Thinking about re-thinking: How metacognition develops more effective innovation leaders

How do you teach people to do things never done before? While scholars acknowledge, that the more radical the innovation the harder it is to deliver, there is very little research on how to develop these skills in innovators. This paper fills the gap by examining the metacognitive (thinking) processes of Higher Education students learning how to innovate. Analysing reflections on their learning journeys revealed, which areas of innovation they found most challenging, the steps that higher performing students took to overcome those challenges and how often “conventional wisdom” impeded progress. The paper discusses techniques to develop good teamwork, the benefits and challenges of cognitive diversity in teams and how it can help better understand what customers really want offering a rare opportunity to “get inside” learners’ heads at the start of the learning journey when the way ahead is at its most opaque.