Every spring, Don Murray asks his team to stop their regular work to build whatever they want. There are no roadmaps, approvals, or management sign-offs required. Murray, co-founder and CEO of Safe Software, a Surrey, B.C.-based data integration firm, calls this annual company reset Innovation Daze. Now in its 13th edition, the week generated 105 active projects across a staff of nearly 400.

That number is striking, but Murray says it isn’t the point. The success of Innovation Daze isn’t measured by how many ideas become part of the company’s products, but by how it strengthens teams and encourages learning. For Murray, the business case is simple: many leaders overestimate the cost of taking employees away from their day-to-day work. “The question isn’t what a week of unstructured time costs,” he says. “It’s what a culture of stifled creativity costs you over a decade.”

The mechanics of Innovation Daze are deliberately simple. In the weeks before the event, any employee can submit ideas to a shared Trello board, vote on proposals, and join whatever project interests them most–no leadership approval required for ideas. Because the board is visible to everyone, a junior developer and a senior architect might find themselves working together simply because they were drawn to the same idea. This year’s projects ranged from UX improvements and authentication fixes to agentic and AI-assisted workflows, which accounted for roughly 40 per cent of all  projects.

Research from the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) Innovation Initiative shows that structured workplace innovation practices can help teams collaborate and surface new ideas across departments. In its survey, 68 per cent of companies reported job creation, increased exports, or revenue growth when innovation was supported by clear internal systems. Similar programs, including Europe’s InnoDays—48‑hour innovation sprints that bring together industry professionals with students to take ideas from sketches into working prototypes—have produced hundreds of early-stage products, with some moving  forward as pilot projects.

Meanwhile, tech industry burnout is rising, nearly doubling over the past year, with 46 per cent of U.S. workers reporting they feel burned out, according to Dice, a technology employment platform. Researchers link the trend to AI-driven productivity pressures and anxiety around layoffs. In that environment, many companies are doubling down on delivery expectations.

Safe Software takes a different approach, treating innovation as protected time rather than an added burden. The week itself kicks off with a welcome breakfast, after which teams form around their chosen projects and work independently without check-ins, redirects, or interference from management. The only firm commitment comes at the end of the week: each team submits a two-minute video and presents it at a Friday lunch, attended both in person and via Google Meet. Participants then return to their regular work, while a small group of executives and project managers review a subset of projects for potential implementation.

This year, participation spanned Safe’s product teams, including development, QA, UX, and product management, as well as internal technical teams. But Innovation Daze has expanded beyond its developer roots, with Murray now running versions of the retreat for marketing and technical support teams. He says every iteration has produced something valuable.

Safe has turned ideas into product improvements from Innovation Daze over the years, including enhancements to deployment, integrations, and user experience. But Murray notes that the deeper value comes when participants come together. He points to moments when a junior developer who has never led a project suddenly has the latitude to propose one, recruit teammates, and present it to the entire company. “[It’s]  one of the best parts of my job all year,” Murray says. “When you’ve spent a week building something with colleagues you don’t normally interact with, the walls between teams come down in a way that persists long after everyone returns to their regular work.” 

Murray’s advice to any company considering a similar program is pointed: don’t do it halfway. “Fully dissolve the hierarchy for the week,” he says. “If people still feel they need their manager’s approval, or if senior leaders are quietly steering from the sidelines, you’ll get polished incremental ideas instead of genuinely creative ones.” 

He also cautions against evaluating the week like a sprint, with success measured solely by the number of ideas that make it into a product. Early on, Safe experimented with prizes and ranking, but quickly moved away from the  approach after noticing teams began optimizing for what they thought would win rather than pursuing ideas they were genuinely excited about.

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Thirteen years in, Murray shows no sign of reconsidering the investment–and as a CEO, he continues to take part himself. For other leaders weighing a similar move, he encourages them to get in the room. The value of Innovation Daze, he argues, lies in what it signals to employees about trust and values.

“Giving people the space to have fun and be creative is often overlooked in business today that is driven by deadlines and aggressive schedules,” he says. “Stopping this for a week is something we will continue to do.”