To meet the demand for innovation in organizations around the world, DDI and LUMA have designed a course to help mid-level leaders drive innovation 

Monday, May 23, 2011

ORLANDO – In response to rapidly growing global demand, Development Dimensions International (DDI) and LUMA Institute have partnered to develop a leadership program to drive innovation in organizations around the world.  The program will be released in September 2011.

The hands-on, full-day course, Driving Innovation, combines the discipline of human-centered design with the necessary leadership actions required to help mid-level leaders create a culture of innovation in their own teams and organizations. The focus of the course is to help these leaders experience innovation challenges first-hand, equip them with leadership behaviors, practices, and methods they can use to replicate innovation in their own organizations.  Leaders learn to develop these essential skills in others and create a culture that fosters repeatable, sustainable innovation.

“Organizations can’t innovate without leaders who can drive a culture of innovation and who are catalysts, themselves, for innovation,” Tacy Byham, DDI’s Vice President of Executive Development said. “You can train leaders to set and model ideal conditions for innovation—and be a keeper of the culture that inspires and rewards their teams for coming up with and implementing new and differentiated solutions.”

The course combines DDI’s extensive experience in leadership development and how leaders can influence an organization's culture with LUMA’s expertise in human-centered design and how innovation can be fostered in the workplace.

“Organizations are no longer questioning whether it makes sense to invest in fostering an innovative culture. The question on every leader’s mind is and should be, ‘How do we institutionalize innovation so that we are doing it in a repeatable and sustainable way?’” says Chris Pacione, Director & CEO of LUMA Institute. “The answer lies in fostering pervasive competency in human-centered design which is the discipline of generating solutions to problems with a fanatical focus on the needs, desires and context of the people for whom we design.”

Research from DDI’s 2011 Global Leadership Forecast revealed that while innovation didn’t make the list of skills that leaders said they’ve needed over the last few years, it rocketed toward the top of the list of skills leaders said they’d need in the future.

The course tackles key barriers to innovation and equips leaders with the skills and methods needed to address those challenges.

Driving Innovation is the newest addition to DDI’s mid-level leadership development program Business Impact Leadership: Mid-Level SeriesSM, which includes nine courses that address the key challenges that mid-level leaders face.

DDI has spent the last 40 years developing leaders at every level—nearly 6.3 million worldwide—and helping organizations optimize their leadership talent and build a strong leadership pipeline at every level.

About DDI

Founded in 1970, Development Dimensions International, a global talent management expert, works with organizations worldwide to apply best practices to hiring/promotion, leadership development, performance management and succession management. With 1,000 associates in 42 offices in 26 countries, the firm advises half of the Fortune 500. For more information about DDI visit http://www.ddiworld.com/aboutddi 

About LUMA Institute

LUMA Institute is an educational institute that helps leading organizations around the world enlist Human-Centered Design to drive innovation and make things better. LUMA helps leaders and teams get better at creating solutions driven by the needs, desires, and context of the people for whom they design.        Learn more at www.luma-institute.com