Total Innovation Podcast

38. Expected Value - Chapter 15 & Epilogue

This is final episode of this season and the closing chapter in the Expected Value Story. In this episode, we look at the future of innovation. Innovation without adaptation is just novelty. The future belongs to those who can continuously evolve their innovation system. Over this season, we've followed Freya and her team as they've moved from good intentions and busy innovation to clearer decisions, better evidence, and real value. But no system ever stands still. The world keeps changing, and the real question becomes how do we change with it without losing what we've built? As we prepare to say goodbye to Freya, she is asked a simple but powerful question, what's next? And her answer isn't about more ideas or bigger bets. It's about building an organization that can keep learning, adapting, and creating value, even when the future refuses to behave.

37. Expected Value - Chapter 14

In this episode we explore chapter fourteen from metrics to mindsets. Thus far in the story we have seen that the numbers look great. XV across the portfolio was strong. Strategic fit profiles were improving, kill decisions were happening faster, reallocations were smooth. On paper, Freya's innovation system was working exactly as designed. And yet something felt off. In this episode we explore what happens when an innovation system starts to become a performance, when confidence scores are given without doing the work, when learning is claimed without reflection, and when people walk through the beautiful structure you've built like it's a museum, admiring it but not living it. We'll follow Freya and Axel as they shift the focus from metrics to mindsets, recentering everything on real challenges that matter, using AI as a cultural sense-making tool, identifying cultural lead users who already embody the behaviors you want, and rewiring rituals so the organization celebrates realized value, not just innovation activity. If you've ever felt your dashboards look great, but your innovation culture is quietly drifting, this chapter is for you. It is about turning your system back into a tool, restoring truth over theatre, and closing the gap between expected and realized value.

36. Expected Value - Act 4 Chapters 12 & 13

In this episode, we move to Act 4, where the spotlight moves from frameworks to people. Freya's team can score ideas, prioritize bets, and balance the portfolio. But now they face the harder challenge, embedding innovation into the culture itself. We'll see how they bridge the gap between potential and performance, turning XV into realised value, and we'll explore the table of justice, a transformative way to judge decisions by evidence, not emotion. This is where innovation becomes lived, not just measured. 

35. Expected Value - Chapter 11

In this episode we step into chapter 11, learning loops and dynamic resourcing, where Freya discovers the fundamental truth at the heart of innovation performance. Namely, the value of an innovation is directly proportional to how much we learn from it, irrespective of whether it succeeds or fails. This chapter begins with tension. A major project is under scrutiny, the CFO demands evidence, and Freya realizes the team has been learning, but not showing the learning. What follows is a profound shift from reporting activity to reporting confidence, from fixed plans to dynamic resource allocation, and from rigid portfolios to living systems that adapt at the pace of evidence. We explore how Freya builds learning velocity, tracks X V deltas, reframes killed decisions, and introduces dynamic resourcing that moves money, talent, and attention to where learning is happening fastest. It's the moment where innovation stops being a bet and becomes a learning engine, and it sets the foundation for accelerating the journey from expected to realized value

34. Expected Value - Chapter 10

In this episode, we explore chapter 10, Lines of Trust, which takes us beyond governance and into the invisible systems that make innovation work or fall apart. Freya and her team have built structure. The XV model, the fit radar, the S-curve, and a new three-tier governance system. On paper, it's perfect. But in practice, something's missing. When one small decision crosses an unseen line, Freya discovers what no framework can capture, that governance only works when people believe in the intent behind the decisions. This chapter explores how trust becomes the hidden infrastructure of innovation. We'll see how Freya learns to map the sensitivity lines that exist between people and functions like HR, finance, IT, legal, and how she builds a trust layer that connects structure to belief. It's a story about what happens when logic meets emotion, when process meets perception, and how the true power of innovation lies not in control, but in connection.