Delivery mode
Self-paced online
Estimated study time: 27 hours
Location
E-learning environment
Language
English
Scope
1 ECTS
Curiosity and Narratives in Organizational Change
Organizations face constant change, and the ability to foster curiosity and openness is critical for innovation and resilience.
Curiosity and Narratives in Organizational Change offers a flexible, fully online learning experience. You will explore how everyday dialogue, humor, and storytelling influence curiosity and creative thinking. Through theory insights, reflective exercises, and practical tools, the course helps you understand and leverage narratives to support organizational transformation.
By completing this course, you will gain strategies to foster psychological safety, trust, and openness in your organization. You will learn how to recognize and shape narratives that drive engagement and adaptability, enabling you to lead change with confidence.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
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Analyze how everyday dialogue, humor, and storytelling practices can either enable or constrain curiosity and creative thinking at work.
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Apply dialogic strategies that foster psychological safety, trust, openness, and curiosity within teams and cross-functional interactions.
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Evaluate the role of formal and informal organizational narratives in shaping employee sensemaking, engagement, and orientations toward change.
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Explain key forms of curiosity and assess their strategic relevance for learning, innovation, and performance in organizational settings.
For
This course is designed for professionals who want to understand how curiosity and narratives influence learning, creativity, and change. It is ideal for those seeking to create a culture of openness and adaptability.
Typical participants include managers, team leaders, change agents, and professionals working in organizational development. Participants may work with challenges such as leading transformation, strengthening engagement, and building innovative, resilient teams.
Content and Schedule
The course covers key concepts of curiosity, organizational narratives, and dialogic practices that support change. It also explores how playfulness, humor, and organizational narratives shape psychological safety, sensemaking, and creative capacity, and how these elements can be intentionally leveraged in practice.
This is a fully online, self-paced program. You can start anytime and progress at your own speed.
You will learn through theory insights, reflective exercises, and practical applications.
Instructors
Astrid Huopalainen
Astrid Huopalainen is an Assistant Professor in Leadership for Creativity at the Department of Management Studies and Department of Art and Media at Aalto University.
Astrid Huopalainen is a qualitative researcher who studies the connections and possible conflicts between art and organization, leadership in creative organizations, and creative work in the post-industrial era. Her multidisciplinary research interests include organizational aesthetics, leadership for creativity, and interactions between art and management.
Taija Turunen
Taija Turunen is an Associate Professor of Design Management at Aalto University School of Business.
Her work centers on curiosity, change, and ethics in organizations, exploring how leaders introduce novelty, whether through innovative products, services, or business models, and how these shifts challenge existing values and reshape organizational culture.
With experience as both a management consultant and a board member in manufacturing and service industries, Turunen bridges cutting-edge research with practice. She has developed tools and methods that help leaders navigate transformation, rethink assumptions, and turn disruption into opportunity.
Her international academic journey has taken her to the University of Cambridge, University of Technology Sydney, and Stanford University, enriching her global perspective on leadership and organizational change. Driven by a passion for learning and pedagogy, Turunen empowers leaders to embrace change with curiosity and confidence.
Program Fee and Registration
The fee for the Introduction to the Curiosity and Narratives in Organizational Change online course is € 150 (+ VAT).
This program has adopted Aalto EE's new Customer ID, and it is delivered on Aalto Learning Experience Alex e-learning environment. Before ordering, please visit aaltoee.fi/customerid.
Program start