Turning frameworks into funding: The hard truth about scaling thought leadership | Lisa Kay Solomon

What if you could design the future — instead of reacting to it?

In today's episode of Leveraging Thought Leadership, Peter Winick sits down with futurist and design strategist Lisa Kay Solomon to explore how leaders can use design thinking to actively shape what’s next.

Lisa is a Designer-in-Residence at Stanford’s d.school, an educator, a bestselling author, and a respected voice on the Thinkers50 Radar list. She helps leaders and organizations make better long-term decisions in a short-term world. Her superpower? Turning vague uncertainty into actionable insight — by teaching leaders how to think like futurists.

Lisa shares how she guides boards, conference planners, and executive teams through complex challenges. She doesn’t just create better experiences — she builds capabilities that last. Whether it’s designing strategic conversations or preparing teams to operate in ambiguity, Lisa brings a toolkit of creative, repeatable practices to move from stuck to strategic.

If you’ve ever found yourself saying, “Yeah, but that would never happen here,” Lisa has a chapter — and a strategy — just for you.

This conversation is packed with high-impact takeaways for those who want to lead with intention and design a future worth inhabiting.

Three Key Takeaways:

• Designing the Future Is a Teachable Skill
Lisa argues that futures thinking isn’t a mysterious talent—it’s a learnable capability. Most leaders have been trained to focus on short-term goals. Lisa teaches them how to widen their lens, shift perspective, and think long-term using strategic design practices.

• Great Ideas Need More Than Strategy—They Need Capability
Organizations often bring Lisa in to spark innovation—whether at board meetings or large conferences. But the real value she delivers goes beyond a single event. She helps teams build the capabilities to sustain innovation, adapt to change, and continue asking the right questions long after she’s gone.

• Overcoming the “Yeah, Buts” That Block Progress
Lisa names the top three “yeah, buts” that sabotage future thinking: short-term pressure, lack of resources, and not knowing how. Her approach disarms these mental blockers by reframing possibility as practical—and showing leaders how to move from reactive to proactive in shaping what’s next.

If you found Lisa Kay Solomon’s insights on designing the future and building long-term leadership capabilities compelling, you won’t want to miss our episode with Joseph Press: Thought Leadership for Future Thinking. Both Lisa and Joseph explore how leaders can move beyond short-term fixes to shape more intentional, future-ready organizations. While Lisa focuses on strategic conversations and capability building through design, Joseph dives into how thought leadership and digital transformation intersect to foster future thinking. Together, these episodes offer a powerful one-two punch for anyone looking to lead with clarity, creativity, and courage in uncertain times. Listen to both and equip yourself with the mindset and tools to not just predict the future—but actively shape it.