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Hey there, innovation champions!
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This past week, I had the incredible opportunity to step inside what might be the most effective innovation lab I've ever witnessed.
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No, I wasn't at Google's X Lab or Meta's Reality Labs. I wasn't surrounded by cutting-edge technology or million-dollar prototypes.
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I was sitting in a theater.
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Specifically, I was at Theatreworks' New Works Festival here in Silicon Valley—an annual showcase where playwrights test their works-in-progress with live audiences over the course of a week and a half. And what I witnessed there taught me more about real innovation than many corporate innovation sessions you may have attended.
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Picture this: A bare stage. Just chairs, microphones, and music stands. No sets, no costumes—just phenomenal actors with scripts they'd received that very day, performing after maybe four rehearsals total.
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Before each show, the audience was prepared: "The cast just got these scripts today. They've had minimal rehearsal time. If they restart a song or stumble, give them grace. This is all about the process."
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And here's the kicker—QR codes in every program led to custom feedback forms with three specific questions for each play. Not generic surveys. Targeted questions crafted by the artists themselves to get exactly the feedback they needed to improve.
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The Innovation Magic in Action

What happened next was pure innovation theater. Between the first and second performances, audiences watched plays transform in real-time:

• Ten minutes trimmed from one show based on pacing feedback
• The sound of bells—mentioned in opening dialogue—brought to life by the cast's voices in another production
• Even a typo in the festival program materials was woven into the actual dialogue of one play, creating one of the biggest laughs of the night

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This wasn't just creativity—this was systematic innovation using the exact principles that drive breakthrough thinking in tech. And it maps perfectly to my Create the Impossible™ framework.
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Play Hard: Embracing Experimentation with Joy

The first principle of Create the Impossible™ is Play Hard—and these theater artists were masters of it. They approached their work with the kind of fearless experimentation that most tech teams only dream of.
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Think about it: These performers were willing to get on stage with minimal preparation, knowing they might stumble, restart, or completely bomb a scene. But instead of paralysis, there was excitement. They were playing at the highest level, treating each performance as an adventure rather than a test.
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How often do we see that attitude in corporate innovation labs? Usually, teams are so focused on looking professional and avoiding mistakes that they never truly experiment. They create "safe" prototypes that won't embarrass anyone—and consequently, won't surprise anyone either.
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The theater artists reminded me that real innovation requires us to get comfortable with public imperfection. Their willingness to "fail" in front of an audience is exactly the mindset that leads to breakthrough discoveries.
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Make Crap: The Power of Productive Imperfection

The second principle, Make Crap, was beautifully demonstrated in the festival's entire structure. These weren't polished, final productions—they were intentionally rough drafts brought to life.
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The audience was explicitly told these were works-in-progress. Everyone understood they were witnessing creative "crap" in the best possible sense—early iterations that needed refinement but contained the seeds of something extraordinary.
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This is where most innovation initiatives fail. We wait until our ideas are "good enough" to show anyone. We polish and perfect in isolation instead of getting feedback early when it can actually shape the direction of our work.
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The playwrights understood something crucial: you can't know if a joke will land, if a song will move people, or if a plot twist will surprise audiences until you put it in front of real people. No amount of theoretical analysis can replace that lived feedback.
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In tech terms, they were running the ultimate minimum viable product tests, gathering user feedback, and iterating rapidly based on real data rather than assumptions.
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Learn Fast: Systematic Feedback for Rapid Improvement

The third principle, Learn Fast, was perhaps the most sophisticated element of the entire festival. This wasn't random feedback collection—it was strategic, targeted learning designed for maximum impact.
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Each play had exactly three questions. Not ten, not twenty—three. The questions were different for each production and crafted specifically to gather the insights that particular piece needed most. And here's the brilliant part: the artists would see every piece of feedback, so respondents were coached to be constructive and kind.
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This approach solved one of the biggest challenges in corporate innovation: feedback overload and irrelevance. Instead of drowning in generic survey responses, the artists got precisely the information they needed to make meaningful improvements between performances.
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The learning cycles were incredibly tight—sometimes less than 48 hours between performances. Changes were implemented immediately, tested with the next audience, and refined again if needed. This is the kind of rapid iteration that separates truly innovative organizations from those that just talk about innovation.
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The Secret Ingredient: Psychological Safety

What made all of this possible wasn't just the framework—it was the environment. The festival had created what psychologist Amy Edmondson calls "psychological safety" at the highest level.
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Audiences were primed to be supportive. Mistakes were normalized. The focus was entirely on learning and improvement rather than judgment or evaluation. Everyone—artists and audience members—understood they were participating in a collaborative creative process.
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This is the missing piece in most corporate innovation efforts. We talk about wanting breakthrough ideas, but we create environments where people are afraid to truly experiment. We say we want innovation, but we punish the "failures" that are essential to the creative process.
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Your Innovation Challenge

