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Natural science principles allow a novel way to gain insight into human organizations. The paper aims to highlight this by using the format of a conversation.

The authors discuss six key concepts from the science of evolutionary ecology selected by the first author, a natural scientist. The second author then applies observations of large and small organizations from her 40‐year career in organization development. Finally, the authors present the resulting ideas in the form of a conversation.

This exercise provides an interesting window into understanding organizational behavior.

As practitioners of applied behavioral science recognize that human organizations are merely a microcosm of the natural world, they can develop fresh approaches for study and practice by applying concepts from evolutionary ecology.

The application of evolutionary ecology to human organizations will be a novel experience for most practitioners. As such, it offers an innovative perspective and an opportunity to improve understandings of the systems in which we all work.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how to build and maintain an active network of innovators inside a large organization.

The paper describes the process used by a senior manager at a large pharmaceutical company in France to create a flexible structure that would enable innovators and seekers of innovation to connect and move interesting and promising ideas toward implementation.

One of the authors describes his approach, which included inviting graduates of a program in innovation management to design the structure of the network. He has successfully conducted about 30 problem-centered network sessions, based upon the process taught in the Managing Innovation program (a copyrighted program of Barnes & Conti Associates Inc. and David Francis, PhD) These sessions have successfully moved a number of practical and creative ideas forward.

The authors believe that this type of innovation network could be replicated successfully in other large organizations. The process, however, requires a senior manager who is a very involved and invested sponsor/champion.

Problems that require innovative solutions can be brought to a diverse group of innovators who are interested in working on it. The format involves multiple, rapid prototyping, and saves considerable time and money while providing practical and vetted solutions or inventions.

An innovation network provides an outlet for members to use their creative imagination to address a wide variety of problems. In this way, they can continue to build their own skills while contributing value to their organizations.

Leaders always hope to maximize the value of their investment in training and development. Creating a format that takes advantage of and continues to build skills in areas such as innovation management optimizes an organization's ROI in leadership development while providing a valuable service to the organization.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a set of leadership practices that can help to build and sustain a culture of innovation.

The article is based on the authors' many years of consulting and facilitating learning experiences in innovation management in a broad range of organizations. The authors have observed that specific leadership and management practices seem to be strongly related to the success or failure of organizations in building self-renewing innovation environments.

Leadership and management behaviors that engender fear, a lack of focus and communication about organizational innovation strategy, a paucity of resources (time, money, encouragement) are among the factors that make innovation less likely or less successful. A clearly communicated purpose, the ability to accept and use failure, and an accessible process for getting a hearing on ideas are among the supportive factors.

Many leaders understand that innovation is key to their organization's ability to survive in a connected and competitive business environment. Fewer understand and/or are willing to make the changes that will create and sustain a culture of innovation. Leaders who are willing to adopt some of these practices are likely to achieve better results in encouraging talented people to contribute their capabilities, ideas and efforts to strategic innovation initiatives.

Successful innovation is not created through magic and good fortune. It is the product of strategic thinking, a supportive culture, great talent, managers who know when to be involved and when to step back, and leaders who listen, support risk, and learn from failure.

In many organizations, professionals who were once in supportive roles or considered subject matter experts are now expected to take a consulting role in order to facilitate change in their area of expertise. Most, whilst skilled and knowledgeable in their field, have no training in the skills required to be a successful consultant and agent of change. They need to understand and manage the process of consulting and develop new skills; one of the key skill‐sets is interpersonal influence. This article aims to focus on the issues.

The authors develop in detail the applications of influence skills to the process of internal consulting.

Good influence skills are essential for success as an internal consultant, since by definition people in that role cannot mandate change. Both expressive and receptive influence behaviors are useful at various phases of the consulting process. Developing the skills and knowing when and how to use the different behaviors described can be invaluable to professionals in an internal consulting role.

This is not a research paper, but the authors are open to suggestions as to research possibilities.

Anyone in an internal consulting role can gain value from thinking of him or herself as an influencer and being thoughtful in how he or she uses influence skills to achieve the results required or expected from a specific consulting engagement or project.

An open discussion about mutual influence skills and strategies can enhance working relationships and make it easier to achieve results in complex organizations and situations.

Very little has been studied or written about the skills required to be an internal consultant, though much has been written about the process of external consulting. The authors' observations and experience have led them to conclude that the roles are quite different and that internal consultants must depend on their interpersonal influence skills to a greater degree in order to achieve successful results.

The purpose of this paper is to help readers consider the value of identifying the values, beliefs, and vested interests of someone they wish to influence and to frame their idea, request, or call to action in a way that will make sense in the other person's internal model of the world and be interesting and attractive to him or her.

