Three learning objectives in the lead platform. First of all, we want to understand how LEED becomes critical for companies renovation in the innovation universe. Secondly, we want to equip leaders to lead the change that's required for innovation within companies. And lastly, adopt and improve your leadership characteristics and traits for the innovation economy. Welcome back to the innovation universe series. We're in lead, and this is our way Finder.

So we've already talked about frame which is the strategic main date or that linkage between strategy and innovation. We've talked about generate which is customer driven problem solving. We talked about embed, which is how you renovate the organization and we're now going to talk about lead. And lead is about unleashing human potential both in others, but also in yourself. Let's look at the Next element in the lead platform, and that element is environment architect, just as you would if you would colonize a planet. In the innovation universe leaders set up a kind of biosphere in their hosted planet, or a community that has a set of social expectations within a team or unit that is necessary to unleash innovation from everyone and everywhere.

Leaders in the innovation universe know that working in a company brings many benefits that entrepreneurs would love to have like assets and customers and existing channels and marketing etc. But they also know that with this benefit, there also comes some drawbacks, and those drawbacks include bureaucracy and slowness in a hierarchical mindset. And as Status Quo that is hostile to innovation. So great leaders in companies that are leading innovation set up a small biosphere fear, if you will, for their team. So they can live in both worlds worlds. Both the host world of the company and be compatible there, but also to take advantages of what's needed for an atmosphere for innovation.

Now, a biosphere is an ecological system that integrates all the people inside and the relationships. And that includes the interaction with the environmental elements. The biosphere or the environment that I want to talk about here as an element in innovation universe is not just a physical environment. It's also a social environment. One of the skill sets that leaders in the innovation universe have is that of a social architect. If you will, creating a workspace that is conducive to innovation, this environment is encouraging creative, and it invites innovators to do their best, it unleashes their potential.

It's a learning environment with a high premium put on addressing customer problems while collaborating and bringing new solutions to the world. And the key here and this element for leaders as it was in the other elements that we talked about in the lead platform is that leaders take an active role, and they see the world as a bigger place than just their company. Now let's talk about the physical space very quickly. There's a lot of information out there about how to create a very creative space for innovation. And I'm not going to go into that in the module except to say this before you invest in a physical space or try to get senior leadership to To invest in a physical space, make sure that you have a few innovations under your belt. I had the space junk card that I showed in the frame module, that suggests it much as much.

And it's based on a discussion that I have quite often in my workshops with executives who are frustrated, because their management won't start with funding an innovation room or an innovation training space. And my general advice is always as in the card that I created that I'm showing here with a bit of a twinkle in my eye is to ask them to start with perhaps creating some innovations, and getting a few under their belt before they seek funding for an innovation space. So for this module, what I'd like to talk about is to create about creating the social environment, the social space for innovation, and I'm going to give you some ideas about some things environmental architects do for innovation. These are just some ideas, there's lots more out there. The skills associated with these are skills that leaders need to to not only lead others in the innovation universe, but to lead your personal renovation as a leader in innovation.

So let me run through some of these defining markers if you will, that leaders create when they're architecting, an innovation, social space. It may seem alien to you, but many people need permission to innovate, or even permission to speak up in a meeting, particularly when you're speaking up with an idea or something risky. You know, a company can be a harsh environment. And some not all people need some safety and leaders can create that. So if you are looking to have innovation from everywhere, you don't want only those who are used to public speaking to be the ones who speak up in the innovation session. It's your role as the leader to make a safe and engaging environment.

And one of the ways I teach leaders to create a safe and engaging space or environment is to help people say yes, ask yourself for the next meeting or workshop. Can I easily Can I make it easy for people to say yes, both act actually and figuratively. Now, there are many ways to do this. And these tips merely just show you a mindset or a creation of possibilities for you as a leader to create a safe and environment, engaging space, but here's some ideas. develop trust and mutual respect through equal interaction and dialogue. treat people as equals and talk to them.

