Leadership for Organisational Innovation

AI, emerging technologies and shifting social expectations are driving rapid change across all organisations. To keep pace with this level of change, innovation can no longer remain the domain of a specialist team or function. It must become part of the culture, enabling people throughout the organisation to spot opportunities, develop new ideas and adapt through uncertainty.

This requires a different kind of leadership, one that creates the confidence, permission and conditions for people to innovate as part of their everyday work.

Through academic insight, practical experience, reflection and peer learning, this course helps leaders experience innovation firsthand and turn that understanding into action. You will learn how to enable others, embed innovative behaviours and build a more adaptive, future-fit organisation.

Across six modules, you’ll examine how innovation emerges, how you as a leader can encourage a creative culture and how experimentation can help you reduce both uncertainty and risk.

Working alongside an international cohort of professionals, you’ll apply everything you learn to your own context and your specific organisational challenges.

By the end of the course, you’ll have developed a personal innovation plan, which will equip you to influence culture, support creative behaviours and drive lasting organisational innovation.

Each module builds on the last, helping learners explore innovation through the lenses of self, teams and organisations. Throughout the course, learners reflect and understand the barriers and enablers shaping innovation within their own context.

By the end of the course, learners will consolidate their learnings to create a personalised innovation action plan for strengthening innovation within their own organisation.

• Module 1: Experiencing innovation

• Module 2: Reflecting forward

• Module 3: Developing insights

• Module 4: Exploring possibilities

• Module 5: Running experiments

• Module 6: Embedding change

This course is made up of nine live online workshops across the six weeks. As most of the learning in this course takes place in these live online workshops, you must attend at least 70% (7 of 9) of the workshops in order to pass the course. The workshop schedule will be confirmed 4-6 weeks before the course begins.

Please speak with an enrolment advisor if you have any further questions about the course format or requirements. You can schedule a call with an enrolment advisor(Opens in a new window).

February 2027 online workshop schedules:

• Modules 1–6: From 4.00pm–5.30pm (UK time) on Wednesdays.

• Three 90-minute guest speaker workshops: Dates and times TBC

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Reflect on how your own relationship with innovation influences how you lead it.

• Identify the key enablers and limiters to innovation in teams and organisations.

• Select and implement activities that drive sustained innovation across varied team and organisational contexts.

• Formulate plans for specific interventions that embed innovation practices and mindsets throughout the organisation.

On successful completion of the course, you’ll receive a certificate from the University of Cambridge and a digital badge to display on your LinkedIn profile. These University of Cambridge credentials not only showcase your knowledge and expertise but also demonstrate your commitment to professional development – helping future-proof your career.

This course is designed for:

• Senior executives and C-suite leaders. Ideal for senior leaders who want to drive and sustain innovation across their organisation. Learn to respond confidently to disruption, strengthen existing practices and create the conditions for innovation within complex or fast-moving organisational environments.

• Managing directors. Perfect for leaders with ideas they are struggling to implement. Designed for those looking to lead innovation across teams, support innovation in others and identify approaches that work within their own organisational context.

• Senior managers and team leads. Relevant for individuals leading innovative initiatives in respective teams. Committed to fostering an innovative environment from a bottom-up approach, encouraging ideas to be translated from ideation to real and sustained execution within the organisation.

• Functional and change leaders. Designed for leaders who want to embed innovation in their own function and enable it in others. Driven to create psychologically safe environments that encourage experimentation, learning and appropriate risk-taking.

• Consultants and coaches. Valuable for consultants who need credible approaches to help clients foster innovation, navigate organisational change and create the conditions for innovation to thrive.

Our flexible, online courses – delivered via a world-leading learning platform – reflect the University of Cambridge experience and values, with low learner-to-tutor ratios and academically rigorous standards.

Designed for leaders, our learning model helps you advance your skills and lead in emerging areas. With a focused commitment of around 4 to 5 hours per week, you'll build your network through an engaging and impactful learning journey that encourages collaboration with academics, industry experts and fellow leaders.

Courses are delivered in weekly modules, allowing you to plan your time effectively around existing commitments. Live, interactive workshops with Cambridge academics and industry experts sit at the heart of the experience, bringing you the latest research in the field coupled with real-world insight.

Throughout your online learning experience with Cambridge Advance Online, you’ll have digital access to a dedicated course tutor, an expert in the field, who will help steer your learning and provide you with support and guidance every step of the way.