Innovation Insights: Where Play Powers Breakthroughs

  Hey there, innovation champions! Most leaders can tell you when innovation has stalled. What they struggle to see is when it’s about to stall—when the very systems that created breakthrough thinking have quietly calcified into comfortable routines that feel productive but have stopped producing anything new. I discovered this pattern not in a boardroom, but in my […]

Hey there, innovation champions! Most innovation efforts don’t fail because teams lack ideas. They fail because smart, capable people are waiting for permission to be perfect—and by the time they feel ready, the moment has passed. I’ve watched this pattern stall product launches, kill momentum after conferences, and quietly drain the energy out of teams that leaders genuinely […]

Hey there, innovation champions! Before I head to Alabama and Arizona to spend the holidays with family, I wanted to share something that could save your Q1 innovation initiative before it even launches. Because here’s the pattern I see every single year: In January, leaders roll out ambitious innovation programs. By February, they’ve quietly fizzled out. By March, […]

Hey there, innovation champions! “We need to innovate, but we can’t pull people away from their desks.” If you’re a VP of L&D, a chapter president planning your annual conference, or a research director managing tight project timelines, you’ve said some version of this. Your team needs breakthrough thinking capabilities, but you can’t pause operations for elaborate training […]

Hey there, innovation champions! The CEO of PMI San Francisco Bay Area had a problem. Her members—project managers who pride themselves on precision, process, and predictability—were facing an uncertain future with AI.  Would AI take their jobs? How could they position themselves as strategic partners rather than task executors? And most pressingly: how do you prepare people for […]

Hey there, innovation champions! Here’s irony for you: there were years when I was making my living as a professional artist, when I made very little art. Oh, I sold a lot of art, but most of it was prints of art I’d created in previous years. I spent most of my time fulfilling orders, customizing designs on […]

Hey there, innovation champions! “We need to become more innovative—but we can’t afford to disrupt operations.” I hear this tension from leaders constantly. They know their teams need innovation capability, but they can’t shut down production for culture transformation. Here’s the good news: You don’t have to choose between innovation and operations. Based on what I’ve learned from […]