Innovation leadership training prepares managers to lead innovation, not just join a brainstorm. It covers balancing an innovation portfolio, designing quick experiments, creating psychological safety for ideas, learning from failure, making kill-or-scale decisions and moving pilots into operations. Bodhih customises it to each organisation's strategy and uses the ADDIE model.
- Recommended: 2 days in person, or 5 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 60-day experiment sprint
- Level: Advanced · In person · Live virtual · Blended
- Designed with the ADDIE model and customised to your context
- Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions
Also known as: leading innovation training, innovation management for leaders, fail forward culture training, experimentation leadership workshop
Where and how: innovation leadership training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last reviewed · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru
Why innovation now depends on managers, not labs
GenAI has made testing new ideas cheaper and faster than ever, and every function now has pilots underway. Yet many stall because managers are rewarded for predictable delivery, not for learning, and nobody decides when to stop or scale.
Innovation leadership training focuses on the leader's job: setting the portfolio, making it safe to try, reading early evidence honestly and clearing the path from pilot to scale. It is not a design thinking methods course; it is about the conditions that let those methods succeed.
BCG's 2024 study found 83% of senior executives rank innovation among their top three priorities, but only 3% of companies were 'innovation ready'.
WEF reports creative thinking, along with curiosity and resilience, is rising in importance for employers to 2030.
What participants will be able to do
Balance the portfolio
Split effort sensibly between core improvements, adjacent bets and a few bolder experiments.
Design fast experiments
Turn an idea into a testable hypothesis with a small, cheap experiment and a clear success signal.
Make it safe to try
Build team norms where people raise half-formed ideas and report failed tests without fear.
Learn from failure deliberately
Run blameless reviews that capture lessons and separate good decisions from bad outcomes.
Decide to kill, pivot or scale
Use agreed evidence gates to stop weak ideas early and back promising ones with resources.
Move pilots into operations
Plan ownership, funding, process and change support so successful pilots become business as usual.
Who should attend
- Managers leading improvement, digital or AI pilots in their function
- Product, R&D and engineering leaders in GCCs and product companies
- Business unit heads tasked with new revenue streams
- Operations and quality leaders driving continuous improvement
- Innovation champions and intrapreneurship program sponsors
- Leaders in family businesses and mid-sized firms modernising their offer
Program outline
Recommended design, customised to your context after a short needs analysis.
01The leader's role in innovationModule 1 · 90 min+
- Innovation as a management system, not a lucky spark
- Why delivery-focused cultures quietly kill ideas
- Diagnose your team's innovation climate
- Leader behaviours that open or close the door
02Portfolio thinkingModule 2 · 90 min+
- Core, adjacent and transformational bets
- Setting an effort split for your team
- Aligning bets with strategy
- Map your current initiatives
03Experiments and evidenceModule 3 · 2.5 hours+
- From idea to testable hypothesis
- Low-cost tests: prototypes, pilots, AI-assisted mock-ups
- Choosing leading indicators
- Design an experiment for a live idea
04Psychological safety for ideasModule 4 · 90 min+
- How leaders respond to the first bad idea
- Idea rituals that include quieter voices
- Blameless reviews and 'fail forward' practices
- Role-play: responding to a failed pilot
05Kill, pivot or scaleModule 5 · 90 min+
- Evidence gates and stage-based funding
- Avoiding sunk-cost and pet-project traps
- Presenting decisions to sponsors
- Case: an Indian or Gulf organisation scaling a pilot
06From pilot to business as usualModule 6 · 90 min+
- Owners, budgets and process changes
- Change management for adopting teams
- Measuring value after scale-up
- Your 60-day experiment sprint plan
Sample training plan: 2-day hands-on design
This two-day design focuses on the leader's job in innovation: choosing bets, making it safe to try, reading evidence honestly and getting pilots into operations. Each manager brings one live idea or stalled pilot and turns it into a testable experiment by the end of day one. Day two covers blameless reviews, kill-or-scale decisions and scale-up plans, ending with a sponsor panel. A 60-day experiment sprint follows, so the learning happens on real work.
Participants can diagnose their team's innovation climate, balance their portfolio and design a real experiment.
- 09:30–10:00The idea graveyardEnergiser
- 10:00–10:45Climate checkDiagnostic
- 11:00–11:30Three kinds of betsConcept burst
- 11:30–12:15Map my portfolioBuild sprint
- 12:15–13:00Idea to hypothesisSkill drill
- 13:45–15:15Design the cheapest testHands-on lab
- 15:30–16:45Experiment peer reviewGallery walk
- 16:45–17:30What I protect tomorrowReflection
Participants can respond well to failed tests, make evidence-based kill or scale calls and plan a pilot's move into operations.
