Steven Spear

Faculty

Steven Spear

Get in Touch

Title

About

Academic Groups

Academic Area

Steve Spear DBA MS MS is principal of SeeToSolve LLC, whose SaaS products support the tapping into of an enterprise’s distributed and collective intelligence, and he is author of The High Velocity Edge.  

As a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Spear teaches in graduate and executive education programs and has advised several dozen graduate theses. He is also senior fellow at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement and Associated Faculty at Adriane Labs of the Harvard School of Public Health. His publications have appeared in Harvard Business ReviewSloan Management ReviewAnnals of Internal MedicineAcademic MedicineHealth Services Research, the Journal of Nursing Administration, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and USA Today.Spear's research has had broad application and impact, serving as the basis for the Alcoa Business System, the DTE Operating System, the Pittsburgh Region’s Perfecting Patient Care System, the Pittsburgh Women's Center and Shelter hotline, and significant programs at companies like Intel, Pratt and Whitney, Intuit, Novelis, and GSK.  He’s been an advisor to a Secretary of the Treasury, an Undersecretary for Health Affairs at the Veterans Administration, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Naval Research, the Director of the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force, and several corporate leaders. Spear has a Doctorate from Harvard University, where disruptive innovation thought leader, Clayton Christensen was one of his dissertation advisors. He has a  Master's in engineering and in management from MIT, and a Bachelor's from Princeton University where he studied economics under Nobel Laureate David Card. He’s a board member for the Maimonides School, YI Brookline, the NE ADL, and the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership.

Publications

Wiring the Winning Organization.

Kim, Gene and Steven J. Spear. IT Revolution Press, 2023.

"Succeeding in Periods of Change."

Steven J. Spear and Trent Hone. March 2022.

"History’s Lessons on Competitive Innovation."

Spear, Steven J. and Patrick Stoy. Sloan Management Review, October 2020.

"Fast Discovery."

Steven J. Spear. London, UK: January 2017.

Load More

Recent Insights

Ideas Made to Matter

How to wire your organization to excel at problem-solving

A new book from MIT Sloan’s Steven Spear provides leaders with a blueprint for designing, sustaining, and improving their organization’s sociotechnical systems.

Read Article
Ideas Made to Matter

3 traits of a winning management system

A successful management system requires a developmental mindset, social circuitry, and a leader who prioritizes creativity.

Read Article
Load More

Media Highlights

Press Source: Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute (Opinion Piece)

Succeeding in periods of change

"The challenges confronting today's Navy are substantial. ... there is much to learn from the Navy’s approach of a century ago."

Read Article
Load More

Executive Education

Executive Education Course

Creating High Velocity Organizations

What makes some organizations capable of generating and sustaining high-velocity, unparalleled, relentless improvement and innovation? This program will introduce the fundamental principles by which such acceleration occurs, give examples of those principles in practice, and give participants an opportunity to test how those principles can be applied and translated to their own work.

  • Nov 30-Dec 1, 2023
  • Apr 16-17, 2024
  • Oct 9-10, 2024
View Course
Executive Education Course

Leading Organizations for High Velocity Performance

This program reveals the secrets that enable high-performance organizations to generate and sustain innovation and achieve unparalleled levels of excellence. As a participant, you will learn to become a high-velocity leader in your organization, and get resources, tools, and insights to help you curate your own playbook for transforming your organization.

  • Nov 2-Dec 21, 2023
  • Jun 27-Aug 15, 2024
  • Feb 29-Apr 18, 2024
  • Apr 30-Jun 18, 2024
View Course