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Systemic
Innovation
Sprints

Your best ideas are already hiding in the constraints you’ve been working around.

A Sprint takes what you know about your system and turns it into ideas worth testing, prototypes worth showing, and momentum worth building on.

Let's talk about what you need to move

Most innovation processes start with a blank canvas. Anything is possible. The ideas flow. The Post-its multiply. And then, somewhere between the workshop and the real world, almost everything stops.

Not because the ideas were bad. Because they weren’t designed for the system they had to land in.

A Systemic Innovation Sprint works differently. It starts with the system you are actually working in, its constraints, its politics, its existing assets and its real stakeholders, and uses that as the creative material rather than trying to work around it.

This matters more than it might sound. When ideas are built from within the constraints of a system rather than despite them, they fit better. They feel less threatening to the people who have to approve them. They are easier to prototype, faster to test, and far more likely to actually stick. In regulated environments, where the constraints are significant and the appetite for risk is low, this is the difference between an idea that survives sign-off and one that dies in committee..

Sprints come in different sizes, because challenges come in different sizes.

An Ideation Sprint is a single focused day. It is for teams facing a specific block, a problem that needs reframing, a decision that needs unsticking, a challenge that needs fresh thinking fast. Using our reframing tools and perceptual work, we move quickly from the problem as defined to ideas the team itself can take forward. You leave with a clear set of directions and the momentum to pursue them, without needing us in the room for what comes next.
A Systemic Sprint is a deeper process, typically spread across five days, sometimes in a block, sometimes with time in between to test and return. It is for challenges that deserve more space, where the problem is complex enough to need proper systemic exploration before ideas can be generated responsibly. A core group of around ten people carries the work through all five days. Other voices, stakeholders, subject matter experts, members of the Champions Network, come in at key moments to stress test ideas before they get anywhere near real-world implementation.

Both formats use the same principles. Work within constraints. Build from what the system already has. Use reframing tools to generate ideas with enough variety to match the complexity of the challenge. Test early, test cheaply, and keep the system close throughout.

The difference between a Sprint and most ideation processes runs deeper than method. It starts before the room and it doesn’t end when you leave it. Before: there is alignment work, understanding the one degree away principle, mapping what the system already contains that can be repurposed or combined or amplified. This is not preparation for its own sake. It means that when people arrive, the energy goes into generating and testing ideas rather than establishing basic shared understanding.

The difference between a Sprint and most ideation processes runs deeper than method. It starts before the room and it doesn't end when you leave it.

Before: there is alignment work, understanding the one degree away principle, mapping what the system already contains that can be repurposed or combined or amplified. This is not preparation for its own sake. It means that when people arrive, the energy goes into generating and testing ideas rather than establishing basic shared understanding.
After: there is a clear pathway. Not a report. Not a set of recommendations for someone else to act on. A tested set of ideas, a sense of which has most traction in the real system, and a team that has the ownership and the momentum to take them forward.

Every Sprint is shaped around your specific challenge, your specific constraints, your specific system. The map we make is a map of your territory.

If you have a challenge that needs to move, let's talk about what kind of Sprint makes sense

Who it is for:

leaders, teams and organisations with a defined challenge that needs fresh thinking, whether that is a specific block to get past or a larger innovation opportunity to explore.

Sprints work well following a Systemic Dialogue Lab or Systemic Discovery process, where the system is already understood and the work is ready to move into ideas and prototypes. They can also be run as a standalone intervention when the challenge is clear enough to work from directly.

If you are not sure which format fits your situation, that is a good conversation to have before committing to anything.

Neil has been designing and facilitating innovation sprints for over 25 years, across sectors from nuclear and defence to government and global business. He has helped hundreds of teams move from stuck to prototype faster than they expected, and with ideas that actually survived the journey back to the real world.

If you would like to explore whether a Sprint is the right next step for your challenge, there are a few ways to start that conversation.

 
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e-mail Neil directly

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

Real people. Real organisations. Real change.

Senior leaders reflecting honestly on what it’s actually like to work with us.

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“I chose systemic innovation because the statistic that 70% of innovation fails was not one I wanted to be on the end of.”

Sam Catley

People Services and Innovation Director, EDF

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“I see it like my little toolbox. It’s something that’s stuck with me and has fundamentally changed how I approach challenges on a personal and business level.”

Sarah Harvey

Global Director Customer Success, Vertex Inc

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“Bringing Neil into my clients is something I don’t hesitate to do. He will come in and quickly understand the most complex and most critical issues for an organisation and very quickly navigate his way around with diplomacy and humour to help them reach their goals.”

Julia Days

Talent Acquisition Transformation Consultant and Strategy Advisor, RL100 UK 2026

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“We’ve now had 1,500 women go through our programme, and we’ve eliminated attrition from that population, which is extraordinary. We have stopped women leaving our organisation once we invest in them in that way.”

Rachel Higham

MD of IT, BT

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“When Neil tips up in an organisation, I think he’s tipping up as a colleague, as someone who wants to collaborate and who genuinely wants to leave a legacy.”

David Beales

People innovation Hub, EDF

The Systemic
Change Map

Map how change actually happens in your organisation.

Most leaders working in complex organisations know something isn’t quite working. The patterns underneath are often hard to see from the inside.

In around ten minutes, this free guided reflection helps you understand the conditions surrounding your challenge and how change actually happens in your organisation.

You won’t receive a score. You’ll receive a map.
A starting point for better thinking, better conversations and better decisions about what to do next.
Take the free Systemic Change Map

Other ways we can help

Systemic Dialogue Labs

Most organisations already have the answers they need. They just haven’t asked the right people in the right way.

A Systemic Dialogue Lab brings together the voices closest to the challenge, at scale and in a structured way, and surfaces what the system already knows. Fast, rich, and often revelatory.

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Systemic
 Discovery

Most projects fail before they really start. Neither the problem nor the system has been properly understood, the right people aren’t aligned, and there’s no agility in the map the team need to follow.

Systemic Discovery reads the system early. It gives you the clarity, the alignment and the coalition you need before the real work begins.

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Systemic Innovation Sprints

Once you understand the system, you need to move. A Sprint takes insights and turns them into ideas, prototypes and real-world testing with the people who will make or break them.

Focused, fast, and grounded in the reality of how your system actually works.

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Systemic
 Facilitation

Sometimes the problem isn’t the problem. It’s that the right people aren’t in the room, or they’re in the room but not really talking, or they’re talking but not hearing each other.

In complexity, where cause and effect aren’t always visible, Systemic Facilitation creates the conditions for alignment. It can also involve scenario testing, expanding beyond the known, and building the governance structures and sandboxes that give new ideas room to survive.
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Innovation
 Coaching

Leading innovation in a complex organisation is one of the lonelier jobs there is. The challenges are systemic, the politics are real, and most coaching doesn’t touch the half of it.

Innovation Coaching is thought partnership for leaders who need someone who genuinely understands the terrain, knows how complexity operates, and can help you bring people with you.

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Private Client
 Partnerships

Some challenges need more than a project. They need a thinking partner who rolls up their sleeves and stays close to the work, facilitating, coaching, building capability, nurturing change and doing whatever the moment requires.

We only take on a small number of these each year. Because when we partner with a client, we go all in.

Explore Private Client Partnerships