The New Leadership Structures that Unblock Innovation

The ability of an organization to innovate over and over again, for the long term, depends on leadership structure, culture, and systems. That's according to Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill, who has spent years researching the true drivers of innovation, taking lessons from the world's most successful companies. She explains why today's leaders need to shift from the focus on decision-making and producing to creating the conditions for collaboration, experimentation, and smart decision-making across teams, silos, and wider ecosystems. She shares examples from Mastercard, Pixar, and more and outlines some newly defined ways of looking at leadership roles: as Architects, Bridgers, and Catalysts. Hill's new book is Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation.

You can listen to The New Leadership Structures that Unblock Innovation online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The New Leadership Structures that Unblock Innovation is an episode from HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review.

This episode is 30:30 long.

This episode was published on Mar 3, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from HBR IdeaCast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.