Feeling Stuck at Work? Unlock Your Inner Intrapreneur

In summary results from our December assessment, 86% of respondents indicate a high predisposition to succeed at inside innovation.

If you’re feeling stuck or delayed in driving true innovation, the findings from my recently released Inside Innovation Assessment provide lots of encouragement. Based on results from this survey, 86% of people scored 80% or above and are highly predisposed to thrive when engaged in intrapreneurial activities.?

As many people who read this know, we released a new free self-assessment in December that takes a look at 16 key characteristics of successful intrapreneurs. If you want to take it, here’s a link to start: https://tinyurl.com/4r3dzck4.

The characteristics fit into four categories: Foundation, Mindset, Interaction Style, and Appetite for Change.? Each of these categories includes some of the key characteristics of successful inside innovators. The scores are then weighted based on relative importance, specific relevance to this topic and overall impact.

The top five characteristics included in the categories are: Curiosity, Action-orientation, Ability to build bridges, Risk tolerance and Optimism. The remaining ones are: Hard work, Adaptability, Versatility with communications, Resilience, Insightfulness, Ethics, Respect, Different perspective, Cultural awareness, Humility and Courage.

One of the many wonderful results of publishing The Inside Innovator last year was that I heard from a wide range of people who care deeply about sustained innovation inside larger organizations. One of those people is Bill Bennett, CEO of technology solutions provider Kiza Solutions. When I wanted to create the assessment, he said his team could help to translate the earlier observations into a digital resource that people can easily use.

He and I were reviewing the results of the assessment last week, and were struck by a number of things, including how many people scored in the mid-80th percentile. As Bill commented, “I’m delighted with the engagement and fascinated with the details. I feel like there’s so much to learn from people we’re trying to serve.”

I agree with him. Even while writing the book and especially over the past year as so many people chimed in, the learning has rapidly continued. With more comments, questions and stories about intrapreneurship, I’ve been struck by how many people have experienced this type of work, and also gained increased clarity on what it takes to succeed.

Now we have quantitative proof of what I’ve long suspected: most of us have the ability to engage and succeed at inside innovation. All we have to do is unlock it!!

Nearly 100 respondents have now completed the assessment announced in December. In general, a score of 80%+ on the assessment indicates being highly aligned with intrapreneurship, and 86% of people fell into this range as noted above. One of the takeaways is that a large majority of people are likely to be able to succeed in intrapreneurial work, especially when they have the right conditions around them! Further, for people who don’t find innovation to be as strong of a fit, they can make other important contributions in areas including operational excellence, relationship building, team support and consistent development of important deliverables.

For anyone who wants more of a visual of how the results came together, below is a chart. It shows the total score and the relative portion of people who scored in different ranges. In particular, note the peak number of people in the mid-80s, followed by the next-highest block just above that, as well as the next highest block below the peak, and then a sizable contingent at the high end of the range. We do have a much smaller but still significant showing in the 70s and below.

In addition to finding that 86% of people scored 80% or better on the survey, we surfaced other observations too. Of course, this result indicates that 14% of people scored less than 80%. Team members in this group do not necessarily lack the ability to succeed with inside innovation; rather, they just display a lower natural inclination to do it. The minimum score for this survey was 52%, and the maximum score was 100%. Scores at the highest end of the range are relatively rare.

In general, we’re assigning little incremental value between 80% and 100%, as other factors like timing and workload also directly affect results. Also, while these findings are not necessarily representative of the entire adult population, they are intended to reflect the likely distribution in a professional setting. Overall, if you’re trying to build a team optimized for intrapreneurship, one way to increase your chances of success is to find a strong showing of people who naturally attain between 80% and 100%.

A lot of people can apply themselves in this type of work and succeed. And if you enlist the help of others in your organization, then you can expand your options to innovate in truly impactful ways.

Last week, I was speaking with longtime intrapreneur and business builder Vicki Raimey. She is a serial intrapreneur and also is quoted in The Inside Innovator. As we spoke about the topic of this week’s article, she observed, “Successful intrapreneurs combine entrepreneurial drive with organizational savvy, demonstrating remarkable resourcefulness and an ability to find creative solutions despite constraints. Their natural curiosity and adaptability enable them to champion diverse perspectives and identify unexplored opportunities, while skillfully transforming promising ideas into actionable initiatives that align with organizational goals.”

This combination of skills, interests and motivation is truly game-changing!?

These results also suggest that there’s a good chance that you already have many or most of the people you need to innovate on your team, right now. If you’re struggling to adapt and create new value through innovation, then executives should look at the health of the work environment, quality of leadership and capabilities of systems to have sustained innovation. With a healthy environment and culture, effective leadership and systems that enable the habits required for sustained intrapreneurship, you can advance in multiple ways and unlock lots of potential.

So, if you’re interested in innovating and already have momentum in doing it, please take heart that there are likely others around you who share the capability to make it happen. And if you’re feeling stuck, then perhaps with a few adjustments, you can gain (or regain) momentum. Here are 3 ideas if you want to accelerate:

1.??????? Conduct your own assessment of intrapreneurial abilities with your team. Share results to compare and contrast relative skills, and then assign responsibilities to activate your individual and collective strengths.

2.??????? Hold a discussion with your team about one major improvement your team would like to make in innovation, and how to become unstuck. Discuss who has different skills that you can combine to realize your goals.

3.??????? Have a conversation with your boss about the single biggest thing you could do to help innovate and increase velocity toward your 2025 goals. Fold observations about your own intrapreneurial characteristics into the conversation, and explicitly build on your strengths.

I hope you find encouragement from these results. You can do it. And chances are, you’re surrounded by other people who can too!

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