Darden Professor Jeanne Liedtka presents Thinking by Design: Innovation is Everyone’s Job

Join Darden and University of Virginia Alumni along with Scott Beardsley, Dean of the Darden School of Business, and Jeanne Liedtka, member of the Darden faculty, for a reception from 5:30-6:30 PM. Following the reception you are welcome to attend Professor Jeanne Liedka's design thinking presentation from 6:30 - 9:00 PM. Please see below for more information about the presentation. 

Please register by Monday, 5 June.

Thinking by Design: Innovation is Everyone’s Job

Darden Professor Jeanne Liedtka has spent her career arguing that innovation is something that can be taught. Liedtka joined Darden in 1989, after receiving her MBA from Harvard Business School and DBA from Boston University, and has more than 30 years of experience in the corporate strategy field. She has led design thinking discussions and workshops around the world to help individuals and organizations create a culture of innovation. "A recipe for innovation isn't add genius and stir," says Liedtka. "Innovation happens when you treat it as an outcome — an outcome that takes effort, expertise, and new behaviors and problem-solving skills."

Design thinking is a creative problem-solving approach that is human-centered, possibility-focused, and hypothesis-driven. It allows managers to investigate challenges that are hard to define, as well as to develop innovative produces, processes and business models. Liedtka’s latest research focuses on design-led innovation in the social and government sectors, as does her forthcoming book, Designing for the Greater Good.

This presentation is for leaders and thinkers who have problems they want to solve innovatively, and who want to know how to hire for, encourage and learn: ideation, exploration, and experimentation.How can design thinking help you achieve better results, empower your colleagues, and tap into the innovation potential of people at all organizational levels?