If your innovation training gets top ratings, ask participants six months later what they have actually changed in their work.
In 2025, 92% of participants in Raiffeisen Bank International's Innovation School said the program left them feeling empowered. Six months later, only 41% said they had fully reached the learning goal they set themselves: one thing they would apply in their own job.
By most other measures, the program was a success. Innovation School trains selected employees from across RBI's group of more than 45,000 people in design thinking and innovation culture, working on real challenges. In 2025, participants rated it 9.3 out of 10, more than 260 people applied for 80 places, and the program won an International Innovation Award.
The team could have run the same program again. "Why don't we copy paste it every year? Make it easy for us, less work," says Jannik Böckenholt, Innovation Manager at RBI, describing the option they turned down. Instead, the team applied to its own program the user research it teaches. It collected feedback from participants, coaches, line managers and country representatives, then held a core team retro.
The retro produced seven findings. Sarah Straub, also Innovation Manager at RBI, turned them into four changes that other innovation teams can apply to their own training programs.
1. Ask for small improvements in daily work
The first finding concerned the program's goal for participants. In 2025, the team expected each participant to start an innovation project right after the program, and in hindsight saw that expectation as too ambitious. Participants were also unsure what the program was for, and for some, what they learned didn't match what they had expected.
The 2026 edition sets a smaller goal. Participants now leave as innovation ambassadors: employees who use design thinking and facilitation to make a small, real improvement in their own team, then share what they learned with colleagues.
To make that goal clear early, the team changed how it introduces the program. The application form now asks candidates whether they have ever thought, "There has to be a better way." The program then gives them the tools to act on that thought, and the sessions keep returning to what each ambassador will do back at work.
2. Tie each learning goal to the line manager
Back at work, participants face a second risk. As Jannik puts it, an employee can return with a new mindset and still be stopped by a line manager who sees things differently. In 2025, the program tried to handle this risk by inviting line managers to its online days, where teams presented their key takeaways. Coming after four busy on-site days, those three online days felt like an add-on, and the program lost momentum. "People were a bit bored," Jannik says.
The team kept its underlying model: to apply what they learn, people need motivation, the right tools and a workplace that supports them. The redesign focuses on that last part. After the on-site days, a new online session brings each participant together with their line manager to agree on a personal learning transfer goal. The content-heavy topics now sit in the on-site days, and the online sessions, run on an Innovation Campus built in Miro, cover the kickoff, teamwork and reflection.
Worked example: RBI's 2026 learning journey. Innovation leaders planning a multi-week training can use this schedule to place reflection and line manager alignment.
Online kickoff: introduction, the innovation challenge and learning transfer
Break: participants reflect on their expectations and research the challenge
Four on-site days in Budapest
Break: participants draft a learning transfer goal and a key takeaway presentation
Online session: participants present takeaways to line managers and agree on the goal
Break: participants apply what they learned at work
Follow-up, six weeks later: a review of what worked, what got in the way and where innovation management can help
3. Teach every method on an RBI case
During the 2025 on-site days, trainers used cases from other industries to show each design thinking method. The cases were meant to inspire, but many participants wanted something closer to their own work: examples of RBI teams using the same methods. Participants also found some explanations too complicated, partly because facilitation, culture and AI each ran as a separate session.
To fix both problems, the content team rebuilt the material around the design thinking steps. Each step now follows the same order:
Theory on the step
An RBI case where a real team used that step
A hands-on "work on it" session on the cohort's innovation challenge
A key takeaway summary
Reflection on how the step applies in daily work
AI now appears in every step, and the team is preparing a prompt library that explains when to use AI and when not to. Facilitation, culture and mindset also moved inside the design thinking steps, with practical checklists and simpler language. The aim is for participants to see colleagues apply each method and then practice it on a real challenge in the same session.
4. Train coaches from past participants
Every hands-on session depends on the team's coach. In 2025, the coaches brought different levels of experience, and some found it hard to guide their teams.
To close that gap, RBI started a second program, the Coaches' Journey, for employees who have already become innovation ambassadors. Its graduates now coach each new Innovation School cohort, so every team works with a coach RBI trained itself. Together, the two programs form a path from participant to ambassador, coach and, later, innovation expert.
For Sarah, the redesign comes down to practicing what you preach: applying design thinking to the program itself, starting with the experience and needs of its users. At RBI, those users are the employees on their way to becoming innovation ambassadors.
At this point, the 41% is the number to watch. The team will know whether the changes moved it once the 2026 cohort has been back at work for some time.
