Innovation Manager’s Toolkit
Expert Skills Training & Coaching for Change, Transformation & Innovation Professionals
What
A specially designated training and group coaching course for change, transformation and innovation professionals.
Learning topics will include,
People management: Psychological safety, Radical Candor, Non-Violent Communication, Multipliers and Diminishers, habit formation etc.
Process management: Design Thinking, Agile Scrum, Lean Startup, Lean TQM, OODA etc.
Organization management: Systems Thinking, EBM (Evidence Based Management), OKR (Objective & Key Results), Innovation Accounting, Organizational Ambidexterity, Theory E & O etc.
Why
Because change, transformation and innovation professionals have special jobs. And special jobs need special training.
Related Article
Change Agents, Transformation Leads and Innovation Managers (“CTIOs”) are the civil equivalent of Rangers and Special Ops. They are top performers and exceptional talent hand picked by leadership to take on high stakes roles that will impact the future of the organization.
Meanwhile, unlike their uniformed counterparts, CTIOs are often dropped into their roles without dedicated training opportunities.
Format
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8 weekly sessions of 2 hours each, total 16 hours intensive group coaching and training.
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As dedicated corporate training or public course with mixed participants.
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Classes may be delivered face-to-face or remotely over a web platform.
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Course price: please ask.
Course Outline
Week 1, 2, 3
People Management
In the first three sessions, we will straightforwardly dive into people matters; challenges around interpersonal communication, group dynamics etc.
After a short flipped classroom review on the reading assignment before classes, we will spend most of each session on group coaching. People and team challenges in office come in many colors, and we will be learning from those experiences through sharing and dialogue.
We will most likely be using role-playing for simulated learning, and exercises from Liberating Structures and Retromat for facilitating better group thinking. As meta-learning, these experiences will contribute to learning what “coaching” and “facilitating” are, which in fact are core skill sets for furthering organizational work.
Week 4, 5, 6
Process Management
In the next three sessions, we will focus on reviewing Design Thinking, Agile Scrum and other current popular “non-waterfall” process management frameworks.
For the first half of each session, we will do some refresher learning on the nuts and bolts and facts of the frameworks, typically in flipped classroom format. For the second half of the sessions, we will be doing group coaching around actual cases of work challenges on the session topic that participants will be invited to share.
Week 7, 8
Organization Management
In the final two sessions, we will tackle the profession’s holy grail of challenges: organization wide change, transformation and innovation.
It’s an overwhelming topic, so we will use management science frameworks such as Systems Thinking, Organizational Ambidexterity and Theory E & O to build perspective and a better grasp of the challenge. Thereafter, we will be doing final rounds of group coaching to aid the participants each set personal objectives and actions around the topic.
The course will close with a final “what, so what, now what” exercise.
Participants who successfully complete the course with minimum 75% attendance will receive a certification of completion.
Learning Approach

Coach Takeshi’s Favorite Tools, Frameworks, Approaches, Mental Models
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Agile | • Lean Startup • Design Thinking • Agile Scrum • User Story Mapping • Design Sprint • OODA • Lego®4Scrum |
Behavioral Coaching | • Radical Candor • Conversational Intelligence • Non-Violent Communication • Clean Language • Psychological Safety • Appreciative Inquiry • Positive Psychology • Choice Theory • Theory X & Y • Multipliers and Diminishers • Habit formation |
Modern Management Science | • Systems Thinking • EBM (Evidence Based Management) • OKR (Objective & Key Results) • Innovation Accounting • Organizational Ambidexterity • Theory E & O |
Facilitation | • Liberating Structures • Retromat • Lego® Serious Play® |
Structured learning
The course itself has structure as we have clear learning objectives. And as in the course outline below, there is a fair amount of knowledge and skills building intended, so structured learning (introductions to frameworks and concepts, subject matter specific training exercises) will be used as important building blocks in the course.
Unstructured learning
Meanwhile, course instructor Coach Takeshi’s emphasis will be on unstructured learning, mainly in the from of group coaching and facilitation of on-demand learning exercises. “Then and there” are usually the best timings to learn new things as the need is present. When the needs arises, Coach Takeshi will interactively suggest to the class learning topics from various disciplines.
Hybrid / blended learning
Other highly effective learning techniques will be used such as flipped classrooms (self study before class, review and discussion in class), peer teaching (participants assigned to teach certain topics in class), peer-to-peer coaching and facilitated exercises using Liberating Structures and Retromat.
There will also be a Slack channel opened for participants during the course for information sharing and collaborating on assignments in between classes.
Coach & Trainer
Coach Takeshi is a behavioral coach, Organization Development (OD) professional, Design Thinking facilitator and Agile Scrum trainer, specialized in helping leaders, teams and organizations build the capability to perform, function and operate in any volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and crucially, overwhelming (hence not just VUCA, but VUCA”O”) condition, situation and environment. His approach is heavily learning oriented with clear focus on core KSA (Knowledge, Skill, Ability, Attitude and Aptitude) transfer, and tapping into the individual and collective creativity and resourcefulness of people through coaching.
Formerly a career banker (Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank etc.) doing derivatives, turned serial startup entrepreneur (including Chief Commercial Officer at Singapore based fintech Canopy), Coach Takeshi comes with significant business experience. He lectures and conducts workshops at his MBA alma matter INSEAD’s corporate executive program. Professional certifications include Scrum.org PSM II & PSPO (Professional Scrum Master II, Professional Product Owner), ICF ACC (International Coach Federation, Associate Certified Coach), IAPPC CPPC II (International Association of Positive Psychology Coaches, Certified Positive Psychology Coach Level II), Lego® Serious Play® Certified Facilitator.