Ask them their ideas and their opinion and help them make sure people understand the sandbox and what's possible in the sandbox. Always model the behavior you want. Identify memory. Have your team who might have a history of being reticent, and before a meeting or workshop, have a discussion with them talk about what's going to happen. So they can begin to visualize the workshop and feel more comfortable. Allow people to work in pairs, go around the room and ask people to contribute and allow them to pass if they feel uncomfortable and make that okay.

If there are several people in an ideation session who have not spoken, ask, but in a general way, don't call them out. But just ask. I always said like to hear from people now that we haven't heard from and then I leave a bit of a pause to see if they want to add something. Use good group techniques that allow them to maybe write something down first or to work alone and then to talk in the group. One of these is called nominal group technique. Followed follow every verbal submission with a positive influence.

Comment a sincere thank you is often enough, make it fun and not competitive. So those are just a few ideas about how to create a safe and engaging space. And remember, as a leader, you need to actively do this because it defaults to a space that isn't as engaging and can be a harsh environment. There is another great article and body of work that I absolutely love. And this article that I want to bring to your attention is on collective genius. And it's authored by the author's you see on the screen and there's a link.

They also have a book by the same name. And just as an aside, I'm a really big fan of Dr. hills work, her TED Talk, etc. And this group is looking at leadership Innovation where very few authors in academics are. So I encourage you to look up their work and to learn more about them. But this article made me really expand my thinking about how an innovation leader practices, creative agility as an environment architect, and in this article, the author's talk about innovation leaders who can balance what they call creative agility, paradoxes. And here's a list of these paradoxes that are in the article.

To be able to balance both affirming the individual and the group. So leaders also need to be supportive and confronting, they need to foster experimentation and Learning and Performance. They need to promote improvisation and structure. They need to show patience and urgency. They need to encourage bottom up initiatives while intervening top down. So I think this is a really great list.

And I like the tension and the paradox in there that leaders have to kind of strike the right balance, but be able to do both of these extremes, if you will, in the paradox, in order to create a creative environment as they're architecting the environment. Remember, at the beginning of this LEED module, I quoted Dr. Harry Davis, from the University of Chicago, and I used his quote about bringing your whole person to work. And I did that earlier in the network section. That trait of bringing your whole self to work both for yourself and encouraging others is a key trait of leaders who want to architect environments for innovation to thrive. I have another great article for you to look at. And it's around the whole person as a leader.

And it's by Stewart Friedman at Wharton. And it's entitled to be a better leader have a richer life and the citation, as well as some additional information that you can get from Dr. Friedman are on the screen. And what I like about this article is it talks about total leadership. And in my mind, that's kind of the whole person leadership. And because it's this article does something that most theory does not. It gives you a call to action to experiment with a change in your leadership style or trait for you to consider.

That would be a mutual benefit in it for domains that he talks about. He talks about the domain of work, the domain of home, the Domain of community and the domain of self. And the HBr article and Dr. Friedman work on points that are around the whole person and basically says we are richer when we don't have to compartmentalize ourselves. And we feel that a change in one area may not affect the other areas of our life. And so we're striving to have that change affect all four areas in a positive way. And his tool that's found in the article suggests, experimenting with describing goals in each of the four areas, and then determining how you will measure success in each area or each domain, and how you'll create implementation steps to make that change and then adjust as you're assessing toward the outcome.

This is a very specific idea in whole person leadership, but I offer it as an example. There's lots of materials out there about bringing your whole person into a leadership space and allowing others to do the same thing. The bottom line is that innovation leaders bring their whole selves to work, and they help others do so in an authentic and non invasive way. The next trait or behavior I'd like you to try as an innovation, environment architect is listen and encourage. I mean, we all have this, this tendency when someone is talking to us to stop listening and began to think about what we're going to say, or to, in our mind, judge what we're saying get ready to say well, no, or to fix what they're giving to us. And this trait, listen and encourage forces you to defer judgment.

