Named one of "10 Management Classics for 2022" by Thinkers50 Why can some organizations
innovate time and again while most cannot? You might think the key to innovation is
attracting exceptional creative talent. Or making the right investments. Or breaking down
organizational silos. All of these things may help—but there’s only one way to ensure sustained
innovation: you need to lead it—and with a special kind of leadership. Collective Genius shows
you how. Preeminent leadership scholar Linda Hill along with former Pixar tech wizard Greg
Brandeau MIT researcher Emily Truelove and Being the Boss coauthor Kent Lineback found among
leaders a widely shared and mistaken assumption: that a “good” leader in all other respects
would also be an effective leader of innovation. The truth is leading innovation takes a
distinctive kind of leadership one that unleashes and harnesses the “collective genius” of the
people in the organization. Using vivid stories of individual leaders at companies like
Volkswagen Google eBay and Pfizer as well as nonprofits and international government
agencies the authors show how successful leaders of innovation don’t create a vision and try
to make innovation happen themselves. Rather they create and sustain a culture where
innovation is allowed to happen again and again—an environment where people are both willing
and able to do the hard work that innovative problem solving requires. Collective Genius will
not only inspire you it will give you the concrete practical guidance you need to build
innovation into the fabric of your business.
