Various collaborative innovation methods are increasingly used in strategy development and the implementation of organizational challenges. The aim of applying them is to involve different agents of an organization and support them in generating new ideas in a joint effort. For this research, an experimental field study was conducted in the course of an innovation workshop for 80 top managers in the public sector using a quantitative questionnaire and an ethnographic observation. A novel workshop format was designed using different materials to support the beginning of this innovation process. The groups used either traditional workshop materials, that is, moderation cards (small sheets of colored paper), or novel workshop materials, that is, LEGO bricks. Our results show that both materials significantly influenced the human experience in the workshop. The use of LEGO bricks was perceived as more enjoyable, active, and inspiring than the use of moderation cards. However, the perceived group outcome using moderation cards was rated higher than that working with LEGO bricks. We discuss how using novel workshop materials changes the experience of an innovation workshop, but we also highlight that additional factors, including translation effects, trained facilitators, and specific innovation phases, must be considered to outperform the use of traditional materials.

For this issue of the Journal of Business Anthropology, I approached a number of people who have conducted research in, with, on, or for business organizations of one sort or another and asked them to reflect upon their ethnographic experiences. What follows is a series of essays by scholars and practitioners ‒ many of them extremely experienced, but one at the beginning of her career ‒ who between them have provided us with a collation of exemplary practices and insights. It isn’t just restaurant kitchens and home cooking that provide ‘food for thought’, but cruise ships, art museums, General Motors, and an Austrian electrical company. Bon appetit!