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 a future you can’t predict?

“I want people to think differently,” she told me in our discovery call. “The future is unknown and evolving. Instead of adapting, how do you adapt first and lead from there?”

Here’s what she wasn’t asking for: a motivational speech about embracing change. What she needed was practical—a way to help analytical minds access skills they didn’t know they had.

The Buffet Line Confession

“You know, I never thought of myself as creative.”

The project manager standing next to me in the buffet line at PMI’s Professional Development Day said it matter-of-factly, like he was commenting on the weather. He wasn’t apologizing or making excuses. He was simply stating what he believed to be true about himself.

When I poll audiences during my Creating the Impossible keynote, I ask how many people have ever thought of themselves as “not creative.” Invariably, the entire room raises their hands. Every single person.

This may be especially true of analytical, technical types trained to focus on precision and process. But here’s what surprises people: I spent my college and grad school years believing I was a “non-creative person.” Even now, after decades of making my living as an artist and creativity instigator, those self-doubt gremlins still show up.

That’s how strong the cultural programming is that tells us creativity belongs to other people, not us.

What Happened When We Gave AI Superpowers to Everyday Objects

Earlier that morning, I divided the 125 project and program managers into small groups. Each team imagined that they received an everyday household object—a shoe, a paperclip, an umbrella—magically endowed with AI superpowers.

Not just regular AI. Superhero AI.

AI shoes that could walk in other people’s footsteps. Paperclips that could hold teams together, not just papers. Umbrellas that could shield teams from scope creep, not just raindrops.

Their task: come up with as many ways as possible that their magical AI assistant could make their lives as project managers easier, more efficient, or more fun. They had just a few minutes.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how it would land. Would this group of technical professionals rebel against an activity that required imagination? Would they cross their arms and wait for something more “practical”?

Quite the opposite.

Within seconds, the room erupted. Groups were laughing, building on each other’s ideas with “yes, and” energy, channeling their inner improv instincts. Ideas flew fast. The creativity was electric.

The Shift That Changes Everything

In the debrief afterwards, the energy in the room had fundamentally changed. Participants noted how the collaborative mindset actually accelerated idea generation, and how the playful approach made creativity feel accessible rather than intimidating.

But here’s what the comments and Recommendations I received on LinkedIn revealed about the real transformation:

“She reminded us that creativity is not fluff but a true leadership capability,” wrote one senior project manager.

Another noted: “Innovation and leadership aren’t just about systems and tools but also about play, trust, and creativity.”

This is the shift that changes everything for analytical teams facing an AI-driven future.

Because here’s what the PMI CEO understood: the technical skills that made project managers valuable in the past—managing timelines, coordinating resources, tracking dependencies—are exactly the skills AI will handle increasingly well. The skills that will differentiate humans are the ones that can’t be automated: creative problem-solving, cross-functional collaboration, adaptive thinking in uncertain conditions.

These aren’t soft skills. They’re strategic capabilities that determine whether your next initiative succeeds or stalls.

Why Technical Teams Actually Have an Advantage

Here’s the counterintuitive truth I’ve observed working with teams at Google, Meta, Salesforce, and other analytical organizations: technical teams often innovate better than “creative types” when given the right framework.

Why? Because they already have the discipline, systems-thinking, and attention to detail that creative work requires. What they’re missing isn’t capability—it’s permission and practice.

The reframing exercise we did at PMI works because it provides structure (you have constraints: this specific object, this specific superpower, this specific time limit) while creating psychological safety (it’s playful, low-stakes, everyone’s doing it together).

That combination—structure plus safety—is what allows analytical minds to access creative problem-solving without feeling like they’re being asked to suddenly become “creative people.”

They don’t need to become someone else. They need to recognize what they already have.

What This Means for Your Next Innovation Initiative

If you’re leading a team that needs to think differently—whether that’s adapting to AI, solving complex technical challenges, or breaking through innovation plateaus—the traditional approach of bringing in “creativity experts” to inspire your people often backfires.

Analytical minds don’t need inspiration. They need practical frameworks that help them systematically access capabilities they didn’t know they had.

This is why past innovation initiatives haven’t stuck. It’s not that your people can’t innovate. It’s that they’ve been told innovation requires them to fundamentally change who they are.

The project manager from the buffet line? By the end of the session, he was discovering that creativity had been there all along. Not in spite of his analytical training, but enhanced by it.

