The Leadership Spark Genius at Scale with Linda Hill
Mar 12, 2026
Linda Hill, Harvard Business School professor and innovation scholar, shares her research on collective creativity. She breaks down why innovation needs co-creation, the Architect/Bridger/Catalyst roles, and how organizations scale ideas. She highlights psychological safety, curiosity, and system-level thinking in building cultures that turn experiments into lasting change.
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How Ajay Banga Rebooted MasterCard Around Purpose
- Ajay Banga reframed MasterCard from a credit-card company to a tech platform by centering purpose on financial inclusion.
- Over a decade he split resources 50/50 between core and new initiatives and built partnerships across startups, governments, and NGOs.
Deploy The Architect Bridger Catalyst Roles
- Build three complementary roles: architect, bridger, and catalyst to scale innovation.
- Use architects to build internal culture and tools, bridgers to co-create at boundaries, and catalysts to mobilize multi-party ecosystems.
Give Bridgers Curate Translate Integrate Mandate
- Equip bridgers with three practical functions: curate partners, translate across stakeholders, and integrate operating and social systems.
- Example: Delta's Hangar head negotiated TSA, customs, IT and vendors to pilot biometric boarding.
