What Association Leaders Learned Inside 3M's Innovation Center

Today was inspiring.

Our CEOSync and SyncUp community spent the day at the 3M Innovation Center, going behind the scenes at one of Minnesota's most iconic innovators. It started with a 20-minute film that surrounded us on every side. Not a video you watch, but an experience you step inside. It set the stage perfectly: innovation isn't a room you visit. It's all around you, all the time.

Innovation is a culture, not a department

3M's most famous product started as a hunch. Richard Drew's masking tape the origin of Scotch tape came from a whole lot of asking questions, staying curious and tinkering 101 years ago. That story isn't nostalgia. It's the operating system.

A few ideas stuck with our group:

• The 15% culture. People can spend part of their time on projects that interest them — job description or not. Responsibilities stay, but so does the freedom to explore.
• FAIL = First Attempt In Learning. When failure is reframed as progress, people take the risks that lead to breakthroughs.
• "What if?" and "Why not?" Two questions that give people permission to push boundaries — and share what they learn.
• Tolerance for tinkerers. As William L. McKnight said, "If you put fences around people or you get sheep. Give people the room they need." Hire people who want to try.

William L. McKnight's management philosophy from 1948 encouraged 3M management to “delegate responsibility and encourage men and women to exercise their initiative.” McKnight always stressed a culture of innovation and individual initiative over top-down management control. He believed the secret of 3M’s success was its people.

The best ideas were about people

The science was impressive. The leadership lessons landed harder.

Laurel captured it best. At 3M, innovation isn't measured by what I get from my work, it's what we get. It's a team sport. That reframe changes everything: from individual credit to shared progress, from my project to our possibility.

It's exactly what we believe about association communities. Recognition, belonging, and shared learning aren't nice-to-haves. They're how strong organizations get built.

You can feel it in how they celebrate. Peers nominate each other for awards — not bosses. Any employee can recognize any other employee, for anything, any day. Everyday wins get noticed, and celebration pulls the community closer. Reward it, and people do it again.

What this means for associations

One idea stuck with all of us: possibility is infinite. If innovation is all around 3M, it's all around us too. Every association. Every leader. Every day. #inspired