The Six ‘I’s®
From Complexity to Coherence
Technological acceleration, AI, regulatory pressure, and rising expectations are reshaping how organisations make decisions, deliver value, and manage risk.
In this environment, innovation can no longer be treated as a side initiative or digital project. It is a leadership capability.
The question is no longer whether to innovate, but how to build the clarity, judgement, culture, and execution needed to do so coherently and sustainably.
The Six ‘I’s® helps leaders, teams, and organisations move from purpose and possibility through to decision, delivery, and continuous improvement. It provides a coherent framework for better judgement under uncertainty, stronger strategic alignment, and innovation that can be sustained over time.
What is The Six 'I's®?
The Six ‘I’s® is a systemic architecture linking purpose, mindset, culture, and execution.
It helps organisations navigate the full innovation journey: identifying what matters, generating meaningful possibilities, testing them rigorously, committing resources, implementing with discipline, and learning over time. It offers a structured way to lead through complexity with greater clarity and coherence.
Purpose at the centre
At the heart of the Six ‘I’s® sits purpose.
Purpose is not branding language. It is strategic orientation. It clarifies where an organisation chooses to lead, what kind of value it wants to create, which opportunities align with that direction, and what it will consciously decline. In a fast-changing environment, purpose disciplines choice and gives leaders a governing centre for pursuing innovation with focus, integrity, and consistency.
Together, the six stages form a repeatable cycle for moving from insight to embedded capability.
IDENTIFY
Scanning the horizon to recognise what is changing, what matters, and where meaningful opportunity may exist.
- Innovation Role – Providing vision, direction and a sense of new possibility.
- Mindset – Curiosity. Not only seeing what is changing, but asking what it means and where meaningful opportunity may lie. Without curiosity anchored in strategic intent, organisations create solutions that are not aligned to a real opportunity.
IDENTIFIER’S Strengths:
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Visualising and imagining the future
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Making sense of trends and patterns, and what they may signal
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Seeing possibilities where others see problems
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Remaining outward-looking and engaged with the wider world
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Having broad curiosity and a strong appetite for learning
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Being forward-thinking and noticing what others may miss
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Bringing new people and fresh thinking into networks
IGNITE
Translating insight into new propositions and ideas that are relevant, differentiated, and worth exploring.
Innovation Role – Providing freshness, energy, and new ideas.
Mindset – Creativity. Translating insight into differentiated propositions.
IGNITER'S Strengths:
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Often first to generate new ideas
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Seeking knowledge beyond current areas of interest
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Not afraid of challenging their own thinking as well as that of other people
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Original thinkers
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Can see connections between different and unrelated ideas
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Creating a culture where people feel free to contribute ideas
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Motivating and inspiring others
INVESTIGATE
Testing assumptions, examining risks, challenging weak thinking, and strengthening ideas before commitment.
Innovation Role – Providing analytical thinking and objectivity
Mindset – Critical judgement. Introducing rigorous validation.
INVESTIGATOR'S Strengths:
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Systematically researching, analysing and assessing ideas
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Making sure ideas are useful, not just novel
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Understanding the importance of testing and validating ideas before moving into implementation
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Being willing to test their thinking with customers and stakeholders
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Creating a culture where exploration and questioning is encouraged
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Encouraging other people to think things through carefully and systematically
INVEST
Making deliberate choices about where to allocate time, capital, energy, and sponsorship so that innovation can move forward.
Innovation Role – Providing pragmatism, decision-making, and influence
Mindset – Courage. Without deliberate investment decisions, innovation remains peripheral.
INVESTOR'S Strengths:
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Being able to weigh complex information and make decisions
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Understanding whether a business model might work
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Making decisions calmly under pressure
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Sensing where and when resources should be provided
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Influencing others to build partnerships
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Having the courage to take a risk
IMPLEMENT
Embedding new solutions through ownership, governance, workflows, and disciplined follow-through.
Innovation Role – Providing management, focus and discipline
Mindset – Commitment. Ideas move into reality.
IMPLEMENTER'S Strengths:
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Planning and organising effectively
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Making things happen
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Managing risks
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Motivating others to achieve results
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Building alliances and partnerships
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Allocating and managing resources
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Building and managing strong teams
IMPROVE
Reviewing outcomes, refining what has been built, and turning experience into stronger future capability.
Innovation Role – Providing fresh perspective, optimisation, and learning
Mindset – Clever thinking. Converting experience into intelligence.
IMPROVER'S Strengths:
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Generating many ways to improve an idea
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Gathering feedback from customers, people, or stakeholders
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Reviewing what has worked and why
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Capturing learning
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Learning from failure
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Scaling an idea into other areas of opportunity
What makes The Six 'I's® different?
A full cycle non-linear architecture
It covers the whole journey from opportunity to delivery and learning, not just idea generation.
Purpose at the Centre
The Six ‘I’s® begins with strategic orientation, not activity for its own sake.
Dual foundations of culture and process
It makes visible the conditions required for innovation to scale and sustain.
Supported by diagnostic capability
It provides a structured way to understand strengths, blind spots, and capability gaps.
Mindset, culture, and execution integrated
It recognises that innovation is as much about behaviour and leadership as it is about process.
Flexible in application
It can be used with leaders, teams, firms, and networks, and can sit alongside other tools and methodologies.
Culture and process: Dual foundations
The two triangles linking purpose to each ‘I’ represent culture and process in action.
Culture shapes behaviour: psychological safety, accountability, collaboration, and the willingness to challenge established models.
Process creates the structural conditions for innovation to happen: decision rights, governance, funding, measures, and ways of working..
The Six ‘I’s® helps leaders hold that tension consciously, so innovation becomes not only imaginative, but more credible and executable.
Culture without process creates enthusiasm without scale.
Processes without culture creates compliance without creativity.
Diagnostic Capability
The Six ‘I’s® is supported by a structured diagnostic capability that measures innovation-related strengths across the full cycle.
For individuals, it provides a clearer view of natural strengths, blind spots, and development priorities. For teams and organisations, aggregated results reveal structural imbalances and capability gaps, enabling more grounded discussion and targeted action.
This diagnostic layer gives leaders not just language, but evidence.
The 6 ‘I´s® is a powerful tool to build diverse teams and to monitor the innovation process in a more systematic and circular way. It gives a fresh, holistic view on the innovation process.
Westberg, M
Diversity Manager
Skanska, Sweden
The Six ‘I’s® has been applied across governments, multinational organisations, and professional services environments. Its value lies not only in providing a framework, but in creating a common language for change, helping people understand how innovation succeeds, where it stalls, and what stronger leadership requires.
In a world of technological acceleration, regulatory complexity, and rising client expectations, innovation is less about generating more ideas and more about leading with clarity, discipline, and discernment.
The Six ‘I’s® offers a structured architecture for helping leaders, teams, and organisations build that maturity.
Explore the services or request a scoping conversation to discuss the right pathway for your organisation.
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The 6 'I's® is a brand of The Entheo Network. Registered Address 75, High Street, Singapore, 179435. Company No: 201016398E