By Annabelle O'Donnell
Human-Centred Innovation, Trust, and StrategicAlignment
Human-Centred Innovation is no longer a design philosophy, it is a leadership capability that protects trust and strategic alignment when data, AI, and complexity accelerate faster than culture and leadership judgement can adapt.
The transformation looked perfect on the dashboard. Timelines were green. Adoption metrics were climbing. KPIs were tracking exactly as planned.
Then attrition spiked. Morale collapsed. Trust evaporated. Execution slowed to a crawl.
The data wasn’t wrong. It just wasn’t telling the whole story.
Across organisations accelerating their use of AI tools, analytics, and algorithmic decision-making, this pattern is becoming familiar. Tools are scaling faster than leadership capability. Systems are getting smarter while cultures become more brittle. Organisations move faster and are feeling less trusted.
The risk isn’t poor data or flawed technology. It’s leaders who stop asking the questions data can’t answer.
When Optimisation Becomes the Risk
Data is powerful at revealing patterns and correlations. It is far less capable of showing how change is actually experienced. It can’t reliably surface fear, excitement, identity threat, moral tension, readiness, or trust. Nor can it judge whether people are committing with intent or complying reluctantly.
As AI expands the number of possible pathways to achieve strategic goals, the need for human-centred informed choices becomes more acute. Technology can point the way, it cannot decide which path an organisation should take, especially when pressure is high and the human impact is uneven.
Too often, leaders default to the path that systems make easiest rather than the ones that truly suit the needs and learning styles of their people in the flow of their work. Efficiency looks rational. The human cost accumulates quietly. By the time the numbers reflect reality, trust has already eroded.
This is where human-centred innovation stops being a design preference and becomes a leadership discipline.
What Human-Centred Innovation Really Is
Human-centred innovation is a problem-solving approach that puts real people at the centre, keeping users’ needs, pain points, and preferences in view throughout the process.
In practice, it is a leadership discipline for making decisions under pressure. By integrating data with lived experience and testing assumptions through inquiry and learning, it helps leaders avoid accelerating confidently in the wrong direction.
For Learning and Development leaders, data alone does not show the full picture in how to drive and sustain change in complex human systems. When leaders attend to meaning, emotion, identity, and context alongside metrics, people align behind decisions and commit rather than comply. This is why organisations can deploy the same AI-enabled systems and see very different outcomes. The difference is not the technology, but leadership judgement: how concerns are addressed, pace and framing are set, and how teams are engaged to share insights and co-create solutions.
Taking a human-centred approach does not mean data-driven insights are rejected, it goes a layer deeper to get to the heart of what will be most effective for the people and the organisation, and keeps leaders grounded in lived reality. This goes a long way to build trust and alignment and prevent people from feeling managed by systems rather than led by humans.
The 4 Practices: A Human-Centred Innovation Operating System
At LIW we believe human-centred innovation is enabled by 4 Leadership Practices. When adopted consistently, these behaviours enable human-centred innovation to thrive. A recent study conducted by LIW and the London School of Economics, found that these practices were central to effective leadership.
Be Present
Presence is an active discipline. It means staying close enough to the work and the people to notice what dashboards can’t. Taking the temperature of the team and the organisation. Leaders who practise presence surface tensions early and prevent quiet disengagement from becoming systemic failure.
“The concept of presence emerged not as a passive state of awareness but as a deliberate form of engagement, being physically, cognitively, and emotionally available to others.” LIW x LSE Research, 2025**
Reflection prompts:
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What am I noticing? What am I hearing and seeing?
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Where might my assumptions or biases be shaping how I’m interpreting this situation?
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What signals am I picking up from others (body language, tone, engagement) that I might otherwise overlook?
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What information or perspective might I be missing because I’m distracted, rushed, or preoccupied?
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How intentionally am I creating space to pause and reflect rather than immediately react?
Stay Curious
Curiosity is how leaders test assumptions and surface meaning. It turns data into insight by uncovering what sits beneath performance signals (fear, misaligned incentives, or unmet needs).
Being actively interested in others’ perspectives allowed leaders to build connections and gain information. LIW x LSE Research, 2025**
Reflection prompts:
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What questions could I ask to better understand what’s really going on here?
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Whose perspective haven’t I heard yet? Who else do I need to talk to?
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What assumptions am I making that I could test by asking or listening more deeply?
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How open am I to being surprised or proven wrong in this situation?
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Am I listening to understand, or listening for confirmation of what I already think?
Make Conscious Choices
Trust is built through decisions leaders actively own, and in order to own a decision we need to first become conscious about the choices we are making. We need to remove autopilot. We need to pause to insert quality thinking between a stimulus and response (whether that stimulus is data or people).
“Participants highlighted the importance of consulting others for feedback, balancing instinct with data, and practising empathy to assess the broader impact of their choices.” LIW x LSE Research, 2025**
Reflection prompts:
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What choice am I making right now, and is it intentional or automatic?
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If I continue to act the same way I always have, what outcome am I likely to get?
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What options are available to me that I may be overlooking?
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What new information or perspective should I pause to consider before deciding?
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How well does this decision align with my values, priorities, and the outcome I want?
Keep Experimenting
In volatile environments, learning must outpace change. Experimentation replaces prolonged debate and lengthy planning cycles with small, safe-to-test actions that generate insight while limiting risk.
“Several leaders noted the importance of reflecting on what worked, adapting their style, and trying new approaches when existing ones failed.” LIW x LSE Research, 2025**
Reflection prompts:
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What small, safe-to-try action could I take to move forward from here?
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What am I willing to test or try, even if I don’t have all the answers?
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What would “good enough to learn from” look like in this situation?
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What did I learn from my last action and how can I build on that learning?
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Where might waiting for perfect conditions be holding me back from progress?
Together, these practices don’t slow organisations down. They prevent leaders from moving fast in the wrong direction.
**LIW has a research partnership with the London School of Economics. In 2025 LIW sponsored research from students in the Master of Science, Human Resources and Organisations : “Practices MakeGreat Leadership” Identifying leadership behaviours that drive organisational performance (leadership effectiveness).
About the Author: Annabelle O'Donnell
Her approach integrates evidence-based methods with behavioural science, design thinking, and coaching for commercial impact. Annabelle’s global perspective is shaped by her work with LIW, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), KPMG High Growth Ventures, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. An accomplished speaker and guest lecturer, Annabelle has been invited to speak at the Cambridge Union, Melbourne Fashion Week, and the Asia New Zealand Foundation. Since 2021, she has regularly guest lectured on business strategy at the University of Auckland Business School, teaching more than 1,500 students.
