the INTRAPRENEUR’S

compass

Tools for beyond the map.

The intention of the Intrapreneur’s Compass is to help you reflect on the key dimensions and questions that are fundamental for your intrapreneurial quest. This tool was created in conjunction with The Intrapreneur’s Guide to Pathfinding, a manual lovingly created by our League of Intrapreneurs global community, a group of mavericks, misfits and change agents who realized early on that there is no road map to the new economy. Getting there will require mastering the ancient art of pathfinding, the practice of managing by your wits, finding comfort in discomfort, and moving ahead, all the while being unsure what awaits at the end of the path.

This guide can be used independently or in combination with The Intrapreneur’s Guide to Pathfinding.

These tools are designed to be used as a practical companion for individuals as well as for teams traveling together. Even when traveling as a team, it is important to take some time to work on the core personal motivations that drive each of us as individuals in our quest.

ABOUT THIS TOOL

The Intrapreneur’s Compass is divided into three sections:

1. Identifying My Quest: Higher Order Question, My Motivation

2. Shaping My Quest:

World-Changing Idea, Story, Co-Travelers,Travel Conditions

3. Journeying into the Unknown:

Getting on the Move, Feeding your Project, Resilience & Distance Traveled

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SHAPING MY QUEST

MY QUESTION What’s my higher order question?

CO–TRAVELERS + Who are key stakeholders?

+ How will I keep their fire alive?

Feeding My Project + How will I find people, permission,

time and money for my project?

Resilience PLAN + What is my “hydration” plan?

THE STORY + What’s the current story?

+ What is my counter-narrative?

Travel conditions+ How’s the environment in my organization?

+ How much time it will take?

My World–Changing Idea + What idea do I want to test?

+ What are my non-negotiables?

Getting on the move+ What experiments do I need to test my idea?

Distance Traveled + What will be my indicators

of progress and success?+ How will I measure impact?

MY MOTIVATION What drives me?

JOURNEYING INTO THE UNKNOWN

Iden

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The Intrapreneur’s Compass

This is the Higher Order Question that will serve as a north star for your quest.

When you set out on an intrapreneurial journey, you are asking a question that has yet to be posed within the system.

* WHAT?

* WHY?

* HOW MIGHT WE?

The highest order questions are game changers that do not impose any hard constraints. Answers to these questions are not obvious and sometimes take decades or lifetimes to uncover. Before you embark on your intrapreneurial journey, be sure you’re asking a question worth investigating.

* What system am I trying to change?

* What can be the the highest points of impact in this system?

+ What is my higher order question?

Don’t fall in love with your idea; fall in love with your question. You will spend a lot of time developing your idea - testing, prototyping, iterating. It’s easy to get attached to your solution. Find ways to keep your higher order question front and center, and be willing to let go of ideas that don’t serve your mission.

Identify the right ‘order’ of question for your stage. Asking the highest order questions can stimulate whole new fields and disciplines to explore, but sometimes these frames are so big that it can be hard to know where to start. If that’s your case, can you identify a “higher” (but not highest) order question that can unlock practical steps forward – as you keep in mind the bigger goal?S

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Higher Order Questions Asked by Intrapreneurs:

* How might we bank the “unbankable”?

* What would it take to create zero-carbon transport?

* How might we provide world-class education for everyone, everywhere?

* What if a basic income was a human right?

* How might we create a circular economy?

1. IDENTIFYING YOUR QUEST My QUEST(ION)

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The intrapreneur’s journey is a long one and will be full of tests. Your inner fire is what will keep you going when the going gets tough or if others lose faith. Your deeply held values will help you stay the course through even the heaviest of headwinds. Ask yourself:

1. Why is this quest meaningful and relevant for me?

2. How does it align with my values?

3. What is my source of energy for this initiative, my fire?

4. How did I get involved in this quest?

5. What are my needs and personal development goals for this quest?

+ What drives me?

Intrapreneurship is a team adventure. As you recruit fellow co-travelers, find out what’s motivating them to join your quest. This can help create the right space and relevant roles for each participant to help keep the individual and collective flames alive.

