How Leaders Create the Conditions for Innovative Thinking

June 24, 2026

Today’s leaders need to be able to innovate over and over again despite fast-changing market conditions and a multitude of other uncertainities. Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill has spent years researching the true drivers of innovation, taking lessons from the world’s most successful leaders and companies.

She explains why leading innovation requires a different set of leadership skills including the need to shift from a focus on decision-making and producing to creating the conditions for collaboration, experimentation, and smart decision-making across teams, silos, and wider ecosystems. She shares examples from Mastercard, Pixar, and more and outlines some newly defined ways of looking at leadership roles: as Architects, Bridgers, and Catalysts. Hill’s new book is Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation.

Key episode topics include: leadership, leading teams, managing yourself, decision making, innovation, strategic thinking, organizational culture

Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org

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Raleigh Pepper

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