MIT Sloan School of Management

Innovator's DNA: Mastering Five Skills for Innovative Impact

MIT Sloan School of Management

Organizations & Leadership

About Programme

Why attend Innovator's DNA?

Innovation isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a skill set. In an era of rapid AI-driven transformation, how do leaders continuously generate groundbreaking ideas and maintain their human edge? According to research by Hal Gregersen, co-author of The Innovator’s DNA, the world's top innovators depend on five key discovery skills to succeed: questioning to challenge assumptions, observing to recognize emerging patterns, networking to surface unexpected insights, experimenting to refine big ideas, and associating to combine unrelated concepts into disruptive business models.

Far from making these skills obsolete, AI is amplifying their power. Today's disruptive innovators aren't just using AI as a tool, they are co-creating with it, balancing human ingenuity with AI-driven insight. By embedding AI into the innovation process, this course helps leaders retain their agency, sharpen their discovery skills, and navigate change with confidence. Participants will learn not only how to foster curiosity and creativity but also how to harness AI in ways that enhance rather than replace human intuition.

This course was formerly known as Innovator's DNA: Mastering Five Skills for Innovative Disruption.

Course Topics

Programme Content

Day 1

8:30 AM – 8:45 AM

Welcome and Introductions

8:45 AM – 9:00 AM

Leading Innovation in an Exponential Age: Introductions and Overview

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Exploring and Integrating the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators: Questioning, Observing, Networking, Experimenting, Associating

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Lunch

1:00 PM – 2:45 PM

Exploring and Integrating the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators: Questioning, Observing, Networking, Experimenting, Associating (cont.)

2:45 PM – 4:15 PM

Leveraging Discovery Skills to Navigate the Unknown and Strengthen Your Innovation Capital

Day 2

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM

Learning Synthesis

9:00 AM – 10:45 AM

What is Innovation? What’s your ‘iDNA’ Profile? (w/ break)

10:45 AM – 12:15 PM

What is the innovation ‘Job-to-be-Done’ (JTBD)?

12:15 PM – 1:00 PM

Lunch

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

How do leaders use the iDNA Profile and Discovery Skills to build sustainably innovative and inclusive Teams and Organizations?

4:00 PM – 4:15 PM

Executive Certificate Ceremony and Closing

Programme Objective

This highly interactive program will help participants:

Gain deeper insight into their own discovery and execution skill balance, and develop strategies to leverage both for greater leadership impact

Build questioning, observing, networking, experimenting, and associational thinking capabilities to surface new ideas and deliver value-creating solutions

Apply the Jobs-to-Be-Done framework, and use AI-powered insight, to decode customer needs more effectively

Evolve existing corporate culture to foster more 10% improvements and 10x transformations through the effective combination of innovation and execution skills.

Apply discovery skills, and enhance them with AI tools, to make measurable progress on concrete individual challenges

Shape creative cultures that create and sustain high innovation premiums for teams and organizations

Upon successful completion of your course, you will earn a certificate of completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management. This course may also count toward MIT Sloan Executive Certificate requirements.

Programme Audience

This program has been developed for executives seeking to improve their creative problem-solving skills and deliver higher value-creating innovation at their organizations.

This program is applicable to:

CEOs
Presidents
COOs
Executive VPs
Chief Technologists
Heads of R&D, Engineering, Manufacturing, and IS
Corporate Planners and Strategists
VPs of Marketing and New Venture Development
Other senior managers with leadership responsibility

"This course has profoundly impacted my approach to innovation. It has equipped me with tools and strategies to foster a more creative mindset, which I find particularly useful in my role as a Product Architect. The insights gained are directly applicable to my work integrating into modernizing and streamlining our processes, fostering a more innovative approach in our organization... It’s a course that not only teaches but inspires."

"This course, featuring direct interactions with innovation experts Hal Gregersen and Dr. Phil Budden, was a game-changer in understanding how to create an "Innovation Premium" within myself and my organization. Their deep insights into the dynamics of innovation, augmented by dialogues with leaders across various levels, provided an unparalleled learning experience."

