Strategic Planning: Purpose-Driven Innovation

1. Purpose-Driven Innovation Leadership

Companies that focus on purpose and sustainability can perform up to 70% better on a number of different financial measures over time. Yet leading innovation responsibly is not easy. It requires dealing with multiple tensions from complex competing demands. Innovation involves both exploration for agile adaptation and preservation for reliable performance. Purpose-driven innovation introduces an additional dimension, emphasizing meaningful impact alongside economic viability. Think of how companies like OpenAI have been grappling with these competing demands.

This session helps leaders navigate multiple competing demands when trying to innovate responsibly. Participants learn how it is possible to innovate both radically (for agile adaptation to rapid change) and responsibly (for reliable and sustainable performance) – including how to determine key objectives, craft a strong core narrative, develop multidisciplinary teams, and align roles and responsibilities

Through introducing the ‘Purpose-driven Innovation Scanner’ (PDIS) tool, participants also receive practical guidance on how to identify innovation biases, activate innovation strengths and make more ethical and responsible decisions about new innovations to drive effective purpose-driven innovation. The session is based on unique research insights from interviews with global innovation leaders and an in-depth qualitative case study based on the book “Purpose Driven Innovation for Sustainable Development”.

Key Highlights:

• Identify and analyse how leaders make sense of and manage tensions
• Put practices in place for identifying tensions, to create a dynamic equilibrium
• Remove silos by developing a paradoxical awareness radar
• Discover strategies for agile adaptation and reliable performance – using a Radical & Responsible Innovation Model (RRIM)
• Use a profile tool to measure innovation bias and activate strength – Innovative Change Leader (iCLi) profile
• Explore an interactive ethical dilemma – The Balancing Act: Leading AI Strategy Amidst Competing Innovation Demands
• Integrating AI into a company’s strategy and effective leadership in managing the process

The sessions are based on the book ‘Purpose Driven Innovation Leadership -A Qualitative Case-study Approach for Exploring Sustainable Development‘. In-depth insights into the experience of senior leaders from ‘for-purpose’ organisations as they learn how to navigate competing innovation demands.   by Dr Gaia Grant 2024 Published by Routledge   ISBN 9781032730219 –

2. The Innovation Racing Line: Strategic Planning Canvas

Strategic planning to navigate the future and deal with competing innovation demands.

Preparation for innovation requires strategic project planning and implementation. This means getting from a start point to the finish line in the most efficient and effective way possible. To do this requires an ability to read and navigate a path that will enable maximum speed, but also to anticipate and mitigate risks.

The Innovation Racing Line Strategic Planning Canvas is a very practical session that uses the uniquely developed Dynamic Polar Positioning tool (DPoP) to ensure leaders and teams can build the best strategy through planning the most effective route. The most efficient path through any corner is referred to as the “racing line.”

Teams learn how to map out a sustainable path, breaking the strategy down into distinct sections (including anticipating the challenging curves), and identifying the best ‘racing line’ and crew (who does what on the team)  to navigate the chosen path successfully. By understanding the tension of the ‘Paradoxical Innovation Orientations’, and ambidextrous approaches to leadership, these models and tools can help leaders learn to communicate more effectively & set an effective strategy / road map.

Key Highlights:

1. An implementable strategic, actionable plan for the leader & team.
2. Innovation strategic planning & Innovation leadership planning

3. From Startup to Scaleup: How to lead through scale-up & navigate change

High-growth enterprises face a number of unique challenges as they scale-up as there is an unpredictability associated with rapid change along with a scarcity of resources.

Leaders of enterprises that scale up must deal with unique tensions as they balance expansion through meeting external market demands with efficiently managing internal organising capacity. These leaders will need to focus on innovation and change to realise the enterprise opportunity, which can lead to rapid growth – while simultaneously ensuring stability for long-term sustainability. As the entrepreneurial founders of enterprises scaling-up often focus on innovation and expansion in the start-up phase, stability and sustainability can become a lower priority as the organisation scales-up. This frequently leads to a leadership crisis. The findings of the longitudinal case study outlined in this session demonstrates how a shift from an innovative individual entrepreneur leadership model to a shared leadership approach – along with the adoption of unique distributed leadership practices – can enable leaders to both create and sustain value as they scale-up.

Key Highlights:

• MODEL: The SPRING model for mapping organization growth stages.
• EXERCISE: Reaching consensus between polar positions – Using the Dynamic Polar Positioning (PoP) to deal with the competing demands of innovation & growth.
• CASE STUDY ROLE PLAY: The Gig Economy – Reaching consensus between stakeholders
• REFLECTION / ACTION PLANNING: Personal/team/organization action checklist.