Colin M. Fisher, Ph.D.

Since his days as a professional jazz trumpet player, Colin M. Fisher, Ph.D. has been fascinated by group dynamics. Originally inspired by the profound influence others had on his experience as a professional jazz musician when improvising, he has been studying group dynamics, creativity, and improvisation for almost twenty years. As an associate professor of Organisations and Innovation at University College London’s School of Management, he teaches students how to lead and work creatively in groups and organizations.

Fisher’s academic research has uncovered the hidden processes of helping groups and teams in situations requiring creativity, improvisation, and complex decision-making. He is the author of the forthcoming book The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of Groups, which will be translated into ten languages. He has written about group dynamics for both popular science and management audiences and his work has been profiled in prominent media outlets such as BBC, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, NPR, and The Times.

He has also provided lectures and workshops to organizations around the world hoping to improve their creativity and collaboration. This includes keynote speeches, bespoke workshops, and executive education to businesses, non-profits, and governments around the world.

Fisher’s discoveries have also been published in leading scholarly journals, including Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Discoveries, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Negotiation Journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Organizational Dynamics, Organization Science, and Small Group Research. He was co-editor of the scholarly book Creativity at Work and has published numerous book chapters and periodicals.

Fisher received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University and previously worked as an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Boston University’s School of Management. Prior to his Ph.D. he studied improvisation in the arts at New York University (M.A.) and jazz trumpet at New England Conservatory of Music (B.Mus.). In his prior career as a jazz trumpet player, Fisher was a long-time member of the Grammy-nominated Either/Orchestra, with whom he toured extensively and recorded several critically acclaimed albums.