Programme Benefits

Innovation

Gain a stronger understanding of your innovation and execution-focused leadership skills – and how to leverage them into a higher innovation premium for your team and organization

AI-Driven Insights

Engage five discovery skills, with AI-driven insight, to figure out the essential “jobs-to-be-done” from a customer’s perspective

Problem Solving

Make progress on solving a real-time individual challenge creatively, leveraging AI to enhance your innovation work while keeping human ingenuity at the center

Mens et Manus

Achieve breakthrough insights through an in-depth self-assessment, catalytic questioning, deep observation, diverse networking for new ideas, and rapid experimentation

Certificate

Earn a certificate of course completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management

Testimonials

"Interesting approach, key skills are relevant yet quite light on content and application. Good course for self reflection, yet really only a starting point on innovative mindset and thinking."

Matthew C

"Mostly repetitive of other courses."

Grace E

"The Innovators DNA course at MIT Sloan is a deep dive into the world of creativity and innovation. Aimed at fostering entrepreneurial skills, this course stands out for its comprehensive approach to understanding and harnessing the power of innovative thinking. The course content was both rigorous and enlightening, blending theoretical frameworks with practical insights. Topics such as association and questions were particularly relevant to todays fast-paced, innovation-driven world. The instructors brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the classroom. Their engaging teaching style, combined with a mix of lectures, case studies, and group discussions, made for an enriching learning environment. The practical assignments and group activities were instrumental in translating theory into practice and although challenging they were also immensely applicable to real-world scenarios. This course has profoundly impacted my approach to innovation. It has equipped me with tools and strategies to foster a more creative mindset, which I find particularly useful in my role as a Product Architect. The insights gained are directly applicable to my work integrating into modernizing and streamlining our processes, fostering a more innovative approach in our organization. Overall Experience and Recommendation: Overall, MIT Sloans Innovators DNA is an exceptional course that I would highly recommend to anyone seeking to enhance their innovative capabilities. Its a course that not only teaches but inspires."

Kilynn W

"This course, featuring direct interactions with innovation experts Hal Gregersen and Dr. Phil Budden, was a game-changer in understanding how to create an Innovation Premium within myself and my organization. Their deep insights into the dynamics of innovation, augmented by dialogues with leaders across various levels, provided an unparalleled learning experience."

Andrei U

"Innovator's DNA course was an incredibly worthwhile investment of my time. I was impressed to see, while doing, how useful are the innovation tools to establish a collaborative work environment. The dynamics produced effective worthy ideas for my current efforts. The course exceeded my expectations in terms of its ability to create a positive and productive learning environment. The course was well-designed and facilitated productive conversations, easy application of tools and simplebest action items. I feel privileged to have been a part of this course and to have had the chance to learn from such talented instructors and peers."

Laura C

"The learning experience was very intense, thanks to the great competences and know how of the professors the course was a never ending immersion in new concepts, suggestions, provocations... then the mix of direct lessons, slides, samples, exercises make the two days interesting and never boring!"

Paolo P

"Intresting participants did attend and the course was organized in a very professional manner"

Frank L

"Would like to see them back in person!"

Mike S

"Absolutely loved this course as it got down to business straight away. The balance between the education, learning from other's and the lecturers' experiences and applying it quickly was just right. Applicable immediately. Highly recommended."

Johan K

"Fantastic lecturers with true mastery of time management. The ability to interact with executives world wide within a simple, but effective framework was both encouraging and reproducible. I have already utilized skill I learned in my work environment."

Carlton B

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Prashansa Uttam

Programme Advisor

+91 9403890085[email protected]Mon – Fri, 9am – 5pm IST

MIT Sloan School of Management

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https://mitsloan.mit.edu
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Innovator's DNA: Mastering Five Skills for Innovative Impact | MIT Sloan