Who is it for?
You want become a more extraordinary and creative leader.
You want to amplify your creative capabilities, so that you can address the increasingly unpredictable business, technological and social challenges that today’s world faces.
And you want to be able to inspire and empower your teams and organisations to take managed 'leaps of faith' that will solve these complex challenges.
Objectives
You will become one of a new generation of more creative and interdisciplinary leaders, able to provide new forms of structure that make sense of apparent chaos, to drive the future, and to bring about positive change.
You will learn about creativity, leadership and innovation from different disciplinary perspectives – drawing on business, the arts, law, psychology, design and digital.
You will be taught by a cross-functional team of academics and practitioners dedicated to the use of the creativity to improve society.
These academics and practitioners will use novel teaching techniques to bring theories and practices to life, and offer you a wide range of experiences through which to help you to amplify your capabilities.
You will also gain new knowledge and skills for harnessing the creativity of others – colleagues, stakeholders and clients – both within and beyond your organisation.
The outcomes? An ability to deliver breakthrough solutions. A place on the career fast-track in a world where innovation has never been more highly prized. And expertise in the new interdisciplinary frameworks, knowledge, techniques and skills needed to investigate, generate, envision, prototype, critique and reflect on creative solutions to complex, ill-structured and chaotic problems, and provide new forms of intellectual resilience.
Structure
The Master's in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership offers a rare opportunity to study innovation,creativity and leadership from a fully rounded, interdisciplinary perspective, learning from leaders in each of the disciplines.
Creative leadership is crucial in promoting and delivering innovative outcomes. Creative leaders need to be flexible, knowledgeable and be able to inspire others to follow them into the unknown. In this course you will:
- Develop your understanding of the roles and advantages of different creative problem solving strategies, techniques and tools in a range of different contexts
- Learn when to use different innovation tools, and in which situations
- Gain practical skills to facilitate creativity and enhance innovation
- Learn how to tackle complex and wicked problems
- Learn how to work effectively within teams to solve problems, produce creative outcomes and design solutions in business and other contexts
- Learn how to overcome barriers to creativity and innovation so you can deliver change
- Understand what elements foster a creative climate and what distinguishes creative organisations.
We review all our masters courses regularly to keep them up-to-date on issues of both theory and practice. Therefore, there may be some change to the detailed content of the modules and occasionally to module titles.
Induction weeks
All of our MSc courses start with two compulsory induction weeks which include relevant refresher courses, an introduction to the careers services and the annual careers fair.
Term 1
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Creative Writing
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15 credits
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30 hours, over ten weeks in lectures
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120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
You will learn to develop and communicate ideas through writing and discover how storytelling supports leadership.
You will also develop your own writing skills through critiquing others' writing and responding to critiques of your own work and learn how to use tools to develop a play or screenplay.
The module is delivered by the School of Arts & Social Sciences. The module leader is Phil O’Shea.
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Creative Problem Solving and Leadership
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15 credits
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30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
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120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
Learn practical problem-solving processes and cultivate intuitive decision-making and communication skills.
Enhance your understanding of your own skills and how to apply them in the business and professional worlds to foster a creative climate and enhance innovation.
The module leader is Andy Wilkins.
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Leading Creative Design
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15 credits
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30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
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120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
In this module you will learn how to intertwine creative and design thinking as part of advanced service design practices. Theories and practices from different design disciplines - e.g. service, product and architecture - will provide you with the interdisciplinary frameworks to create and design more effectively.
Throughout the module you will learn about new techniques to investigate, generate, envision, prototype, critique and reflect on designs that are creative solutions to complex and chaotic problems .
The module leader is Professor Neil Maiden.
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Intellectual Property Law and Management
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15 credits
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30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
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120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
You will gain an overview of the legal issues around design, innovation and creativity, and learn to identify and address the concerns they raise.
You will also learn about confidentiality agreements, copyright, trade mark and branding, and design rights - including rights ownership and their commercial exploitation.
This module is delivered by Prof Ruth Soetendorp, in conjunction with a team of intellectual property practitioners from leading creativity and innovation enterprises, and is moderated by the City Law School, one of London's major law schools.
Term 2
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The Psychology of Creativity and Innovation
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15 credits
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30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
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120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
You will explore ways to develop creative talent in individuals, teams and at an organisational level and develop skills in building work environments that support innovation.
You will also understand how creativity and innovation can drive economic performance, employee involvement and organisational change.
This module was designed by organisational psychologists from the School of Arts & Social Sciences. The module leader is Dr Maire Kerrin.
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Technologies, Creativity and Innovation
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15 credits
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30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
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120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
In this module, you will learn creative approaches to digital innovation through the design of new digital systems, and explore ways of using digital technologies for yourself and your teams, in creative problem-solving and design, in ways that help, rather than hinder, your creative processes.
You will use case studies to understand the process of developing digital support for creative problem-solving and design, as an example of interactive system design.
The module leader is Dr Sara Jones.
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Delivering Innovation
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15 credits
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30 hours, over ten weeks in lectures
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120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
Learn how the results of creative work can be transformed into valuable products and services in business and professional contexts.
You will use case studies of commercial and public organisations to develop a deep understanding of creative and innovative practices.
This module is leader is Andy Wilkins.
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Creativity and the Creative Industries
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15 credits
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30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
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120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
You will explore creativity and innovation in different performance arts including music, dance and acting.
You will compare creativity and innovation in performing arts with creativity and innovation in the other disciplines you have studied and learn how to transfer different types of knowledge across disciplines to improve creativity and innovation.
The module is delivered by the School of Arts & Social Sciences. The module leader is Mary Ann Kernan.
Term 3
You may choose from these two options in your final term.
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Research Methods and Individual Project
You will undertake a substantive individual piece of work under the guidance of an academic supervisor. The aim of the individual project is to apply the insights you’ve gained throughout the Innovation, Creativity and Leadership master's programme to a working environment of your choice.
You will deliver your final project as a dissertation. A member of academic staff with expertise in the particular area you wish to research will be allocated to supervise the project.
This can be an excellent opportunity for your employer to gain immediate benefit from your studies.
Examples of recent projects include:
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Business Mavericks
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Innovation in Professional Services. A Comparative Study
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Creativity in a Box: learning to facilitate group creativity using online learning materials and the facilitator's toolkit
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The Sensei Within: A Study of Leadership Qualities in Japanese Martial Arts
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Research Methods and Small Project plus electives
You will undertake an individual piece of work under the guidance of an academic supervisor. The aim is to provide you with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills that you have acquired in the taught part of the master's degree in relevant creative, innovation delivery and leadership contexts.
You will deliver your final project as a dissertation. A member of academic staff with expertise in the particular area the student wishes to research will be allocated to supervise the project.
This can be an excellent opportunity for students' employers to gain immediate benefit from their employee's studies.
Electives planned to run in 2021
- Business & Society
- Driving Supply Chain Innovation through Technology
- Global Strategy
- Innovation in Organisations
- New Market Creation
- Practice of Management
- Storytelling for Business
- Strategy Consulting Skills
International elective offered in 2018
Start-ups: International Field Trip (taught Buenos Aires, Argentina)
