Why Creativity Dies at Work, And How Leaders Can Bring It Back: Featuring Michael Lee

Everyone says they value innovation. Most organizations quietly suffocate it.  In this inaugural episode, Stephanie sits down with Michael Lee, creativity and innovation coach, speaker, and founder of the Innotivity Institute, to get underneath the buzzword and into what innovation actually is and why it's so hard to sustain.  Michael unpacks why the pressure to succeed at innovation is the very thing that kills it, why creativity, innovation, and adaptability are one continuous cycle rather than separate skills, and why the most important creative asset in any organization is something leaders are routinely conditioned to abandon: the ability to play.  They also get into the leadership behaviors that quietly block breakthrough thinking, the difference between a confident leader and a controlling one, and why a Hollywood actress from the 1940s may be the most underrated innovator in history.  A wide-ranging, energizing conversation for anyone who wants to think differently about what it means to build something new. GUEST BIO Michael Brian Lee is the world's only certified Master of Creativity and Innovation Coaching. He is also trained in six other coaching disciplines, as well as a Master NLP Practitioner, a Certified Coach Trainer, and an Adaptability Quotient (AQai) Professional.  He is a #1 best-selling author and has taken the TEDx stage twice. He writes a column on creativity for the Mail and Guardian of South Africa and has written for Forbes. He features on Radio 702 and other media outlets. Michael is also an International Advisory Board Member of World Creativity and Innovation and an Exco member of the Creative Community of Practice of the BIC Foundation. He has spoken at numerous creativity conferences and universities, the Global Speakers Summit, and the annual conventions of the Professional Speakers’ Association of Southern Africa and India.  His TV productions have won 5 South African Film and TV Awards (SAFTAs), and he was a Founding Editor of the renowned international literary magazine Trafika. He was recently named a top 50 thought leader in Creativity by Thinkers360. Learn more about Michael at www.michaelbrianlee.com Get his new book: https://worldinnovatorscup.com/  Chapters (00:00:00) - Introduction — Creativity, Innovation & Michael Lee(00:01:44) - Do Organizations Actually Value Innovation?(00:04:34) - Defining Innovation — And Why Most Companies Get It Wrong(00:06:06) - Creativity, Innovation & Adaptability as One Cycle(00:07:41) - The Pressure to Innovate — And What It Kills(00:09:06) - Change Leadership & Kotter's Theory of Urgency(00:12:56) - Creating Space for Breakthrough Ideas(00:14:08) - Psychological Safety & the Leader Who Gets in the Way(00:16:36) - Weak vs. Strong Leaders — Can They Change?(00:18:21) - Michael's New Book — World Innovators Cup(00:20:47) - Favorite Innovators: Nikola Tesla & Hedy Lamarr(00:24:50) - Innovation Is the Lifeblood of Business(00:25:35) - We're Born Innovators — Then We Forget How(00:27:53) - The Power of Play — Keeping Creative Genius Alive(00:29:19) - Building Creative Teams & Embracing Chaos Energy(00:32:34) - Final Takeaways & Where to Find Michael's Book