How can we develop the mindset and culture for innovation?
Rely on our services to support your group’s strategic planning, leadership development, and more
“On behalf of our group and our leadership university, I wanted to thank you so much for having made this first learning expedition a real success. You’ve given us all an excellent flavor, insight and learning about what makes the Silicon Valley so special in terms of innovation, culture, and people. We look forward to future collaborations.”
“Our portfolio of companies relies on pushing the boundaries of science and the latest applications in animal nutrition and food safety. We have turned multiple times to Dr. Tamara Carleton and her team for their foresight framework and innovation tools to guide our strategic planning and provoke new thinking with our community of customers and partners.”
Training program with technical leaders in Osaka, Japan
Strategic Planning
Innovation starts with senior leadership who set a far-reaching vision and serve as genuine role models. We know how to work with executives and company founders to convert innovative thinking into doing. In one program, we brought together the senior executives and all business unit heads for an American company to create a shared innovation vocabulary and outline a high-level roadmap to guide their efforts over the next 10 years. In another effort, we helped a Nordic company define their next three horizons of growth, which included developing an in-house "strategy playbook” and arranging one-on-one meetings with potential strategic partners in Silicon Valley.
Leadership Development
We have also worked with corporate universities, learning and development teams, and other groups to design and deliver innovation programs for executive education and other learning initiatives. Throughout our programs, we encourage participants to focus on innovation opportunities that they can address directly in their own work and context. Our most popular offer is a two-day master class addressing how to move from foresight to innovation, which we can host in Silicon Valley or onsite at your location.
A reoccurring program with the National School of Government in South Africa
A two-day planning session with top management and senior managers in Austria
Culture Change
We have supported major programs that address cultural change and corporate transformation. For example, we helped one Fortune 500 company foster a culture of intrapreneurship by supporting multiple innovation teams over a three-month incubation period, plus building and delivering an internal learning campaign in parallel to inspire hundreds of employees across different office regions.
Staff Training & Short Courses
We regularly complement existing internal training efforts by providing short courses, online courses, or other blended training related to innovation. The goal may be to introduce a new mindset for innovation, develop and deepen specific innovation skills, or expose teams to new innovation practices. Our coaches and facilitators are exceptionally qualified in helping teams advance their aptitude for innovative thinking and doing. We take a hands-on approach in the spirit of Stanford’s design community and Silicon Valley’s best practices, matched to each team’s local context. Our programs have been delivered from Japan to Sweden to South Africa to India to Mexico. The emphasis is on learning by doing and through asking smarter questions. In both live and virtual sessions, we structure group interaction in multiple learning modes to accommodate different learning styles and job roles.
One of our facilitators discussing the future of work at a Silicon Valley workshop
A staff training program, plus CEO & board session, at a major telecommunications company in Mexico
Deep Tech Briefs
Have you ever wanted the quick version on the current state of thinking for a particular category or emerging technology? These deep tech briefs are succinct tour d'horizons delivered as short knowledge bursts, synthesizing key points on what to expect in the near, mid and far horizons for a particular topic or technology. Our clients and partners often select a subset of these topics as input into a strategic planning workshop or as ongoing scans to stay on top of their “top 10 tech” watch list. These briefs are delivered as an online video collection for your teams; contact us about other formats. Topics can include AI, cryptocurrencies, quantum computing, genomic innovation, Internet of Things, natural resources, and others.