This book is alive now — and it needs your fingerprints on it

Quick update: Innovation at Work is live on Amazon — the Kindle edition is just $0.99 for a limited time. If last week's canvas-wrapped-in-plastic story resonated, the full book has 51 more experiments where that came from.
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👉 Get it on Amazon​
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Already grabbed a copy? An honest Amazon review — even two sentences — helps the book reach more leaders who need it during these early launch weeks.
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👉 Leave a review​
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Hey there, innovation champions!
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A few weeks ago, I wrote about why I was publishing a book of experiments before every single one had been tested with every possible team.
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The short version: because that's how innovation actually works. You don't wait for perfect conditions. You run the experiment and see what happens.
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Well, the experiment is officially live.
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Innovation at Work: 52 Micro-Experiments for Brave Leaders Who Want to Unstick Teams, Spark Ideas, and Build What's Next is now on Amazon, and I have to tell you — the moment I hit "publish," a very familiar voice showed up in my head.
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Is it ready? Is it good enough? What if people try Experiment #37 and it completely bombs?
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You know what I did with that voice? The same thing I teach teams to do: I thanked it for its concern, and I ran the experiment anyway.
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What Publishing Taught Me About Shipping

There's a saying I come back to constantly, which I think I first heard from author Patti Digh: "A book is never finished. It's only published."
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That idea has rewired how I think about creative work. There's a moment in every creative process where the work needs to leave your hands and meet the world. Not because you've solved everything, but because the world is where the real learning happens.
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As a professional artist, I know this feeling intimately. Every painting reaches a point where continuing to tinker will actually make it worse. The discipline isn't in perfecting — it's in letting go.
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Innovation at Work hit that point. It's curated, it's structured, it's grounded in real experience with real teams — and it's also, by design, not finished.
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Because finishing it is your job.
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Pick One Experiment. Run It. Tell Me What Happened.

This isn't false modesty. I've facilitated these kinds of experiments with teams at Google, Meta, Salesforce, PMI, NHRMA, and everywhere in between. But I've never run Experiment #14 with your engineering team at 3pm on a Thursday when everyone's burned out from sprint reviews. I've never tested Experiment #41 with your cross-functional group that has three people who haven't spoken to each other since the reorg.
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You have context I'll never have. And that context is where the real data lives.
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So here's what I'm asking — and I mean this as genuinely as I've ever meant anything in a newsletter:
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Pick one experiment. Run it. Then tell me what happened.
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I want to know three things:

1. What did you try?
2. What actually happened (not what you expected — what actually happened)?
3. What would you change?
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Hit reply. I read every single response. Your data makes the next edition of this book better for every team that picks it up after you.
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That's not a flaw in the book. That's the entire design of the book.

The Part Where I Ask For Your Help

Right now we're in what's called a "soft launch" — the Kindle edition is live, and the paperback drops March 10. These early weeks matter enormously, because early reviews are what help the book find its audience.
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If you've already grabbed a copy — thank you. Would you take two minutes and leave an honest review on Amazon? Even two or three sentences makes a real difference.
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👉 Leave a review on Amazon​
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If you haven't grabbed it yet, the Kindle edition is just $0.99 for a limited time:
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👉 Get Innovation at Work on Amazon​
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📖 The paperback launches March 10.
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And if you're already thinking, "I don't just want the book — I want to bring this to my whole team," let's talk. I work with analytical teams to build systematic innovation capabilities, often starting with a keynote or workshop that creates the kind of shift those 125 project managers experienced at PMI.
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👉 Book an Innovation Strategy Session
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Next week: What to do when your first experiment doesn't go the way you planned. (Hint: that's not failure. That's data.)

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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