For organizations · Applied leadership fellowship

Turn emerging leaders into practicing intrapreneurs

The Custom Intrapreneurship Accelerator is a cohort-based fellowship, running two to three months, in which selected employees learn and apply the complete Intrapreneurship Journey to live business opportunities inside their organization.

With structured facilitation, mentorship, coaching, peer support, sponsor access, and practical tools, participants move from an early insight or idea to a decision-ready recommendation and a credible path toward a pilot or implementation.

They develop as leaders by doing work that matters, and the organization benefits from stronger thinking and meaningful opportunities moving forward, across two to three months.

Part of the organizational track.

Length
Two to three months
Design
Custom to your organization
Focus
Built around live business work
Structure
Cohort-based and sponsor-supported
Purpose
Designed to develop leaders and advance ideas

Leadership development and organizational progress should not be separate

Many leadership programs teach people away from the realities of their work and hope they apply the learning later. Many project-based engagements move the work forward without developing the internal people who will need to lead it.

The Custom Intrapreneurship Accelerator, across two to three months, deliberately brings the two together. Participants learn the full Intrapreneurship Journey while taking responsibility for a live opportunity, challenge, or initiative, applying what they learn with real colleagues, stakeholders, evidence, constraints, and decision-makers. The result is a dual return.

Emerging leaders grow through real responsibility
They strengthen their business judgment, collaboration, influence, and ability to lead across boundaries without relying only on formal authority.
Important organizational work moves forward
The organization receives recommendations that have been investigated, challenged, co-created, and prepared for responsible decision-making.

This is not a simulation

Participants work on live intrapreneurship projects from inside the organization.

Each participant, or small participant team, works on a real opportunity that matters to the business. That opportunity might involve:

  • Improving a customer or employee experience
  • Addressing an operational or performance gap
  • Reducing unnecessary cost, delay, or friction
  • Introducing a new product, service, process, or technology
  • Improving collaboration across functions
  • Advancing the responsible use of AI
  • Responding to a changing market or customer need
  • Reimagining an existing way of working

The project does not need to begin as a complete idea. It may begin as an observation, a question, or an early proposal.

I believe there is a better approach, but I need to investigate it and build support.

The fellowship gives participants a disciplined way, over two to three months, to move from that starting point toward a responsible organizational decision.

What makes a strong Accelerator project?

A strong project is meaningful enough to matter, but focused enough to move within two to three months.

It should:

  • Connect to a real organizational priority or performance need
  • Require collaboration beyond the participant's immediate role
  • Involve people whose perspectives must be understood
  • Allow access to enough information to investigate the situation
  • Require support or approval beyond the participant's own authority
  • Have a realistic path toward a decision, experiment, or pilot

Projects can be identified by participants, nominated by leaders, or selected from strategic areas defined by the organization.

Two ways participants can apply the Journey

Individual opportunity model. Each participant advances a different opportunity from within their own role or function. This works well when the organization wants to encourage initiative across multiple parts of the business.

Shared strategic challenge model. Participants work in small cross-functional teams around priorities identified by the organization. This works well when an important challenge requires expertise and ownership from across the system.

The two can be combined: participants may begin with individual opportunities and later form teams around the strongest projects.

Participants complete the entire Intrapreneurship Journey

The fellowship does not begin with pitching. Participants are guided through every stage required to understand the opportunity, build a credible response, earn support, and prepare for implementation, and each Dimension produces work they carry into the next. See the framework in full.

AnchorGain Perspective

Understand the world before trying to change it.

Participants begin by learning the history, people, pressures, assumptions, and existing efforts surrounding their project. They observe, ask thoughtful questions, listen brilliantly, and clarify what they hear.

They explore:

  • Why does the current way exist?
  • Who created or maintains it?
  • What has already been attempted?
  • What do leaders, employees, customers, and other stakeholders see differently?
  • What risks or constraints might not be visible from the participant's position?
  • What are people thinking but not yet saying?

Participant output A perspective-gathering plan, stakeholder map, and clearer understanding of the current system.

Dimension oneAlign

Connect the opportunity to what matters most.

Participants identify the organizational priorities, performance metrics, and reinforcement systems connected to their project. They learn to distinguish between an idea that is personally interesting and an opportunity that is relevant to the organization.

They explore:

  • Which organizational priority does this support?
  • What outcome needs to improve?
  • How is performance currently measured?
  • What are leaders responsible for delivering?
  • What would make this work important now?
  • What happens if nothing changes?

Participant output A clearly framed opportunity connected to organizational priorities and measurable outcomes.

Dimension twoAnalyze

Move from assumptions to evidence.

Participants investigate what is actually happening. They gather information, examine performance gaps, stratify data, test competing hypotheses, and work with those closest to the situation to distinguish symptoms from underlying causes.

