Work With David

David is recognized internationally as one of the foremost experts on network-based innovation, cited thousands of times by scholars of innovation, creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship, and even social media, supply chain management, and blockchain adoption. He is now translating this original and timely expertise in a way that is broadly accessible to leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, and anyone serious about creating meaningful change in their work or community.

Contact David for Speaking, Workshops and Panel Engagements

Topics Include:

Getting Things Done

David defines all new things worth doing as, in their essence, creative projects. A new product within an existing company. An entrepreneurial startup. A musical on Broadway. We may call these ventures by different names, and they may evolve in different ways, but at the center of all such initiatives is an individual, group, or organization ready to navigate the challenges of innovation and overcome the inevitable obstacles on the path of bringing a new idea into the world.  In this topic, he shows leaders how to:

  • Cultivate networks of people essential to delivering meaningful change
  • Identify specific projects and pathways through ambiguity and complexity
  • Create the organizational structures and processes that allow successful innovation to thrive
  • Navigate the inevitable twists and turns as the project progresses
  • Manage your own inner game as an inventor or innovator
  • Embed an ongoing culture of innovation and exploration throughout the organization

The Power of Networks to Drive Innovation

Professionals must operate like network entrepreneurs or “brokers,” making connections between people, ideas, and resources to drive innovation. David discusses with leaders:

  • Why the brokers are so crucial to innovation
  • What the different types of networks are and the strengths and weaknesses of each
  • How to diagnose and fix the gaps in your own network profile
  • How to maximize your own impact as a network broker

Driving Strategic Agility

In a world of accelerating change, knowing how to build and support agile organizations is a vital skill. David works with corporate, entrepreneurial, and educational leaders to identify the strategies by which they can maximize their own impact on the innovation process as well foster an innovation mindset at every level of the organization. David explores the approaches that allows organizations to continually adapt to the rapidly evolving environments they confront.

How to Advance First Generation and Underrepresented Students and Why the Future of Business Depends on It

Creating an authentically diverse and inclusive organization is not simply a social imperative, but a proven accelerator of successful innovation. David collaborates with educational and corporate leaders on a ground-breaking way to connect first-generation and underrepresented students with talented professionals to transform student futures while developing the capabilities of organizational leaders.  His work has been shown to enhance diversity and address social inequality at scale. Learn more at Social Capital Academy website.

In all of David’s engagements, he draws extensively on examples from business, entrepreneurship, art and music to illustrate his points. Audiences walk away with the mindset, skills and practices they need to successfully address their toughest innovation challenges.

Custom engagements available upon request.

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What Others Are Saying

"For too long students of networks and innovation have focused on structure at the expense of understanding process. This book offers a major correction. It lays out a compelling theory of brokerage and demonstrates how not only structure, but also skills around knowledge transfer and articulation, are essential for innovation in creative projects."

Paul Leonardi

Duca Family Professor of Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara and author of Car Crashes Without Cars and Technology Choices

"Getting New Things Done illuminates the invisible, relational work of orchestrating knowledge and network processes central to innovation. Taking no shortcuts, Obstfeld's scholarly tour de force is eminently readable and truly practical. It is a must-read for academics and professionals who are interested in audacious innovation."

Amy C. Edmondson

Harvard Business School, author of Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation

"Building on the award-winning work for which he is best known, Obstfeld explains how tertius iungens and knowledge articulation drive innovation in the presence―and absence―of organizational routines. This book's novel theory―rooted in already impactful organizational scholarship―deepens our understanding of networks and brokerage in particular."

Philip C. Anderson

INSEAD

"Obstfeld gets to the heart of unpacking how real work gets done. In this wonderfully textured blend of ethnography and analytics, he lays out a rich foundation for knowledge articulation and powerful extensions to our understanding of networks and brokerage. Both advances are more relevant than ever as we are increasingly moving to the project-based work Obstfeld describes in our networked, fast-paced world. This work establishes a crucial conceptual foundation for understanding the new world of exponential changes we are now navigating."

John Seely Brown

Former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation and co-author of The Social Life of Information and Pragmatic Imagination

"This is a fascinating, elegantly written book. Its prodigious novelty demonstrates Obstfeld's unique ability to teach us about innovation. It is exceptionally rich in the way it combines multiple intellectual traditions and grounds them in close ethnographic observation. The focus on process alongside network structure is cutting edge and sets a new research agenda for those interested in getting new things done."

Steve Borgatti

University of Kentucky and President ― International Network for Social Network Analysis

“This is a fascinating, elegantly written book — its prodigious novelty demonstrates Obstfeld’s unique ability to teach us about innovation. It is exceptionally rich in the way it combines multiple intellectual traditions and grounds them in close ethnographic observation. The focus on process alongside network structure is cutting edge and sets a new research agenda for those interested in getting new things done.“

Ted Baker

Professor and George F. Farris Chair in Entrepreneurship, Rutgers Business School

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