Lighting up innovation

Pixar Lamp icon by Icons8

“You can’t shut down Disney Animation. It is an icon of the movie world, and that’s crazy.
… You guys have got to fix it.”

Greg Brandeau, Collective Genius co-author and former Pixar executive,
describing a conversation that followed Disney’s acquisition of Pixar

Imagine working for years to study how leaders at some of the world’s largest and most iconic companies have been able to sustain remarkable track records of ongoing innovation – companies like Pixar Animation Studios, Volkswagen, Pfizer, eBay, Google, HCL Technologies (an IT giant in India), and others.

Now imagine you figured it out! You discovered common patterns and behaviors – a special kind of leadership – that was a unifying thread among them all. Now you want to help leaders everywhere transform how they lead to nurture innovation in their organizations, too.

That’s exactly what Greg Brandeau, a former executive at Pixar and Disney, and Linda Hill, Harvard Business School professor and faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative, teamed up to do.

With the help of two other co-authors, Emily Truelove and Kent Lineback, they produced Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, a groundbreaking book based on their research into what the leaders at the organizations they studied actually did to spark innovation. Released in 2014, the book became an instant business classic and was a Thinkers50 award winner for innovation.

Collective Genius is now also an interactive simulation and customizable learning journey available from Advantage Performance Group through our thought leader partners at Paradox Strategies, the company Hill, Brandeau, Truelove, and others established to apply their research in the corporate world. The simulation is both an experience and a framework for leading innovation that has tangible, practical techniques and tools.

Recently Brandeau joined us for a preview of the simulation, during which he shared stories about how Pixar learned to innovate as they produced the world’s first full-length computer generated film and became the first studio ever to create 5 blockbusters in a row. They then applied what they learned to do the same for Disney Animation with techniques that can also work in any industry. Listen to his stories here!

What they did is something that’s now directly within your reach. We know that many of your organizations are planning your talent development budgets and learning strategies for 2023 right now, and we want to be sure you are aware of this exciting new offering. (Imagine bringing Dr. Hill or Brandeau on board to deliver an inspiring keynote to kick off your organization’s own learning journey toward innovation. That can also be arranged!)

For details about Collective Genius, please contact us or let your Advantage partner know you’re interested. We’d love to tell you more about how it works.

One great thing for 08.09.22 – How Pixar helped Disney Animation get its groove back