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Why Does Every Good Idea Die in a Meeting? – with HBS Prof Linda Hill and Jason Wild

2026-06-16

#724: Linda Hill, a Harvard Business School professor, and Jason Wild, an innovation consultant who has led projects in 40 countries, join us to break down how organizations innovate. Linda and Jason have spent decades studying companies that consistently produce breakthroughs - from Pixar to Delta Airlines to Cleveland Clinic - and they've identified three leadership roles that matter most: the Architect, the Bridger, and the Catalyst. The Architect builds a culture where people feel safe enough to take risks....

#724: Linda Hill, a Harvard Business School professor, and Jason Wild, an innovation consultant who has led projects in 40 countries, join us to break down how organizations innovate.

Linda and Jason have spent decades studying companies that consistently produce breakthroughs - from Pixar to Delta Airlines to Cleveland Clinic - and they've identified three leadership roles that matter most: the Architect, the Bridger, and the Catalyst.

The Architect builds a culture where people feel safe enough to take risks.

The Bridger - which Linda calls the "revenge of middle management" - spans the gaps between departments, partners, and outside organizations where innovation often stalls and dies.

The Catalyst builds coalitions across broader ecosystems to get things done.

We get into what separates co-creation from consensus - and why consensus almost never produces anything great. Linda explains what she calls "creative abrasion": the practice of rubbing ideas against each other through debate and discourse, rather than smoothing over disagreements to keep the peace.

We also talk about what individual employees can do when they work inside slow, tradition-bound organizations. The short answer: find the people who share your interests, build a coalition, and work your way up - not by chasing the most powerful person in the room, but by starting with whoever cares about the same problem you do.

The conversation touches on AI and what it actually takes to stay relevant as a knowledge worker. Linda and Jason both land on the same answer - the ability to build trust and relationships in low-trust environments is one of the hardest things for AI to replicate.

Linda and Jason can be found at geniusatscale.com
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Timestamps:

Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising segments. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths.

(00:00) Innovation leadership and the ABC framework

(02:19) Architect, Bridger, and Catalyst roles

(04:18) Studying Pixar and innovation cultures

(06:14) Co-creation versus consensus thinking

(07:12) Creative abrasion and productive debate

(08:41) Bridgers connecting teams and partners

(10:50) Delta biometric boarding pass example

(12:56) Relationship skills in the AI era

(15:40) AI, trust, and human judgment

(18:50) Rio collaboration across government silos

(22:53) Innovating inside traditional organizations

(25:18) ANA teleportation project and coalition building