Innovation Doesn’t Need Another Offsite. It Needs to Work—Right Here, Right Now.

This is not just a well-researched book -- it's a reference guide to come back to again and again for inspiration to spur innovation at work. The layout allows you to locate quickly the experiments and exercises to address your problem, whether it's risk aversion, communication issues, analysis paralysis, planning... to name just four. The format is easy to follow, the writing is engaging and authoritative, the exercises are fun and well-constructed. Buy it and put it into action! Your team will thank you.

Colm Lysaght
VP Corporate Strategy

This book is BEYOND the best creative cookbook I have ever seen - it is like MacGyver meets Martha Stewart! What I mean is that it is so handy that you can both be the action hero in a team crisis and pull a creative solution out of your pocket to save the day. Or, you can plan and execute the most seamless and enlivening innovation session your organization has ever seen, where the sparks and the ideas will both fly.

Marie Spark, MBA, PMP
Project Management Thought Leader

Innovation at Work is a practical guide to innovation, creativity, and team performance—especially relevant for project managers and leaders working under real-world constraints. I experienced Melissa’s approach firsthand during a PMI professional development session, where what initially looked like silliness was clearly structured lateral thinking that quickly shifted a room of risk-trained project managers into a more open, exploratory mode. In the moment, the energy changed: people collaborated more naturally, built on each other’s ideas, and treated uncertainty as a prompt rather than a problem. For teams managing complex, high-risk projects, these short, hands-on experiments provide a repeatable way to improve collaboration, adaptability, and overall project outcomes.

Jonas Edvardsson, PMP, BSME
Founder and Principal Consultant, Milestone PMO

This is the best "hand-holding for innovation success I've read, and I've read a LOT of books on the subject!" You share amazing tools, who it's for, when to use them and how and then go deep into what success looks like for these exercises. Your book makes it incredibly easy to follow.

Rona Lewis
Corporate Consultant

I recently finished "Innovation at Work" by Melissa Dinwiddie, and it’s one of those books that doesn’t just talk about creativity, it actively pulls you into practicing it.

The idea that stuck with me most was Melissa’s focus on overcoming the perfection trap. So many innovation efforts stall because people wait until ideas feel polished or “safe.” Melissa reframes that with her insights, experience, and encouragement. She makes it clear that progress beats perfection every time. She gives you permission to start messy. What felt especially refreshing was how she supercharged those concepts with hands-on exercises she smartly calls "experiments." That language matters because it removes pressure and invites curiosity.

I also love the visual nature of the book. The illustrations, charts, graphics, and prompts are unique and inspiring. They don’t feel decorative; they’re functional tools. Using Melissa’s prompts, you can unlock a new world of creativity in your work.

Mark Stinson
Podcaster, Author, Strategist, Venture Catalyst

You want to spark innovation? Melissa provides the kindling — 52 little ideas, each easy and useful, to loosen and expand your imagination. Two of my favorites include #12 "Micro-TED Talks", which will add your team's outside interests to their internal creative toolkit, and #14 "What's the Opposite?", which challenges you to reconsider core assumptions.

Rajiv Mehta
Founder & Professional Speaker

In Innovation At Work, Melissa Dinwiddie offers leaders and organizations more than just a framework for innovation. She permits them to fearlessly embrace the power of chaos, failure, and “making crap” to unleash collaboration, creativity, and innovation that become integrated, sustainable aspects of the culture. With a deep understanding of the psychology of creativity, Melissa simplifies the process of innovation, making what many perceive as unstructured or even disruptive accessible. The overall structure of the book is thoughtful and a real gift to more linear thinkers who need guidance into creative thinking. From the Crisis Interventions to the perspective-shifting exercises, Innovation At Work is designed to next-level your team from any starting point. Not only do I recommend this enthusiastically, but I’m already incorporating these principles and practices into my work.

Stephanie Crain
Master Jungian Success Coach | Leadership Consultant

Loved this book! While many focus on theory, what stood out to me here were the practical frameworks, real stories, and examples that show what actually works. You can really feel the author’s experience come through, and there couldn’t be a better time to read this—with everyone talking about innovation these days.

Definitely a must-read and a great one to keep on your shelf.

Krishnan Venkata
Strategy and GTM Advisor

This book came at the perfect time! I'm the chair of a non-profit board and was looking for ways to make our upcoming retreat a powder-keg of possibility. My Kindle copy is already heavily bookmarked, and I can't wait to have the paper copy to flag, dog-ear and highlight. While the digital copy has some good navigational features, I anticipate that the paper form is going to be more engaging and inspirational. This is a treasure trove of playful, purposeful and EASY ideas. If your team can bring energy and honesty to the equation, innovation will be the obvious outcome.

Anne Perry
Non-Profit Board Chair

Melissa’s book is packed with powerful, hands-on techniques to help teams spark innovation, break through roadblocks, generate bold ideas, and think outside the box—and I’ve seen firsthand how Melissa’s experiments energize teams. Whether you’re a manager, a director, or an executive, there’s something here for everyone.

Patricia Simeons
Sr. Project Manager

I met Melissa at PMI San Francisco’s Professional Development Day (which she even mentions in the book!) and loved how she connected 125 people through playful, creative exercises.
Reading the book felt like learning how to create safe spaces where teams can truly bloom while working and playing together.
While reading, I kept imagining using these exercises with my own team and even referencing the book in leadership workshops.
A valuable resource for leaders who want their teams to grow, connect, and thrive.

Sara Abolhassani
Director of Operations

This is such a unique and useful book on increasing innovation at work. I love all the different experiments that each achieve different goals, but how it also includes "recipes" (for lack of a better term) that lets you quickly pick out which experiments you should use, based on your particular needs. If you are looking for lots of ideas and specific activities to improve innovation (and teamwork, communication, fun, and more) at work, this is the book for you!

Avish Parashar
Funny Keynote Speaker & Change Speaker

This book is brilliant! I think it is the most practical, useable, and transformational, business genre book I have ever read. I recommend every person that leads a team, in any area of business, from operational to executive, buys a copy. Once you have it this isn't a book to sit down and read cover to cover. It is one that you page through to get a feel for the structure, then dip in, pick an experiment, and try it out for 15 minutes in a meeting or work session that same day. And then try another one the next day or the next week. And start paying attention to the small but definite changes in energy and behaviours, and the outcomes that follow.

Alison Gitelson
CEO & Founder