Developing Resilient Innovators

Abstract Book of the 10th World Conference on Future of Education

Year: 2026

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Developing Resilient Innovators

Stuart Johnston

ABSTRACT:

Leadership and intrapreneurship have become the primary drivers of a company’s long-term growth in a turbulent, complex, and rapidly changing digital world. This study uncovers the way in which Stoic philosophy and systemic thinking, along with resonating with the challenges, can be the ‘energy sources’ for evolution leaders and intrapreneurs who influence without authority. To support their point, the authors of these papers combine Stoicism, the SCARF model of psychological safety (Rock, 2008), and the leadership frameworks (Kotter, 2012; Goleman, 2011; Sinek, 2019) to create the Resilient Innovation Cycle, a conceptual model that shows how distrust and trust become the factors that ignite creativity in complex environments.
The English Start-Up Academy (ESA) case study gives an example of intrapreneurial leadership, the power and influence of which are demonstrated through the interplay between empowerment, behaviour change, and community trust. Consequently, resilient innovation, as the findings indicate, depends less on the authority derived from power structures and more on emotional intelligence, social capital, and the bravery needed to accept discomfort as a strategic advantage that comes from the individual

Keywords: Innovation, Physchological Safety, Stoicism