Accelerating Innovation through Ecosystems Sprint

At MIT, we define innovation as the “process of taking ideas from inception to impact”— from “little i” innovation to riskier, but potentially more rewarding, “Big I” innovation. Large organizations often find the latter to be a challenge, but engaging innovation ecosystems can give you a competitive advantage.

What does “impact” mean for you and your organization? And what barriers to innovation have you encountered in your organization?

In this on-demand sprint, you’ll be able to set your own pace while exploring high-level frameworks and tools for innovation that include harnessing the power of open innovation ecosystems. Over the duration of the course, you will complete a playbook that will act as a journal of your key insights and will help you put a clear, strategic vision into practice. 

We do not recommend this course if you have already completed Accelerating Corporate Innovation or Corporate Innovation, unless you are seeking a refresher of the content 

Sprints are six-hour courses you can complete any time over a 30-day period. This on-demand learning “box set” can be completed as an individual or as a team and spread out over a month to fit in with your personal and professional life. 

You may be familiar with sprints as a term used in Agile product development, defined as a set duration of time during which specific work must be completed and made ready for review. With on-demand courses from MIT Sloan Executive Education, we are inviting you to think of your business sprint in a similarly, as a set time period in which to work, experiment, solve a challenge, and share your results.

When you participate in a business sprint you may also recognize research and development patterns from product development domains. We are translating these concepts into a business context where we can employ key elements of a sprint cycle to help solve complex business challenges and turn them into opportunities. 

At MIT, our motto of Mens et Manus (mind and hand) means that applicable education is our objective—and we think it's yours, too. We hope this learning experience will give you key foundational insights and frameworks that can be applied in your teams and organizations today.

The structure of this Business Sprint is as follows:

• Sprint goal setting
• Sprint relays, presented as written content, videos, and podcasts that present specific course frameworks
• Sprint review
• Sprint retrospective

The sprint relays consist of the following:

Relay 1: Analyzing (What)

Plot your current innovation efforts (and gaps) on the “Innovation Matrix” and identify your greatest opportunities to leverage engagement with the innovation ecosystem.

Relay 2: Understanding (Who)

Identify which key innovation stakeholders would be beneficial to your specific challenges.

Learn how to use the zone of novel innovation to match your initiatives to stakeholders.

Relay 3: Applying (How)

Determine how best to engage with the previously identified stakeholders, and choose what kind of innovation practices best support your objectives.

Relay 4: Analyzing (Key Types of Challenges)

Prepare for potential internal resistance to external innovation. Differentiate the three levels of leadership and evaluate how each should support engagement of the ecosystem for innovation.

This course will enable participants to:

• Understand the importance of innovation and how to leverage external ecosystems
• Recognize your greatest opportunities to leverage ecosystem engagement and find stakeholders that best align with your innovation efforts.
• Evaluate and explore how to engage with different ecosystem practices.
• Prepare for potential resistance to innovation.
• Learn how to apply the leadership pyramid to engage all levels of leadership in your innovation journey.

Upon successful completion of your course, you will earn a certificate of completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management. This course may also count toward MIT Sloan Executive Certificate requirements.