The Neuroscience of Leading Transformational Organizations (Coursera)

The Neuroscience of Leading Transformational Organizations (Coursera)

Organizations need to stay on the cutting edge of human performance to remain relevant, now and in the future. The way we've led the people in our organizations in the past is no longer sufficient for success. The landscape of human capital is changing, and a more human-centered approach is warranted to attract and keep the most talented workers. This course is part of the "Neuroscience of Leadership" specialization, which examines leadership techniques through the lens of social cognitive neuroscience and psychology. Utilizing the latest research, we develop a leadership practice based on the foundation of neuroscience.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

What if our organizations could better harness creativity and innovation? What if we could navigate uncertainty and change with courage and confidence to lower stress and fear? How would creating a flow inducing workforce improve productivity and enhance engagement? How can neuroscience help us better understand gender and diversity challenges?
The focus of this course is leading transformational organizations that are set up to excel, now and in the future. In this course you’ll come aways with tool and techniques to navigate change and uncertainty better, foster a diverse workforce, be more innovative and creative, nurture a flow inducing workplace and discover new ways to use neuroscience in business.
This course is part of the Neuroscience of Leadership: Leading with Your Brain Specialization.

What you'll learn

  • Describe how neuroscience impacts collaborative creativity.
  • Understand how to build mentally tough organizations.
  • Explore the world of neuroscience utilized in business applications.

Syllabus

Facilitating Change and Managing Uncertainty
Module 1
Our brains are typically not comfortable with uncertainty and change. These states always have the potential to signal danger or risk. We fear that which we cannot see. In this module, you will come away with an understanding of how the brain approaches these states and with tools to better manage our uneasiness with them.

Gender and Diversity
Module 2
Empirical evidence supports the idea that diverse teams, on average, perform better than those lacking diversity. Teams that are diverse, have varying viewpoints that are beneficial to the team. In this module, you'll understand how the brain can work against us and how we can better engage with those who are different from us.

Innovation and Creativity
Module 3
When we are children, we are all creative. Arts and crafts is often our favorite activity. Somewhere along the way, we are taught that we must not focus on such childish behaviors and focus instead on hard skills. Our ability to be creative and innovative still exists, even if dormant. In this module you will learn how to tap back into these abilities with the help of neuroscience.

Group Flow State
Module 4
Group flow state, also known as "collective flow" or "shared flow," occurs when a group of individuals engage in a collaborative activity and experience a heightened state of focus, motivation, and enjoyment. In this module, we will examine the neuroscience and how to nurture it in your teams and organizations.

The Neuroscience of Business
Module 5
In my estimation, the 2020's are what I am calling the "NeuroDecade." Applying nueroscience to leadership, business, strategy, marketing and even parenting is becoming more common. Where we go from here is largely up to you and your organizations. In this module we take a look at how neuroscience is being applied to other areas of business beyond leadership. The future is bright!

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

The Search for Great Ideas: Harnessing creativity to empower innovation (Coursera) Coursera
Michigan State University

The Search for Great Ideas: Harnessing creativity to empower innovation (Coursera)

Where do great business ideas come from? We all have compelling business concepts that we've been thinking about for years. In this course we will explore how to use observational tools and other techniques for idea generation and we will talk about how to evaluate the good ideas from the bad. The goal is to settle on a business idea that you are not only passionate about but also has real market application.

Jun 8th 2026
3 Weeks
Cracking the Creativity Code: Discovering Ideas (Coursera) Coursera
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Cracking the Creativity Code: Discovering Ideas (Coursera)

Skill at discovering new ideas, and delivering them, may be one of the most important practical job skills, in today’s and tomorrow’s job market. Creativity is an acquired skill, one that improves with practice. This course aims to empower individuals who believe they have lost their innate creativity, because they, their employers or teachers prefer the three R's: replication, repetition and rote, to innovation. We show how to re-ignite rusty creative powers. During this course, you will learn proven tools, frameworks and concepts useful for discovery– generating an endless stream of new ideas implementing at least some of those ideas with skill and persistence, based on books and articles written by the instructors.

Jun 8th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Managing Project Risks and Changes (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Irvine

Managing Project Risks and Changes (Coursera)

This course will help you manage project risk effectively by identifying, analyzing, and communicating inevitable changes to project scope and objectives. You will understand and practice the elements needed to measure and report on project scope, schedule, and cost performance. You will be equipped with the tools to manage change in the least disruptive way possible for your team and other project stakeholders.

