Steven Spear

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Steven Spear

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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

Discovering Our Way to Greatness How to Build Organizations to Have World-class Problem-solving Dynamics.

Spear, Steven J. and Gene Kim. IT Revolution, Forthcoming.

Hacking for Defense: Creating an Innovation Doctrine for 21st Century Challenges.

Blank, Steve, Steven J. Spear, Peter Newell. Wiley, Forthcoming.

"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.

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Recent Insights

MIT Sloan Experts

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Pandemic defense requires a massive government program that engages the private sector; the public sector cannot and has not been able to handle health security problems of scale. However, relevant capabilities for invention, production, and distribution exist both in commerce and higher education. That’s where our innovation eco-systems reside. As a result, we must harness the capabilities of both the private and public sectors to make our preparations most effective.

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What to ask to move forward while keeping your existing offerings alive.

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Events

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.

  • Jun 28-29, 2023
  • Nov 30-Dec 1, 2023
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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.

  • Jun 22-Aug 10, 2023
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