Your Next Move

If you’re curious about what systematic, practical innovation looks like for analytical teams—and how to build these capabilities without the fluff—I’ve created a preview of my forthcoming book, Innovation at Work: 52 Micro-Experiments for Brave Leaders Who Want to Unstick Teams, Spark Ideas, and Build What’s Next.

The preview includes the framework I use with technical teams to help them access creative problem-solving in 90 minutes, not months.

Download your free preview here

And if you’re planning a conference or professional development day where your members need practical tools for thriving in an AI-driven future, send me a message. I’d be glad to explore whether this approach might work for your event.

Next week: I’m sharing the 90-minute innovation framework that works when you don’t have time for day-long workshops. Plus, why micro-experiments beat massive transformation initiatives—and how to implement your first one in 15 minutes.

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 the computer, then printing them out, packing and shipping.

Believe me, it was not what I’d signed up for when I envisioned the artist’s life!

I was performing the role of artist without actually creating art.

And here’s what really stung: from the outside, my business looked successful. Revenue was good. The workflow was smooth. But I knew the truth—I was going through all the motions of being an artist while the actual creative discovery had completely stopped.

Sound familiar?

The Performance vs. The Practice

I just got back from leading my annual 5-day creativity retreat—an immersive experience where participants (including me) get to focus entirely on whatever creative project calls to them. It’s heaven! We get so much done!

But here’s what I learned years ago: the magic of those five days evaporates fast when you return to “reality”—work, family, the routine of regular life.

That’s when I challenged myself to simply play for fifteen minutes a day.

The goal: whatever I did had to be pure play, pure experimentation, completely unrelated to making money!

And, because I know I’m “pressure prompted,” I also committed to sharing whatever I created in those studio sessions—the good, the bad, the ugly, the incomplete—in a daily newsletter I called “The Artspark.” Just a snapshot of whatever I was working on.

Honestly, I didn’t expect this “tiny and daily” practice to amount to much, but it surely had to be better than nothing.

What I discovered blew my mind: I created more art that year (actually, in the 11 months from February through December) than I had in the previous decade!

That permission to play—and critically, to make crap—was utterly transformative. I went from paralyzed by perfectionism to prolific, buzzing with creative ideas (creativity breeds creativity, it turns out!) and having fun, to boot!

When “Innovation” Becomes Performance Art

Now, let me ask you something.

How much of your team’s “innovation work” looks like my print-fulfilling days?

Lots of activity. Polished deliverables. Smooth workflows. But no actual creating happening?

Just like I was PERFORMING the role of artist while not CREATING art, many teams are PERFORMING innovation while not actually INNOVATING.

The symptoms look different, but the pattern is identical:

• Teams invest months in innovation consultants and frameworks, but behavior doesn’t change
• Brainstorming sessions produce predictable ideas dressed up in new language
• Leadership gets frustrated that “innovation initiatives” aren’t translating to business results
• Everyone’s going through the motions, but nobody’s actually experimenting

I call this Innovation Theater. And it’s costing you more than you think.

The Diagnostic: Three Warning Signs You’re Stuck in Innovation Theater

Warning Sign #1: Your Team Perfects Presentations Instead of Testing Prototypes

When I was fulfilling print orders instead of making art, I was busy. I was even profitable! But I wasn’t growing. I wasn’t discovering. I wasn’t creating.

Same thing happens with innovation theater. Your teams spend weeks polishing slide decks about potential ideas instead of spending days testing rough prototypes with real users.

The work looks impressive. The deliverables are beautiful. But it’s performance, not practice.

Your smartest people are perfecting presentations while competitors are shipping rough prototypes and learning what actually works.

Warning Sign #2: “Innovation Time” Requires Pulling People Away from “Real Work”

Here’s the objection I hear most from leaders: “We can’t afford to take people away from their desks for a series of workshops.”

And you know what? That objection is valid… if innovation requires months-long programs separate from actual work.

But here’s the thing: when innovation is truly embedded, it doesn’t look like “time away.” It looks like a 15-minute experiment at the start of your Tuesday standup that shifts how your team approaches problems all week.

Think about my art practice: I wasn’t taking sabbaticals. I was taking 15 minutes a day. And those micro-moments compounded into transformation.