Look in the mirror as well as the telescope. When solving big, wicked challenges, it can be easy to fall into the trap that what needs to be solved is ‘out there.’ Yet, this journey is as much about you as it is about your challenge. So, take time to reflect on your needs and concerns to understand why this specific quest is meaningful for you.S

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1. IDENTIFYING YOUR QUEST

“Love. Creation. Impact. System change.” Dennis, League Catalyst

“Injustice.” Maya, Intrapreneur

“My fire comes from gratitude... I feel so grateful to be healthy, to have the family I have and the opportunities I’ve had in my life

that I feel I need to pay back to the world, something in return to what I have.”

Barbara, Intrapreneur

Need a jumpstart on articulating your values?

Check out: https://jamesclear.com/core-values

My MOTIVATION

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This is the time to start shaping your quest by developing a specific intervention to address your higher order question. As an impact-driven intrapreneur, you are looking for an idea that sits at the intersection of a societal need, an organizational priority and your personal values & gifts.

As you elaborate on your idea, ask yourself:

1. Is this idea addressing a real problem?

2. Is it bringing a new and fresh approach?

3. Does it have the potential for sustainability, replication, and scale?

4. Is this idea addressing a pain point or strategic priority for your organization?

5. Does it align with the unique set of values and gifts that you and your team can bring to the world?

My World Changing Idea

Be clear on the essence. The details can be worked out. As you develop your idea, focus initially on the key elements you want to test and don’t get lost in the intricate details. Some call this a ‘minimum viable product’ or ‘prototype’: packaging the bare minimum to test your key hypotheses.

Know your non-negotiables. Compromise is a natural part of the intrapreneurship journey. So, it’s important to be clear from the start on your “non-negotiables.” These can serve as compass guardrails when you’re deep into your journey or when you feel pressure to take a different course.

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+ What idea do I want to test? + What are my non-negotiables?

SOCIE

TAL NEED ORGANIZATIONAL PRIO

RITY

PERSONAL PASSION & GIFTS

* Your North Star

*

2. SHAPING MY QUEST

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Storytelling is the foundation of persuasion and recruiting people to your cause. One of your primary jobs as an intrapreneur is to help re-set the frame; to shift the view of what is salient or valued by your colleagues and key stakeholders.

To do this will require telling new stories to counter the current narrative that more often than not blocks people’s imaginations or will to make a change.

As you start creating your story, keep in mind the following questions:

1. What is the opportunity you have identified?

2. Who are you trying to persuade?

3. How can you speak to the value and emotions of your key audience?

4. What is the “sticky message” that you want people to remember?

THE STORY

Build bridges from today’s reality to tomorrow’s possibility. How often do you feel ‘they just don’t get it!’? Keep in mind, what is so clear for you may be nearly impossible for others to imagine. What visuals or experiences can create a bridge to the future for others? And take care to create navigable stepping stones to enlist people without scaring them off.

Don’t be afraid to go personal. Much of the art of persuasion boils down to showing up authentically. Help your audience understand who you are and what’s motivating you. When we identify with someone on a human level, we create a deeper, emotional connection that moves beyond transactional to purposeful.

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+ What’s the current story you’re hearing?

+ What is my counter-narrative story? F. Frame the Issue

A. Accessible

M. Memorable

E. Emotional

S. Simple & Short

Reframe the Old Story & Communicate A New OneR.

Note: F.R.A.M.E.S. model developed by Center for Story Based Strategy is reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. Accessed here: https://www.storybasedstrategy.org/intro-to-sbs

2. SHAPING MY QUEST

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Who you are traveling with is instrumental to the success of your initiative, as well as for your mental and physical health during the journey.

A stakeholder map can help you identify and categorize your co-travelers. You can plot the relevant stakeholders in a simple 2x2 matrix defined by the actor’s level of power and their level of interest in your project.

Gatekeepers (High Power/Low Interest); Try to increase this group’s interest around your project. Engage and consult them strategically.

Sponsors & Guides (High Power/High Interest): Rally this group around your project. Focus your advocacy on this group and try to involve them in the governance of your project.

Spectators (Low Power/Low Interest): Try to increase this group’s interest around your project. Engage and consult them where possible.

Teammates (Low Power/High Interest): Rally this group around your project and work most closely with them. They are likely to be the people who see what you see and want new policies, practices, and resourcing changes.

CO-TRAVELERS

+ Who are key stakeholders? + How will I keep their fire alive?

