Why IA is Your Best Investment

In today’s world of professional development curriculum and classes, there are countless organizations and programs that promise to advance careers and benefit companies. From university courses to virtual trainings and workshops, the endless options can at times feel overwhelming. How do you begin to assess a program’s long term value and decide which one is truly worth your investment?

Fortunately, Philip Lewis addresses how to tackle this modern-day challenge in his Forbes article, “Ask These 4 Questions Before Investing In Any Leadership Development Training.” Read on to find out how to pick a valuable program and why Intrapreneurship Academy is your best investment.

Question 1: Is it practical in application?

A lot of leadership development centers on theory that might be interesting in the abstract but lacks a real-world application — or, more likely, can be applied in the real world only with considerable effort. Effective leadership development offers tools and techniques that have a direct, immediate and real-world application. – Forbes

Why IA? IA utilizes an applied learning model where participants start the course with a real-world problem. During each week of the 8-week course they advance their project using the lessons they learn that week. The course concludes with a 2-day capstone where participants pull together everything they’ve learned to create an actionable innovation business plan for their new idea.

Question 2: Does it offer some personalized elements?

Many development experiences are cookie-cutter at worst and rather impersonal at best. You can go to training course where there might be 50 or 100 other people or log on to a webinar with a cast of hundreds or even thousands. You might learn something, but you won’t get much personal attention. – Forbes

Why IA? Capped at 20 students per class, IA provides a high-touch environment where each participant gets extensive time and attention. In addition to the intensive 2-day kickoff and 2-day capstone, students attend weekly remote classrooms where they dive deeper into each week’s lesson and share questions and ideas in breakout rooms. IA utilizes Slack as their idea sharing platform so that participants can learn from each other and the instructor can review progress.

Question 3: Does it blend technical and human skills?

In a world of seemingly endless change, it is vital for leaders to develop the competencies to be able to create, lead and manage organizational transformation effectively. It’s not enough to learn the skills to drive change. — Forbes

Why IA? Innovation is a team sport that requires input all along the way from a variety of subject matter experts, stakeholders and leaders. The innovation process includes building consensus, turning stakeholders into advocates, and skeptics into supporters. IA realizes that innovation is as much a human endeavor as it is a technical one.

Question 4: Is it taught by practitioners?

For leaders looking to create real-world change, practitioner-led development has the edge. It is here, at the intersection of education and experience, where real impact is made. – Forbes

Why IA? Robyn Bolton, IA Professor, brings her expertise to the cable industry after a career driving innovation. Prior to working with the Cable Center on IA, Robyn was a Partner at Innosight, the innovation and growth strategy consulting firm founded by Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen. She served Global 1000 companies, nonprofits, and startups in industries including healthcare, retail and apparel, and consumer packaged goods. Her teams collaborated closely with clients like Nike, Ahold USA, and Nestle to identify new markets, design and launch new business models, and build innovation structures and processes.

After earning her MBA at Harvard Business School, she worked as a consultant and project leader for The Boston Consulting Group in both Boston and Copenhagen Denmark. Robyn’s articles on innovation have appeared in Fast Company, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review Online, and Forbes. Her perspective has been featured in The New York Times and NPR’s Marketplace.

Robyn embodies the perfect intersection of education and experience. We are fortunate to have her on our team.

IA is Your Best Investment!

Learn more at intrapreneurshipacademy.org

Janice Silver
VP Intrapreneurship Academy
The Cable Center

In her work leading IA, Janice Silver is passionate about amplifying intrapreneurship, advancing innovation, and creating lasting impact in our fast-changing industry. Learn more about IA at www.intrapreneurshipacademy.org.