Jun 8th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Fundamentals of Social Media Advertising (Coursera) Coursera
Facebook

Fundamentals of Social Media Advertising (Coursera)

This course takes a deep dive into paid advertising on social media. Learn how to start advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram by developing effective ads. Learn how to work with design teams by capturing the essence of your ad campaign in a creative brief, and understand how privacy policies may affect your ads. Complete the course with a project where you will produce a creative brief with assets you would deliver to a design team for your ad campaign. You’ll also create your first social media ad.

Jun 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
How to Finance and Grow Your Startup – Without VC (Coursera) Coursera
University of London,London Business School

How to Finance and Grow Your Startup – Without VC (Coursera)

Who? If you’re an entrepreneur at any stage of your journey, or even an aspiring one, and you need money to start or grow your business, this course is for you. What? This course will introduce, and help you put to use in your startup, the five models through which your customers can – and will, if you ask them! – fund your business. These five time-tested models have been put to use by entrepreneurial superstars like Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and more. Sadly, though, the five models are rarely talked about and not widely understood. Until now! The five models will be brought to life by the real-world stories of an inspiring collection of incredibly creative entrepreneurs from around the world – including successes and failures – through a series of captivating no-holds-barred interviews with founders and others, and investors, too.

Jun 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Innovation Management (Coursera) Coursera
FIA Business School

Innovation Management (Coursera)

In this course you will learn how organizations manage the development of new products and services. We will go over the main tools used to manage innovation projects, how to develop radical innovations, and how to leverage external partnerships to develop novel solutions. Unlike most innovation courses, our focus will be on the practical and managerial side of innovation.

Jun 10th 2026
4 Weeks
Engaging in Enterprise Growth and Innovation (Coursera) Coursera
Northeastern University

Engaging in Enterprise Growth and Innovation (Coursera)

You will explore the challenges and processes for harnessing technological innovation for new-business development, with special focus on digital healthcare transformation. You will gain an understanding of enterprise growth and innovation topics through readings, cases, and exercises, including learning how firms from different industries gain competitive advantage through distinctive products and services. The vast expertise of faculty combined with topic perspectives from the Mayo Clinic make this an engaging and unique course.

Jun 10th 2026
4 Weeks
Creativity Toolkit II: Creative Collaboration (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Creativity Toolkit II: Creative Collaboration (Coursera)

Creativity requires us to collaborate with others. This course is designed to make you a better creative collaborator. Creativity can require us to bring together knowledge from different areas, often known by different people. We need to foster effective collaboration rather than have those differences lead to misunderstandings and conflict.

Jun 10th 2026
4 Weeks
Advanced Business Strategy (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Advanced Business Strategy (Coursera)

Advance your strategic analysis skills in this follow-up to Foundations of Business Strategy. In this course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, you'll learn the tools to analyze strategy across time (competitive dynamics), industries (corporate strategy), geographies (international strategy), and institutions (non-market strategy). Top-ranked faculty will introduce the tools you need to complete a comprehensive evaluation and understand the strategy dynamics of an industry: Competitive Lifecycle, Internationalization and Stakeholder Analyses, and Diversification Matrices.

Jun 8th 2026
4 Weeks
Why Smart Executives Fail: Common Mistakes & Warning Signs (Coursera) Coursera
Dartmouth College

Why Smart Executives Fail: Common Mistakes & Warning Signs (Coursera)

We don’t often talk about mistakes and failures, but there’s so much to learn from what goes wrong. In this course, Professor Sydney Finkelstein will teach you why leaders make mistakes, and what you can do to avoid making those same mistakes yourself. Using real-life examples of smart executives who failed, Professor Finkelstein will walk you through scenarios that prepare you to understand, manage, and even take advantage of the continuous change that is inevitable in organizations and in life.

Jun 9th 2026
4 Weeks
Innovation Management (Coursera) Coursera
Erasmus University Rotterdam

Innovation Management (Coursera)

What is innovation management? How do firms bring in new business models and get new products and services to the market? Go on a nine-week journey through innovation management concepts, theories of idea generation, selection, strategy formulation and implementation in this MOOC in Innovation Management. In it, you will also learn the tools for implementing innovation projects yourself. Guided by world-class academics, you will develop an innovative mindset and expertise in how firms successfully create new ideas for marketing new products. The syllabus also includes sessions about innovation strategy, idea management and social networks.

Jun 11th 2026
5-12 Weeks