It forces you to keep the onus on the other person and not take it on yourself and try to fix it. And there's two traits or two techniques here that I think are exemplary in trying to do this. The first one is yes. And now maybe you're not surprised. But I was surprised to learn that yes, and as a concept has its own Wikipedia page, but yes and is an improv technique that leaders can use that represents how you can architect environments by encouraging others and allowing others to think for themselves and the brace basic premise for yes and is that when you hear an idea or comment, not to judge it or to say no, instead to throw it back to the idea creator or to the person making the comment with a Yes, a positive and then add to it Yes. And and imagine at work when you finally get up enough courage to go to let's say your boss, with a very creative idea for the business and instead of her saying, you know what we You've already tried that.

Or, you know, no, I didn't ask you for that idea to throw it back to you and say yes. And what else could we do and to keep building on the idea? The second technique is just a question. And it's a 24 karat question. It's an amazing question. And the question is, how might we?

So when you have a group of people together, they're talking about ideas, and you want them to start ID ating on possibilities, ask them, How might we? It cleverly says, Yes, we're going to keep going. And it says, I want you all to come up with a solution. So both yes and and how might we our creativity tools that I think represent the type of stage or environment that you want to set as an innovation leader in the innovation universe. The next trait for an innovation environment architect, and how to create this social space. is a term called generative.

It's one of those words that's kind of an awkward word. But I don't think there's any other word that says exactly the same thing. I first learned the concept A long time ago in the early work of Erik Erikson on Adult development, and that work generalize stages as we go through life and age. And one of the stages, I think, he said between 40 and 65, he called generative. And this is where you've already established careers, family, things are kind of settled, and you begin to look at the bigger space around you. And you begin to start giving back by teaching others and becoming involved in the community.

And the virtue of the stage, if you will, is caring. So I'm not sure if that age, age rage is correct. But leaders have to do this much earlier in the innovation economy in their life. And I've observed great innovation leaders that do this well, that really think about the bigger picture and really are caring and want people to reach their full potential. They kind of have ceased this idea that they're competing with everyone around them. And they don't.

They no longer need to be the smartest person in the room and they don't really have anything to prove so much. They seem to be at peace and at ease with themselves and just focused on others, reaching their potential generative leaders in innovation are always teaching are always helping people to where they want to go in a caring way and they see the best in people which is a really important trait. So they are rare to find. Imagine working for someone this grounded and generous and caring. But if you want to attract resources to your group, if you really want to be a great innovation universal leader, then generativity is a leadership trait that you will need to develop maybe I'm wrong, maybe there is a better way. word for it, maybe the word is giving back.

The last trait that I want to highlight in lead in the environment architect element is regenerate think about regenerate, maybe as a braking system that recovers energy to slow a vehicle. And then the leadership case, we generative is someone who is always taking something and making it better. Just meeting it, where it's at and getting it one step better. Whether it's an idea, a meeting, a workshop, a system, you might see people in work that come into a meeting, and it's really not their meeting and the meeting isn't going well and they jump in the meeting to the next level. That's a regenerative leader. They're taking what's there, they're not destroying it, and they're just taking it up a level.

It's a bit different than the yes and where you kind of send it back to the other person. This again is an active role. regenerative is about taking energy of what is already there and feeling personally responsible to make it better. And here's a few traits to think about this regenerative leader is someone who's always looking for possibilities. So they're a possibility thinker. And they get their kicks out of taking something and elevating it to the next level.

They're fun to work around. And they're fun and innovation because they don't seem to be judgmental. And they always see the world as a glass half full, kind of a what if philosophy so as a leader, helping others to get their idea, their work their career to a next level, it's paramount to creating an environment where people want to innovate again, to attract resources, people want to work for leaders who are regenerative. Let's look at the environment, architect, MVA the minimal viable option. proach just one tool or thing you can do. And this one, I think is going to be a lot of fun.

