Building an Innovation-Ready Culture with Ed Bernacki

The Boardroom 180 Podcast

In this episode of Boardroom 180, Munir Haque sits down with innovation strategist Ed Bernacki to challenge the traditional assumptions around innovation. From international consulting to developing idea journals used by thousands, Ed shares how innovation isn’t about flashy tech or radical disruption, it’s a disciplined mindset rooted in trust, collaboration, and a deep understanding of problem-solving.

Together, they explore why service-based innovation is often misunderstood, how cognitive diversity drives better decisions, and what it really takes to create value in new ways. Whether you're a board member, leader, or curious thinker, this conversation will reshape how you view innovation in your organization.
Innovation Isn’t Disruption, It’s Discipline"

About the Guest:
Ed Bernacki is an internationally recognized innovation strategist, writer, and developer of practical tools that help leaders turn ideas into action.
Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Ed has worked across Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and Australia—guiding both public and private sector organizations to build their capacity for innovation.
He’s the creator of the Navigator Journal series, has trained over 4,000 professionals in innovation skills, and has worked with governments, cities, and global leadership programs to design systems that support meaningful change.
Ed is also one of Canada’s most published voices on innovation—and a passionate advocate for reframing innovation not as disruption, but as a discipline rooted in mindset, structure, and trust.

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Contact Munir Haque | ActionEdge Executive Development:
Website: AEEDNow.com
LinkedIn: Action Edge Executive Development Inc.

Contact Ed Bernacki:
Website: http://www.navigatorjournals.com/

Podcast Production:
Recording: Pushysix Studios

Transcript:

innovation is more than improvement.

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I mean, improvements are important, but innovations are like a quantum improvement that breaks new ground to create value in new ways.

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And I thought this is just brilliant because it starts a conversation.

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Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of the Boardroom 180 podcast. I'm your host Manir Haq, an executive coach and senior board strategist. I've partnered with Action Edge Executive Development to lead their governance and political acumen division.(...) In each episode we meet with governance leaders and step into their boardrooms where decisions shape the world around us.

Today's guest is Ed Bernanke, an internationally recognized innovation strategist, writer and developer of practical tools that help leaders turn ideas into action. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Ed has worked across Canada, New Zealand, the Middle East, Singapore, and Australia, guiding both public and private sector organizations to build their capacity for innovation.

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He's the creator of the Navigator Journal Series, has trained over 4,000 professionals in innovation skills, and has worked with governments, cities, and global leadership programs to design systems that support meaningful change. Ed is also one of Canada's most published voices in innovation and a passion advocate for reframing innovation, not as disruption,

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but as a disciplined, rooted in mindset, structure, and trust.(...) So welcome to the boardroom. Ed, how are you doing?

Well, thanks very much. It's doing well, thank you.

Sounds good.

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So I just start a little bit like you were introduced to me and suggested to be on the podcast by Don Jones as he was on our last episode,(...) I think it's episode 24, and he talked a little bit about kind of the human potential. And I think that might be kind of a good segue into the stuff we're working on talking about today.

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As well, I think during our pre-interview, he kind of said it as a bit of a small world that you knew one of my previous guests as well,(...) Bruce Anderson.

Yeah. Yeah.

(...) So Bruce Anderson, he was in episode 14, and he talked about nonprofit,

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kind of nonprofit governance.

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So are you telling me how, I think there's a bit of a story there on how you know each other and might lead into kind of our first line of questions.

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Okay, sure.

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Man, I have to say it's an extraordinary coincidence that two of your previous speakers were in fact, we all went to university together.

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And all of three of us were in the sports management program at Laurentian University.(...) And basically we went there because it was the only place in Canada that in those days that actually offered a program in sports management. I mean, I had an interest in sport, but I knew I didn't wanna be like a coach. That just wasn't my thing at all.

And what we studied essentially was a four year commerce degree.

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And then on top of that, all our minor courses were essentially the business of amateur and professional sport.

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And so you kind of learned about associations, nonprofit management.

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And I think once we got out of there, people kind of went in different directions, but I have the same sort of background. I started with, as Bruce did, is working in the nonprofit sector for five years and my was in soccer association.

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And then many years later, Don Jones and I collaborated on a project in the 2000s.

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I kind of create these innovation journals(...) and we collaborated on pretty one for some of his programs.

(...) So it's amazing. Well, we'll get into that a little bit later, hopefully.(...) So you kind of started out your career, it sounds like in sports management and kind of led up into kind of where your focus is today on innovation. So why don't you tell us, as I say, a little bit of your evolutionist or innovationist kind of origin story.

(...) Well, I was kind of thinking about this idea.

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Now looking back, I was always kind of the ideas guy, whether it was in university or high school,

But I learned two things. My first job with the soccer association,

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my boss got it and he started to harness that. So he would give me like little thinking jobs, thinking about improving this next year. There were five ways that we could do this.

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And I would just go away and think about this up and give him a list of probably 10 things to do.(...) And I realized that I'm really good at doing this.

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But second story was though, after book five or six years, I thought I need to more like get a real job. I ended up joining one of those big international consulting firms,(...) sort of a national marketing role.

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And I was all enthusiastic about this.(...) And I certainly realized that not every organization wants you to be an ideas guy.

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My Tiffany was going into a strategic planning session for our group.(...) And the director looked at the plan we did last year and all the things that were accomplished and said, you know what, this is all great. Let's just do it all again next year.

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And I sat there and I was just dumbstruck because at a whole list of things that I thought could improve what we're doing.

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And so I started to really explore some of these issues about what it's like, like why people think so differently to me. I didn't have a clue then, but this was what started getting me interested. Now, same time, because it was an...