Warning Sign #3: Your Team Waits for Permission to Experiment

Earlier this year, I worked with 125 project managers at a PMI professional development day. Forty-five minutes. Three structured experiments. No slides.

One participant wrote afterward: “I could see the breakthroughs happening. It was ELECTRIC!”

Know what made it electric? Not my permission-giving. It was watching themselves discover they could handle uncertainty, build on “bad” ideas, and turn constraints into creative fuel.

But here’s what I noticed: many of those analytical professionals—people whose entire job is managing complex projects—had never been given structured permission to play with possibility. They’d been to plenty of innovation training. But nobody had given them tools to do innovation as part of their actual work.

What This Actually Looks Like in Practice

Let me tell you about a research manager at Facebook who reached out during the pandemic.

Her team had a problem: brilliant insights that weren’t landing. They buried key findings in mountains of data, used incomprehensible research jargon, and took an adversarial tone that turned colleagues off. Their valuable work wasn’t having the impact it deserved.

Plus, morale was in the tank. Everyone needed a boost.

I designed a program called “Communicating for Influence” using play-based methods—structured experiments drawn from improv that helped the team practice new communication patterns in low-stakes ways.

The manager was skeptical. “These activities seem awfully… playful for a team of researchers,” she said.

When I clarified the specific behavioral outcomes each activity was designed to deliver, she grudgingly gave approval.

The results?

Within weeks, engagement with their communications skyrocketed. Team morale improved dramatically. And critically, behaviors actually changed—participants were applying the tools in their day-to-day work.

But here’s what really mattered: within six months, five other Facebook managers reached out asking for the same program. Word had spread fast because participants didn’t just see better outcomes—they reported these were “the most fun meetings I’ve attended all year!”

That’s the difference between innovation theater and actual innovation practice. Theater looks good in the moment but fades fast. Practice creates behavioral change that spreads organically.

The Real Cost of Innovation Theater

Innovation Theater doesn’t just waste time and budget.

It trains your smartest people to perfect slides instead of test ideas.

It creates cynicism. Your team stops believing innovation is possible. They see it as corporate theater they have to perform in.

Most importantly, it misses the fundamental truth: Innovation isn’t something you do separately from work. It’s how you approach work.

What Actually Works: The Immersive + Daily Combination

Remember how I said the 5-day retreat magic evaporates without daily practice? And that daily practice is powerful, but occasional immersive experiences supercharge growth?

The real power is combining both.

Your team needs:

The Immersive Experience: Those periodic offsites, intensives, or focused workshops where people step away, see new possibilities, practice new behaviors in a concentrated way, build relationships, and return energized.

The Daily Practice: Micro-experiments woven into actual work. Five to twenty minutes during regular meetings. Small-stakes chances to practice the behaviors that drive real innovation: welcoming “bad” ideas, building instead of critiquing, testing quickly instead of analyzing endlessly.

When you just do the immersive work, the learning fades. People return to their desks and old habits take over within weeks (or days).

When you just do the micro-experiments without deeper skill-building, you miss the relationship development and strategic framing that make change stick.

Together? You get systematic capability building that transforms how teams work.

From Theater to Practice: Your Next Step

Here’s a simple diagnostic you can run this week:

Look at your last three “innovation initiatives.” For each one, ask:

1. Did it produce new behaviors or just new vocabulary?

Are people actually experimenting differently, or just using innovation buzzwords? If your team talks about “failing fast” but still won’t share work-in-progress, that’s theater.

2. Was it ONLY big time investments, or did it include ongoing practice?

Immersive experiences are powerful—they create breakthroughs, build relationships, and develop skills fast. But if the learning stops when people return to their desks, that’s theater. Real innovation practice embeds what was learned into regular team rhythms with micro-experiments that keep the momentum going. If your initiative didn’t include both the intensive AND the ongoing practice, that’s the red flag.

3. Did it give people tools to experiment themselves, or just frameworks to talk about experimentation?

Can your team run their own quick tests, or do they need consultants to facilitate every session? If they can’t experiment without external support, the capability hasn’t transferred.

If you’re seeing patterns that worry you, you’re not alone. Most innovation initiatives fail because they’re designed as performance, not practice.

The good news? Small, systematic experiments—the kind that feel like creative play but function like business strategy—can shift this fast.

Your Innovation Toolkit Awaits

Want to move from innovation theater to innovation practice?