This one is about living in the innovation universe for seven days just seeing what it's like in one aspect that we've talked about. So for this MVA, we're going to launch you into orbit, we're going to launch you into the innovation universe, and your assignment is for seven days to use. Yes, and in every situation that you can. Now remember, we're talking about the whole person. So think about those four domains. Don't just use it at work, but use it everywhere that you can.

And I'd like you to just keep a journal and keep track of what happens what, what the experience was like, what the how the other person reacted. And I think after seven days of Yes, and you'll begin to see just a little window into what's possible when you take an active role to become an innovation universe leader. Okay, we're going to start at the fourth element in lead and that is a change agent and thought leader. So I want to start with change age. And the reason I emphasize this here is there's this interesting Enigma in the innovation universe. The information is always helpful to companies.

But sometimes understanding who does what, or who has the accountability to take a company into the innovation universe is not clear. So in this last area, I want to discuss your role as a change agent in frame, generate and in bed. And why we're going through this, I'd like you to just think about this mantra in your head. And the mantra is this, the mantra is free, the people push on the systems. So we're going to start with frame and look at your leadership role in frame. Now, of course, that depends on the organization role that you have in the company, because some things you can do from any role, but some things require very senior people in the organization to do that.

So you just have to use your judgment and try to push a little bit on some of the boundaries, so that the things that you need to put in place from a frame step standpoint for all innovators are there. So let's just do a quick flyby and frame, if you will, I'm not going to go through all the details. But the big key here is to make sure that the strategy is translated. Now, it may not be your role to create the strategy. That's probably the CEO or the executive committee or whoever, the head of the business unit, but it certainly is your role to translate it. And I gave you some tools to do that, and some thoughts.

And that is really important for innovators because they need to understand why what they're working on is so important, and they need to understand the sandbox. So remember this linkage map that we did in frame and keep perfecting that and the other elements of frame so that you can have the right strategic mandate for innovation in your company and so that everyone in your company understands it. Now the second roll that we talked about in the innovation universe is generate. And this is the center of universe. This is the biggest one. This is where you actually create innovations.

And this is the sub title of this one is customer driven problem solving. Now, sometimes when companies first start innovation initiatives, leaders get tripped up in this platform. And what happens is they naturally feel like well, if we're going to start innovation, then my role is to create the next great innovation. And while there's some truth to that, we want innovation from everyone and everywhere, including leaders. Their first role is not that their first role is to put in place the things in the lead platform that will allow everyone to innovate. And that includes things like determining the unifying process, so teams can be on the same page and use the same language that involves creating this ecosystem so that your team can work with others outside the company.

In the right way to make sure innovations are being created in the leanest, fastest way. I mean, think about this, if you ask every team on their own to go out and create their own ecosystem, they would never have time to innovate. So part of your role is to create that infrastructure so that people can draw on it. Now there might be new partners and things they have to create. But there needs to be a baseline there. We talked about the creation of AI mentors to help facilitate innovation.

And that's a very important role. That's, again, not a grassroots effort. That's someone that someone in your position needs to decide if you need that or not, and move forward on that. And then this I pipe and these metrics that again, is a very important leadership role. The last thing I would say about generators, there's another role we didn't talk about, and that's to provide air cover for your innovation teams. You know, innovation teams by nature, dustup controversy, innovation in and of itself is a change in It often makes organizations uncover uncomfortable.

So leaders have to give innovation teams roots support, they have to remove barriers, and they have to provide enough air cover so these innovations can germinate. Let's look at the third platform and your role as a leader in embed. Now embed is a little bit more nuanced. It's this invisible one. Everything about it is kind of hidden and invisible. So first and foremost, as a leader in the innovation universe, Train yourself on the elements of embed so that you can see these invisible things that are driving your company.