The paper defines several key terms and presents a rationale for exploring the point of view of individuals one wishes to influence and framing an idea in a way that will be most meaningful to the other.

There is no one way to view any idea. People have a set of mental filters that any influence attempt must pass through. These filters shape the impact and meaning of the other person's idea or request. The skillful influencer takes this into account in framing his or her influence approach.

This paper is the result of many years of observation and pattern recognition in situations where people are asked to influence one another. It is also consistent with current behavioral economics research, but is not itself based on laboratory research.

Applying this approach should enable readers to have better results in influencing a variety of people.

Influence is a key skill set for leaders and key contributors.

The purpose of this viewpoint piece is to focus on sharing a set of best practices with senior and emerging leaders.

The paper demonstrates the relevance of the skills of storytelling to the practice of leadership and provides a set of suggestions and recommendations for effective use of stories, based on the authors' personal experience and observations.

Leaders who tell stories compellingly communicate important messages in a memorable way, offer a pathway to leadership for others, develop more effective relationships with those they lead, and can create an inspirational culture in their organizations.

Leaders can search their own history and experience for important lessons learned that can be communicated in the form of a narrative and learn to tell them with grace, humor, and/or incisiveness at appropriate times in the life of their organization or key people.

Those who are leaders or who work to develop leaders can benefit from this alternative approach to leadership communication.

The purpose of this paper is to share the successful experience of Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) in engaging senior leaders in developing the next generation of leaders.

The paper describes the principles and approach used by LRL. It provides a straightforward description of the major leadership development programs with a more detailed description of a course on inspirational leadership. One of the co‐authors, a Vice President of Medical, describes his personal motivation for participating.

The commitment of a significant amount of time to their development by respected senior leaders is a powerful message and model to participants. The ability to interact in a deeply personal way with senior leaders is highly motivating to participants. The involvement of senior leaders in the design and development of programs gives them a strong interest in later participation. Being identified as an inspirational leader and having the opportunity to influence the next generation are personally rewarding to senior leaders.

LRL is one of too few organizations that have succeeded in gaining a high level of commitment from senior leaders to developing future leaders; their methodology may be valuable to other large and medium‐sized organizations.

Shares the successful experience of Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) in engaging senior leaders in developing the next generation of leaders.

Describes LRL's major leadership development programmes, and in particular the course on inspirational leadership.

Reveals that the commitment of a significant amount of time to employee development by respected senior leaders is a powerful message and model to participants. The ability to interact in a deeply personal way with senior leaders is highly motivating. The involvement of senior leaders in the design and development of programmes gives them a strong interest in later participation. Being identified as an inspirational leader and having the opportunity to influence the next generation can be personally rewarding to senior leaders.

Highlights the importance of storytelling in the learning experience.

The methods LRL has used to gain the commitment of senior leaders to developing future leaders may be valuable to other organizations.

The paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The article describes the course run by Lilly Research Laboratories and goes into detail about the reasons for involving senior leaders in the development of future leaders. Very good points are made and the importance of leadership development cannot be ignored. The article offers advice on how to encourage leadership development within one's own organization and uses a friendly tone which makes the article very easy to read.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

Defying conventional wisdom, leaders' storytelling may have ambiguous and even negative effects on followers. Built upon transformational leadership and leader -member exchange theory, the intention-perception model of storytelling in leadership provides a framework to systematically explain when and why unintended effects of storytelling happen. Despite its theoretical and practical relevance, a quantitative evaluation of the model's main assumptions, and particularly of followers' perceptions of leader storytelling, is still pending.

The authors developed a scale to assess followers' story perceptions in study 1 (N = 79) and confirmed the scale's structure in study 2, an online cross-sectional field study (N = 60). In study 2, the authors also tested a main assumption of the intention-perception model of storytelling, that is, the relationship between followers' story perceptions and story effects, mediated via followers' affective arousal.

Data revealed that story effects indeed depend on followers' perception of the story. In particular, the better a leader's story met followers' needs (need-supply fit), the more adequate the input load transported by the story (story load), the more positive followers' appraisal of their leader's story (story appraisal) and the more positive affective reactions and positive effects of storytelling (transformation, leader -member exchange quality, and trust in the leader) followers perceived.

The authors provide practical insights into how leaders may improve their storytelling by tailoring their stories to the expectations and needs of their followers.

Taking a follower-centric perspective on a common leadership practice (i.e. storytelling), the present research provides first support for the intention-perception model of storytelling in leadership.