246: 100,000 Innovative Ideas at TD BANK

What does it really take to move innovation from idea to impact inside a 95,000-person organization? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sat down with Vlora Muslimi, Senior Manager at TD Bank, whose path into innovation did not begin in a lab or a product team. It began in contact centers, in the daily friction of legacy tools, imperfect processes, and frontline employees trying to do their best work under pressure. With more than 15 years of experience across digital, omni-channel, and contact center operations, Vlora now leads a centralized innovation team responsible for harnessing grassroots ideas from across the enterprise. We are not talking about a handful of suggestions. Her team reviews between 16,000 and 18,000 ideas annually, and TD recently celebrated surpassing 100,000 employee-submitted ideas. Behind those numbers lies a disciplined approach to listening, triaging, matchmaking across business lines, and, most importantly, storytelling. Vlora shares how her early operational experience shaped her belief that innovation fails when it creates friction for either employees or customers. Solve only for one side, and the solution will not stick. That philosophy now guides how her team evaluates ideas, connects contact centers with technology teams, and prioritizes initiatives that balance business value with human impact. We spend time unpacking the emotional side of innovation, especially the heartbreak of ideas that do not move forward. What surprised her most was that employees were not asking for every idea to be implemented. They were asking for transparency. Who got selected? Why? What can we learn? That insight sparked a stronger internal storytelling engine, one that highlights winning ideas, shares lessons from the journey, and builds belief that anyone can bring an idea across the finish line. Our conversation also dives into empathy as a leadership muscle. Innovation leaders often rush toward outcomes, yet resistance frequently signals fear, confusion, or misalignment. Vlora explains why naming the discomfort in change, rather than sugarcoating it, builds trust and accelerates adoption. She reinforces that storytelling is not optional. It is the bridge between data and belief, between alignment and action. We explore real examples, from redesigning onboarding to improve connection and retention, to evolving adjudication processes for new-to-Canada customers. These are not flashy, headline-grabbing technologies. They are human-centered transformations that create measurable impact across millions of customers and thousands of colleagues. Looking ahead, Vlora sees growing sophistication in ideas leveraging generative AI, alongside a personal mission to increase the organization's implementation rate beyond its current 10 to 13 percent. For her, the path forward is clear. Engage more people. Strengthen the narrative. Connect impact to purpose. And when I ask her the big questions, she names the iPhone as the greatest innovation she has lived through, imagines joining Ford's original automobile team, and closes with a powerful reminder that the story the world needs now is one rooted in understanding and empathy. If you are leading change inside a complex organization, this episode is a masterclass in balancing listening with execution, process with people, and strategy with story. What might happen inside your organization if every employee believed their idea could matter?