In this article, we suggest that reflexive interventions can be a source for innovation in complex work contexts. We distinguish between the notions of 'reflection' and 'reflexivity', and define reflexivity as an analytical principle realised through the interplay between the actions reflection and recursion. We present two case studies, one in a pharmaceutical company and one of a hospital surgery that illuminate successful innovation creation and implementation processes as well as change and development through reflexive intervention processes between researchers and practitioners. The first case shows how the participants of an intervention changed their basic assumptions and subsequently created an organisational innovation. In the second case, a reflexive intervention in the surgical operating unit of a hospital led to a model of radically new activity and leadership.