In boardrooms across Calgary, the moment of truth for a breakthrough idea can feel surprisingly ordinary. A hand goes up, a pitch is shared, and what happens next decides whether it survives or quietly disappears.
“You need an extremely psychologically safe culture to encourage wild ideas,” says Mike Procee, founder of the Calgary Innovation Peer Forum, sitting down with Digital Journal at Inventures 2025. “And we’ve all felt it too. You put up your hand once. You share an idea, okay, maybe it doesn’t go forward. You put up your hand twice. You share an idea, if that doesn’t go forward… Those ideas all of a sudden stop flowing. So really, organizations that have mastered this have really strong psychological safety, they’re open to new ideas.”
It is a simple but overlooked reality. Procee believes trust is the real fuel for meaningful change inside big companies. Without it, ideas stall out before they ever see daylight. His view is catching on as Alberta’s biggest employers look for ways to transform while staying competitive.
In Calgary, where large energy and resource firms shape much of the local economy, the peer forum’s conversations point to a shift away from chasing the next trend just because it is new. More leaders are asking how to create the conditions where people can take small risks, speak up, and experiment, even when the results are far from perfect.
[Watch the full interview below]
Innovation starts with a safe space, not just a new tool
Procee didn’t set out to build another tech meetup. He started by inviting people with “innovation” in their titles for coffee, just to see what they were struggling with. Over time, that turned into regular peer conversations that focus less on shiny solutions and more on how trust flows inside organizations.
“What’s interesting about the forum that I really love is we actually don’t talk about tech or AI at all,” says Procee. “You can’t throw a rock right now without hitting a webinar on tech or AI, but we talk about corporate innovation from a cultural lens.”
Without that cultural lens, he argues, no strategy sticks. He points to companies willing to throw in a little entrepreneurship into the mix: a willingness to experiment with messy, imperfect ideas, even if they fail the first time, as the ones that make steady progress.
“They’re okay being more open with risk,” he says, of companies that embrace this strategy. “Of course, they don’t bet the farm on anything, or they’re not… making outrageous bets at all. But things don’t have to be perfect right away. They’re okay with a minimum viable product or an MVP.”
[Watch the full interview below]
Leadership sets the tone, but ideas need room to grow
Procee says the right conditions come from both directions: leaders have to make space for risk-taking, but the best ideas often bubble up from unexpected places.
“You’re doing stuff that’s different. You’re shaking the organization’s core. You’re being a little bit of an internal disruptor. So you need a little bit of ground coverage for that, so that you’re able to experiment,” he says. “But then eventually you’re gonna hit a little bit of a cap or plateau… That’s when you need bottom-up ideas as well.”
Many of those early sparks are already there if leaders look for them. A strong innovation team, he says, isn’t about reinventing the wheel, but about clearing roadblocks and connecting experiments back to strategy.
“Someone in your organization is already doing something. Someone in your organization is already playing around with AI or whatever it might be. Utilize them, push their ideas forward,” says Procee.
[Watch the full interview below]
The real work is mapping what you already have
Procee’s practical advice is to pause before launching new projects. Too often, he sees organizations jump to build the next big thing without understanding what is already happening or what research is out there to guide them.
“Organizations do not take a good enough time doing this, because innovators like to create. They like to… generate new ideas,” says Procee. “But take the time to pause and build your existing portfolio and understand what’s currently happening in the organization.”
Once leaders see the real state of things, he says, they can start closing gaps. From there, it’s about building momentum with small wins and creating the trust that bigger ideas need to survive.
“You have to plant the seed,” says Procee. “Start by just getting all ideas out there, then slowly refine the ideas, and then, and only then, start thinking of the bigger ideas and going bigger and better.”
Watch the interview:
