Melissa Dinwiddie

Click to watch (10:30) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! Not long ago, I got on a call with a VP at a SaaS company. He hadn't reached out about a keynote. He'd reached out because his CEO had handed him a job with no map attached: make this company more innovative. The CEO wasn't wrong to want it. She's a natural innovator herself — the kind of leader who sees a problem and instinctively starts experimenting with it. And like a lot of natural innovators, she had a...

Click to watch (10:16) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! The Mandate Lands on a Tuesday Nobody hands you an innovation mandate with a start date that makes sense. It lands mid-quarter, in a meeting that was supposed to be about something else, usually as a single sentence: "We need your team to be more innovative." Then everyone moves on to the next agenda item, and you're left holding it. No budget line. No template. No week one. There's a predictable mistake that...

Click to watch (11:05) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! A year ago, I got a call from the then-president of the PMI San Francisco Bay Area Chapter. She wasn't calling about a keynote. She was calling because she'd been searching for a LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator, and my name had come up. Her chapter's Professional Development Day usually followed a familiar shape: keynote, breakouts, networking, a panel, a closing keynote. This year, she wanted to open the day...

Click to watch (09:27) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! For about fifteen years, I made my living as a professional calligrapher and ketubah artist — for the first half of that time specialized in hand-illuminating hand-illuminating Jewish marriage contracts for couples who wanted something one-of-a-kind. Every one of those projects came with a hard deadline. The wedding date doesn't move because the artist is "still finding the right concept." One couple wanted a...

Click to watch (08:41) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! Loud Enough for Earplugs I just spent four days in Austin at my third Influence — the National Speakers Association's annual conference. Eight hundred speakers in one hotel. An introvert's nightmare, honestly. The noise in the grand ballroom got so loud from overlapping conversations that I pulled out the concert earplugs I keep in my handbag for loud music venues — just so I could hear myself talk at my own...

Click to watch (08:41) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! Loud Enough for Earplugs I just spent four days in Austin at my third Influence — the National Speakers Association's annual conference. Eight hundred speakers in one hotel. An introvert's nightmare, honestly. The noise in the grand ballroom got so loud from overlapping conversations that I pulled out the concert earplugs I keep in my handbag for loud music venues — just so I could hear myself talk at my own...

Click to watch (11:42) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! What Four Strings Taught Me About Permission Last week I was at music camp, standing behind my upright bass, absolutely certain I was about to embarrass myself. I was there to take a Walking Bass class — the thing jazz bassists do that always looked like pure magic to me. I've been improvising as a singer for years, but without perfect pitch, I never really knew why what I was singing worked. I just sang what...

Click to watch (09:39) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! Last Saturday, my improv team took the stage for the seventh time in twelve weeks. Same ritual every time: we walk out with nothing. No script. No idea what the story is, who we're playing, or what song we're about to make up on the spot. I should hate this. I'm not a natural improviser. I'm a planner. I like scripts, and contingency plans for the scripts. If you've ever sat across from me in a strategy...

Click to watch (10:19) or scroll down to read more Hey there, innovation champions! In a few weeks, I'm heading to Austin for the National Speakers Association annual conference. As a member, I have access to recordings of every session. I could watch them from my couch in Mountain View, not disrupt my life, and save a few thousand dollars. I'm going anyway. Because the most valuable thing that happens at that conference won't be captured in any recording. It happens in the hallways. The...