What You’ll Find This Week
HELLO {{ FNAME | INNOVATOR }}!
Last week, I shared Part 1 of The Innovation Mandate in 2026. It sets up the difficulties you can expect in 2026 as your innovation efforts are pitted against the inevitability of an AI-driven future.
This week, Part 2 explores how to activate innovation underneath the core metrics that the business is still pursuing this year. Innovation may not be a mandate, but it can still happen. As long as it supports the key focal points that executives are concerned with.
Here’s what you’ll find:
This Week’s Article: The Only Innovation Pitch That Works
Share This: The Deman Substitute Scorecard
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This Week’s Article
The Only Innovation Pitch That Works
Part 2 of The Innovation Mandate in 2026
Quick recap: In Part 1, I took a look at why the AI plus efficiency mandate tightens approvals and squeezes innovation into “safe” work. The move was simple. Sell an approved outcome, then ship the new thing underneath it.
Now we activate it. Start by mapping the buyer to the demand substitute. Then score it, run the 30-day sprint, and use the pitch script to get it approved.
The Demand Substitute Menu
Use this to match your buyer/stakeholder to the substitute that clears gates.
Buyer | What they can approve fast | What they’re protecting | Your best substitute | Proof in 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Finance | Vendor spend, reporting | Budget surprises | Cost avoidance | One tool removed, one report automated |
Ops / Delivery | Workflow and handoffs | Missed timelines | Cycle time, Time back | Lead time down, fewer handoffs |
Security / IT | Exceptions and access | Risk exposure | Risk reduction, Audit readiness | One risk closed, one exception removed |
Data / Analytics | Access patterns, instrumentation | Data quality and governance | Cycle time, Risk reduction | Time-to-data down, fewer access exceptions |
Risk / Compliance | Policies, controls, monitoring | Regulatory and brand risk | Audit readiness, Risk reduction | Controls in place, monitoring live |
Sales leadership | Deal motion | Missed number | Customer pain removal | Cycle time down, fewer deal blockers |
Customer Success | Escalations, churn | Account loss | Customer pain removal | Escalations down on one segment |
Product leadership | Roadmap stability | Public failure | Risk reduction | One assumption tested, decision logged |
The menu gives you options. Real life gives you constraints. Pick 2 to 3 rows that fit your buyer. Then score them using the method below.
The Demand Substitute Scorecard
Use this scorecard to pick the right substitute, in the right place, with the smallest possible bet.
Score each from 1 to 5.
Incentive fit: Does leadership already reward this outcome?
Time-to-proof: Can you show evidence in 2 to 4 weeks?
Permission path: Can you run it with team-level approval?
Adoption friction: How many people must change behavior?
Blast radius: If it fails, how visible is the failure?
Champion strength: Do you have a real owner who feels the pain?
Decision rules:
If incentive fit + time-to-proof + champion strength are high, run it.
If adoption friction + blast radius are high, shrink it until they aren’t.
If permission path is low, don’t pitch higher. Redesign the first step.
A simple way to fill it out
Pick three candidate projects. Score them side by side. Then choose the one that can produce proof fastest, not the one you like most.
Most internal innovation dies because it tries to start at “scale.” Start at proof instead to demonstrate alignment to the factors that the C-Suite is most interested in this year.
Once you’ve picked the winner, the 30-day operating plan is how you produce proof without triggering a governance pile-on…
The 30-day operating plan
Week 1: Pick an approved outcome and a metric
Pick one approved outcome. Pick one metric that already exists.
Examples:
Cycle time: days from request to ship
Risk: number of exceptions, number of incidents, severity
Customer pain: escalations per week, churn drivers, time-to-resolution
Cost avoidance: hours saved, tool count, rework rate
If you can’t name a metric, you’re not selling an outcome. You’re selling taste.
Before you build anything, define three things: the rollback, the risk boundary (who and what data is in scope), and what “proof” looks like in 2 to 4 weeks.
Week 2: Subtract first
Before you add a new thing, remove an old thing.
Kill a report nobody reads. Delete a meeting. Merge two approval steps. Standardize one template. Automate one manual step.
Subtraction buys credibility because it proves you’re not here to inflate scope.
Week 3: Run one test that can fail
Write down the riskiest assumption and try to break it fast.
Good tests:
5 customer calls on one decision
a prototype shown to real users
a shadow process replaced for one team
a toggle that lets users opt in, then opt out
Bad tests:
a demo
a survey with no decision attached
a pilot that can’t change anything
Week 4: Publish a decision log
Most internal updates are stories. Stories are easy to ignore.
Publish decisions.
A good update is four bullets:
What we believed
What we tested
What changed
What we’re killing or scaling
This is how you build permission without asking for an “innovation” mandate.
The 90-second pitch that gets a yes
Use this when you need cover, time, or access.
We’re being asked to do more with less and use AI more. We have a [cycle time / risk / cost / customer pain] problem in [area]. It’s showing up as [metric]. I’m not asking for a program. I’m asking for 30 days to remove one constraint and ship one fix. We’ll start by deleting work, not adding it. Then we’ll test the riskiest assumption and either scale it or kill it. You’ll get a short decision log and a before/after on [metric]. If it doesn’t move, we stop.
No “innovation.” No “transformation.” No “lab.”
Just approved work, shipped differently.
The biggest trap
When it feels like there’s no remit for “innovation,” it’s easy to let busy work take the place of progress. Committees. Intake forms. Idea portals. Steering decks. Workshops.
They create motion. They don’t create proof. And in 2026, proof is the only currency that clears gates.
If you want change without an innovation mandate, you need one proof signal, ideally within 30 days:
Work removed: hours reclaimed per week, steps deleted, meetings killed
Risk reduced: high-severity exception closed, incident exposure shrunk, rollback defined
Cycle time improved: lead time down, queue time down, fewer handoffs
Customer pain removed: escalations down, time-to-resolution down, churn driver eliminated
Costs avoided: tool retired, spend removed, rework reduced
Audit burden reduced: evidence time down, exception rate down, controls documented and monitored
If you can’t point to one of these, the approval system won’t debate your idea. It will file you under “risk” and move on.
Publish the proof. Ask for the next constraint. Repeat.
This is your path to innovation this year.
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