91��ý

When Linda Hill ’77 took to the Merion Green stage on May 29 to address the 290 members of 91��ý’s class of 2021, she noted that she had “never been more nervous.” As one of the leading experts on leadership and innovation, Hill, who is currently Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, has stood on many stages, including the TED stage, where her 2015 talk on how to manage for collective creativity has received over 2 million views on YouTube. Hill, who majored in psychology at 91��ý and consults with companies around the world, has written numerous books, including Being the Boss, The Three Imperatives of Becoming a Great Leader, and, as co-author, Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, which was named one of the 20 best business books by Business Insider. Here are excerpts from Hill’s Commencement address.

91��ý for me was a place of wonder. I learned to be curious about everything. I learned there was a field called the sociology of religion. I introduced my mother to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. … I learned that my favorite author, Langston Hughes, was part of something called the Harlem Renaissance. I got to study the interplay of the zeitgeist of the time and the cultural expression of someone from my own culture. I cannot tell you how affirming and illuminating that was.

From all my courses at 91��ý I learned how to deal with complexity. I learned how to connect the dots, how to see patterns. I learned how to hold opposing ideas in my mind. I learned how to be a critical thinker.

I also learned at 91��ý that we all need people in our lives who are demanding yet generous. My freshman year teacher told me that I was by far the worst writer she had ever seen. She did not treat me as a lost cause. Instead, when I handed in my 2,000-word essay, she would call me into her office, and she would make me rewrite sentences and paragraphs over and over again. When I received tenure at Harvard, Nancy Vickers was the president of 91��ý. As a gift, she sent me a copy of my college application. Although I had read the classics, for some reason I wrote my essay on the book Planet of the Apes. Yes, there was a book before there was a movie. Who knew that in my professional life I would spend hours agonizing and writing books? I learned also at 91��ý, in terms of writing books, that yeah, you’re supposed to agonize, you’re supposed to do draft after draft.…

One of the most important lessons I learned at 91��ý is that we’re always building on the genius of others.… I have had the privilege of studying great leaders all across the globe who have built teams, organizations, or ecosystems able to innovate time and again. Now, what I have learned from those leaders is that innovation is rarely the result of an individual having an aha moment. Innovation is the result of collective genius, of the hard work of the many. As one leader so beautifully put it, everybody has a slice of genius, everybody has talents and passions that can be leveraged for the collective good. These leaders understand that leadership is not about getting people to follow them to the future but rather is about getting people to co-create the future with them.