Interest

Pow

er

GATEKEEPERS (High Power/Low Interest)

Spectators (Low Power/Low Interest)

Sponsors & Guides (High Power/High Interest)

Teammates (Low Power/High Interest)

You may need to slow down to speed up. To keep your co-travelers’ fire alive you will need to dedicate time to build trust and create alignment. This can make you feel you are not moving at the speed you want, but what is the point of rushing if you are going alone?

Open space for co-ownership. One of the biggest risks as an intrapreneur is to link your project so closely with your identity that it closes off space for contributions from others. Do your teammates and colleagues talk about the project as if they own it or have a stake in it?

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Travel conditions

Before setting out, you’ll need to consider the current travel conditions.

It is difficult to plan the journey in detail, since this is such an uncertain path. Consider the following:

1. What is your ultimate destination?

2. What is the best way to approach your organization given the current situation?

3. Should you travel in stealth? Would it be smarter to work “under the radar”, well below the active attention of your colleagues?

4. What can you expect over the duration of your journey? Are there specific phases/thresholds?

Being able to estimate how long an intrapreneurial project might take is genuinely difficult, and the answer will depend on your organization’s appetite for disruption. You’ll need to take into account your travel pace and that of your companions and the organization at large.

+ How’s the environment in your organization? + How much time will it take?

Windows of opportunity What is a potential area, group or region, where there is already energy to test something like your idea? Go where the energy is already flowing in the same direction!

Guiding Questions. If you split your higher order questions into smaller questions, these can serve as a guide on the phases of your journey and thresholds to move into new phases.

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Horizon 1

Horizon 2 Horizon 3

A helpful framework for understanding innovation distance is the Three Horizons model:

Horizon 1 Making Incremental changes in the current operating model.

Horizon 2 Extending operating model to an adjacent area (e.g. new clients, new markets)

Horizon 3 Transforming an operating model and core capabilities to respond in a new way.

Source: McKinsey below three horizons framework.

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Getting on the move

One of the best ways to build confidence is to start finding answers with a few rapid rounds of prototypes and using the results of those trial runs as evidence that the organization needs to invest more in this quest.

Prototyping can be used at these different stages of your journey:

Understanding How will you learn more about the needs of your users?

Inspiring How can you help people to see what is possible?

Involving How can you enroll and involve others in problem solving?

Validating How can you learn and fail fast (and cheaply)?

+ What experiments do I need to test my idea?

Get out of the office. Too often we make assumptions from our cubicles about what our customers or communities need or want. Remember to stay close to the field. Take a day, a week or several to spend time with users immersing yourself in the issues to inform your ideas.

Move in sprints. Sometimes it can help to work in short bursts to make progress on your idea. Consider running a hackathon wherein a group (or groups) create workable ideas during a time-limited sprint (often a one- or two-day process).

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The Lean Start Up framework offers an easy way to organize your experiments. You start with what you need to learn; build only what you need in order to gain that knowledge, then define the experiment to get that measurement. Learn more: http://theleanstartup.com/

LEARN

BUILD

MEASUREMVP

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Distance traveled

With your world-changing idea might come a vague sense of how you’ll implement it and cause the change to happen.

Since we are working with large societal issues and complex projects, it is often difficult to measure the impact. And, discipline is needed to make sure you don’t get lost on the way. For instance, if your team favors business analysis over social and environmental impact or vice versa, you risk losing sight of important goals.It helps to have a Theory of Change, a ‘logic model’ that defines long-term goals and then maps backward to identify necessary pre-conditions of success. To create your Theory of Change, consider:

1. What are the intended outcomes of your initiative? What can be measured as social or environmental impact? If appropriate, look to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or other framework for impact.

2. What are the key inputs that will contribute to your project’s success?

3. What are the outputs of your initiative?

4. What indicators can you easily track that will help you measure whether you’re reaching the outcomes?

5. What are the milestones and phases of your journey?

Instead of forecasting, try “back-casting.” Envision yourself as if you are already in the future, with your journey accomplished, and then from there look back and reflect on: How you got there. When you achieved the goal. What “half-way” to the goal looked like. What tasks had already been completed and what remained to be done.

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+ What will be my indicators of progress and success? + How will I measure impact?

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Feeding your project

Surviving in the wild is a calories game. Intrapreneurial projects require human resources, permission, time, and money to sustain themselves.

Once acquired, you’ll need to convert these lean ingredients into a tasty meal that will help your project not only survive, but also thrive. Is your project fully nourished?

