Fotocredit: Martin Schoberer
I am Head of Leadership for Innovation and Agility at the HPI Academy with a special focus on customized leadership formats and cooperations with world class business schools like HEC, ESMT or London Business School. Before that I was responsible as Program Lead for Corporate Innovation for leading and designing formats to bring human centred innovation and Design Thinking into organizations. I have been developing, lead and coaching innovation formats and projects for professionals as well as coaching students at the HPI School of Design Thinking. In the last 16 years I have accompanied organizations from various industries and different sizes in their transformation to innovate more human-centered and to work agile. It is crucial for me to bring valuable insights into my professional education work and to practice what you preach. To make that happen I made my own experiences as co-founder of an innovators network and of TQ.Digital an app for evaluating the future readiness of companies.
I also work as freelance innovation and personal development coach. I am passionate about intersections of fields and domains. 20 years ago I started as a journalist and learned to listen in order to understand and to have empathy for human needs and challenges. I studied communication and media research, psychology and anglistic linguistics. I worked as a lecturer, researcher and innovation coach at the University of the Arts Berlin in the study field of communication in economic and social contexts. There I build a user research lab from scratch. I co-designed the curriculum of the HPI School of Design Thinking (the European Epi-Center for Design Thinking).
My main topics are Design Thinking, Agile and Adaptive Leadership, Agile Innovation Management, Innovation Strategy, User Experience (Research) and Business Model Innovation.
For me, human beings are a fascinating species especially when spoken communication and non-verbal behaviour tell two different stories. I am certified in the Facial Action Coding System and include this knowledge into coachings and trainings in the analysis of non-verbal communication e.g. for coaches in the HPI Academy Certification Programme, detectives, thriller authors or trainings in business negotiation.
I see uncertainty and complexity as a chance to design something better that brings real value for people and the planet.