Leadership Lunch and Learn Focused on Innovation

by Lisa Davis - April 29, 2021

Innovation and leadership are inseparable according to Jeff Amerine, managing director of Innovation Junkie.

“Every organization needs to reinvent itself and that cannot be done with leadership,” he said during the April session of Leadership Lunch and Learn.

To harness innovation in the workplace, Amerine said leaders should ask themselves the following questions:

• What’s the biggest problem, result, or opportunity, that if you solved, seized, or achieved it, it would be a total game-changer for your organization?
• What are all the reasons why you can’t solve it (constraints)?
• What’s the worst thing that could happen if you fail? If that happens, could you live with it?
• What crazy idea do you have to solve this problem?
• How can you lead through the solution? What will you do tomorrow?

There are several tools that can be used to work through the innovation process.

Amerine primarily focused on Lean Canvas, a one-page business plan template that helps you deconstruct your idea into its key assumptions. Visit a tutorial on Lean Canvas here.

One of the key things in validating or invalidating a business plan through the Lean Canvas process is doing a great job at customer discovery, he said. This process requires doing one-on-one interviews with 100 potential customers, influencers, and partners. Visit a Customer Discovery tutorial here.

Amerine reiterated that innovation and leadership are inseparable. To be an innovative leader you will need:

• A problem to solve
• The wisdom to recognize it
• Constraints
• A willingness to fail
• A crazy idea
• The courage to attempt it
• The tools to innovate well

The next Leadership Lunch and Learn webinar is scheduled for 12:15 p.m., May 26. The topic is “Facilitating Communication as We Lead” presented by Dr. Kristi Farner. Register here.

About Amerine

Amerine is one of the key leaders nationally involved with the creation of lasting venture ecosystems. Amerine has held senior leadership positions in nine startups and three Fortune 500 companies, and he has made more than 80+ angel investments into new ventures and small businesses either directly or through the funds he manages. He now leads Startup Junkie Consulting and Cadron Capital partners. During his presentation he shared the following resources to explore further.

Innovation Resources

Innovation Junkie Podcasts

Startup Junkie Blog

Books

• Creating Startup Junkies, Jeff Amerine and Dr. Jeff Standridge
• Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works, Ash Maurya
• Talking to Humans, Giff Constable