- 09:30–10:00Worst response winsEnergiser
- 10:00–11:00The pilot that failedRole-play
- 11:15–12:15Blameless reviewCase clinic
- 12:15–13:00Evidence gatesConcept burst
- 13:45–14:45From pilot to business as usualGroup challenge
- 14:45–15:30Pitch prepPeer coaching
- 15:45–16:45Capstone: sponsor panelPresentation
- 16:45–17:3060-day sprint planAction planning
Every session’s activity, timings, outputs and materials, plus pre-work, a 90-day reinforcement plan and how impact is measured. Free, emailed to you instantly.
Recommended: 2 days in person (09:30–17:30), or 5 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 60-day experiment sprint ending in a sponsor showcase. A sample design: every Bodhih program is customised after a short needs analysis.
How long is innovation leadership training?
The recommended design is two days in person, from 09:30 to 17:30, followed by a 60-day experiment sprint ending in a sponsor showcase. It also runs as five live virtual sessions of three hours each over about three weeks. A half-day sponsor briefing is available for senior leaders.
What activities are included in innovation leadership training?
Managers map their team's portfolio of bets, turn a live idea into a testable hypothesis, build a cheap prototype, and get peer review in a gallery walk. They role-play responding to a failed pilot, run a blameless review, make kill-or-scale calls with a budget pool and pitch their experiment to a sponsor panel.
How we deliver it
Learn by experimenting
Each manager designs and runs a small experiment on a real idea during a 60-day sprint, with peer review.
Leader-focused, method-light
We reference design thinking and lean methods but focus on leader decisions and behaviours that enable them.
Sponsor involvement
Senior sponsors join the closing showcase to hear results and make kill, pivot or scale calls on the spot.
Cross-functional cohorts
Mixing functions exposes managers to different ideas and builds allies for scaling.
Tailored versions
AI experimentation edition
For leaders running GenAI pilots: choosing use cases, safe experiments, responsible use and scaling from pilot to workflow.
For manufacturing and operations
Links innovation to continuous improvement, kaizen and quality, with experiments on the shop floor or in the supply chain.
Innovation sponsor briefing
A half-day for senior leaders on portfolio governance, evidence gates and how their reactions shape risk-taking.
How we measure impact
In the ADDIE Evaluate phase we measure an innovation climate pulse in each team before and after, a pre and post leadership assessment on AssessAll, and the number and quality of experiments completed in the 60-day sprint. At 30, 60 and 90 days we review decisions made at evidence gates, pilots moved towards scale and changes in team willingness to raise ideas, with sponsors and HR.
Pair this program with AssessAll, Bodhih’s AI assessment platform, for pre- and post-program skill measurement.
Frequently asked questions
What is innovation leadership?
Innovation leadership is the set of behaviours and decisions that help a team generate, test and scale new ideas while still delivering today's work. It includes setting a clear portfolio of bets, making it safe to experiment, judging evidence honestly and clearing obstacles to scale. It is about creating conditions, not only having ideas.
How do leaders encourage innovation in teams?
Leaders encourage innovation by protecting time for experiments, asking for ideas regularly, responding to early ideas with curiosity, celebrating useful lessons from failed tests and removing approval bottlenecks. They also link experiments to real business problems. Innovation leadership training helps managers build these habits deliberately.
How do you build a fail forward culture?
Separate smart failures, which are small, planned tests that teach something, from careless mistakes. Run blameless reviews focused on lessons. Leaders should share their own failed experiments openly. Reward learning speed and good decision-making, not only successful outcomes. Over time, people become more willing to test ideas early.
Why do innovation pilots fail to scale?
Common reasons include no clear owner after the pilot, no budget in the operating plan, unclear evidence of value, resistance from teams expected to adopt it and pilots designed in isolation from real operations. The program teaches managers to plan for scale from the start and use evidence gates.
How is this different from a design thinking workshop?
A design thinking workshop teaches a method for understanding users and generating solutions. Innovation leadership training focuses on the leader: portfolio choices, psychological safety, experiments, decisions and scaling. Many organisations run design thinking for teams and this program for the managers who sponsor their work.
Does the program cover AI-driven innovation?
Yes. Many current experiments involve AI tools. We cover choosing sensible AI use cases, designing safe tests, involving risk and data teams early and moving successful AI pilots into everyday workflows. Responsible-use considerations are built in, and a dedicated AI edition is available.
Who should attend innovation leadership training?
It suits managers and senior leaders who own improvement, growth or transformation goals, and who sponsor or run pilots. It also works well for a cross-functional cohort, since innovation often needs allies in finance, operations, technology and HR to scale.
How is the program delivered?
Our recommended design is two days in person or five live virtual sessions, followed by a 60-day experiment sprint and a showcase. Bodhih has served 2,000+ companies since 2008, delivering in person across India, the Middle East and Asia with facilitators from Bengaluru, or live virtually.