Innovation Comes from Intrapreneurs

Employees say they’re unhappy. Companies are struggling to navigate massive change. The solution to both? It’s creating a culture of intrapreneurship.

- By Frank Theodore Koe

As you read this, many of the people on your team may be plotting their escape. A recent Gallup poll found that 54 percent of workers are “psychologically unattached to their work and company”—and that makes them very hard to rally to your cause. Across the American economy, those disengaged employees translate into billions of dollars of losses.

Why are they disengaged? Take your pick from a host of explanations. The pandemic inspired many people to reconsider their lives. Meanwhile, millennials are projected to make up 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025, and they have been known for a hyper-focus on meaningful work that aligns with their beliefs (which isn’t something every job offers). Now Gen Z is entering the workforce and exhibits strong entrepreneurial ambitions; when EY Ripples and JA Worldwide surveyed nearly 6,000 members of Gen Z who participated in JA programs, for example, it found that 53 percent say they aspire to run their own business within a decade.

In short: People want more control. They want to engage in more nonlinear thinking that allows for an expansive and creative way of finding solutions to problems. And if leaders want to engage these inspiring workers, and harness their energy and ideas, they will need to pursue a concept that is decades old—but that still hasn’t made its way into many company cultures.

It is intrapreneurship.