As society faces significant disruptions, the need for transformative innovation has never been more vital. However, this urgency is challenged in the digital era, characterized by incessant new technologies, extreme connectivity, and data transparency. Leaders seeking transformative innovation in the digital era face a new dilemma: socially orchestrating the synchronization of ideas that simultaneously encourages collective action.
IDeaLs - Innovation and Design as Leadership - was established to research this conundrum. Inspired by the actual transformation journeys of multinational companies, and based on research with 7 global companies, IDeaLs explores how re-framing our traditional theories through the lens of Humanism reveals opportunities for a more integrated approach to engaging people for systemic change.
To empower innovation leaders, the dimensions of IDeaLs build a scaffold for systemic awareness and conscious intent called Design-Driven Transformation. This evolving research agenda aims to examine in-depth the potency of an integrated approach, laying a foundation for more systemic ways to engage people and transform existing situations into preferred futures.
About the Author: Joseph Press is an Adjunct Professor of Strategic Design at the Parsons School of Design and a Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano Schools of Management and Design.
Paola Bellis is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano serving as senior researcher of IDeaLs and as a researcher for the laboratory on the LEAdership, Design and INnovation (LEADIN'Lab).
Tommaso Buganza is Associate Professor of Leadership and Innovation at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano and co-founder of LEADIN'Lab.
Silvia Magnanini is a researcher for IDeaLs at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano.
Daniel Trabucchi is Assistant Professor at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano and reasearcher for LEADIN'Lab.
Abraham (Rami) B. Shani is a Professor of Management at the Orfalea College of Business, California Polytechnic University.
Roberto Verganti is Professor of Leadership and Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics and founder of LEADIN'Lab
Federico Paolo Zasa is a researcher at IDeaLs at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano
