Date: Friday, Sept. 13, 9am-12:30pm
Location: Walker Center, 144 Hancock St., Newton (Auburndale)
What is collective genius? Some say this is the magic that happens when people come together to develop new and useful ideas. When describing this phenomenon, Pixar—a famous animation company that achieved unprecedented success—is frequently cited as an exemplar. Pixar not only produced many hit movies and new technologies, but was also generous in welcoming researchers into their organization to study their culture.
This interactive workshop is based on the book, Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, written by renowned HBS Professor Linda Hill, former Pixar CTO Greg Brandeau and their research team. Drawing on examples from around the globe, this book demonstrates that the capacity to foster collective genius is unusual and thus can yield unparalleled competitive advantage. For facilitators, this work reveals why certain types of conversation matter most if seeking to cultivate discovery, learning, and collaboration.
Jen will begin by outlining the Collective Genius framework, highlighting the elements that foster an organization’s ability to confront challenges in new and useful ways. In addition, she will identify the critical beliefs and underlying behaviors that contribute to key conversations. Throughout the workshop, Jen will share real-life examples that she and the research team identified while building an organizational assessment based on this book. Jen will also weave results from the assessment into her presentation. Lastly, we will discuss best practices for facilitating specific types of conversation most likely to foster collective genius.
Takeaways
Gain a clear sense of the three organizational capabilities essential for innovation: creative abrasion, creative agility, and creative resolution
Understand how a community culture enables leaders to unleash individual slices of genius around them while simultaneously harnessing those diverse talents to create collective genius
Learn ways to facilitate the critical discussions required
As time allows, Jen will share some of the biggest barriers organizations face when trying to adopt these practices, based on her work with Hill, Brandeau and their clients over the past five years.
About Presenter: Jen Stine
Jen Stine is the managing director of Mint Chip Studios, a leadership coaching and consulting firm. She began working with Linda Hill in 1996, and spent over a decade as case writer at Harvard Business School where she developed cutting-edge leadership programs seeking to bridge the gap between leadership scholarship and practice. These included the Leadership Initiative and Public Education Leadership Project. Jen knows that leadership is easier said than done. She brings warmth, humor, humility and enthusiasm when coaching clients to have tough conversations, design new strategies or systems, and try new behaviors.
From 2014-2018, Jen worked closely with Hill and Brandeau to develop the re:Route assessment of innovation culture and capabilities based on their book: Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation. As a co-founder of Paradox Strategies, Jen led the product development, operations and analytics team to deliver reports based on this work for over 50+ engagements around the globe. In addition to degrees in education and religion, Jen trained as a team coach with faculty from the Georgetown University leadership coaching program and served as the COO at Saroga – the nonprofit leadership forum. She attends BFR as often as possible!