Innovation Lives Outside Your Comfort Zone

What can a firehouse teach a beverage company? Or, a sexuality boutique teach a cleaning products brand? More than you might expect.

We’ve seen over and over again what happens when teams step outside the walls of their own industry and into unfamiliar environments. The perspective shift alone can change how they see their work.

Like when:

- The Coca-Cola Company Scientific & Regulatory Affairs team visited the New York City Fire Department, not to observe firefighting, but to understand how teams operate under pressure, communicate clearly, and stay aligned in moments that matter.

- The Hershey Company Design team visited one of Icon’s 3D-printed homes in Austin, sparking new thinking about scale, constraints, and how bold ideas move from concept to reality.

-The Clorox Company Global Insights & Innovation team spent time at Good Vibrations in San Francisco, a progressive sexuality boutique, learning how to approach sensitive topics with empathy, honesty, and respect for complexity.

- The Pet Valu Executive Management team visited Thistle Farms in Nashville, a community and social enterprise led by women survivors, reflecting on how purpose and leadership can be expressed through care and connection.

None of these visits were about “best practices.” They were about new ways of seeing.

Stepping into a completely different world challenges assumptions and expands the lens through which problems are viewed. It helps teams:

- Recognize patterns and solutions that don’t exist in their usual environment

- Break free from limiting mental models and habitual thinking

- Develop empathy for different kinds of people, behaviors, and needs

- Return with fresh questions that open the door to unexpected innovation

Sometimes, the biggest breakthroughs come not from digging deeper within your industry, but from venturing way beyond it.