Why your innovation workshop didn't stick (and what makes it last)

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

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Hey there, innovation champions!
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You've been there.
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Your team attends a dynamic innovation workshop. Everyone's energized. Stickynotes cover every wall. Ideas flow. People leave pumped up, talking about "game-changing breakthroughs."
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Two weeks later?
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Nothing has changed. Same meetings, same behaviors, same stuck projects.
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Sound familiar?
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Here's the uncomfortable truth I learned after watching countless companies invest in one-time innovation sessions: workshops create temporary inspiration, but they don't build lasting capability.
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The Workshop Trap

Last month, a VP of Product at a mid-sized tech company called me. She was frustrated.
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"We've done three different innovation workshops in the past year," she said. "Design thinking, brainstorming sessions, even brought in a consultant who had us build things with marshmallows and spaghetti. People loved them in the moment. But literally nothing changed afterward."
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She's not alone. This pattern repeats across the industry.
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The problem isn't the workshops themselves—it's treating innovation as an event instead of a practice.
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What the Research Actually Shows

Here's what we know about behavior change (and yes, innovation IS behavior change):
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One-time exposures don't rewire habits. You need repeated practice over time to build new neural pathways. (A recent study reveals how this operates in the brain.)
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Skills fade without reinforcement. Ebbinghaus's classic forgetting curve suggests that people can forget up to 90% of what they learn within a month without reinforcement, with the most rapid forgetting occurring within the first day or two. Whether those statistics are accurate is debatable, but the important principle is that rapid forgetting occurs unless active review or real-world application follows training.
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Context matters more than content. People revert to old patterns when they return to environments that reward old behaviors.
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Think about it: Would you expect one yoga class to make you flexible? One piano lesson to make you a musician? One workout to build strength?
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Of course not. So why do we expect one innovation workshop to transform how teams think?
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The Micro-Experiment Alternative

Here's what actually works: small, repeated experiments embedded into your team's existing rhythm.
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When I worked with the PMI San Francisco Bay Area Chapter earlier this month, I didn't run a day-long workshop. Instead, I designed three micro-experiments that took 45 minutes total—and got 125 project managers practicing new behaviors immediately.
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The feedback? "This made creativity feel accessible, even for those who don't think of themselves as creative." That's because they experienced the behavior shift firsthand, not just learned about it theoretically.
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But here's the key: those experiments were designed to be repeatable.
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The group leaders could (and shared that they were going to) run variations of those exercises in their own team meetings the following week. No special facilitation required. No elaborate setup. Just practice.
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The Book as Your Innovation System

This is exactly why I structured Innovation at Work around 52 micro-experiments, not 5 big workshops.
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Each experiment takes 5-20 minutes. Each targets a specific innovation barrier. And each is designed to be integrated into your existing team rhythm—weekly meetings, sprint retrospectives, project kickoffs.
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Example: After a workshop on breaking down silos—or even without one—try Experiment #11 (Switch Seats, Switch Minds) for 15 minutes in your next team meeting. Have people trade roles—they might literally sit in a different colleague's seat—and share one perspective that person might have on the current challenge.
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The engineer speaks like the user, the PM thinks like the designer, the marketer responds like the developer. Everyone stays in character for 10 minutes while discussing a current challenge.
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Simple? Yes. But when you do it weekly, you systematically build the muscle of perspective-taking—which is what actually breaks down silos.
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Building Capability, Not Just Inspiration

The real transformation happens when innovation becomes automatic—when your team doesn't need a special workshop to think creatively, they just do it naturally because they've practiced the behaviors hundreds of times.
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That's what systematic micro-experiments create: innovation capability, not innovation theater.
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My Create the Impossible™ framework—Play Hard, Make Crap, Learn Fast—isn't something you do once in a workshop. It's a practice you embed into how your team operates daily.
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The Path Forward

If you've invested in workshops that didn't stick, it's not your fault. The model itself is flawed.
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The solution isn't to stop doing innovation training—it's to make sure one-time events are backed by ongoing practice.
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That's what Innovation at Work gives you: a systematic way to build innovation capability through 52 short, repeatable experiments your team can integrate into their existing workflow.
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Whether you're reinforcing a powerful workshop experience or building capability from the ground up, consistent practice creates lasting change.
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Ready to move from inspiration to capability? Join the book waitlist to get early access to all 52 experiments, plus implementation guides for embedding them into your team's rhythm.

Next week, I'll share the case study of how 125 analytical project managers became comfortable with creative experimentation in 45 minutes—and why their analytical mindset was actually an advantage, not a barrier.
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For organizations ready for comprehensive innovation transformation—including keynote presentations, strategic workshops, leadership development programs, and long-term culture change initiatives—let's explore how to turn inspiration into lasting capability through expert guidance and systematic implementation: Contact Melissa

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What is your goal?
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Back when I was a professional artist and calligrapher, my goal was consistent excellence. Dare I say perfection.
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My goal was to please my clients and impress everyone who saw my work.
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Before that, though? I had a different goal: to explore. To play. To delight myself. To have fun.
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All of that got set aside—and all but forgotten—in the constant striving to impress, to achieve mastery, to make a living. It was exhausting. It was toxic to my relationship with creativity. It sucked the joy right out of it.
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This week I've been thinking about the difference between those two modes—and what it means for the teams I work with.
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When we optimize only for excellence and outcomes, we kill the curiosity and experimentation that lead to breakthrough ideas. We create cultures where people are afraid to try something that might not work. Where the fear of looking foolish stops exploration before it starts.
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Today when I make art, I don't focus on impressing anyone. I focus on play. Exploration. Following my curiosity. Delighting myself.
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And here's what I've learned: This is exactly the mindset that drives innovation in organizations.
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Your team doesn't need permission to be perfect. They need permission to explore, to experiment, to play with possibilities without the weight of judgment.
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The question isn't whether your team is capable of excellence—I'm sure they are. The question is: Are you creating space for the kind of curiosity-driven exploration that leads to ideas you can't predict in advance?
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Innovation doesn't come from playing it safe. It comes from leaders who understand that excellence and exploration aren't opposites—they're partners. The best teams I work with have learned to hold both: rigorous execution and playful experimentation.
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What goal are you optimizing for in your organization right now?
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Ready to help your team develop both innovation muscles? My forthcoming book Innovation at Work contains 52 micro-experiments designed to build exactly this balance. Join the early access list for behind-the-scenes insights and preview content.

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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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