E73 Tiny ideas, huge leaps: leading your organisation through uncertainty
“It’s not that you are not creative, you just haven’t worked a little more on developing your capacity. We can all be creative.” Dr. Maria Camacho
Dr. Maria Camacho is a global leader in design thinking and innovation. With over 30 years of experience across academia, consulting, and industry, she has helped shape the way organisations think about creativity and collaboration.
In this episode, Maria talks about how design thinking can help people and companies navigate uncertainty.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
Why Design Thinking matters now more than everHow creative resilience is built through practiceThe emotional highs and lows of the innovation processWhy organisations still struggle to value designTips to support introverts and quieter voices in ideationHow to run a “dark horse” prototype that uncovers unexpected solutionsThe role of play and experimentation at workHelping teams fall in love with the process, not just the ideaWhen to introduce creativity in education and leadershipWhat it means to make creativity part of everyone’s roleKey links
Dr. Maria Camacho LinkedInRecommended Book: The Design Thinking Toolbox: A Guide to Mastering the Most Popular and Valuable Innovation Methods (Design Thinking Series)Stanford UniversityFrogSwinburne University of TechnologyAbout our guest
Dr. Maria Camacho is a globally recognised expert in design thinking and strategic innovation with over 30 years of experience across academia, industry, and consulting. With a PhD in Design Thinking and a decade-long partnership with Stanford University's flagship programs, Maria has helped shape innovation practices at global companies and institutions, including Frog, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, Westpac, Swinburne University, and global European group Sonae.
Maria’s career spans founding and directing award-winning academic programs, mentoring teams to embrace human-centred approaches, and delivering impactful workshops and keynote speeches around the world. Known for her evidence-based methods, she empowers leaders and teams to tackle complexity with creativity, empathy, and humanity.
Today, Maria runs her independent practice as a speaker, corporate trainer, and advisor, inspiring organisations to foster cultures of innovation and collaborative problem-solving.
About our host
Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.
Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.
Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking
For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/
The Company Road Podcast
In this podcast we’ll be exploring what it takes to change a company. Taking the big steps, or the smaller steps in between.
This one’s for the intrapreneurs. You’ll be getting to know some big, brave and darn right outrageous personalities, luminaries, pioneers of business and hearing what they’ve done to fix the thorniest of problems within organisations.
- No. of episodes: 74
- Latest episode: 2025-04-29
- Business Careers Management
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