How Great Leaders Unlock Genius with Linda Hill

About this episode

Dr. Linda Hill discusses how great leaders can unlock collective genius and foster innovation within organizations.

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. This week, I'm really excited to have Dr. Linda Hill back on the show. She's a top-ranked thinker on Thinker's 50 List and the Wallace Brett Donnan Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Linda doesn't just study leadership; she studies the chemistry of how humans actually get big things done together. She's the co-author of the management Bible, as I like to say, Collective Genius, and the viral HBR hit, Why Great Innovations Fail to Scale. She has a new book coming out called Genius at Scale. THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…leaders who want to build organizations where innovation isn't left to chance but is built into how people work together every day. TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…innovation doesn't happen because you hire a few creative people or run a brainstorming session. According to Linda, real innovation results from disciplined leadership and intentional culture-building. In this conversation, Linda shares what leaders often get wrong about creativity, how to foster productive disagreement without chaos, and why collaboration, experimentation, and learning must be embedded into the system. Key…

People in this episode

Host: Tiffani Bova

Guest: Dr. Linda Hill

Topics covered

• leadership
• innovation
• collaboration
• organizational culture
• creativity
• conflict resolution

Keywords

• leadership
• innovation
• collective genius
• organizational culture
• creativity
• productive conflict
• experimentation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard Business School

Books & works: Collective Genius, Why Great Innovations Fail to Scale, Genius at Scale

More episodes of What's Next! with Tiffani Bova

• The Most Important Question in Strategy with Roger Martin · May 7, 2026 · 28 min
• If You're Always Busy, Your Strategy Isn't Working with Roger Martin · April 30, 2026 · 26 min
• Hybrid Intelligence with Vivienne Ming · April 23, 2026 · 37 min
• Why Your OKRs Aren't Working with Roger Martin · April 16, 2026 · 26 min
• The Power of Love at Work with Marcus Buckingham · April 9, 2026 · 40 min
• Doing What You Do Best with Tom Rath · April 3, 2026 · 29 min