They explore:

  • What does the evidence show?
  • Where is performance different across teams, customers, regions, or processes?
  • Which assumptions have been confirmed?
  • Which assumptions no longer hold?
  • What might be causing the problem?
  • What additional information is needed before building a solution?

Participant output An evidence-based analysis of the opportunity, performance gap, or root cause.

Dimension threeBuild

Develop solutions with, not merely for, the people involved.

Participants generate, compare, and strengthen possible responses. Rather than protecting an idea as personal property, they involve others whose knowledge and participation can improve it.

They consider:

  • Which options could address the underlying issue?
  • Who should help shape the response?
  • What investment or resources would be required?
  • What value could each option create?
  • What are the risks, trade-offs, and unintended consequences?
  • How difficult would the change be to implement?
  • What could be tested before making a larger commitment?

Participant output A set of evaluated options and a credible recommendation grounded in impact, risk, return, feasibility, and organizational reality.

Dimension fourEnroll

Build the clarity and trust required for a decision.

Participants learn that gaining support is not simply about selling an idea. They must help different decision-makers understand the situation, trust the process, see the value, and believe that the risks have been responsibly considered.

They explore:

  • Why does this matter?
  • Why this opportunity?
  • Why now?
  • Who was involved in developing the recommendation?
  • What evidence supports it?
  • What other options were considered?
  • What will it cost?
  • What could go wrong?
  • What is the risk of doing nothing?
  • What is the responsible next step?

Participant output A decision-ready recommendation, stakeholder strategy, and presentation designed for the leaders and partners whose support is required.

Dimension fiveImplement

Prepare the idea to survive contact with the organization.

Approval is not the end of the Journey. Participants consider what will be required for people to adopt, test, support, and sustain the new way.

They develop:

  • A pilot or first-stage implementation plan
  • Clear roles and responsibilities
  • A communication and stakeholder-engagement approach
  • Support and learning requirements
  • Measures of success
  • Feedback loops
  • Decision points for adapting, scaling, pausing, or stopping

Participant output A practical path toward a pilot or implementation, supported by meaningful measures and shared ownership.

A fellowship built around the work

Participants are supported, but they remain responsible.

The two to three months are designed to help participants do the work well, not to do the work for them. They are surrounded by a structured support system that may include:

  • Facilitated cohort learning. Participants learn each part of the Journey together and bring real progress and challenges into the room
  • Individual coaching. Focused support through difficult decisions, stakeholder dynamics, resistance, and their own leadership patterns
  • Mentorship and guidance. Experienced leaders help participants see how those in power evaluate ideas, allocate resources, and manage risk
  • Peer learning and accountability. Colleagues who challenge one another's thinking and help sustain momentum
  • Organizational sponsorship. Sponsors connect the work to priorities, provide access, and help create a credible route to a decision
  • Practical tools. Worksheets, decision tools, stakeholder maps, proposal templates, and implementation-planning resources
  • Feedback and rehearsal. Before important conversations, participants receive feedback on the clarity and completeness of their work

The exact mix and intensity of support is designed around the cohort, projects, context, and intended outcomes.

How the Accelerator works

Every engagement is custom-designed, and the two to three months generally move through six stages.

  1. Organizational discovery. We begin with the organization, not a preset curriculum calendar: the strategic context, the people you want to develop, the opportunities participants may work on, the barriers that stop ideas moving, and the outcomes you want to assess.
  2. Cohort and project selection. Together we establish the participant profile and project criteria. Employees may be nominated, invited to apply, or both, and then identify or receive a live opportunity to explore.
  3. Orientation and project framing. Participants enter as a cohort, establish expectations, understand confidentiality boundaries, meet peers and mentors, and begin defining the opportunity they will carry. They do not need to arrive with the answer, only prepared to ask better questions.
  4. Learn-and-apply cycles. Participants learn a part of the methodology, apply it to the live project, engage the relevant people, bring discoveries and challenges back to the cohort, receive coaching and peer perspective, and refine the next step. The project is the learning environment.
  5. Decision and next-step presentation. Participants present not only a final idea but the Journey behind it: what they learned, whose perspectives they included, what evidence they gathered, and what risks remain. The responsible outcome may be to proceed, pilot, revise, gather more evidence, pause, or stop.
  6. Implementation and integration. Where an idea moves forward, support can continue into the pilot. The organization also reflects on the cohort: which capabilities became visible, which barriers appeared, and how the Journey can become part of existing practice.

