Leading innovation

It can be messy, exhilarating, and downright scary

“Innovation is a journey, a collaborative problem-solving process, where discoveries happen through a process of trial and error, false starts, and even mistakes. The process can be exhilarating. But as many of us know all too well, it can also be downright scary.”
– Dr. Linda Hill

It can be messy, exhilarating, and scary, but leading innovation is a skill our rapidly changing future demands. The winds of change are blowing harder and faster.

For example, not only are we well beyond digital transformation, we’re all having to navigate new hurdles to the way we work with the onset of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, AI is iterating and even recreating itself. No organization or industry is immune.

As learning leaders, who in your organization do you think most needs to learn how to help your organization innovate?

While we believe every leader can benefit, we think it’s especially important for middle managers, people who already know the fundamentals of leading execution. What they lack are experience, tools, and techniques to help them take their leadership to the next level when time is of the essence. Others who can especially benefit would include high potentials and teams who need to reinvent themselves to quickly conquer a pressing challenge.

How can they do that?

Enter Dr. Linda Hill, a Harvard Business School professor, leadership expert, and the lead author of the definitive, award-winning book on innovation, Collective Genius. Based on decades of research as they studied links between some of the world’s most innovative organizations, the authors discovered that leading innovation is a messy process that involves navigating between the tensions of 6 specific paradoxes and fostering an environment for what they call creative abrasion, creative agility, and creative resolution.

Dr. Hill is also a founding partner at Paradox Strategies, an Advantage Performance Group thought leader partner. With the help of Advantage’s own Richard Hodge, they have turned the book into a learning journey that includes an interactive simulation and an implementation toolkit for leaders to use on the job.

At our internal partner meeting yesterday, we welcomed our longtime colleague Jim Perry, who has teamed up with Paradox Strategies and will be facilitating our upcoming complimentary flyover previews of Collective Genius on Nov. 20 and Dec. 5.

RSVP here to reserve your spot or share this to someone you know who would benefit from attending. Now’s the time to get it on the calendar!

As former VP of learning design at BTS, Jim led the development of the official Multipliers simulation with Author Liz Wiseman. Yesterday, he provided us with a fresh look at its many timely benefits for today’s leaders and why Collective Genius also is a perfect fit and next step for those already familiar with Multipliers.

Talk to your Advantage partner or contact us to learn more about the Collective Genius simulation and how it can help your organization keep up with the winds of change.

Innovation may be scary. And messy. But we know you’re up to it!

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