People Do you have the right team around you who can bring relevant skills, insights and networks to your quest?

Permission Do you have a ‘license’ to intrapreneur? Who is a sponsor senior to your boss who can advocate for the project and/or create a mandate for you to work on it?

Time Side hustles can only be sustained in the early stages. How can you create more time to work directly on your project? Can you ‘job-craft’ - i.e. incorporate your project inside your job description?

Money Foraging was the first skill that humans mastered in the wilderness, and it’s one you’ll need to master at the beginning of your project. What financial resources do you need and how can you get them?

Don’t ask for funds too soon. Gifford Pinchot, the pioneer who coined the term “intrapreneurship”, says the only thing worse than scaring your colleagues with “too big a vision” is asking for money too soon. Better to ask for time, permission, market research and human resources first.

Consider other people’s money. No one wants to bear 100% of the project risks, and no one wants to feel others are getting a free ride. Diversify your funding sources by seeking assets beyond your work unit or even organization.

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+ How will you feed your project out in the wild?

+ How will you ensure you have the people, permission, time and money for your project?

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Resilience plan

When you propose an idea that is counter to the culture of the organization, you may be attacked and you might feel that the office is a toxic place where it is hard to keep your mind psychologically healthy.

In intrapreneuring, you will need hydration (both for your body and for your mind) and your biggest challenge may be finding ‘psychological’ water that’s clean enough to drink.

1. What is your regular practice to build your capacity for managing stress?

2. Have you identified your community of supporters? Peers?

3. How will you seek help when you need it? Can you build in regular check points with supporters?

4. How will you maintain your confidence? What artefacts or rituals can you create to remind yourself how capable and wonderful you are?

5. How will you stay connected to your higher purpose?

Find your tribe. Love them hard. Surrounding yourself with a group of supportive peers can be a lifeline. Set up a formalized peer coaching group of 4-6 peers and meet every month to provide project and professional coaching. You’ll be amazed at the powerful perspectives you’ll generate as a group.

Celebrate your accomplishments. It can be easy to focus on what’s not working. It’s important to celebrate your successes - even small ones. Have paying customers? Yes! Got some seed funding? Awesome. Even better, write them up and keep them visible to keep your team inspired!

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+ What is your plan to stay hydrated and resilient during your quest?

Build your capacity to cope with stress

ASK

FOR

HELP

OPE

RAT

E FR

OM

YOU

R H

IGH

EST

SELF

MO

VE FR

OM

'ME'

TO

WE

BELIEVE IN

YOURSELF

Source: Adapted from the Garrison Institute.

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This Guide was made possible by the generosity of people like you. Intrapreneurs willing to share their ups and downs along the journey of #changefromwithin.

If you are a fellow pathfinder and intrapreneur, we invite you to get in touch, and consider joining our global learning community. The League of Intrapreneurs is a space to connect, share and learn about innovation, intrapreneurship and systems change. Our Global Membership is a combined online and offline learning experience, connecting you to a curated network of intrapreneurs, resources, and international events all designed to help you develop your intrapreneurial capacity to drive change from within. By joining our community you’ll benefit from:

A curated global community: Access hundreds of high-caliber intrapreneurs across sectors and geographies. Find the critical connections you need to get practical support, develop partnerships or engage in deeper conversations about the topics that matter most to you.

Understanding of your intrapreneurial potential: Take the League’s online self-assessment and receive your personalized League IQ, which will help you understand your unique gifts as an intrapreneur, identify areas for future development and design your learning journey.

Learning from peers & experts: Join regular virtual Learning Sprints and Fireside Chats on topics relevant to you as an intrapreneur. Connect with intrapreneurs at in-person events hosted by League of Intrapreneurs communities across 25+ cities globally. Receive exclusive access to gatherings with League Partners.

Calling All Pathfinders

Tools, resources, & collective capabilities: Tap into The League’s collective wisdom about driving #changefromwithin through curated tools and resources for intrapreneurship. Share your challenges with The League community to receive input or use the collective capabilities to initiate and lead projects for impact with other intrapreneurs.

Inspiration and energy: The League is not your typical network. Expect to have your passions nurtured, your mind enriched all while deepening friendships with other passionate changemakers.

Interested in finding out more? Check out leagueofintrapreneurs.com

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We would love to hear your story of change, your lessons from the field. Write to us at

hello@leagueofintrapreneurs.com