Haas Applied Innovation Workshop Series Builds Skills

Haas School of Business – UC Berkeley students learned how to design a conversation that sparks creativity and innovation in Lisa Solomon’s workshop called “Designing Strategic Conversations for Innovation.” The workshop is one of a half-dozen offerings in the Full-time Berkeley MBA Program’s new Applied Innovation Workshop Series.

“It was great to learn how you could build an engaging presentation in a larger retreat setting to help people understand what the problems are,” Kavita Patel, MBA 15, said after attending the workshop led by Solomon, an expert within the intersecting spaces of design, leadership, and innovation.

The Applied Innovation Workshop Series is designed to help students build skills that are not generally offered in the formal curriculum to help them in their job search and post-MBA careers. Other workshops have covered everything from mindful leadership to personal storytelling.

Another popular workshop was Intro to Code for MBAs, six sessions of two and a half hours each, designed to teach students with a non-technical background the tools, processes and vocabulary used by developers.

“The goal is really for students to have a better understanding of how code is used by developers. Many students won’t become coders but they will interview better because they understand the lingo, the tools, and the actual process of coding,” said alumnus Joe Wadcan, MBA 12, who taught the class. “And it is useful to understand the terminology when you are about to enter a technical company.”

The applied innovation workshop is part of the full time MBA curriculum. The workshops vary by topic each semester. The applied innovation workshops are also available for the executive MBA program.

regions: San Francisco

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