Innovation doesn’t come from playing it safe: young impact leaders on why risk-taking is important to their work

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Over her four years at the Centre for Newcomers (CFN), Kate McDougall says her failed grant applications were just as important as those that were approved. A colleague recently told McDougall that those failed applications, in fact, helped CFN learn about how their programs could grow and what gaps currently existed in their services.

“If we hadn’t been forced to re-evaluate what we were doing, then we may not have had the same capacity to pivot our services quickly to respond to the emerging needs of our community and clients during the pandemic and the current refugee crisis,” says McDougall, a regional youth liaison at CFN.

McDougall says that success isn’t a linear path and youth need an opportunity to fail — in order to learn.

“Success and true innovation [don’t] come from people and organizations playing it safe — it comes from trying something you’re not sure will achieve the desired results; and then if it fails, learning from what didn’t work and trying again and again until you succeed,” McDougall says.

Understanding what kind of workplace practices and policies help youth leaders thrive is integral to appealing to young people entering the social purpose workforce, according to some youth leaders.

Future of Good’s 2022 Young Impact Leaders list highlights some of the most innovative young doers and thinkers who are implementing ground-breaking practices and starting initiatives within their workplace that make change. However, the organizations these young leaders are working within have a role to play in encouraging and supporting them.

We asked youth leaders from our 2022 Young Impact Leaders list about the importance of risk-taking and what kind of workplace practices have helped them feel supported in their new ideas and innovations — this is what they told us.

Having a workplace culture that encourages debate and out-of-the-box thinking

Many young impact leaders agreed that working in an environment that has a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences is important to them. And in addition to that, the ability to challenge each other’s ideas and participate in healthy debates is vital to help young leaders grow.

Samuel Proulx, Fable’s community manager, explains that his team at Fable frequently has conversations and debates that get them to innovative decisions by picking apart each other’s ideas and giving constructive feedback.

“The fact that I can challenge another team member’s idea, without being afraid that they may take it personally, and I know they’re open to conversation, has made it so much easier for me to have an impact,’ says Proulx.

To encourage their staff to think outside the box and challenge their instinctive ways of thinking, the David Suzuki Foundation created an innovative fund that allows their team to experiment with new ways of engaging audiences. Maham Kaleem, elections campaigner at the foundation, says this fund supported her while running a multilingual campaign to connect with various communities.

“I was able to rely on the fund to experiment without fear of what the results might be. I was also able to centre joy in my work, a key ingredient that facilitates intrapreneurship,” says Kaleem. “Taking risks can be hard but having a dedicated fund for innovation allows staff to push their creative limits and have fun imagining new ways of creating impact.”

Connect youth leaders with the knowledge needed for bold projects

Kat Cadungog, executive director at Foundation for Environmental Stewardship (FES) explains that there is often a lack of institutional knowledge available for youth leaders who change work places quickly, and leave a knowledge gap for incoming youth leaders.

“An effective policy or practice that made me feel supported in taking risks and working in an intrapreneurial way was developing consistent check-ins with folks that can share intergenerational knowledge,” says Cadungog. “I found it really helpful to have scheduled calls with elders and “graduated youth” where I could bring problems and set the agenda of what I wanted to talk about and problem-solve on.”

While navigating through a white- and adult-centric space can be intimidating and cause imposter syndrome, adds Cadungog, having a network of people that she can lean on when she’s feeling unsure or unsafe can help tremendously when it comes to taking on bold projects.

Prioritizing their personal and professional development 

Expanding their skill-sets and pool of knowledge is a priority for youth leaders in the social impact world who are constantly learning and exploring in the professional world. Having organizational support that helps youth with whatever skills they want to gain is key for many youth impact leaders.

At Open Media, Erin Knight, a digital equity advocate, says the organization has given her “rich, real chances to cut my teeth.” Whether through one-on-one dialogues to chat about her new work experiences or helping her with learning technical skills, Knight says the “support is magic.”

“I wouldn’t be doing this job today had I not felt tangibly supported by my [organization’s] leaders to stand up tall and take up space … I especially treasure the way these dialogues have helped me to dig into why our mission matters — far beyond the technical stuff, and deep into the human stuff. It’s resulted in a deep resonance I feel at my core for OpenMedia’s work,” says Knight.

Experimentation should not just be encouraged, but implemented in policy 

Ashley Casovan, executive director of the Responsible AI Institute, says that she’s been in workplaces where they encourage staff to put aside five percent of their time to experiment. Though she thought it was a good idea, didn’t actually carve that time out in her schedule when it came down to it. Instead, Casovan says that workplaces should implement risk-taking and experimentation through budgets and policies.

“One time I had a boss [who] provided me with a small budget and gave me the permission to work on a project that was outside of the scope of work based on a proposal which I had presented,” says Casovan, who used that budget to make a compost project in City Hall, which is still running.

She adds that formalizing experimentation in this way could improve the projects and push youth leaders to feel supported in generating new ideas, and actually trying them out.

Omar Goodgame, youth engagement coordinator at EveryMind, says that for him, sponsorship and coaching from management and senior leadership has been integral to feeling supported in risk-taking for projects he has led for child and youth mental health services in the Peel Region.

“In my current role, I have had sponsorship from my direct manager and Chief Information Officer for projects that I have led and proposed. Knowing that someone at a senior and management level is available to help navigate the risks through difficult situations is a huge encouragement and confidence booster,” says Goodgame.

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