Why Fueling Innovation Drives Luke Tanen’s Purpose

By Luke Tanen, President and CEO, Chicago Innovation

This year marks my twelfth anniversary with Chicago Innovation.

As an “elder millennial,” that fact alone makes me an anomaly. Gallup called us “The Job-Hopping Generation,” and the average millennial changes jobs every 2.7 years.

What has kept me invested in my work at Chicago Innovation for the past twelve years comes down to two things: purpose and people.

My role at Chicago Innovation aligns with my personal sense of purpose. I am a problem-solver by nature. My brain is wired to be practical and analytical; it’s just how I’m built. But I recognize that just because I see a problem I want to solve, that doesn’t mean I am the right person to solve it.

What I can do, though, is connect people and make sure that their work is celebrated. I can foster community and help build connections so that the people who do have the right skills to solve big problems are able to find each other.

I’ve always found meaning and purpose in bringing people together and in supporting the underdog. In fact, it’s a value that was instilled in me at a young age. My dad was one of the coauthors of Making Money While Making a Difference, and when I read it in high school, I knew that this was what I wanted to do—to work at the intersection of profit and purpose, making an impact to help others.

I’ve since spent my entire career focused on this duality.

Here at Chicago Innovation, I’ve found a role where I can provide the forums and opportunities for people to connect, share their values and abilities, and inspire others.

Which brings me to the people. In this organization, I am surrounded by people who inspire me and who are working together toward a common purpose—to educate, connect, and celebrate innovators. Our vision is that innovation is for everyone, and the Chicago Innovation community—our staff, our board, our sponsors—all find purpose in advancing that shared objective.

When you have so many people aligned toward a common purpose, it becomes that much more powerful.

I take a lot of pride in seeing how our organization lives out that purpose at every level. We encourage and celebrate risk-taking, out-of-the-box thinking, and crazy ideas by championing innovators in the Chicago community, but our co-founder Tom Kuczmarski, our board, and every member of our organization also encourage those qualities internally.

Everyone wants to work at an organization where their ideas are valued, where they can flex their creativity, and where they are supported in bringing their ideas into reality. At Chicago Innovation, our culture is built on those values. I love it, and it makes us even more successful by attracting like-minded people.

As president and CEO of Chicago Innovation, I am a convener of communities, but I’m also a champion for others who are doing great things.

I’ve always considered myself a naturally modest person; I’m uncomfortable bragging about myself. But I’ve got no such reservations about celebrating the achievements of other people. And Chicago Innovation is a powerful platform to do exactly that.

In fact, that was one of the things that inspired Tom to create our organization. He recognized that many of the people who are doing the most incredible things don’t like to brag about themselves and don’t celebrate their successes, even when they really should.

To me, that humility is a uniquely Midwestern value. Our innovators, who are literally changing the world with their ideas, are deeply modest. What they need is an external entity that will celebrate those achievements. Chicago Innovation exists to amplify their stories.

The events we host and the programs we operate give me the opportunity to play a role in telling those stories and promoting the groundbreaking ideas being born in our city.

In turn, that celebration benefits our city and our community. It helps attract new talent, new investors, and new companies to our community, which creates even more opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

Those connections drive change. Purpose and innovation can be learned, and they can be scaled. You foster that with education. Chicago Innovation has over one hundred speakers every year at our events. They come from big corporations, start-ups, and nonprofits. They represent every industry. They work in high tech, in low tech, in no tech. They think differently, and they lead differently. They are passionate about different things.

What binds them together is a deep understanding of their unique purpose, and that purpose is what makes each one of them successful.

At Chicago Innovation, I help provide those purpose-driven leaders with a platform to teach and inspire others to live out their purpose. Their stories can spark other members of our community to really consider their own values and what fuels them.

In fact, our vision that innovation is for everyone is deeply rooted in Chicago. Chicago is an incredibly diverse city, but not everyone has had access to the same things, whether that’s funding, mentorship, skills training, or other resources.

But our city is rallying together behind our belief in that common purpose—making this a more equitable city. At Chicago Innovation, we’ve designed programs to support women (like our Women’s Mentoring Co-op), people of color (like The Ladder), older adults (like our Ageless Innovators), young people (like our Student Invention Convention).

Collaboration lies at the heart of amplifying the impact of our shared purpose. As part of Chicago Innovation, I get to be a conduit for those connections to be forged. For problems to be solved by bringing together people who are pulling toward a common goal.

That mindset drives so many leaders here in Chicago. You can see it from Governor Pritzker, Mayor Lightfoot, and Cook County Board President Preckwinkle through our business leaders like Kristi Ross and investors like Andrea Zopp. You can see it in initiatives like P33’s TechRise and Chicago:Blend. All of that grows from the purpose and the intention to create a more inclusive, equitable Chicago.

Our collaborative mindset is Chicago’s unique strength. When we were doing interviews for our book Rising Together: The Story of Chicago’s Innovative Ecosystem, one of the recurring themes was that Chicagoans are uniquely collaborative. We’re a hub for partnerships between the private and public sectors, between start-ups and universities and nonprofits and investors. That competitive, dog-eat-dog energy you find on the coasts doesn’t have a home here.

And I truly believe that this is how Chicago can outcompete every other city in the country. We may never be the largest ecosystem for innovators and entrepreneurs, but I do believe we can be the most diverse, the most inclusive, and therefore the most welcoming.

That’s how Chicago wins—together.