Did you know that in 1926, Henry Ford did something most people thought was ridiculous? And no, we’re not talking about introducing the Model T Ford – that happened in 1908 already.
In 1926, Ford reduced his workers’ schedules from six days (and often 10 to 12-hour days) to a five-day, 40-hour week – without cutting their pay.
Of course, most people thought that he was crazy; that he was wrecking his business, and that it didn’t make any financial sense.
However, it made sense to Ford. He believed people would work better, live better, and yes, also spend more, if they had more time for life outside the factory.
It worked.
And within 14 years, the 5-day, 40-hour week became US law.
Of course, it wasn’t all Ford. But someone had to go first.
Someone had to have the strategic imagination to think bigger.
Someone had to have the guts to do something so out-the-box that people called him crazy.
Fast forward to 2025 and perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves what the craziest thing is that we’ve done in our organisations this year?
What have we done differently, where have we experimented, and have we done anything to warrant people calling us crazy, or even brave?
And no… we’re not talking about giving your staff permission to work from home one day a week. I doubt Ford would be impressed that 100 years later there’s not been much change to our office hours. In fact, he’d probably wonder how we’ve managed to add more hours to our work week and become slaves to the tech that often promised us the opposite.
At TomorrowToday, we believe innovators don’t just create new things – they change the way the world works.
Just like Henry Ford did, innovators take ideas, sometimes their own, sometimes sparked by others, and nurture them until they shift from “different” to “normal.”
Innovation takes courage: the confidence to back an idea, the willingness to take risks, the leadership to bring others along, and a vision of a better future.
This is the spirit that our team invites leaders and organisations to embrace today: not waiting for the future but actively shaping it.
Using TomorrowToday’s Full Blown Innovation framework, here are 3 simple, yet practical actions leaders can take this week to encourage innovation.
1. Reward Curiosity in meetings
Instead of only focusing on solutions, take 10 minutes in your next team meeting to ask: “What’s one problem we should be paying more attention to?” Recognise and thank those who surface meaningful challenges, even if there’s no immediate fix. This shifts the culture from idea-chasing to problem-discovery.
2. Invite Wider Participation
Pick one decision, project, or challenge and intentionally invite input from people outside the usual group – perhaps frontline staff, younger team members, or a different department. This widens the pool of perspectives and reinforces that innovation is everyone’s responsibility.
3. Experiment Small, Fail Fast
Choose one process or routine (e.g. reporting, customer feedback, scheduling) and run a small experiment to test a new way of doing it. Frame it as a “pilot,” so the team knows it’s safe to try, fail, and learn. Small wins work.
Need more help with intentionally creating a culture of innovation in your organisation?
Our team’s Full Blown Innovation keynote or workshop is a great place to start!
Let us know if you’d like to check availability (our presenter’s diaries are filling up and so already have limited slots for August and September).
TomorrowToday empowers forward-thinking organisations to not just anticipate the future, but to shape it. Staying ahead of the curve is critical, and we provide the visionary thinking and strategic execution you need to thrive.