In this Master Class, industry leader Scott Berkun offers valuable lessons for managing innovation within an organization. First, he demystifies the process by giving you valuable insights from the past, derived from his bestselling book, The Myths of Innovation. Then he invites you to participate in challenging exercises to develop creative and leadership skills. You’ll leave with improved awareness of your strengths and weaknesses as a creative leader, along with the skills and knowledge you need to manage innovative people and projects.
What will I learn?
- A new understanding of the nature of true innovation, how it occurs, and the role leaders play
- How to meet the challenges of managing innovation
- Techniques for leading creative teams
- Skills for avoiding the mistakes experienced managers make
- Preparation for the unavoidable stresses and challenges of creative work
- Tactics for setting goals, tracking work, and overcoming politics
Who should attend?
- Leaders and managers of creative work of any kind
- People who desire to push their organizations forward
- Designers, creators, and managers who see innovation as central to their work
- People who prefer to learn through situations, discussion, and laughter
Agenda:
Introduction: The myths of innovation
- Why our “knowledge” of innovation is wrong
- A fun sampling of misnomers and myths
- Why managers are trained to stop innovation
- How to use myths to your advantage
Creativity
- Myths about ideas and where they come from
- How to encourage creative environments and teams
- How to handle the risks and fears of creativity
- Leading the inspiration, incubation, execution cycle
- Creativity mistakes that experienced managers make
Management
- The mythology of the boss as innovator
- The emotional life of creative people
- How to manage talent, ego, and sanity
- How to schedule breakthroughs (on a budget)
- Winning at the organizational politics of change
- Management mistakes that experienced managers make
Business
- How to look past innovation hype and business mythology
- How to understand a profit/loss view of creative work
- The history of entrepreneurship and new ideas
- A crash course in S-curves, chasms, buzzwords, and other notables of business innovation literature
- Business mistakes that experienced managers make
Balance
- When is innovation, as a goal, a mistake?
- How to manage hybrid organizations (not everyone is innovating)
- Leading Creative / Management / Business tradeoffs
- Mistakes experienced managers make
- What to do when things go wrong
- References and resources for learning more
Instructor:
Scott Berkun is the bestselling author of Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (O’Reilly 2005), and The Myths of Innovation (O’Reilly, 2007). As a manager at Microsoft from 1994 to 2003, he worked on the first five versions of Internet Explorer. Since 2003, he has worked as an independent writer and public speaker, and has contributed to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wired Magazine, and National Public Radio. Berkun taught a course in creative thinking at the University of Washington, and currently teaches seminars on innovation to the Fortune 500. He frequently appears as a management and creative thinking expert on MSNBC and CNBC, contributes on a regular basis to Harvard Business Digital, and runs a popular blog, with videos, podcasts, and essays, at www.scottberkun.com/blog.
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