Every tech company wants to be innovative. It’s in the mission statements, the pitch decks, the investor updates. And it’s easy to say to your engineers, “just innovate.”

But here’s the truth: innovation doesn’t come from slogans or pressure. It comes from culture. And if you want a culture where innovation isn’t just possible but inevitable, there’s one thing your leadership team needs to do above all else:

Be Open to Possibilities.

Now, that might sound straightforward. You might be thinking, “Of course we’re open to possibilities—we’re in tech!” But are you really? Being Open to Possibilities is more than just nodding at new ideas. It’s about creating an environment where innovation can actually breathe, grow, and multiply.

So what does that look like in practice? Here are five key behaviors of a leadership team that is genuinely Open to Possibilities:

1. Invite and Explore Wild Ideas

Game-changing innovation rarely starts as something practical. It often begins as a half-baked, “what if” thought that sounds unrealistic on the surface. The best leaders know how to hold space for those ideas and treat them as raw material. What feels impossible today might be the spark for tomorrow’s breakthrough.

2. Separate Idea Generation from Evaluation

There’s a time for blue-sky brainstorming and a time for critique. Too often, leaders collapse the two—shooting down ideas before they’ve had a chance to mature. By keeping idea generation and evaluation distinct, you give creativity a chance to flourish before narrowing down to what’s feasible.

3. Reward Curiosity, Not Just Results

Innovation isn’t a straight line—it’s messy, iterative, and full of false starts. If you only celebrate the “wins,” your team will play it safe. But if you reward curiosity, thoughtful risk-taking, and even smart failures, you build a culture where people feel safe to explore. And exploration is where real breakthroughs are born.

4. Ask Expansive Questions

Leaders set the tone with the questions they ask. A narrow question like “Will this work?” shuts things down. A more expansive question like “What could this make possible?” opens doors. The right questions can shift a team from problem-solving mode into opportunity-creating mode.

5. Model Openness at the Top

Finally, the most important behavior of all: leaders must model what openness looks like. That means being willing to shift your perspective, admit when you don’t have all the answers, and explore directions that weren’t part of the original plan. When the leadership team shows genuine curiosity, the rest of the organization feels permission to do the same.

Case Study: Adobe Creative Cloud

A great example of being Open to Possibilities comes from when I was at Adobe. When I first started back in 2005 through the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe sold its software in boxed sets—Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign—updated every 12 to 18 months. It was a reliable, profitable model, but it wasn’t built for the future.

Inside Adobe, a bold idea emerged: move away from boxed software entirely and shift to a subscription-based cloud model. At the time, it sounded risky—even reckless. Customers might resist paying monthly. Revenue might take a hit. The shift would require rethinking everything about product delivery, pricing, and customer relationships.

But instead of shutting the idea down, Adobe’s leadership team leaned in. They asked expansive questions: “What could this make possible? How might a subscription model accelerate innovation, expand access, and create ongoing value for our customers?”

By staying Open to Possibilities, Adobe didn’t just change its business model—it reshaped the entire software industry. Creative Cloud became the standard, proving that openness at the top can unlock innovation that transforms not just a company, but an entire market.

Here’s the thing: building a culture of innovation doesn’t require a massive budget, a fancy “innovation lab,” or a stack of frameworks. Those things might help, but they aren’t the foundation. The foundation is simple:

A leadership team that’s truly Open to Possibilities.

When you practice these behaviors consistently, you send a powerful message: innovation isn’t just a buzzword—it’s how we work. And when that mindset is deeply ingrained, your teams won’t just come up with incremental improvements. They’ll create the kinds of breakthroughs that redefine industries.

So if you’re serious about building a culture of technical innovation, stop worrying about whether you’ve got the perfect process in place. Focus on the one thing that matters most: being Open to Possibilities. That’s where the real magic happens.