safe every time. Flip the script—reward tests, pilots, and learning, no matter the result.
- Share stories of flops and what you learned.
- Give “most creative fail” trophies.
- Publicly celebrate new playbook makers, not just repeaters.
When flops are safe, creativity compounds.
Join The Movement
Build Rituals for Un_Sticking Blocks
Innovation gets stuck at “that’s not how we do it.” Kill that with structured rituals:
- Monthly “Reverse Brainstorm” sessions: List every blocked idea, then crowdsource how to unblock it.
- Quarterly “Break the Routine” challenge: Give teams one permission slip to break a process and ship the results.
- Drop a “no wrong answer” time slot in every planning meeting.
When blockers are exposed, the boldest ideas breathe.
Bring in Outsiders and Contrarian Voices
Movements welcome cross-pollination—invite customers, partners, or even friendly “competitors” to riff with your team.
- Rotate who leads brainstorming (designer today, ops lead next week).
- Host lunch & learns with local founders, makers, or even “anti-experts” from totally different industries.
Fresh voices spark fresh perspectives.
Make It Visual. Make It Loud.
Celebrate innovative wins on your office wall, your Slack channels, your socials.
- Post customer reviews, new product demos, before/after experiments.
- Build digital “Wall of Tries”—each sticky note a bold bet attempted.
Visibility invites buy-in; momentum loves to be recognized.
Clarity Ritual: The 90-Day Innovation Rumble
Pick one stubborn process, product, or aspect of your culture each quarter. Challenge every team: “How would you destroy and rebuild this from scratch?” No idea is too wild.
Track the outcomes. Implement the sharpest fix. Repeat quarterly.
Proof From the Movement
- A high-velocity SMB ran biweekly “Bold Idea Sprints,” putting marketing and ops on solving the same problem in two different ways. Three pivots later, NPS shot up, and a new partnership landed.
- Another founder started “Innovation Lunches,” inviting designers to pitch ridiculous ideas. They landed a viral product when everyone chased the “what if?”
Start Building Your Innovation Engine
Movement-minded leaders don’t make innovation a slide at the all-hands. They make it a ritual, a system, an expectation.
- Clarity tells you what to chase.
- Rituals make it safe to try.
- Action turns tests into repeatable wins.
It’s not about being the first to try—it’s about being the brand that makes innovation a habit.
Ready to turn hope into a culture of action?
Book an Innovation Clarity Workshop with Un_Standard →
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David Garrard
Agent Provocateur & Chief Creative Officer at Un_Standard. David helps ambitious brands unearth clarity, break the rules that hold them back, and co-create movement-level growth. When not challenging the status quo, he’s in the kitchen inventing new flavors or chasing after his three cats: Hallie Tosis, Lester Een, and Jim G. Vitis. #BeUnStandard
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