Episode

How Great Leaders Unlock Genius with Linda Hill

Podcast
What's Next! with Tiffani Bova
Published
Mar 5, 2026
Duration seconds
1863
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://whatsnextpodcast.libsyn.com/how-great-leaders-unlock-genius-with-linda-hill
Audio
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/whatsnextpodcast/Ep_336_-_Linda_Hill.mp3?dest-id=545912
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/what-s-next-with-tiffani-bova-204054/episodes/how-great-leaders-unlock-genius-with-linda-hill
Markdown
/podcast/what-s-next-with-tiffani-bova-204054/how-great-leaders-unlock-genius-with-linda-hill.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-s-next-with-tiffani-bova-204054/episodes/how-great-leaders-unlock-genius-with-linda-hill/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-next-with-tiffani-bova-204054/how-great-leaders-unlock-genius-with-linda-hill.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

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 Takeaways: Innovation requires disciplined leadership, not just creative talent or good ideas. Collective genius emerges when leaders cultivate both safety and accountability. Productive conflict strengthens ideas when it is structured and purposeful. Experimentation must be normalized to enable continuous learning. Culture determines whether innovation thrives or stalls. WHAT I LOVE MOST…I love Linda's perspective that innovation is not about having all the answers as a leader, it's about building the conditions where great answers can emerge from the group. This shifts the role of leadership from bei…