And as you're monitoring or unleashing innovation teams, make sure you stay close enough to them so you can understand the organization barriers they're facing. Often innovators or innovation teams in a company cannot see the barriers they can just feel the barriers and they just know something stopping them or slowing them down. So keep a running list of these management systems, these endo systems and begin to, I used to tell people to triage to make a list and triage the ones that need to be renovated. Use the steps and embed to begin to change your company so that it becomes more innovative at every turn. And as if all else fails, be sure you're practicing the embed leaders at least in the area that you control. You may not be able to change the whole company, but you could certainly change your unit or your team.

Now the last area in LEED and in this change agent and thought leader is to become a thought leader in innovation, the innovation space changes daily because of that there are no real experts per se no one that knows all of that. So many Make sure you keep abreast on the new ideas and the new ways of innovating by reading, going to workshops, conferences, taking classes, taking, this series is a really good start, and putting yourself into the best networks to learn and grow about innovation. I always advise leaders to take one aspect of innovation that is very interesting to them that they're passionate about. And you can go through the innovation unifor platforms and the elements to maybe start this to pick one that you're really interested in, and then become an expert on it. And just this one area, for example. For many years, I had this deep passionate about passionate about where ideas come from and how ideas are formed in someone's mind before they can actually articulate it.

When I read everything I could on it. I observed I went to workshops. It was just really interesting to me and I became an expert in that area. And that area, as you know is in the discovery part. So the discovery part Have generate is an area I'm very, very interested in. So the area doesn't have to be a big area, it can be a niche area, but find something you're passionate about.

And I always encourage leaders, one of the best ways to master an area, and to really progress in your leadership is to think about not just teaching others, but writing about it. There's so many outlets now to post ideas to publish ideas. And writing about things really helps you understand them in a deeper way. So think about advancing your thought leadership and innovation by teaching and writing and becoming an expert in one area that fascinates you, the change agent and thought leader area, I'm actually going to use the MVA here to go back and look at all of the key traits that we've talked about at least the top ones for a leader in the innovation economy and that's going to be the MVA the minimal, viable proach for this section, you can go on innovation universe.com to get the link for the survey. And it also gives you some additional information about how to prioritize and to pick one area, and some ideas about how to make improvements.

So I'll see you when you get finished with that. Okay, congratulations, you finished the LEED platform in the innovation universe and let me just do a summary or at a glance. Remember, LEED is about unleashing human potential, and it's about renovating your leadership skills to lead in the innovation economy. There are four elements network leader, resource creator, environment architect, and change agent and thought leader. Now the network leader is about creating these networks or kags. These creative affinity groups that create opportunities for leaders to host and nurture a substrate for innovation.

And networks are communities that share a sense of purpose. and passion. And they set the stage for creativity. And they're important because if you're going to cast a wide net, you need some way to have a talent attraction mechanism. And this also allows people to bring their whole person to work the MV, a that we use, there are the nine steps to unleashing networks. The second area resource creator is about how leaders have to become resource magnets to attract funding and people and that they can do this.

Well after they have a proven track record of innovation, or at least that helps, and the reason it's important is we can't rely on the traditional resource allocation methods alone. We have to figure out how to create new ways to fund innovation and new ways to attract people and the MVA that we suggested Here are six steps to transition to a resource creator. The next element is innovation I'm sorry, environment architect and the description there is how you create the physical and social space for innovation to thrive, and to reject traditional work environments. And why it matters. It's because within the right environment, innovation can thrive, if not, innovation will always be sub optimized and that everyone deserves a workplace and environment that unleashes their potential. And the MBA we suggested here is the colonization how to colonize the innovation.

Universe by seven days of yes and And last is the change agent and thought leader. These are describing the leadership accountabilities that you have in frame generate an embed, and also asking you to develop deep innovation acumen beyond just the common innovation of understanding of innovation to become a thought leader. This is important because learning and practicing your leadership role and frame generate embed is the only way that your company's going to be able to transform and the MVA here was individual leadership traits for the innovation universe. The next module is just going to give you some ideas of either how to get started in innovation or how to get innovation to the next level.