Melissa Dinwiddie

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 programs. Here's what I've learned working with teams at Google, Meta, Salesforce, and most recently with 125 project...

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...

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...

Hey there, innovation champions! When I tell tech executives I'm a former Juilliard-trained dancer turned innovation strategist, I can practically see the mental math happening. They're wondering: Does creativity have an ROI? Can someone from the arts really understand our technical constraints? Where are the case studies proving this works in our world? Here's what they're missing while they're calculating: The capabilities that unlock breakthrough innovation aren't technical—they're human....

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FOR EARLY SUPPORTERS Want to read Innovation at Work before it hits the shelves? I'm looking for a small group of innovation champions to join my official book launch team — the inner circle helping bring Innovation at Work into the world. You'll get: ✨ Early access to the complete book (mid-January)📖 Exclusive bonus materials not available anywhere else🎯 First look at all 52 micro-experiments before the world sees them Your part is simple: Read (or skim the parts most...

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FOR EARLY SUPPORTERS Want to read Innovation at Work before it hits the shelves? I'm looking for a small group of innovation champions to join my official book launch team — the inner circle helping bring Innovation at Work into the world. You'll get: ✨ Early access to the complete book (mid-January)📖 Exclusive bonus materials not available anywhere else🎯 First look at all 52 micro-experiments before the world sees them Your part is simple: Read (or skim the parts most...

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:...

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:...

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...