Strategic Innovation and Creative Leadership

Where business meets boldness.

Step into the future of leadership with strategic innovation. In this program, you’ll gain the essential skills to become a forward-thinking, creative leader—equipped to drive meaningful change. Learn to identify untapped opportunities using strategic foresight, and build a powerful toolkit of innovation frameworks, design thinking approaches, and influence techniques. You’ll sharpen your ability to think creatively, lead cross-functional teams, and apply both hard and soft skills to solve complex business challenges with confidence.

Lead and Manage Innovation with Strategy

Take this program alongside Futureproof Your Organization and Unleashing Innovative Momentum to earn a Masters Certificate in Innovation Leadership .

Innovation isn’t just about ideas—it’s about executing them strategically. In this program, you’ll learn how to lead with bold, creative thinking while aligning innovation with business goals. Through hands-on exercises and practical frameworks, you’ll develop the skills to drive innovation from the ground up and position your team and organization for long-term success.

This program equips you with both the hard and soft skills of innovation leadership, including creative thinking, design thinking, systems thinking, and strategic planning. You’ll explore your personal innovation style through the FourSight Breakthrough Thinking Profile, uncovering how to best collaborate with others and lead teams through every stage of the innovation process.

You’ll leave this program with a clear innovation roadmap and the confidence to challenge the status quo with ideas that deliver lasting business value.

Kick off the program by building a strong foundation in innovation strategy and creative leadership. Explore what makes innovation successful and sustainable, and identify your own thinking preferences through the FourSight Breakthrough Thinking Profile. You’ll begin shaping your real-world challenge to apply throughout the program.

Topics covered:

Strategic Innovation

Creative Preferences

Prework:

Complete the FourSight assessment

Identify Challenge

Dive deeper into planning and executing innovation using proven frameworks. Learn how to structure innovation processes, activate your team’s creative energy, and manage both the hard and soft skills required for driving new ideas into action.

Topics covered:

Planning for Innovation

Innovation Behaviours & Process

Asynchronous:

Innovation Case

Focus on how to lead innovation across different levels of the organization. Understand how to influence culture, manage complexity, and scale innovation across teams and departments. This day emphasizes your role as a leader who not only generates ideas but also drives them forward.

Topics covered:

Leading Self, Team & Enterprise

Managers and professionals working in strategy, operations, service delivery, or cross-functional coordination will benefit from this module’s focus on creative leadership and practical innovation tools. Ideal for those in roles across IT, marketing, sales, product development, and manufacturing, this program helps you build the skills and confidence to move into senior leadership while consistently delivering innovation across teams and business units.

Directors, executives, and senior managers responsible for shaping strategy, culture, and enterprise-level priorities will benefit from this program’s focus on leading innovation with intent and discipline. Ideal for senior leaders seeking to move beyond idea generation and build the structures, behaviours, and leadership capability required to sustain innovation at scale.

In just 3 days, this module delivers actionable tools and hands-on frameworks to help you lead innovation with strategy. You'll gain creative problem-solving .

A strategic leader is valuable—but an innovative, forward-thinking leader is indispensable. Learn how to think differently, challenge the status quo, and lead cross-functional teams through change using frameworks like the FourSight Breakthrough Thinking Profile.

Gain direct access to Schulich ExecEd’s top-rated instructors—experts in innovation, strategic planning, and leadership. You’ll benefit from their real-world experience and interactive teaching style that links theory to practical outcomes.

Develop high-impact skills like creative thinking, influencing others, storytelling, and strategic leadership. Whether you’re looking to lead bigger projects, transition into a senior role, or drive organizational innovation, this module positions you to stand out.