My new book, Innovation at Work: 52 Micro-Experiments for Brave Leaders Who Want to Unstick Teams, Spark Ideas, and Build What’s Next (coming early 2026), gives you the complete playbook.

Inside, you’ll find:

• 52 micro-experiments you can run in 5-20 minutes during regular meetings
• Crisis protocols for teams stuck RIGHT NOW
• Strategic implementation guides showing exactly how to embed innovation practice into your workflow
• Remote and in-person adaptations for every experiment

Get a free preview with sample experiments at innovationatworkbook.com/preview and discover the specific tools that can transform your team from performing innovation to actually doing it.

For event planners: Tired of innovation keynotes that inspire for 60 minutes then fade? My sessions give your attendees tools they’ll use the next day—and your leadership team will see the difference in weeks, not months. That’s the kind of ROI that makes you look brilliant for booking the speaker.

For leaders ready for comprehensive transformation: If you’re a Director, VP, or Chief Innovation Officer who knows your team needs more than a book—you need strategic partnership to diagnose what’s really happening and design the right intervention—let’s talk.

Book a complimentary Innovation Strategy Session where we’ll dig into your specific challenges and explore whether systematic micro-experiments, a strategic immersive program, or a combination makes sense for your team.

Because here’s what I learned from those 15-minute art sessions and what those Facebook research teams discovered: transformation doesn’t require massive organizational change.

It requires permission to play, tools to experiment, and systematic daily practice.

Your team already has the creative capacity. They just need the structure to access it.

And the choice is yours: continue the theater, or start the practice.

Next week: “Why Technical Teams Innovate Better Than ‘Creative Types’ (When Given the Right Framework)” — Think analytical minds can’t be creative? Turns out, technical professionals have a hidden advantage when it comes to innovation—they just need the right container. I’ll show you why your engineers might be your secret innovation weapon.

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 research on organizational change, feedback from workshop participants, and designing the systematic framework in Innovation at Work, the most successful transformations don’t require dedicated “innovation time” or elaborate offsite retreats.

They happen through systematic integration—small experiments embedded into the work teams are already doing.

Let me show you the 90-day framework I’ve designed specifically for this challenge.

Why 90 Days?

First, why this specific timeframe?

Research on habit formation shows that meaningful behavioral change requires sustained practice over 8-12 weeks. Studies on organizational change suggest this is the minimum timeframe for new behaviors to feel natural rather than forced.

But here’s what most transformation programs miss: You can’t wait 90 days to see results.

Leaders need early wins to maintain commitment. Teams need quick proof that change is possible. Executives need visible progress to justify continued investment.

That’s why this framework is designed for immediate impact that compounds over time.

The Three-Phase Transformation Model

Here’s the strategic structure I’ve designed:

Phase 1: Foundation Building (Weeks 1-4)
Build psychological safety and permission to experiment

Phase 2: Capability Building (Weeks 5-8)
Accelerate learning cycles and generate breakthrough thinking

Phase 3: Culture Embedding (Weeks 9-12)
Make innovation behaviors automatic, not optional

Notice what’s NOT in this model: No “pause operations for training.” No “dedicate resources to innovation projects.” No “wait for perfect conditions.”

Instead, experiments integrate into existing meetings, workflows, and processes.

Phase 1: Foundation Building (Weeks 1-4)

The biggest barrier to innovation isn’t lack of ideas—it’s perfectionism that prevents sharing imperfect ideas.

Week 1: Remove the Perfection Barrier

Start your next team meeting with Experiment #1 (Crappy First Draft Showcase)—15 minutes where everyone creates deliberately terrible solutions to a current challenge.

The principle is simple: When “crap” is the goal, people share ideas they’d normally self-censor. I saw this dynamic at work when I ran playful, experimental exercises with 125 project managers at PMI San Francisco Bay Area. As one attendee wrote: “I could see the breakthroughs happening—it was ELECTRIC!”

Week 2: Normalize Productive Failure

Integrate Experiment #50 (Celebrate the Attempt) into your retrospectives—5 minutes acknowledging bold experiments regardless of outcome.

This isn’t “participation trophies.” It’s rewiring what teams pay attention to. When attempts get celebrated as much as successes, experimentation increases.

Week 3: Build Cross-Functional Empathy

Run Experiment #11 (Switch Seats, Switch Minds) during project discussions—15 minutes where team members literally argue from another role’s perspective.

