Innovation isn’t a value. It’s a practice.
You’ve been handed an innovation mandate. Leadership is watching. And somewhere between the all-hands announcement and today, the responsibility landed squarely on you.
You’re not alone. Most organizations declare innovation a priority, hand their leaders the
mandate, and leave them to figure out the rest.
The result: a lot of motion, not much
momentum.
Busy teams, polished decks, and no new ideas actually shipping.
I built the Create the Impossible™ framework specifically for the analytical, skeptical teams
who are convinced they're not creative — and I'll show your leaders how to
turn innovation into a daily practice, not a
one-time event.
You’ve probably already done the workshop. Maybe a retreat. Maybe a guest speaker who fired
everyone up for a week — and nothing changed the following Monday.
That’s not a people problem. That’s an
infrastructure problem.
Here’s what I call innovation theater: the one-time event that generates excitement but leaves no lasting behavioral change. The “go be more creative” mandate with no tools, no practice, no psychological safety for people to actually take risks. The offsite that costs two days and a significant budget, only to produce a list of ideas no one is accountable for.
Innovation theater feels like progress. It isn’t.
Here’s what nobody talks about: the missing ingredient isn’t creativity training.
It’s psychological safety
— the foundation that determines whether your people will actually use the skills you're investing in developing. Without it, no one takes risks. Without risk-taking, nothing changes.
Real innovation culture is built through repeated small experiments — low-stakes, high-frequency practice that’s grounded in how the brain actually forms new habits. Not inspiration. Not a keynote.
A repeatable process your team runs themselves.
The question isn’t whether you have time to
experiment — it’s whether you have time to keep
solving problems the slow way.
What this actually looks like
A research manager at Meta came to me with a team doing genuinely important work — and going nowhere. Brilliant insights buried in data. Ideas that never reached decision-makers. A distributed team that had lost its momentum.
She was openly skeptical. “These activities seem awfully... playful for a team of researchers.”
Within weeks of working together, behaviors shifted. Engagement with their research skyrocketed. The team was applying new tools in their day-to-day work — not because they were told to, but because the tools actually worked.
Within six months, she had referred me to five other teams at Meta. Not because the program was fun (though it was). Because it changed how her team operated.
I've seen the same arc with project managers, HR leaders, and engineering teams — the skeptics always go first, and then they become the referral source.
That’s the arc I care about: the skeptic who becomes the champion, because the work actually worked.
I was skeptical that a virtual “offsite” was even worth doing, certainly one that involved “play” for my team, but Melissa proved that it can work. The Communicating for Influence workshop she created for my research team was great at teaching key skills while at the same time being fun! I have already seen my team using these tools in their day to day work. Melissa was easy to work with, and knows how to design and facilitate an impactful program. I have already recommended her to my colleagues at Facebook, and will continue to do so.
Why this works —
especially for analytical, skeptical teams
I built the Create the Impossible™ framework specifically for teams convinced they're not creative. Engineers. Researchers. Data scientists. Product managers. People who live by evidence, process, and measurable outcomes — and who are deeply, reasonably skeptical of anything that smells like a “creativity exercise.”
The framework has three phases: Play Hard → Make Crap → Learn Fast.
P lay Hard
means your team stops waiting for the perfect idea and starts generating options — so decisions get made and momentum builds instead of stalling.
Make Crap
breaks the endless-polishing cycle that keeps good ideas from ever seeing the light of day.
Learn Fast
builds the habit of iterating in real time instead of waiting until everything is ready. In other words: it builds a team that gets better at getting better.
Each phase is designed to work with the analytical brain, not against it — giving your team a repeatable process with clear structure and measurable outcomes, not an invitation to “think outside the box.” The psychological safety that makes risk-taking possible gets built in from the start, not bolted on as an afterthought.
It’s also the methodology behind my book, Innovation at Work: 52 Micro-Experiments for Brave Leaders Who Want to Unstick Teams, Spark Ideas, and Build What’s Next — 52 experiments designed to fit inside your existing meetings, without pulling anyone offline.
When we work together, your managers leave with a framework they own and can run themselves. That’s the point. You don’t need me forever. You need the practice to stick.
Not ready for a full engagement? A single high-impact session is a natural first step.
Ways to work together
Here’s a map of how engagement typically looks, from a first experience to a full culture transformation. Most leaders start with Package 1 to get a felt experience of the work before committing to something longer — that’s by design. We’ll figure out the right fit on a call — but this gives you a sense of what's possible.
Package 1:
The First Move
“Your team will leave with a felt experience of what innovation as a practice actually feels like — and you’ll have the data to decide what comes next.”
Right for you if: You want to test the approach
before committing to longer work.
One high-impact session — keynote or interactive workshop, in-person or virtual — plus a post-session debrief so you can see what shifted and where to go next. Each participant receives a copy of Innovation at Work as their between-session operating manual — so the practice doesn't stop when the session ends.
Investment: Custom-quoted. Right for leaders with executive buy-in and a readiness to move.
Package 2:
The 90-Day Mandate
“In 90 days, your team will have a shared language, a repeatable practice, and the psychological safety foundation to start making bold moves — without a single day-long offsite or pulling people away from their real work. And by the end, your managers are running this themselves.”
Right for you if: You have a mandate, a team, and 2–3 managers ready to champion a daily practice.
We diagnose the real gap first, kick off with the full team, and run structured “Lab” sessions where experiments get shared and refined. By the end, your managers own the practice. Innovation at Work travels with them — it’s the operating manual that carries the transformation when I’m not in the room.
Investment: Custom-quoted based on team size and scope. Serious inquiries only — this engagement requires genuine leadership commitment.
Package 3:
The Culture Shift
“By month three, your managers are running innovation experiments independently. By month six, it’s embedded in how your teams work. By month twelve, you don’t need me anymore — and that’s exactly the point.”
Right for you if: You have a mandate from above, genuine leadership commitment, and a 12-month runway to invest in real culture change.
This is a full diagnostic, foundation, and sustainability engagement — built so the work outlasts our time together. At the end, I train your internal champions to carry it forward. You're not looking for a workshop. You're looking for a partner.
You're not buying a workshop series. You’re buying a culture that sustains itself after I leave — and that’s worth considerably more than $100K in retained talent, faster decisions, and ideas that actually ship.
Investment: Custom-quoted for multi-month engagements. Includes full diagnostic, team immersive, ongoing Lab sessions, and manager enablement.
What clients say
Ready to build innovation as a practice?
I work with a small number of organizations at a time — and every engagement starts the same way: a real conversation about the gap you’re actually trying to close.
In 30 minutes, we’ll get clear on where your team is, what’s blocking progress, and whether working together makes sense. No pitch. Just clarity
You'll leave with a clear picture of what’s stalling your team’s innovation — and what it would actually take to move them forward.
Prefer to send a note first? Use the contact form.
Let’s Connect
