What are the five key distinctions I see that separate the best from the rest?

The most effective innovators are partnering and co-innovating with stakeholders. The key to effective innovation leadership is acquiring the skills necessary to partner very closely with the stakeholders in your organization and co-own getting to those outcomes you wish to achieve. After reading CEO Excellence, written by senior partners at McKinsey, it made me think about the key capabilities that differentiate mediocre innovation leaders from those innovation leaders who are knocking it out of the ballpark. 

I had a chance over the summer to spend a lot of time with my dad. I learned that he wasn't doing well, we found out that he had cancer. Knowing that he was sick really prompted me to start spending much more time with him and just asking him a lot of questions.

My conversations with my dad led me to learn three big innovation leadership lessons. I want to share these lessons with you as the foundation of how to continue leveling up as an innovation leader.

With persisting talk of inflation and recession, many of our colleagues and clients are anticipating a slowdown period in which innovation takes a back seat to cost-cutting and downsizing. These pullbacks may test the nerve of many innovation leaders, but I’m here to tell you: there has never been a better time to lean into the challenges ahead.

Listen now to learn the three steps you can take to prepare. 

One of the most powerful tools in the Innovation Leaders’ quiver is the design sprint.

Design sprints are compressed agile development cycles (quite typically a few days or weeks) in which stakeholders identify problems, then rapidly brainstorm and build out prototype solutions in order to validate ideas before investing heavily into developing them.

Embrace letting go of control over your design sprints to discover your new superpower as an Innovation facilitator.

One of the top challenges business leaders face when trying to accelerate digital transformation is expanding low code adoption throughout their enterprise. Large scale implementation is a powerful way to get more people involved with digital transformation and supercharge your innovation programs company-wide. However, some of the biggest obstacles business leaders face stem from misconceptions about what low code is and how it should be implemented. In fact, many of the notions that make people hesitant to roll out low code programs are just plain wrong. Subscribe to Digital FastForward for more innovation and design thinking tips and best practices, and find us at digitalfastforward.com.

Complementary strategy session: https://meetings.hubspot.com/clay59/innovationstrategy

5-Day Innovation Challenge: https://programs.digitalfastforward.com/5-day-innovation-challenge

Innovation eXcelerator Coaching Program: https://digitalfastforward.com/innovation-coaching/

Low-Code Transformation Programs: https://lowcode.digitalfastforward.com/

Innovation Nation Online Community: innovationnation.group

As innovation leaders, we live in a space of “comfortable discomfort.” It is routine for us to be in a constant state of failure, which is how we refine and move forward through the innovation process. It is part of the job, but let's not discount the toll this can take on our minds. One of the most important skills we can acquire to avoid this innovation fatigue and personal burnout is mental toughness. In the context of creativity and innovation leadership, mental toughness is the habit of following through on ideas even when it's hard.

Subscribe to Digital FastForward for more innovation and design thinking tips and best practices, and find us at digitalfastforward.com.

Complementary strategy session: https://meetings.hubspot.com/clay59/innovationstrategy

5-Day Innovation Challenge: https://programs.digitalfastforward.com/5-day-innovation-challenge

Innovation eXcelerator Coaching Program: https://digitalfastforward.com/innovation-coaching/

Low-Code Transformation Programs: https://lowcode.digitalfastforward.com/

Innovation Nation Online Community: innovationnation.group

Employees are seeking more meaning and purpose in their work. This is an opportunity for us as innovators to embed employee experience in our innovation initiatives, connecting meaning and purpose to the day-to-day work employees do. And not just because doing so is likely to help engage and retain valuable team members. Putting employee experience at the center of innovation initiatives can produce better design ideas, improve the outcome of your projects, and increase efficiencies in your development.

Subscribe to FastForward Radio for more innovation and design thinking tips and best practices, and find us at digitalfastforward.com.

Complementary strategy session: https://meetings.hubspot.com/clay59/innovationstrategy

5-Day Innovation Challenge: https://programs.digitalfastforward.com/5-day-innovation-challenge

Innovation eXcelerator Coaching Program: https://digitalfastforward.com/innovation-coaching/

Innovation Nation Online Community: innovationnation.group

The habits of clarity, courage, and influence are essential for your success as an innovation leader. You can master facilitating design sprints and leading digital transformations without these habits, but you’ll see inconsistent results. These three habits are the bedrock you need to deliver high performance innovation.

Innovation influence worksheet: https://digitalfastforward.hubspotpagebuilder.com/en/innovation-influence-worksheet

High-performance innovation worksheet: http://9288358.hs-sites.com/high-performance-innovation-worksheet

Subscribe to FastForward Radio for more innovation and design thinking tips and best practices, and find us at digitalfastforward.com.

Complementary strategy session: https://meetings.hubspot.com/clay59/innovationstrategy

5-Day Innovation Challenge: https://programs.digitalfastforward.com/5-day-innovation-challenge

Innovation eXcelerator Coaching Program: https://digitalfastforward.com/innovation-coaching/

Innovation Nation Online Community: innovationnation.group