This systematically breaks down the silos that kill cross-functional innovation.

Week 4: Establish Permission Structures

Use Experiment #13 (Permission Slip Protocol) to explicitly grant permission for experimental behaviors—10 minutes identifying what the team needs permission to do.

Most teams know what they should do differently but wait for explicit permission. This experiment makes it explicit.

What research and participant feedback suggest happens by Week 4:

• Increased idea-sharing in meetings
• Reduced meeting time spent on “perfect” analysis before trying anything
• Visible improvement in cross-functional communication
• Explicit permission structures replacing implicit cultural barriers

Phase 2: Capability Building (Weeks 5-8)

Now that psychological safety exists, teams can practice harder skills.

Week 5: Stress-Test Assumptions

Integrate Experiment #23 (Inversion Day) into product reviews—15 minutes asking “How would we make this fail spectacularly?”

This reveals blind spots traditional analysis misses.

Week 6: Accelerate Prototype Speed

Run Experiment #18 (Ugly Prototype Sprint) during design discussions—20 minutes building deliberately rough prototypes that test core assumptions.

The “ugly” requirement eliminates polish pressure and accelerates testing cycles.

Week 7: Inject Fresh Perspectives

Use Experiment #51 (Trade a Problem) when teams are stuck—12 minutes solving each other’s challenges.

We’re emotionally attached to our own problems. Solving someone else’s creates psychological distance that unlocks breakthrough thinking.

Week 8: Right-Size Overwhelming Projects

Apply Experiment #32 (Make It Smaller) to complex initiatives—15 minutes identifying the smallest version that delivers value.

This experiment helps teams discover they’ve been overbuilding.

What the framework is designed to create by Week 8:

• Faster iteration cycles
• Better early detection of flawed assumptions
• Increased willingness to test “incomplete” ideas
• Systematic approach to managing overwhelming scope

Phase 3: Culture Embedding (Weeks 9-12)

Final phase makes innovation behaviors automatic.

Week 9: Build Systematic Reflection

Establish Experiment #28 (Emoji Retrospective) as standard practice—10 minutes using simple visual language to accelerate honest feedback.

Week 10: Create Innovation Rituals

Use Experiment #45 (Interrupt the Routine) to deliberately break patterns—5-minute setup establishing regular pattern disruptions.

Week 11: Connect to Purpose

Run Experiment #40 (Invisible Impact Map) to connect daily work to larger mission—20 minutes making abstract purpose tangible.

Week 12: Plan Systematic Capability Development

Close with Experiment #52 (Innovation Time Travel)—15 minutes planning next month’s capability-building experiment.

This establishes ongoing practice rather than “we did innovation transformation, now we’re done.”

What the framework is designed to create by Week 12:

• Innovation behaviors that feel natural, not forced
• Teams automatically applying experimental thinking to new challenges
• Cross-functional collaboration happening without facilitation
• Systematic approach to building innovation muscle over time

The Integration Principle

Notice what makes this framework work: No experiment requires stopping operations.

They integrate into:

• Sprint planning sessions
• Daily standups
• Project reviews
• Retrospectives
• Product discussions

Your team is already in these meetings. This framework just changes how they approach them.

What I’ve Seen Work

When I work with teams using playful, experimental approaches—even in short sessions—I see immediate shifts.

At PMI San Francisco Bay Area Chapter’s Professional Development Day last month, I ran interactive exercises with 125 project managers. Leaders told me afterward that participants were already planning to bring experimental thinking into their team meetings the following week. One participant shared that after our session, “it was much easier to connect with people for the rest of the day.”

That immediate shift—from a single 45-minute session—showed me the power of removing perfection barriers and creating permission to experiment.

But here’s the critical difference: One session creates a shift. Systematic practice over 90 days creates transformation.

The experiments in Innovation at Work are designed specifically for that systematic practice—so teams can experience similar shifts in Week 1, then compound them through consistent practice over 12 weeks.

The Implementation Reality

Let me be completely honest: I’ve designed this 90-day framework based on research on organizational change, participant feedback, and systematic practice principles.

I haven’t yet guided an organization through the complete 90-day journey—but the framework is built on proven principles and real participant experiences with individual experiments.

