Leading Innovation

To be on the leading edge in the market, organizations have no choice but to be innovative—and that requires leaders at every level who can create a culture of inspired innovation and guide people through the implementation of innovative ideas and solutions. The fact is, everyone can enhance their ability to generate value-added solutions and be more innovative. ATHENA’s Leading Innovation workshop is a creative and interactive learning experience aimed at helping leaders get their team to be a proactive force and involved in identifying innovation opportunities rather than reacting to the innovations of others and missing the chance to use their experience in new and exciting ways.

In this program, leaders develop the ability to manage the people side of innovation. They learn how to tap into the creativity of their team members and unlock discretionary thinking and ingenuity that will benefit the team and organization. Leaders also learn the tools and methodology for getting people to see beyond the obvious and encouraging team members to be more innovative as they

• Solve problems and make decisions.
• Improve product or service quality.
• Build customer loyalty.
• Find competitive advantages.
• Define long-term plans and strategies.
• Contribute to the operational and strategic success of the organization.

The workshop can also be used in conjunction with ATHENA’s Leading Change workshop for a more-comprehensive learning experience. These two topics are a natural pairing because leaders often have to help people navigate and manage change when innovations in products, services, processes, and strategies are introduced.

Objectives & Outcomes

Abundant opportunities exist to streamline, improve, create value-added solutions, and be more effective across teams, departments, and the organization as a whole. ATHENA’s Leading Innovation workshop gives managers the skills and tools they need to effectively lead innovation in their organizations, work groups, or teams. As a result of the workshop, participants are able to

• Use the discovery process to help the flow of ideas evolve into solutions that create added value for the organization.
• Effectively evaluate a situation and generate innovative solutions.
• Model innovation behaviors and practices.
• Communicate innovation needs and direct the creative thought processes of team members into addressing specific business needs or challenges.
• Create an environment that allows people to use their imagination to develop new, breakthrough ideas or find better ways of doing things.
• Motivate their team to put forth the effort needed to implement innovative ideas.
• Apply tools and resources that help them create a culture of innovation in their team.

Delivery Options

ATHENA’s Leading Innovation workshop is typically delivered as a one-day workshop, or it can be combined with our Leading Change workshop for a comprehensive one-day or multiple-day learning experience. The Leading Innovation workshop can be taught by one of ATHENA’s talented facilitators and held at a location of your choice, or we can provide Train-the-Trainer services for clients who prefer to deliver the program using their organization’s internal facilitators or training professionals. If you have a curriculum or learning system in place, the Leading Innovation content can also be built into your organization’s development initiatives.