Pushing Without Going Too Far: The Innovation Manager’s Power Move.
How innovation ninjas stretch boundaries without snapping influence, by playing the long game of trust, framing, and strategic invisibility.
It took me a while to realise that innovation roles come with a silent performance criteria; if you're not ruffling some feathers, you're not doing your job. But do it too much, or too fast, and people will disengage.
I used to think pushing boundaries was about being bold, and leading with some great ideas. But the more I do it, the more I associate the path with words like ‘quiet’ or ‘surgical’. Emotional intelligence (and maybe skills like facilitation) help innovation professionals to rewrite the rulebook while making everyone else think they helped too.
Here’s some of my favourites:
Reframe, Don’t Confront
Saying “This is broken” can offend or burn trust.
Saying “There might be a new way to think about this” builds it.
I watch elite operators use language as their leverage. They translate uncomfortable truths into opportunity narratives. They challenge assumptions in ways that feel like support.
Earn Legitimacy
In my early years, I over relied on innovation being a CEO pet project. Don’t rely on your title or a corporate strategy, it burns through your political capital far too quickly. Don’t just pitch ideas, rely on relational equity.
The best play across silos and build early support through collaborations that genuinely care for the humans and what they’re trying to achieve.
Seed Ideas, Let Others Own Them
If your name needs to be on every good idea, you’re doing invention, not innovation. It doesn’t mean you can’t have great ideas, but that isn’t always welcomed.
Top performers selectively drop a deliberate series of insights, ask catalytic questions and create space for others to have the ‘aha’ moment. The idea lives on because it doesn’t need to be credited back. We just need to accept that success has many parents.
Wrap Shock in Safety
Truth without trust risks becoming sabotage.
You can be radical in what you believe, as long as you’re calm and curious in how you deliver it.
Say: “I’ve been wrestling with something new, can you help me think it through?”
Now they’re in the passenger seat, not on the defensive.
Use a Light Touch When Necessary
Innovation professionals are almost always ahead of others in the organisation, which creates a sequencing risk. When the system isn’t ready, go around it. Run micro-pilots. Build artifacts. Find traction. Co-badge with the departments who should be involved, even if they’re not.
Once people see results, they’ll retroactively decide they supported you all along.
It’s not dishonest. It’s risk management.