New ideas happen all the time, but why do they wither away? What helps these ideas, or seeds, get planted, watered, and grow into fruitful trees?

Allan Montpellier and the new Innovation Group aim to help explore these questions while continuing to build upon PAE’s legacy of innovation. By identifying barriers and promoting enablers, the group will gather ideas, set up flexible frameworks, connect ideas and people to resources, and craft a dynamic and supportive culture of innovation.

This support system allows new ideas to come from all levels of the firm, across all disciplines.

“There is no need to be in the Innovation Group itself to innovate. The group is here to set the stage for ideas to happen, but we are not the actors on the stage. From finance to lighting design, facilities to plumbing, project coordination to electrical engineering, our staff will harvest ideas that can make big or small changes for the better in everything we touch.”

Allan Montpellier, Chief Innovation Officer

Allan and the team have crafted an intentional path that fertilizes and nurtures seeds, or ideas, for growth and implementation. Some ideas are immediately obvious and can be put into practice right away, and others move into a germination phase that assesses what they need to grow, connecting them with the right people, or resources to best fertilize them. Other seeds are an idea that’s just not ready to move forward yet for one reason or another. These are put into a “seed bank” to revisit and germinate later when the restrictions or resources have shifted. This way, no idea is lost forever.

“Our key responsibilities are to identify barriers and promote enablers, helping the seeds to thrive.

Christian Agulles, Principal

This focused act of supporting ideas moving forward and saving others for a better time helps set the stage for ideas to make shifts: incremental, evolutionary, and revolutionary. It’s not a scripted recipe or a hard process, but a flexible and movable path that is learning as it grows.

“Process is a death knell for innovation. We’re trying to be careful to not create too much of it or be too rigid in our plans.”

Samantha Colasardo, Administrative Operations Manager

Ideas come from everywhere, at all times, but the key to making them stick is intentionality. By creating a group dedicated to making connections, collaborating, and supporting ideas at all levels, with Allan as the master gardener, PAE is laying a foundation for radical changes for our industry and others.

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Enjoy Allan’s Periodic Table of Innovation here.

Learn more about this year's Innovation Group:
Allan Montpellier, Chief Innovation Officer
Christian Agulles, Principal
Harj Sidhu, Associate Principal
Justin Stenkamp, Associate Principal
Karina Hershberg, Senior Associate
Paul Schwer, President
Samantha Colasardo, Administrative Operations Manager
Scott Schuetz, Chief Information Officer