Innovation is a Skill, Not a Lightning Bolt.

Most people don’t think of themselves as innovative. They think innovation belongs to someone else: a genius, an entrepreneur or a person with a big idea. Furman’s Master of Science in Innovation and Leadership (MSIL) is built to change that.

“What the world needs is people who can think innovatively, think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to problems,” said Janna Pennington, director of the MSIL program. “Not just keep trying the same thing.”

That’s the philosophy behind the MSIL program, which doesn’t just teach leadership. It equips students to think differently, solve challenging problems and lead organizational change through innovative thinking.

Starting With Creativity and Innovation

The first course students take is INV 601 Creativity and Innovation, taught by Zachary White, a professor in the Communication Studies department and assistant dean of Graduate Studies. This foundational course examines innovation and creativity, what qualifies as innovation and who can be considered innovative, emphasizing how creativity drives innovation.

“Creativity is the first step of innovation,” White explains. “Creativity is the creation of something new or different while innovation is the implementation of ideas in specific contexts or professional settings. Innovation is where you get value out of ideas.”

The course challenges students to take a problem they want to solve and find creative solutions. They are presented with a unique opportunity, albeit an uncomfortable one, to intentionally identify, analyze and explore a problem in depth.

“If we go straight to the solutions, we miss out on the essential part,” White says. “If we spend 75% of our time on the problem exploration, solutions can be explored in ways that they could never be explored without really understanding the depth, dynamism, complexity and ambiguities of the problem itself and the ways in which people are impacted.”

Students work through human-centered design methodologies like design thinking, which give individuals the ability to empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test, before presenting a solution to a designated problem at the end of the course.

“In the very first semester, we first learned about creativity and innovation as concepts, like divergent thinking, questioning frameworks and 5 whys and a how,” said Joy Baker, MSIL 2025 graduate. “I thought, ‘Oh, I can do that. That’s not that difficult.’”

At its core, innovation is a practiced skill, not just a moment of inspiration. It doesn’t belong only to a select few people. It belongs to anyone willing to learn the methodology.

The Cohort Makes the Difference

The MSIL program is built on a cohort model. Students move through the program together, taking the same courses as a group. This creates a support system for students as they learn to innovate, while also encouraging them to challenge one another and consider diverse perspectives.

“When you’re with the same people for a year in the same classes, it really contributes to people feeling like they can take some risks,” said Pennington. “And risk is required for innovation.”

White pushes students to use the cohort as a space to break the habit of needing to be perfect before trying something new.

“Think about how often we stop ourselves from trying something different because of the perceived risk of failure,” he says. “In a cohort group, that support is valuable to break those habits and see what’s possible.”

What Students Learn

Throughout the program, students build a specific set of skills: identifying problems and root causes, creating conditions for creativity, interviewing and listening, collaborating on solutions, pitching and presenting, and giving and receiving feedback. Students also learn how to make adjustments when things don’t go as planned.

As a cohort, students complete a three-course innovation seminar, which includes Creativity and Innovation, Pitching and Presentation, and Resilience and Reflection.

The program concludes with a capstone, Launching Innovation Through Leadership, where students practice innovation by bringing a tangible idea to life.

Students take what they’ve learned directly back to their workplaces, sometimes with ripple effects across their entire organizations.

“I’ve seen projects that I started in the program actually now happening in real life outside of class,” Baker said. “To see something actually come to fruition really solidified my faith in innovation.”

Innovation and Leadership Go Together

Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires someone willing to create the conditions for it on their own team, in their own organization.

“Leadership is facilitating not only one’s own creativity and innovation, but also those of your team,” White said. “People have a clear understanding that they want to be leaders, but being a leader means being able to be creative and innovative or facilitating that development in others.”

That’s what separates the MSIL program from a traditional leadership curriculum. It’s not enough to manage well. The program equips students to lead differently by helping the people around them think and solve problems in new ways.

Innovation Happens Everywhere

Innovation isn’t limited to tech companies or creative industries. It happens in processes, in teams, in organizations of every kind. The MSIL program is built on that belief.

“If we think about innovation as just something only geniuses do or like a lightning bolt from the sky that’s going to fix everything, we are in trouble,” Pennington says. “People have problems that are too big to solve with traditional methods.”

The program gives people new ways to lead through those problems. People inherently want to be part of a solution. The program is the starting point for teaching students how.

“I think having the confidence to identify innovation and knowing that I am an innovative and creative person has just increased my general confidence,” said Baker.