What the organization gains

  • Stronger emerging leaders. Employees develop through meaningful responsibility rather than leadership theory alone
  • Better-developed opportunities. Ideas reach leaders with more context, evidence, and implementation thinking behind them
  • Progress on real business priorities. Learning is directed toward work that already matters to the organization
  • Stronger cross-functional relationships. Participants build relationships across teams, functions, and levels while working through real questions
  • Greater visibility into talent. Sponsors see how emerging leaders think, collaborate, handle ambiguity, accept feedback, and influence others
  • A repeatable method. A shared framework for understanding problems, building recommendations, and implementing change
  • Insight into organizational barriers. Repeated obstacles across the cohort may reveal wider issues involving access, decision-making, incentives, or sponsorship

The role of organizational sponsors

The Accelerator, across its two to three months, requires more than permission to participate. Sponsors play an active role in creating the conditions for meaningful work.

The fellowship requires more than permission to participate. Sponsors may help define strategic areas, select participants, protect time for the work, provide access to relevant people and information, attend checkpoints, challenge assumptions, and make or enable real decisions.

Giving someone an important project without access, time, sponsorship, or the possibility of action does not develop intrapreneurship. It teaches frustration.

How success is assessed

Success is considered at two levels.

Participant development

Growth in what a person can actually do

We may examine growth in participants' ability to:

  • Gain and accurately represent different perspectives
  • Connect work to organizational priorities
  • Use evidence rather than assumptions
  • Identify root causes
  • Collaborate across boundaries
  • Assess options and trade-offs
  • Build complete recommendations
  • Respond to challenge and feedback
  • Enroll stakeholders and decision-makers
  • Prepare for implementation

Organizational progress

What moved, and what was decided

Depending on the project, progress may include:

  • A clearly defined opportunity or performance gap
  • A better-supported organizational decision
  • Stronger stakeholder alignment
  • A decision-ready recommendation
  • Approval to test or pilot
  • A completed pilot plan
  • Movement in an agreed performance measure
  • A decision to revise, pause, or stop an idea based on stronger evidence
  • Adoption of the Journey within existing organizational practices
Not every idea should be implemented. A disciplined decision not to proceed can be as valuable as an approval, when it is based on better perspective, evidence, and judgment.

Designed from both sides of the table

The decision-maker

Brent Martini

Brent brings the perspective of a Fortune 50 executive, entrepreneur, advisor, and organizational decision-maker who has evaluated, challenged, sponsored, and implemented ideas across corporate, entrepreneurial, and nonprofit settings. He helps participants understand what leaders are responsible for, how they evaluate risk and opportunity, and what they need to see and trust before supporting a new direction.

The learning designer

Mentor Dida

Mentor brings the perspective of an educator, organizational futurist, learning designer, and facilitator who has developed leadership, innovation, and change experiences across business, education, government, and social impact. He helps participants translate the Journey into meaningful action through facilitation, reflection, coaching, peer learning, and practical application inside complex organizational environments.

Together, they bring the perspectives of those seeking to influence change and those responsible for deciding whether, and how, that change should move forward.

Who should participate, and common questions

The fellowship is designed for people who are close enough to the work to see opportunities but do not yet control all the authority, resources, or decisions required to act alone. They do not need to manage a team. They do need the curiosity, commitment, humility, and initiative to investigate a live opportunity and involve others in shaping the response.

Strong participants may include

  • Emerging and future leaders
  • High-potential employees
  • Project and program leaders
  • Technical or functional experts
  • Cross-functional team members
  • Employees responsible for innovation or improvement
  • Professionals preparing for wider organizational responsibility
  • People with a demonstrated desire to contribute beyond their formal role
Do participants need to arrive with a fully developed idea?
No. A project can begin as an observation, question, performance gap, frustration, or partially developed idea. The work helps participants investigate whether the opportunity is real and what a responsible response could be.
Does every project need to be approved?
No. The goal is a responsible decision based on analysis, stakeholder perspectives, and a clear understanding of risk. A disciplined decision not to proceed can be as valuable as an approval, when it is based on better perspective, evidence, and judgment.
Is this a consulting engagement?
It is not a traditional consulting project in which outside experts investigate the issue and deliver the answer. Participants own the work. We provide the methodology, facilitation, coaching, mentorship, and challenge required to help them lead it well.
How long does the Accelerator last?
Two to three months. Within that, the cadence follows the complexity of the work, the number of participants, and the outcomes the organization wants, rather than a preset number of sessions.
Can participants work on confidential projects?
Yes, within boundaries agreed during discovery, which clarify what can be shared within the cohort, with facilitators, and during final presentations. Participants are never encouraged to disclose information they are not authorized to share.

Considering a shorter format

The Intrapreneurship Foundations runs five weeks, as one orientation and eight two-hour sessions, and builds the capability across a cohort. The Two-Day Intensive runs two concentrated working days for retreats and off-sites.

Compare all three formats before you decide.

Bring us the work that matters

You do not need to arrive with a completed program brief. Tell us which people you want to develop, what priorities matter most, what opportunities are not moving, and what you hope will be different afterward. We will help you determine whether the Accelerator, which runs two to three months, is the right format, and design it around the work your organization and emerging leaders are ready to take on.