Bruce Vojak — Identifying, Developing and Managing Serial Innovators (Part 3 of 3)

About this episode

Bruce Vojak discusses how organizations can identify, develop, and manage serial innovators while avoiding common pitfalls in the hiring process.

"I don't like J work." That was Andy — a top serial innovator at SAIC — telling his manager Dennis what he needed to be protected from. J work, in Andy's field of computational electromagnetics, is the imaginary part of a number. To Andy, it meant the imaginary work: staff meetings, budget reviews, formal reporting. Dennis's job was to keep him in real work. Most managers do the opposite. In part three of our Serial Innovators series, Bruce Vojak closes the loop. After two episodes on who serial innovators are and how they navigate the politics, this one is about how organisations find them, develop them — and how managers can stop accidentally driving them out the door. Bruce is co-author of Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms (with Ray Price and Abby Griffin), founder of Breakthrough Innovation Advisors, and former Associate Dean for Administration at the University of Illinois College of Engineering. In this conversation, Bruce reveals: • Why mechanistic, CV-screening HR processes — and now AI-powered hiring filters — systematically screen out your future innovators • The four engagement filters that actually identify…

People in this episode

Guest: Bruce Vojak

Topics covered

• serial innovators
• innovation management
• organizational development
• employee engagement
• hiring processes

Keywords

• serial innovators
• innovation
• employee engagement
• hiring filters
• organizational politics
• mechanistic HR processes
• π-shaped workers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SAIC, University of Illinois College of Engineering

Books & works: Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms

More episodes of The Innovation Show

• Geoffrey Cain — Steve Jobs in Exile: NeXT, Failure, Revenge and the Remaking of a Visionary · June 10, 2026 · 1h 19m
• AI Is Rewiring Organizations — McGrath, Osterwalder, Amla & Sheikh · June 3, 2026 · 56 min
• Eric Ries — How to Build an Incorruptible Organisation · May 27, 2026 · 35 min
• Bruce Vojak — Navigating the Politics of Breakthrough Innovation (Part 2 of 3) · May 14, 2026 · 56 min
• Bruce Vojak — The Hourglass Model of Breakthrough Innovation · May 13, 2026 · 13 min
• Bruce Vojak — Serial Innovators: The Hidden Power Inside Mature Firms (Part 1) · May 7, 2026 · 1h 25m