The strategic problem this addresses

Innovation activity that is not connected to strategy produces pilots that never scale. Leaders need a challenge portfolio, a way to prioritise it, governance that makes decisions and a plan for the capability the organisation will need.

Intended audience

Senior leaders and sponsors
Transformation and innovation directors
Heads of capability and learning
Core teams governing a challenge portfolio

Prerequisites

Digital Introduction
Sponsorship of at least one live challenge (recommended)

Duration and delivery format

2 days plus workplace application. In person, senior cohort of 8 to 16, with a facilitated strategic capstone.

Capability outcomes

By the end of the programme and its workplace application, participants can:

01Translate strategy into a portfolio of well-framed challenges
02Prioritise the portfolio with an explicit framework
03Design governance that makes evidence-led decisions at the right cadence
04Read a portfolio dashboard and act on it
05Define benefits and the organisational capability plan that supports them

Course experience

Day one works from the organisation’s strategy to a strategic challenge portfolio. Leaders frame challenges, agree prioritisation criteria and test them against real candidates.

Day two designs the governance: the forum, the cadence, the evidence required at each decision point and the dashboard that will show progress. It closes with the organisational capability plan: which roles, which pathway, which internal facilitators.

The strategic capstone applies the design in the workplace over the following months, with facilitated checkpoints.

Methods

Strategy-to-challenge translation
Portfolio prioritisation
Governance design
Evidence-led investment decisions
Benefits frameworks
Capability planning

Tools

Miro
Power BI or Excel for the portfolio dashboard
Copilot or Claude for scenario analysis and portfolio decision support

Where AI supports this programme

Scenario analysis, Portfolio decision support, Benefits tracking. Human ownership of decisions, source checking and your organisation’s information-handling rules apply throughout. How we govern AI use.

Practical outputs

Work products recorded in the Capability Portfolio.

Strategic challenge portfolio
Prioritisation framework
Governance model
Portfolio dashboard
Benefits framework
Organisational capability plan

Workplace application

The strategic workplace capstone: the governance model operating for at least one decision cycle, with the portfolio dashboard in use and the capability plan approved.

Assessment and recognition

Successful completion of the required strategic workplace capstone, reviewed by an Innovation Network assessor.

Certified Innovation Leader

Awarded only after successful completion of the required strategic workplace capstone.

Position within the wider pathway

The Sustain stage for leaders. Senior sponsors can move here directly from the Digital Introduction. Core teams reach it after the full practitioner and facilitator pathway.