This Michigan Professor Wants To Blow Up The MBA As We Know It

Jeff DeGraff has been called the “Dean of Innovation” — a title he’s earned not only through 36 years of teaching at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, but by building one of the most influential, wide-reaching innovation ecosystems in the world. 

A native of Kalamazoo and a Ph.D. by age 25, DeGraff’s career arcs across industry, academia, and the highest levels of government and military strategy. He’s the founder of the Innovatrium, a living laboratory for innovation — part think tank, part incubator — where organizations and individuals come together to practice, test, and scale creative solutions in real-world settings. He’s also co-creator of Michigan’s Certified Professional Innovator program — the first university innovation certificate of its kind. His corporate résumé includes transforming Domino’s Pizza into a delivery powerhouse and helping Apple launch the platform that became iTunes, and his public-sector work extends from NATO to ASEAN to the U.S. Department of Defense, where his frameworks are required reading for senior leaders. 

With his wife and co-author Staney, DeGraff co-leads the Intellectual Edge Alliance, a global network of 14 innovation programs spanning 45 countries. In their new book The Art of Change: Transforming Paradoxes into Breakthroughs, the DeGraffs offer what amounts to a masterclass in sustainable transformation — combining strategies for challenging long-held assumptions, stories from decades of coaching top executives, and candid personal anecdotes that show how resilience in the face of failure can spark real growth.

‘THE PARADOX IS THE CENTRAL THING’

For DeGraff, the genesis of The Art of Change is tied directly to a career spent in fluid, high-stakes environments. The idea crystallized during work with senior Department of Defense fellows — “the bravest, best people you ever met,” he says — who excelled at solving defined problems but froze when faced with ambiguity.

“They think change is X marks the spot. And it’s exactly wrong,” DeGraff tells Poets&Quants in a recent interview. “The paradox, the ambiguity, the incongruity — that’s the very place where the solution is.”

In the book, he and Staney argue that learning to thrive in these uncertain spaces isn’t just a business skill — it’s a life skill. By embracing paradoxical thinking and confronting the biases that keep individuals and organizations stuck, leaders can transform not just their strategies, but their mindsets and habits.

FROM KALAMAZOO TO THE INNOVATRIUM

DeGraff didn’t set out to be an academic. “I don’t have a business degree,” he says. “I learned by building things.” By 25, he had a Ph.D. in communication and a role at Domino’s Pizza, where he helped redesign the company’s delivery model. That early blend of theory and action defined his career.

When he joined Michigan Ross, he quickly became a connector across disciplines — linking business with engineering, medicine, and the arts. The Innovatrium, an off-campus lab he built with furniture maker Haworth during the Great Recession (largely with his own funds), became a launchpad for student ventures and cross-sector collaborations.

It was through this work — and a key connection with former NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen — that DeGraff began working with the Air Force, then the Army, and eventually NATO. The Intellectual Edge Alliance grew out of those projects, applying Michigan-born innovation frameworks to defense, diplomacy, and industry challenges around the world.

WHY STRATEGY ISN’T ENOUGH ANYMORE

One of DeGraff’s core arguments — both in The Art of Change and in conversation — is that business schools and their graduates must adapt to a “post-strategy, AI-driven world.”

“Your 2019 strategy wasn’t worth the paper it was written on after Covid,” he says. “Think of any dislocating event — the big tech companies with all the money and all the plans were beaten by a tiny company like Zoom. Strategy didn’t save them. Adaptability did.”

He points to the accelerating pace of technology as another stress test. Two major think tanks projected that a quantum chip would be available in 2031; it arrived after Thanksgiving last year. For DeGraff, the message is clear: the age of answers is over, and leaders will need to feel their way forward in conditions of constant change. The question for business schools is whether they are preparing students for that reality.

In his classrooms, DeGraff starts with a paradox. On the first day of his undergraduate Managing Change course, he writes on the board: “Organizations love change, but hate their change-makers.” Students discuss, unpack, and wrestle with the idea — not to find a neat answer, but to begin thinking like adaptive leaders.

This approach mirrors the book’s emphasis on practice over theory. DeGraff pushes students to peel back problems layer by layer, to examine how they are thinking rather than to chase a single correct answer. He believes the future belongs to leaders who can reframe problems in real time, improvise under pressure, and navigate ambiguity without freezing.

In both his teaching and writing, DeGraff makes the case that rewarding only the right answer stifles creativity. Most tasks that can be objectively graded can already be done by artificial intelligence; instead of banning such tools, he believes students should be taught to use them as creative partners to design solutions with real-world impact.

RECLAIMING THE POWER OF PARADOX

DeGraff sees professional development as an evolution. First comes mastering the craft through lenses and frameworks. Then comes collaborating and problem-solving through shared expertise. Finally, there is improvising at the edge of chaos — creating entirely new approaches when the old ones fail.

That final stage, he says, is where paradox becomes a superpower. In The Art of Change, he and Staney fill these ideas with case studies and personal stories — from military operations to corporate turnarounds — showing that growth often emerges from the tension between opposing forces. “If it’s not paradox,” he says, “it’s project management. And machines can do that.”

THE MBA HE WOULD BUILD

If he were to redesign the MBA for the AI era, DeGraff says he would start by diversifying the backgrounds of students to spark what he calls “constructive conflict.” He would push them into situations at the edges of industries and disciplines, where the stakes are high and the potential for breakthrough is greatest. 

And instead of grading outcomes for correctness, he would measure adaptability, creativity, and the ability to sustain progress over time — all central themes in The Art of Change.

“The future doesn’t exist in the center — it exists at the edges,” he says. “I’ve made a career standing there. That’s where the breakthroughs are.”

ALWAYS A MICHIGAN GUY

Despite the global scope of his work, DeGraff remains deeply rooted at Michigan. He credits colleagues like Robert Quinn, Kim Cameron, C.K. Prahalad, and Carl Weick for shaping his thinking, and likens his career to coming up through the Tigers’ farm system.

“I’m really a product of the Ross School of Business,” he says. “I’ve been lucky to have great colleagues, great students, and a great place to keep pushing into the paradox.”

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