Well versed.
Sometimes, it suffices to listen to people - in the right moment.
And usually, it is a good idea to get away from buzzwords and tune it down to process improvement or development.
I have worked with R&D people and project management a bit and in fact, I have seen a couple of breakthroughs happening in the projects I was involved in. And there was no rainbow appearing when it happened, no heavenly choirs singing. It was just a "hang on, what was that?" or a "dont know, but might be worth looking at". Even an "aaaahmm, no that will not work". But it really changed things.

Let me give you an example.
At one point, I had to enforce an "innovation" as simple as using terminal server systems. It took me a week to understand why some sympathetic nerd inmy team kept nagging at me to use it.
No one else would listen to him.
And in fact, enforcing this "innovation" saved the project - and ended my career with that particular employer.
Contradiction? No.
Egomanic president, who saw himself forced to accept my idea. Everybody else got the point why it was a great idea. He did not. But he could not afford to have a strategically important project going down the drain.

I am still waiting for the opportunity to praise him publicly.
For it was under his farsighted leadership that these systems were implemented in a specific way.
Now, almost everybody in this specific business runs it that way.
He will hate me for that.
And some people will smile.

Oh. And the guy whose idea it originally was? I could not do much for him. Well, he did not have to move to another profession, isnt that reward enough?

PS: this company is now making huge losses. With the president still being the captain of a ship sinking. Ooops. Karma.