Amanda Ramos
Social Innovation Architect, Advisor, and Advocate
Amanda is an architect, advisor, and advocate currently serving as Chair of the Advisory Council at WIN: Women in Innovation; Head of Community at 3x3; Board of Director at AIANY: American Institute of Architects; and Faculty at SVA in the Design for Social Innovation program. In each of these leadership roles, she is focused on community-centered design to co-create futures that are strategic, regenerative, and equitable. After 17 years of leading corporate innovation, she recently branched out to dedicate herself to the inclusive practices of social innovation.Amanda holds degrees in Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was mentored as a transdisciplinary designer by Bruce Mau, and founded the innovation consulting practice at Gensler. Born and raised in NYC she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and twin 13-year-old daughters. She strongly believes in big ideas that are made as a result of radical collaboration, co-opetition, and creativity.
Leadership Values
Inclusivity
Radical Positivity
Humanity
LinkedIn
What are the key milestones on your path to leadership?
I joined Gensler about 14 years ago as a Design Strategist. We're a design firm, which has a lot of different disciplines under one roof. When I joined Gensler, I specifically came into what is known as our consultancy group, and I intended to come here because there was a great community of practice. We have a very strong entrepreneurial culture at Gensler. That's what we do. We develop and grow services that are outside of our core disciplines. And so my journey and the milestones have been coming into the firm knowing that I had some experience in the realm of storytelling and being able to do that storytelling evokes a certain strategy that can be then implemented in many different places. Given my passion in the nonprofit field, I saw a great opportunity for us to diversify our work in that field. And so I spent a lot of time building out a point of view on purpose driven design. And there’s been an amazing discovery about how much we are in the field of innovation, but hadn't yet formalized that of service offering. So I built it. I’ve, since, led the growth of several new and evolved services such as visioning, design guidelines, change management, innovation adoption and innovation consulting. I was promoted to Principal in 2015 and am currently Co-Chair of the Gensler Research and Innovation Awards program. I’ve also had the opportunity to serve as a leader and advisor, for the Foundations, Associations, and Organizations Practice. I’m currently on the Advisory Council of WIN.
What are the key challenges you have faced as a leader?
The key challenge when you introduce anything new, especially within an ecosystem that has a long history, is to make sure that people know and believe that this new way of working will have a great impact – both individually and collectively. The culture that you create and the experience or the ambience that you create around those ideas or those new services are really important. To bring people along you must be authentic and diligent. This doesn’t mean it can only be achieved through a consensus driven or diluted process. The key to success is building a culture around those ideas so that people want to watch, connect, and engage with it. The greatest challenge I find as an innovation leader is how to introduce something that is so disruptive in a way that it generates a positive culture around it so that everyone feels safe and excited to be able to adopt that new idea.
Describe your leadership style / what are your core values as a leader?
Diversity of thought is essential. When you have diversity of thought, of ideas and voices you're going to get to something that you have never seen before. We need to bring in more humanity into the innovation conversation and by creating a conversation circle with multiple perspectives and one common purpose new and novel thoughts will be born. I would also say inclusion is a never-ending practice. We can always do more, better, and with greater impact. The culture of innovation doesn’t need to be elitist nor exclusive – I reject that positioning and believe that more people should be a part of the future they will ultimately be living.
What advice do you have for women who are trying to establish themselves as leaders?
Be sure to define what leadership means for you personally and have a strong sense of purpose. When you have a strong purpose, you will draw people towards a common goal.
How would you advise organisations who want to foster diversity and gender equity in leadership?
Don’t just do it. Nurture it. Make it something you believe will truly affect the bottom line AND the culture. Think equity, not equality.
How do you feel about the future of the innovation industry?
I see us banding together more and aiming to solve bigger, more complex challenges as a collective. Co-opetition has become the new normal.
What is your favorite quote/mantra?
Avoid Fields. Jump Fences. I live by this quote from my mentor Bruce Mau who was truly influential in my career. When it comes to my outlook I lean towards radical positivity. He taught me that there should never be limits to who can and should contribute in solving the wicked problems we face. We all have enormous responsibility and with that comes enormous opportunity to make “massive change” for the better.