Most Organizations Say They Want Innovation…
Most organizations say they want innovation.
But if we’re honest… most organizations are still designed to reward predictability, certainty and efficiency. Oh, and fast execution!
None of those things are bad. The problem begins when organizations try to solve uncertain, ambiguous, fast-changing challenges using the exact same mindset they use to operate the business.
And if you’re a BRM, you probably feel this tension because you sit in the middle of competing realities:
· The business wants innovation.
· IT wants predictability.
· Leadership wants results yesterday.
And somehow, you’re expected to make all of it work together.
Over the last few years working with organizations, executives, and teams navigating transformation, I’ve noticed something important: The challenge is usually this:
Organizations often don’t recognize that operational thinking and innovation thinking are fundamentally different modes of operating.
One seeks certainty. The other learns through uncertainty.
One scales what already works. The other tests what might work.
And when teams confuse the two:
• Meetings become about defending ideas instead of exploring them.
• People wait for certainty before taking action.
• Innovation initiatives become heavy, slow, or overanalyzed.
• Teams jump into solution mode before truly understanding the problem.
• Smart people stop sharing ideas because the environment doesn’t feel safe enough to explore them.
The irony? Most organizations already have talented people capable of innovation.
What they often lack are the conditions that allow innovation to happen consistently:
Shared language.
Psychological safety.
Permission to test.
Curiosity.
Cross-functional collaboration.
A way to distinguish when a challenge requires optimization… and when it requires exploration.
And this matters now more than ever because the world most organizations operate in today is increasingly ambiguous, fast-moving, interconnected, and difficult to predict.
The organizations adapting best are the ones learning fastest. That’s one of the reasons we are hosting this upcoming webinar for BRMs that asks the question: “Are You Using the Right Mindset for the Challenge You Face?”
Join us on June 10, 2026 from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM EST led by Alexandra Suarez from Lateral Strategy to help leaders and teams innovate inside organizations that still operate with strong operational cultures, helping them create alignment, rethink problems and move ideas into action.
The session is designed for professionals navigating the tension between operational excellence and innovation every single day. Because innovation is about helping people think differently when the situation requires it.
And sometimes the most powerful shift begins with a simple question: “Do we already know the answer…or do we need to learn first?”
About the Author
Alexandra Suárez-Carlo is an Innovation and Customer Experience consultant who works primarily with highly regulated industries navigating complexity, transformation, and change. She is also a Mural & LUMA Institute Human-Centered Design trainer for the LATAM region, where she has had the privilege of working with professionals across Latin America who innovate every day with limited resources, high ambiguity, and incredible resilience. “In LATAM, innovation is rarely about having the resources or the perfect conditions. It’s about figuring things out with ingenuity, collaboration, and lots of coffee to turn constraints around every single day.”