Create a Culture of Innovation

Innovation Thrives When Teams Understand Emotions

Many teams struggle to innovate at speed, facing stalled brainstorming sessions, disengaged team members, and solutions that fail to meet real needs.

Luckily, research shows that employees with high EI are 62% more likely to be creative at work.

Our emotions and perceptions shape the way we approach problems, yet they can also create blind spots that block innovation. By building emotional awareness, teams can recognize these barriers, unlock new ways of thinking, and create the psychological safety needed for breakthrough ideas to emerge. Our programs provide science-backed tools to help leaders and individual contributors harness emotions, expand perspectives, and apply structured techniques like design thinking to drive meaningful, user-centered innovation.

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the benefits of harnessing emotions to fuel innovation

Through this training, your organization will:

turn emotions into a driver for creativity

Recognize how emotions shape problem-solving and learn to channel them to spark bold, high-impact ideas.

redefine failure as growth

Shift from the emotional fear of failure to using emotions as a tool for resilience, learning, and rapid iteration.

strengthen collaboration through emotional awareness

Build a culture that encourages risk-taking, openness to varied perspectives, and breakthrough thinking.

design with empathy for real impact

Tap into emotional insight to deeply understand user needs and create solutions that truly resonate.

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Innovation succeeds when both leaders and teams share a mindset of curiosity, risk-taking, and user-centered problem-solving.

Leaders set the conditions for innovation by understanding how to create psychological safety, encouraging varied thinking and dissent, and modeling rapid experimentation. Team members must develop emotional awareness to navigate uncertainty and embrace new perspectives. By working with the emotions of risk and failure, they can fuel creativity, experimentation, and collaboration.

We offer two programs designed to meet the unique needs of leadership and individual contributors. Using both together creates maximum impact, but each can also be taken separately.

Driving Rapid Innovation

Leadership Program

Teaches leaders how to create the conditions for fast, effective, and user-driven innovation.

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Innovating through Empathetic Design

Individual Contributor Program

Helps team members use empathy, deep listening, and structured ideation to develop impactful solutions.

Explore individual contributor program

Leadership Program

Driving Rapid Innovation

Speed drives innovation, but emotions and perceptions can either accelerate or block the process. When teams fear failure or struggle to embrace new perspectives, brainstorming stalls and solutions fall short.

This course introduces a structured approach to rapid innovation, integrating psychological safety, the Perception Box, and design thinking. Leaders will learn how emotions influence problem-solving, decision-making, and risk-taking—either fueling creativity or reinforcing blind spots. Through hands-on activities and rapid ideation, participants will gain the tools to navigate uncertainty, harness emotions productively, and drive user-centered, high-speed innovation.

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leadership program logistics

We recommend a 6-week blended learning journey for this program to maximize learner engagement and skill application. For organizations that want to integrate Driving Rapid Innovation content within a larger program in their organization, we recommend using the microcourses and live learning session content only.

audience

leaders

participants

up to 24 per cohort

format

blended self-paced and live (in person or virtual) learning

duration

6-week learning journey, with 4 hours of live learning

Self-Insight Tool

A short assessment to measure leaders’ awareness of team innovation dynamics and their current approach to fostering creative collaboration. Results help tailor the instructor- led experience.

Self-paced Learning

Prior to live sessions, participants engage in two short microcourses to cover key concepts in the course. Microcourses include:

The Role of Psychological Safety in Innovation (10 min.)

Explores how psychological safety fuels innovation, why diverse perspectives enhance creativity, and the common barriers leaders face in fostering inclusive innovation.

Design Thinking for Leaders (10 min.)

Introduces a structured framework for guiding teams through innovation, covering the key stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

Live Session 1: Building the Foundation for Rapid Innovation

2 hours: The first live session helps leaders connect the emotional environment to better outcomes for innovation.

Key modules include:

Understanding the Perception Box in Innovation

Explore how personal experiences shape idea generation and problem-solving.

Psychological Safety

Learn how psychological safety influences idea-sharing through live team simulations.

Design Thinking & Structured Collaboration

Identify innovation blockers in your team. Learn and apply techniques to mentally frame problems effectively and generate actionable solutions.

Live Session 2: Accelerating Ideation, Validation & Prototyping

2 hours: The second live session helps leaders create a structured approach to drive innovation.

Key modules include:

Rapid Ideation & Evaluating Solutions

Use cross-industry inspiration and speed exercises to refine ideas.

Converting Ideas into Rapid Experiments

Remove any internal barriers to a “fail fast” mindset. Develop low-fidelity prototypes and apply structured feedback techniques.

Determining What to Test and Learn

Prioritize assumptions and map fast, cost-effective tests.

Implementing Techniques in Upcoming Projects

Identify real-world applications and action steps by identifying team norms or processes that need to change to sustain innovation momentum.

Personalized Application Challenges

After the instructor-led sessions, leaders engage in self-directed application challenges, linking course insights to real-world innovation initiatives. Guided reflection helps deepen learning.

Personal Growth Insights

Engage in a short post-program inventory to measure and reflect on personal growth to support change.

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Individual Contributor Program

Innovating through Empathetic Design

Successful innovation isn’t just about new ideas—it’s about solving real problems for real people. Too often, solutions miss the mark because they lack a deep understanding of user needs and emotions.

This course helps individual contributors apply empathetic design principles, using deep listening, user research, and design thinking to create truly impactful solutions. By stepping outside their Perception Box, participants uncover hidden insights and develop innovations that resonate. Through interactive exercises and real-world case studies, they’ll gain practical tools to embed empathy into every stage of the innovation process.

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Innovation - two people doing design thinking exercise with sticky notes

individual contributor program logistics

We recommend a 6-week blended learning journey for this program to maximize learner engagement and skill application. For organizations that want to integrate Innovating through Empathetic Design content within a larger program in their organization, we recommend using the microcourses and live learning session content only.