The most successful transformation would combine:

1. The book = Your systematic practice guide (52 experiments)
2. Strategic workshops = Intensive skill-building at key milestones
3. Leadership coaching = Navigate resistance and embed cultural change
4. Ongoing facilitation = Ensure experiments get implemented, not just discussed

This is the comprehensive engagement model I’m building—and I’m looking for organizations ready to be early partners in proving this approach works at scale.

Your Next Step

If you’re serious about building innovation capability—not just getting inspired by innovation concepts—here’s what I recommend:

Start with the book to get the systematic practice framework and 52 experiments your team can integrate immediately.

For organizations ready to partner on comprehensive transformation, let’s explore what a 90-day strategic engagement could look like for your specific challenges.

Ready to build lasting innovation capability? Join the book waitlist to get the 90-day systematic practice framework.

Next week, I’m tackling the question: “Your background is arts and creativity—how does that translate to our technical business?” Spoiler: It’s your secret weapon, not a liability.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FOR EARLY SUPPORTERS

Want to read Innovation at Work before it launches?

I’m looking for a small group of innovation champions to join my book launch team. You’ll get:

✨ Early access to the complete book (November 24-25)
📖 Exclusive bonus materials not available anywhere else
🎯 First look at all 52 micro-experiments before the world sees them

Your part: Read (or skim the relevant parts), write an honest review, and post it on Amazon December 15-16. That’s it.

The timeline:

• November 24-25: Your advance reader copy arrives
• December 12: Submit your review via simple Google Form
• December 15-16: Copy/paste to Amazon (I’ll format it for you)
• January 7, 2026: Official launch day 🎉

Want in? Join the Launch Team here

Bonus: Want to be a beta reader and give feedback on the manuscript THIS WEEK before I finalize it? Just reply “beta reader” and I’ll send you a PDF today.

Now, on to this week’s topic…

Hey there, innovation champions!

“We’ve tried innovation workshops before. They didn’t stick.”

I hear some version of this regularly from tech leaders. The details vary—sometimes it was a design thinking workshop, sometimes creative problem-solving training, sometimes a consultant brought in for team development.

But the pattern is always the same: Great energy during the session. Then… nothing changes.

Here’s what I’ve learned watching teams after these experiences: The training wasn’t the problem. The follow-through was.

The Post-Training Energy Fade

Let me paint a picture you’ve probably lived:

Your team completes an energizing training session. Maybe it’s design thinking, maybe it’s creative leadership, maybe it’s innovation methodology. Everyone’s pumped. They learned new frameworks. Practiced new techniques. Left with fresh insights.

Monday morning arrives.

Inbox: 127 unread emails.
Slack: 43 notifications.
Calendar: Back-to-back meetings.

By Friday, those new behaviors? Buried under the avalanche of business-as-usual.

This isn’t a failure of the training content. It’s what I call the implementation gap—the chasm between learning something and actually doing it consistently.

What I See When Teams Come Back

When I work with teams at companies like Google, Meta, and Salesforce, I’m often not the first person they’ve brought in for innovation work.

Many have been through excellent training programs. They know frameworks. They understand concepts. They can explain the theory.

But when I ask “What are you actually DOING differently?” the room gets quiet.

The gap isn’t knowledge. It’s practice.

Think about learning any skill—speaking a new language, playing an instrument, getting fit. You can attend the best weekend intensive course available. You can learn perfect technique. You can understand all the theory.

But without daily practice, nothing sticks.

The Implementation Bridge

This is exactly where micro-experiments come in—not as better training, but as the practice system that makes any training stick.

Here’s what this looks like in reality:

After teams learn about user-centered thinking in ANY training program, they can practice:

• Experiment #11 (Switch Seats, Switch Minds) in weekly meetings—15 minutes role-playing different perspectives
• Experiment #42 (Customer Safari) during sprint planning—observing users in their natural environment

After learning about rapid prototyping in ANY workshop, they can practice:

• Experiment #18 (Ugly Prototype Sprint) during product discussions—20 minutes building deliberately rough versions
• Experiment #1 (Crappy First Draft Showcase) in team sessions—15 minutes creating terrible first attempts without judgment

See the difference? Instead of waiting for another training session or trying to remember what they learned months ago, teams practice the principles in bite-sized experiments embedded into their existing meetings.

Why This Works: Daily Practice Beats Periodic Training

When I worked with 125 project managers at PMI San Francisco Bay Area, we didn’t have days for training. We had 45 minutes.

