Intrapreneurship (fuelled by pizza and beer) at the inaugural #LaneLab

Ryan Barmanroy • 15th Oct 2018

When the senior team said we had to deliver to our deadlines 3 hours early last week so that we could take part in an ‘ideation’ session, some of us were a little sceptical.  But ideas are important at the Lane. We love it when we can think freely to solve a problem.

It is also important Laners have a platform to share and progress their ideas, no matter how big or small. We call this intrapreneurship. But in the hectic day-to-day of agency life it’s not always possible for everyone to always be thinking laterally as we are so busy delivering for clients.

So it was on a rainy Friday afternoon that the whole agency journeyed to a secluded space in central Edinburgh for the first ever Lane Lab – a time and space dedicated to some truly entrepreneurial thinking. It was essential that this was an environment where everyone could talk openly and where no idea was a bad idea. 

One of the benefits of being a full service agency is that there are so many different specialisms and expertise on-hand. So for the afternoon we created small, cross-discipline cross-demographic teams to leverage as many different viewpoints as possible. Artworkers sat with Digital Thinkers and Account Managers teamed-up with Developers to get some really diverse opinions and stimulate creative thinking.

No one was sure what the outcomes might be, but if we could give everyone the opportunity to bounce their ideas off each other, we might just uncover a diamond in the rough. Who knows what we could come up with? 

As it turns out the #Laners had a lot of ideas. Each of the teams (fuelled by pizza, chocolate and a few beers) were relentless in their idea generation. Notepads were filled, post-its exhausted and debates ensued as each team prioritised their ideas.

Some of these ideas were small, some were grand-scale. Some were tweaks we could make to improve working practices. Some were ground-breaking suggestions that have the potential to deliver massive returns for our clients. Amazingly, some were even 10 years in the making, just waiting for a platform to be realised.

After a weekend to reflect on the mountain of material we will now be focussing our energy on making some of these ideas a reality for both ourselves and for our clients. Safe to say the first edition of #LaneLab was a resounding success and we’ll be back for some more intrapreneurial thinking very soon.