AgCareers US

& F

ood

Areer

uide

within Union Pacific because we had a

great legal team, a great sales team in

Mexico that knew the market and a great

marketing team. It was a huge project.”

Peters believes in intrapreneurialism

so strongly, she wanted to create a path

for everyone at Union Pacific to suggest

new business ideas. Similar to her

exporting projects, Peters worked with

a team to create a process for marketing

and sales employees to anonymously

suggest new business ideas and vote on

their favorite ones. Top ideas are pitched

to the company’s leadership.

“Not only is Union Pacific getting great

ideas, other people are exercising their

entrepreneurial skill sets in an

intrapreneurial way. We have received

feedback from people that they feel

more confident and appreciate the

exposure to executive leadership and

real-time feedback,” she said.

STAYING MOTIVATED

For Worcester, intrapreneurialism is all

about mindset. Whether working for a

large or small organization, he believes

you can pursue intrapreneurialism by

looking for ways to add more value. In

fact, he likes to look at each day in his

job as a one-day contract.

“At the end of the day ask yourself,

‘did I do enough today to get hired again

tomorrow?’ Hopefully more days than

not you say yes,” he said. “If you start

looking at your job as something that

someone owes you, it can be bad for

you psyche. Instead if we look at it as, ‘I

have a lot to offer, but this organization

has something I need as well. For this

relationship to work, I have to add value

to the organization.’”

The ability to accept your ideas might

fail is another mindset important to

intrapreneurialism, Peters says.

“Be prepared and do your research,

but don’t be too hard on yourself if an

idea doesn’t work,” she said. “You should

be comfortable with failure. If you’re

never failing, you’re probably not taking

enough risks.”

Sometimes an idea you suggest might

not have the opportunity to fail because

it’s dismissed early in the process. When

this happens, Worcester suggests taking

a step back and trying to understand why

the idea wasn’t considered.

“Recognize when an idea is dismissed,

the person dismissing it has information

or a perspective you don’t have. If you

knew what it was, you might better

understand even if you don’t completely

agree. Ask them to help you understand

what it is about this idea that they don’t

think will work. Of course, the other

piece of that is some level of humility.

Every once in a while, I come up with a

really bad idea and someone should say,

‘No,’” he said laughing.

FINDING INSPIRATION

When you are in the same environment

for a while, it can be easy to slip into your

to-do list and not pursue innovation. To

avoid this, Peters suggests scheduling

time to think creatively.

“There are always tasks and things to

be done,” she said. “It’s important to plan

some strategic thinking time and to take

action on it. Put it on your calendar and

turn off any distractions.”

Worcester says he finds inspiration

when he is actively pursuing learning

whether through his own curiosity or

pursuing formal personal and

professional development opportunities.

“Any time you turn your learning

muscles on, you generate ideas that may

not be related to the thing that you’re

working on but come because you’re

working your brain in a different manner.”

Both Peters and Worcester agree that

intrapreneurial effort will be attractive to

companies that want to innovate.

If you’re looking forward to exercising

your intrapreneurial skill sets in a new

job, it’s good to investigate how

intrapreneurialism is viewed and

rewarded within potential companies.

Here are a few questions to consider

asking when you interview:

• What is the role of everyone on the

team when it comes to finding new

solutions?

• What happens when the team hits a

road block?

• What’s the most interesting problem

that you didn’t expect that you’ve solved

recently?

“Asking questions like these will get you a

better picture of what the real

perspective is rather than asking, ‘Do you

encourage innovation?’ It’s easy to say

they do, but you want to know what it

looks like when you’re actually in it.” –

Jake Worcester, Kansas 4-H Foundation

• What are the career path opportunities

within this company?

“As an entrepreneur, you become better

the more experiences you have. The

same thing is true of intrapreneurialism.

The more roles you try, the more you

will develop your intrapreneurial skills.” –

Emily Peters, Union Pacific Railroad

Ask questions of both team leaders and

those who will be your peers. Don’t just

take one person’s word for it.

Questions

to Ask in an Interview