But here’s what happened: The experiments we ran were designed to be repeatable. Group leaders told me afterward they were going to run variations in their own team meetings the following week.

Why? Because the experiments were:

• Short enough to fit into existing meetings
• Simple enough to run without special facilitation
• Practical enough to address real current challenges

One attendee told me it became much easier to connect with people for the rest of the day after our session. That’s the power of practice—it creates immediate, felt change.

Emmanuel Hyppolite, who was there, put it this way: “She shared real tools and models (not just buzzwords) that participants could apply immediately.”

The key word: immediately. And then repeatedly.

The Real Success Pattern

I’ve seen teams transform their innovation capability, and it’s never from one big training event. It’s from systematic practice over time.

The most successful pattern I observe:

Learn the framework (from whatever training source makes sense)
+
Practice daily (through micro-experiments in existing meetings)
+
Get support (coaching/facilitation to ensure implementation)
=
Lasting capability change

Remove any of these three elements, and transformation stalls.

Training without practice = concepts that fade.
Practice without frameworks = random activity without direction.
Both without support = good intentions that die under operational pressure.

What This Means for Your Team

If you’ve invested in innovation training that didn’t create lasting change, here’s the good news: The learning wasn’t wasted. You just need the practice system.

Innovation at Work provides exactly that—52 micro-experiments that help teams practice the innovation behaviors they learned (or need to learn) through daily integration into existing workflows.

Think of it as:

• Training = Learn the concepts
• The book = Practice the behaviors systematically
• Ongoing support = Make sure it actually happens

The most successful transformations combine all three.

The Honest Truth About Implementation

Let me be direct: Most teams can’t create lasting innovation capability from a book alone.

Books provide the practice framework. But comprehensive transformation—the kind that fundamentally changes how teams operate—requires more:

• Strategic workshops at key milestones to build intensive skills
• Leadership coaching to navigate resistance and cultural barriers
• Team facilitation to ensure experiments get implemented, not just discussed

It’s like fitness training: You need the workout plan (the book), intensive training sessions (workshops), and accountability that ensures you actually do it (coaching).

But here’s what’s different: You don’t need to start with everything.

Start with systematic practice. See what changes. Then bring in strategic support where it creates most value.

Your Next Step

If past innovation training didn’t stick, you now know why—and how to fix it.

The gap isn’t better training. It’s systematic practice that makes training stick.

Ready to bridge that gap? Join the book waitlist to get the 52 experiments that turn any innovation training into daily capability.

Next week, I’m tackling the question: “Your background is arts and creativity—how does that translate to our technical business?” Spoiler: It’s exactly why I can help analytical teams innovate.

Quick note: No video this week, as I’m head-down working on my second book, Innovation at Work. I’ve cleared my calendar to devote every spare minute to book production, which meant making some hard choices! 

Watch for videos to return in a few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s article! 

Hey there, innovation champions!

I need to tell you about something that happened two weeks ago that completely validates what I’ve suspected for years.

I was standing in front of 125 project managers at the PMI San Francisco Bay Area Chapter’s Professional Development Day. These are people who live and breathe Gantt charts, risk registers, and dependency matrices. The exact opposite of what most people imagine when they think “creative.”

And I was about to ask them to do something that would make most executives uncomfortable: play improv games with strangers.

Here’s what happened next—and why it matters for every tech leader who thinks their analytical team “just isn’t creative enough.”

The Stereotype That’s Costing You Millions

Let me guess: When you think about innovation in your organization, you picture the product team brainstorming on whiteboards. The design team sketching wild concepts. Maybe the engineering team experimenting with new architectures.

But the project managers? The analysts? The people managing timelines and dependencies?

They’re “not the creative types.”

This assumption is costing you breakthroughs.

Here’s what I’ve learned working with teams at Google, Meta, Salesforce, and now PMI: Analytical minds don’t just can innovate—they often innovate better than so-called “creative types.”

Why? Because they already have the discipline, structure, and pattern-recognition skills that turn wild ideas into implemented reality.

What Happened When 125 “Non-Creative” People Played

Back to that room full of project managers.

I started with three simple phrases, asking them to repeat after me:

Be Playful.
Be Imperfect.
Be Curious.

Then we dove into three micro-experiments designed specifically for analytical thinkers.

