Exelon:: Building a Culture of Innovation

Most large organizations understand the importance of innovation.

Far fewer understand how to make it repeatable.

Innovation is often treated as a special event—a brainstorming session, an offsite retreat or a one-time strategic initiative. Organizations devote extraordinary discipline to functions like finance, operations and technology, yet approach innovation with processes that are often informal, inconsistent and difficult to sustain.

The result is predictable.

Ideas emerge.

Excitement follows.

And then the organization returns to business as usual.

Exelon, one of the nation's largest energy companies, recognized the challenge.

Operating within an industry undergoing profound transformation—from grid modernization and distributed energy to evolving customer expectations and emerging technologies—the company understood that innovation could not remain the responsibility of a few departments or isolated teams. It needed to become a capability embedded within the organization itself.

To help advance that goal, Exelon partnered with G::HOUSE to explore a fundamental question::

Can innovation become a disciplined organizational practice rather than a sporadic organizational event?

Together, we designed and tested a structured framework for collaborative ideation and strategic problem-solving, creating a repeatable process that could be used by leaders across the enterprise to identify opportunities, surface insights and generate actionable solutions.

The work moved beyond traditional brainstorming techniques.

Drawing on GREEN::HOUSE's innovation methodologies, the process helped participants examine underlying assumptions, uncover hidden opportunities and explore emerging possibilities through a more rigorous and systematic lens. The goal was not simply to produce more ideas, but to improve the organization's ability to generate better ideas consistently over time.

To test and refine the framework, GREEN::HOUSE facilitated a series of engagements with Exelon executives from across the country, bringing together leaders with diverse perspectives and responsibilities to examine the future of energy infrastructure and the evolving role utilities could play in society.

The sessions generated new insights into the modernization of the electric grid, customer engagement, system resilience and the broader opportunities facing utilities in a rapidly changing energy landscape.

More importantly, they demonstrated that innovation could be taught, practiced and replicated.

The resulting research reinforced a critical insight:

Organizations do not become innovative because they occasionally produce breakthrough ideas.

They become innovative because they develop cultures and systems capable of producing breakthroughs repeatedly.

As noted in GREEN::HOUSE’s final report::

"Many experts claim they can guide companies toward new ideas and ways of implementing them. But such interventions often wither and die after the consultant's contract ends or the organization's leadership changes. To truly thrive in today's world, organizations need sustainable means of innovating that are woven into the culture of the organization itself."

The lessons learned through the Exelon engagement informed subsequent applications of GREEN::HOUSE's innovation methodologies with corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, nonprofit executives and graduate students across multiple sectors.

The work has since influenced innovation programs involving leaders from organizations such as Coca-Cola, participants in the 10.10.10 social innovation platform and doctoral candidates in the USC Doctorate in Management, Leadership and Social Innovation program.

For GREEN::HOUSE, the Exelon project reinforced a belief that continues to guide our work::

Innovation is not a department.

It is not a workshop.

It is not an event.

It is a culture.

And cultures are built through practices that help people imagine, test and create what comes next—again and again.

Together, we designed and tested a structured framework for collaborative ideation and strategic problem-solving, creating a repeatable process that could be used by leaders across the enterprise to identify opportunities, surface insights and generate actionable solutions.

The work moved beyond traditional brainstorming techniques.

Drawing on GREEN::HOUSE's innovation methodologies, the process helped participants examine underlying assumptions, uncover hidden opportunities and explore emerging possibilities through a more rigorous and systematic lens. The goal was not simply to produce more ideas, but to improve the organization's ability to generate better ideas consistently over time.

To test and refine the framework, GREEN:HOUSE facilitated a series of engagements with Exelon executives from across the country, bringing together leaders with diverse perspectives and responsibilities to examine the future of energy infrastructure and the evolving role utilities could play in society.

The sessions generated new insights into the modernization of the electric grid, customer engagement, system resilience and the broader opportunities facing utilities in a rapidly changing energy landscape.

More importantly, they demonstrated that innovation could be taught, practiced and replicated.

The resulting research reinforced a critical insight:

Organizations do not become innovative because they occasionally produce breakthrough ideas.

They become innovative because they develop cultures and systems capable of producing breakthroughs repeatedly.

As noted in GREEN::HOUSE’s final report:

"Many experts claim they can guide companies toward new ideas and ways of implementing them. But such interventions often wither and die after the consultant's contract ends or the organization's leadership changes. To truly thrive in today's world, organizations need sustainable means of innovating that are woven into the culture of the organization itself."

The lessons learned through the Exelon engagement informed subsequent applications of GREEN::HOUSE's innovation methodologies with corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, nonprofit executives and graduate students across multiple sectors.

The work has since influenced innovation programs involving leaders from organizations such as Coca-Cola, participants in the 10.10.10 social innovation platform and doctoral candidates in the USC Doctorate in Management, Leadership and Social Innovation program.

For GREEN::HOUSE, the Exelon project reinforced a belief that continues to guide our work:

Innovation is not a department.

It is not a workshop.

It is not an event.

It is a culture.

And cultures are built through practices that help people imagine, test and create what comes next—again and again. ::