“A culture of innovation can be a company’s primary source of competitive advantage, and can pay off steadily over the years” – Stephen Shapiro

Who is it suited for?
This course is suitable for organisational leaders, department and team leaders, HR professionals and those who are tasked with implementing innovation change programmes.

What does it cover?
The course aims to build an appreciation of the importance of innovation leadership at all levels throughout the organisation.  By developing an understanding of the way in which people react to change and of the way in which leaders can encourage engagement in change, the course will help leaders at all levels to lead for innovation. The course will cover key innovation development areas including:

• An introduction to the Leadership Practices InventoryTM (LPI) as a means of assessing and developing leadership skills
• Building leadership agreement and ownership
• The importance of communication in building innovation engagement
• Building innovation aptitudes through empowerment and engagement
• The use of quantitative and qualitative methods to measure innovation progress

Why lead for innovation?
Building a culture of innovation is increasingly being seen by business leaders across the globe as a key deliverer of differentiated customer experiences and solutions. In Building a Culture of Innovation we highlight the fact that if it is not on the top team’s agenda it’s not going to be in the culture. One of the key elements within leading for innovation is the importance of building a leadership team agreement and ownership as well as creating innovation capability within the leadership team.  Organisational alignment isn’t exclusively vertical. Horizontal alignment amongst leadership is imperative for a culture that fosters innovation to develop. Thus leaders, especially top tier management must not only buy-in the need for change and innovation, but also be a change agent themselves.

Further development?
Leading for innovation is one of the core innovation modules which build on some of the concepts and ideas outlined in ‘Building a culture of innovation: a practical framework for placing innovation at the core of your business.’ Although there is some crossover with areas such as culture change, employee engagement and leadership, the modules within this section are aligned specifically with the innovation culture ideal. This course can be taken as a stand-alone module or combined with other innovation modules including:

• Building a Culture of Innovation – one day overview
• Innovation Strategy and Innovation Maturity
• Taking Your People on the Innovation Journey
• Understanding the Next Generation Organisation