Here's what I want you to try this week: Pick one project or challenge your team is working on and run it through the theater innovation model.
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First, Play Hard: What would you attempt if you knew it was okay to "restart the song" if things went wrong? What experiment would you run if failure was expected and celebrated rather than feared?
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Second, Make Crap: Instead of waiting until your idea is polished, share the roughest possible version with a real user or stakeholder. Be explicit that this is a work-in-progress and you're seeking specific feedback.
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Finally, Learn Fast: Don't ask for general feedback. Craft 2-3 specific questions that will give you exactly the insights you need to improve. Make sure the person giving feedback knows their input will directly influence the next iteration.
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Most importantly, create the psychological safety that makes all of this possible. Let your team know that the goal isn't perfection—it's learning and rapid improvement.
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The theater artists reminded me that innovation isn't about having all the answers. It's about having the courage to ask questions in public, learn from the responses, and iterate rapidly based on what you discover.
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That's how you Create the Impossible™—not in isolation, but in collaboration with the very people you're trying to serve.
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Stay curious, stay experimental, and keep creating the impossible!
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I'd love to hear about your own innovation experiments. What would you test if you knew it was safe to "restart the song"? Hit reply and share your thoughts!
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Senior Leaders: Ready to create an innovation environment where your team feels safe to experiment boldly? Let's explore how to build the psychological safety and rapid feedback systems that drive breakthrough thinking. Book a complimentary Innovation Strategy Session—we'll design a custom approach that fits your organization's unique culture and challenges.​
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P.S. Next time you're near a theater offering works-in-progress, go! You'll witness innovation in its purest form—and probably enjoy some fantastic storytelling while you're learning.

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📚 Book Sneak Peek: Why Micro-Experiment Strategic Interventions Beat Day-Long Workshops

Quick question: When was the last time your team actually implemented something from a day-long innovation workshop?
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Right. That's why my book focuses on strategic interventions in the form of micro-experiments—52 of them, each designed to create breakthrough shifts in minutes, not months.
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This week I've been categorizing them into four strategic sections that tackle the innovation killers I see in every boardroom: teams stuck in perfectionism, departments working in silos, creative thinking that's all talk and no action, and "innovation theater" that feels good but changes nothing.
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Example: Instead of another lengthy process improvement meeting, try Strategic Intervention #49: "Change the Channel"—pick one part of your team's workflow and swap the communication method. Video instead of doc. Sketch instead of words. Walk instead of Zoom. Sounds simple, but it actually reveals hidden friction points and often unlocks better ways of working.

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These aren't feel-good activities—they're targeted solutions that address specific business problems and deliver measurable results.
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Want the full collection? Join the waitlist for early access plus behind-the-scenes insights on how these interventions work in real teams.
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Spoiler: Your inner perfectionist won’t like this 👀

What do Juilliard, corporate innovation, and doodling badly have in common? (Answer: me. 😂)
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I joined The Communicative Leader podcast to share how my winding journey—from dancer to artist to innovation strategist—taught me that the secret to creative leadership isn’t perfection. It’s play.
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The best part? When leaders model imperfection and playfulness, they create the psychological safety teams need to innovate boldly.
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🎧 Tune in here: Unlocking Creativity Through Communication​
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🎧 From Illumination to Innovation (literally!)

This just dropped: my conversation on the From Illumination to Innovation podcast is live today! 🎙️
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We talked about creativity scars (yes, they’re real), why “making crap” is a leadership skill, and how to use play to spark ideas when everything feels stuck. If you’ve ever thought “I’m not the creative type”—this one’s for you.
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Grab a cup of something warm and give it a listen here:

🎧 Listen on your favorite podcast platform​

📺 Watch on YouTube​

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📓✏️ Innovation Insight: Bodyguard Duty for Your Inner Four-Year-Old 🎨✨
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A few minutes, a blank page, and a pen. I like to say I let my inner four-year-old inhabit the tip of the pen, and I give her free rein.
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My job is to be her bodyguard when the inevitable gremlin voices pop up, telling me how terrible everything I'm doing is, that I should give up, that I'm not a "real" artist so why bother, and so on.
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This simple practice reminds me daily that innovation doesn't come from perfection—it comes from play. From giving ourselves permission to experiment, to make "bad" marks, to explore without judgment.

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Every line represents possibility. Every "mistake" is data. Every moment I silence that inner critic, I'm modeling what breakthrough thinking actually looks like.

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The same dynamic plays out in boardrooms everywhere. Teams full of brilliant people, paralyzed by the fear of looking foolish or proposing the "wrong" idea. But what if we all became bodyguards for each other's inner four-year-olds? What impossible things might become possible?
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👉 Want to help your team silence their inner critics and unleash breakthrough thinking? Book your complimentary Innovation Strategy Session and let's explore how to create psychological safety where innovation can flourish.

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That's it for this week!
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Creatively yours,
Melissa

​P.S. When you’re ready to build a culture of thriving innovation, so your team can Create the Impossible™, here are three ways I can help:

1) Download my FREE Innovation Culture Assessment to evaluate where your team stands

2) Download the first 50 pages of my book, The Creative Sandbox Way™, to reconnect with your creativity

3) Click here to schedule a complimentary Innovation Strategy Session

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