Idea Agent—Leadership That Liberates Creativity and Accelerates Innovation

There is perhaps no leadership challenge more daunting than managing creativity—and more urgent than delivering breakthrough innovation. How do you harness some of the most passionate, intelligent people in your organization without stifling them? How do you simultaneously unleash their energy and channel it into something tangible?


Lina Echeverría offers seven proven principles through which new ideas come to fruition, from unleashing passion and drive, and embracing productive conflict, to emphasizing excellence and structure while living values that liberate creativity. As team catalyst, the leader delivers results while nurturing intuition and growing talent.


These principles apply well beyond traditional creative domains, propelling innovation across entire organizations. Drawing on the author’s considerable experience assembling and nurturing cutting-edge teams at Corning Inc., Idea Agent shows readers how to juxtapose creative freedom with management rigor and lead dedicated professionals as they generate and execute one great innovation after another.

LINA M. ECHEVERRÍA is an innovation leadership consultant with 25 years experience in science and technology. From scientist to vice president, she helped drive new products at Corning Inc. that now underpin our technology-based economy, from faster optical fiber that powers the Internet to flat-panel glass used in everything from smart phones to LCD TVs.