From Innovation to Evolution
Building on the exploration of Year 1 and the implementation experience of Year 2, Year 3 of the Innovative Leaders Network shifts the focus from launching innovation to continually strengthening, adapting, and evolving it.
Participants may continue, refine, expand, or scale their Year 2 Innovation Change Project—or apply what they have learned about innovation and change to a new challenge or opportunity within their local context. Through strategic networking, practical innovation tools, collaborative Design Studios, and individualized leadership coaching, participants will strengthen both their current work and their capacity to lead innovation over time.
Outcomes for Participants:
By the end of Year 3, participants will:
- Advance, refine, scale, or evolve an existing innovation or apply the innovation process to a new challenge
- Use Propelling Questions, constraints, and abundance thinking to generate new possibilities
- Strengthen their ability to gather feedback, test assumptions, iterate ideas, and adapt over time
- Build the leadership and organizational capacity needed to sustain innovation and help others lead through change
Key Components:
Evolving the Innovation
Participants will determine the next chapter of their innovation work. This may include refining, expanding, scaling, or rethinking their Year 2 Innovation Change Project—or applying the innovation process to a new challenge or opportunity.
Rather than viewing innovation as a one-time initiative, participants will focus on creating ongoing cycles of learning, feedback, adaptation, and improvement.
Propelling Questions & Innovation Strategies
A central Year 3 learning lens will be the use of Propelling Questions: Bold Ambition + Beautiful, Significant Constraints.
Participants will explore how meaningful constraints can become catalysts for creativity rather than reasons to lower ambition. Strategies such as “We Can If,” Resource & Stakeholder Mapping, abundance thinking, divergent thinking, and design principles will help leaders uncover new resources, relationships, and possibilities.
Strategic Network & Design Studios
The Year 3 cohort will function as a strategic innovation network where experienced ILN leaders can challenge one another’s thinking, exchange ideas, surface resources, troubleshoot barriers, and accelerate one another’s work.
Design Studios will provide structured opportunities to bring real innovation challenges to the network, receive feedback, explore alternatives, test assumptions, and determine the next iteration of the work.
Leadership Coaching for Innovation
Each participant will receive six individualized Leadership Coaching for Innovation sessions through Michigan Virtual.
Participants will be intentionally matched with a coach based on their innovation, leadership context, goals, and needs. Coaching will provide personalized thought partnership around areas such as:
- Clarifying or strengthening a Propelling Question
- Navigating barriers and constraints
- Interpreting feedback and evidence
- Strengthening stakeholder engagement
- Determining when to persist, pivot, iterate, or scale
- Building internal capacity to sustain the work
Storytelling, Sustainability & Scale
Throughout the year, participants will examine how their innovation is evolving, strengthen stakeholder ownership, and build the conditions needed for the work to continue beyond a single leader or initiative.
Participants will also prepare to share the evolution of their work at EdCon27—including the challenge they pursued, constraints they encountered, key iterations, lessons learned, impact, and future direction.
Program Structure & Timeline:
| Month/ Date | Event/Time | Focus |
| Sept. 29, 2026 | Year 3 Kickoff (Virtual) 9:00–11:00 AM | Reconnect with the Year 3 network; introduce Transform, Iterate & Evolve; determine whether to evolve an existing ICP or pursue a new challenge; explore Propelling Questions, Bold Ambition + Beautiful Constraints, and abundance thinking. |
| Oct. 2026–June 2027 | Leadership Coaching for Innovation (LC4I) – Six Individual Sessions | Engage in personalized coaching focused on strategic reflection, problem-solving, stakeholder planning, accountability, and support for iteration, sustainability, and scale. |
| Nov. 19, 2026 | Learning + Design Studio 9:00–11:00 AM | Apply “We Can If,” Resource & Stakeholder Mapping, abundance thinking, and divergent-thinking strategies to examine constraints, uncover possibilities, receive peer feedback, and identify next steps. |
| Oct. 2026–June 2027 | Continued LC4I + Application | Apply Year 3 strategies locally through implementation, stakeholder engagement, feedback, testing, and iteration. Use coaching to navigate barriers and sustain momentum. |
| Feb. 23, 2027 | Learning + Design Studio + Story Development 9:00–11:00 AM | Examine how the innovation has evolved, receive collaborative feedback, strengthen sustainability or scaling strategies, and begin shaping the innovation story for EdCon 2027. |
| Oct. 2026–June 2027 | Continued LC4I + EdCon Prep | Continue testing and refining the work, strengthen stakeholder ownership, examine evidence of impact, build local capacity, and prepare to share key learning at EdCon. |
| June 2027 | EdCon 2027 Shared Learning | Share the innovation journey, including key iterations, lessons learned, stakeholder insights, impact, and future direction. Celebrate and extend learning with the broader leadership community. |
Six Leadership Coaching for Innovation sessions will be scheduled individually throughout the Year 3 experience based on participant needs, innovation focus, context, and availability.
Closing Rationale
Year 3 is where innovation becomes an enduring leadership capacity rather than a single project.
Years 1 and 2 help leaders explore what is possible and move ideas into action. Year 3 challenges them to continually evolve that work by reframing constraints, recognizing abundance, engaging stakeholders, gathering feedback, and adapting based on what they learn.
The ultimate goal is not simply a successful initiative. It is to develop leaders who can transform, iterate, and evolve—and build the capacity of others to do the same.
One change I made intentionally from your longer Year 3 planning document: I condensed the outcomes and broader explanation quite a bit. Your Year 2 webpage is much more streamlined than the internal planning document, so I think this version feels much more like it belongs beside the existing Year 1 and Year 2 pages rather than reading like a program proposal.