Round One: The One-Word Story

In groups of three, participants told stories one word at a time. No planning, no editing—just keep it moving.

Then came the twist: one person became the “AI voice,” throwing in random, unexpected words to derail the story.

Chaos ensued. Stories collapsed and recovered, collapsed and recovered.

But here’s what these analytical professionals noticed immediately: When they treated surprises as obstacles, stories died. When they treated them as prompts, stories expanded.

That’s the exact skill needed to thrive with AI, shifting requirements, and uncertain markets.

Round Two: Imaginary AI Tools

I divided the room into thirds. Each section pretended they had an ordinary object—a paperclip, a shoe, or an umbrella—that had been magically transformed into a super-powered AI assistant for project managers.

Their task: Imagine 3-5 creative ways this “AI-object” could make their work easier.

Ideas ranged from playful to profound:

• Paperclips that held stakeholders together
• Shoes that helped people walk in each other’s shoes
• Umbrellas that shielded teams from scope creep

What looked like silliness was actually structured lateral thinking—a fast way to practice adaptive creativity without the pressure of “being creative.”

Round Three: Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament

We closed with a giant tournament with a twist: each time someone lost, they instantly became their opponent’s biggest cheerleader.

Soon, 125 analytical professionals were jumping, laughing, and cheering like they were at a championship game.

The debrief question: “Which felt easier—being the competitor or the cheerleader?”

Vast majority: “Cheerleader.”

That moment revealed something critical: in complex, fast-changing environments, collaboration beats competition every time—even for people trained to focus on individual performance metrics.

The Feedback That Proves Everything

Remember, these were project managers. People who manage risk for a living. People who are trained to spot problems, not possibilities.

Here’s what they said afterward:

“Melissa bridges the analytical and the imaginative worlds, helping leaders not only tolerate but thrive in uncertainty and disruption. Her presentation was engaging, playful, and thought-provoking… and she shared real tools and models (not just buzzwords) that participants could apply immediately.” — Emmanuel Hyppolite, CAPM, MBA

“She made creativity feel accessible, even for those who don’t think of themselves as creative.” — Multiple attendees

“It was much easier to connect with people for the rest of the day.” — Session participant

And my personal favorite:

“I could see the breakthroughs happening—it was ELECTRIC!” — Marie Spark, attendee

Why Analytical Minds Excel at Innovation

Here’s the truth most people miss: Innovation isn’t about being “creative.” It’s about systematic experimentation.

And guess who’s already really good at systematic approaches? Your analytical team members.

They already know how to:

• Break big problems into manageable chunks
• Test hypotheses methodically
• Learn from data and iterate quickly
• Spot patterns others miss
• Manage constraints creatively

The only thing holding them back? The belief that they’re “not creative.”

My Create the Impossible™ framework—Play Hard, Make Crap, Learn Fast—gives analytical minds permission to apply their natural strengths to creative challenges.

Play Hard = Structured experimentation (they already do this with A/B testing)
Make Crap = Rapid prototyping (they already understand MVP thinking)
Learn Fast = Iterative improvement (they already practice continuous improvement)

See? They’re already doing innovation. They just don’t call it that.

The Real Barrier Isn’t Ability—It’s Permission

Those 125 project managers didn’t need creativity training. They needed permission to experiment without perfection.

That’s exactly what those three micro-experiments gave them—a safe space to try, fail, laugh, and discover that they were more creative than they thought.

And that’s what Innovation at Work is designed to do: give your analytical team members systematic experiments that prove to themselves they CAN innovate.

No personality transplant required.

What This Means for Your Team

If you’ve been waiting for your analytical team members to “become more creative,” you’re solving the wrong problem.

They don’t need to change who they are. They need:

1. Permission to experiment without being perfect
2. Structured frameworks that leverage their analytical strengths
3. Repeated practice that builds innovation muscle memory

That’s why Innovation at Work contains 52 micro-experiments specifically designed for analytical minds—short, structured, repeatable exercises that build innovation capability systematically.

Because the breakthrough isn’t turning your project managers into “creative types.”

It’s unleashing the innovation potential they already have.

Ready to prove it to your team? Join the book waitlist to get early access to the 52 experiments designed specifically for analytical innovators.

Next week, I’m tackling the question I get most often: “How is this different from design thinking?”  Spoiler: It’s not either/or—micro-experiments are what make multi-day workshops actually stick.