About this episode

This episode discusses the importance of collective creativity and leadership in addressing modern challenges, featuring insights from multiple guests on innovation and the role of AI in creativity.

This week, we kicked things off with a story that’s almost too good to be true—the Great Emu War of 1932—and used it to highlight what happens when we try to solve modern problems with old, top-down thinking. As organizations confront complexity and change, we’re not up against simple, centralized challenges anymore; we're facing adaptive, distributed ones. We sat down with Emily Tedards and Jason Wild, co-authors of Genius at Scale . They challenged the myth of the lone genius and shared how true innovation emerges from activating the collective genius within and beyond organizational boundaries. Drawing from research and real-world experience, they revealed why democratizing creativity isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a leadership imperative. We explored their ABC framework: Architect, Bridger, Catalyst, and discussed how leaders can become wayfinders in uncertain times. Then, we brought in Susan Riley, founder of the Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM, to talk about her book Creativity’s Edge . She reframed human creativity as the unique capacity that AI can’t touch—because real creativity isn’t just about finding the right answer; it’s about seeing what doesn’t exist yet and…

People in this episode

Host: Todd Henry

Guests: Emily Tedards, Jason Wild, Susan Riley

Topics covered

• innovation
• creativity
• leadership
• collaboration
• AI impact
• organizational change

Keywords

• collective genius
• democratizing creativity
• leadership imperative
• Four Branches of Creativity
• AI and creativity
• adaptive challenges

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Genius at Scale, Creativity’s Edge

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