Survival Guide: How to Handle Innovation Antibodies
- Sarah Bodo
- Oct 5
- 4 min read
Every intrapreneur eventually meets them. You bring forward a solution that end users are asking for, you have done the research, built the business case, documented the comparisons, and still the antibodies show up.
I remember a project where we tested a modernized technology that clearly saved money, improved usability, and had strong support from those who would use it daily. We vetted the market, compared it with the old technology, and built a convincing case. On paper, everything lined up.
But in practice? Goalposts kept moving. First it was finance: “There’s no budget right now.” Then came process: “It doesn’t fit our standard.” Finally, the safety card: “Out of safety, we can’t do this.” What it felt like underneath was less about safety and more about risk aversion, ownership questions, and misaligned incentives. We poured in energy, tried to answer every question, but still hit the wall. That wall is what I now recognize as the corporate immune system at work.
What are innovation antibodies?
The term comes from biology. Just as our bodies fight off foreign objects to protect us, companies develop reflexes that fight off anything unfamiliar. They protect the core business, but in the process they often suffocate renewal.
Steve Blank calls them “innovation antibodies.” They show up as:
“We tried that before.”
“That’s not how we do things here.”
“Come back when you can prove ROI.”
“This is not your job.”
Silent disengagement when sponsorship changes and no one truly owns the idea anymore.
Some antibodies are useful. If a technology really creates cybersecurity risks, we need to know. But often the safety argument is a convenient shield for fear or inertia.
Why they hurt so much
As an intrapreneur, antibodies rarely feel abstract. They feel personal. “This is not your job” or “We never did it like this” can sound like attacks on your identity. Over time, you start questioning yourself: am I still the right person here? What do I actually bring to the table?
And yet, antibodies can also sharpen your thinking. When someone says “too risky,” you can ask, “Compared to what we do now, is it really safer?” When finance pushes back, you can reframe: “What small test can we afford to run already?” The challenge is to use antibodies as data points instead of dead ends.
Survival guide for intrapreneurs
From my journey and the cases in my research, a few practices helped me and my teams survive:
Reframe in their language. Tie your idea directly to core priorities. Safety? Show how the new solution is safer than the old. Finance? Highlight cost savings or small entry experiments.
Start small. Pilots with clear guardrails reduce fear. Sometimes a small test opens the door to a much larger adoption.
Find allies. Do not push uphill alone. Build coalitions across functions so the idea is not “yours” but “ours.”
Document your learning. Most of the time the timing will not be right. But if you have captured your work, the data, the comparisons, the insights, you can pull it back when the opportunity arises. Think of it as an investment: even if the idea gets stopped now, you can reuse parts of it in a new setting or apply the lessons to the next opportunity. Don't believe you remember the details when the right time is there, so capture your learnings!
Accept that some antibodies have truth. They can protect you from blind spots. Use them as conversation openers, not only as barriers.
Reflection for you
If you are an intrapreneur: Antibodies will always show up. The key is to notice patterns. Are you facing the same objections again and again? Is it just a temporary dip that you can push through, or has the project reached a real cul-de-sac where it should be stopped or reframed? Part of your survival is learning when to persist, when to pause, and when to let go.
If you are a leader: Antibodies exist for a reason. Just like in the body, they protect scale and process. The question is whether they are doing their job or standing in the way of necessary change. Take a step back and ask: which groups act as antibodies in your organization, and what are their real needs or fears? What biases might you hold yourself that turn you into an antibody without realizing it? Leadership is about knowing when to let antibodies do their work and when to quiet them so the organization can adapt.
Closing
Innovation antibodies will never disappear. They are part of how organizations protect themselves. But intrapreneurs can learn to navigate them, and leaders have the power to turn the immune system from a blocker into a support system.
Because every time we move an idea from “not your job” to “our new way of working,” the organization grows a little stronger.
I might annoy with it as I did learn it late - each killed idea is still worth to capture the learning and you never know when the time it right!
Keep innovating,
Sarah 🌊
Further Reading
Steve Blank (2019+): Innovation Theater vs. Actual Innovation – explains how corporate “antibodies” kill ideas and why sponsorship and learning metrics are key.
Amy Edmondson (2018): The Fearless Organization – shows how psychological safety reduces resistance and creates space for new ideas to surface.
Clayton Christensen (1997): The Innovator’s Dilemma – classic on how successful companies unintentionally block disruption to protect the core.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter (2006): Innovation: The Classic Traps (Harvard Business Review) – outlines the cultural and structural traps that strangle innovation early.
Vijay Govindarajan & Chris Trimble (2010): The Other Side of Innovation – highlights the execution challenge and how scaling innovations often trigger organizational antibodies.
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