Why Some Teams Innovate, and Others Just Talk About It
- Mar 16
- 5 min read
Michelle Clarke is a global leadership coach and facilitator who works with individuals and teams navigating uncertainty. Her work explores how improvisation mindsets build trust, agility, and real collaboration when the script no longer applies.
A delegate in a recent group coaching session said something that stopped me for a moment. “We talk about innovation,” she said, “but we don’t really practice it.”
There was no frustration in her voice. Just resolve.
Her comment stayed with me because it captured something I often see in organizations. Innovation and adaptability appear in strategy documents, leadership conversations, and team objectives. People are encouraged to collaborate, think creatively, and bring new ideas forward. And yet, when you listen carefully to everyday interactions, something else is often happening.
Ideas are shared cautiously. Contributions are acknowledged but not always built upon. Someone offers a thought and the conversation moves on before it has a chance to grow. People hesitate before speaking, weighing whether what they have to say is fully formed or valuable enough to bring into the room.
If you have ever sat in a meeting where an idea briefly appears and then disappears without anyone building on it, you will recognize this pattern. The meeting continues. Work gets done. But the kind of collaboration that allows innovation to emerge is often missing.
Practicing innovation through applied improvisation
Over the years, in my team coaching work, I have found that one of the most effective ways to shift this pattern is through applied improvisation.
Applied improvisation takes the principles of improvisational theatre, listening closely, accepting what others contribute, and building on ideas in real time, and applies them to leadership, collaboration, and team development.
Rather than simply talking about these capabilities, teams practice them.
Alignment in Panama: A lesson in applied improv
Some time ago, I was working with a large team that had gathered in Panama City after a particularly demanding year. Budgets had been cut, pressures were high, and although people cared deeply about their work, the group had gradually slipped into operating in silos. Leadership wanted the team to reconnect and align around the work ahead.
We began with a simple applied improvisation exercise. I invited everyone to walk around the room and stop whenever I clapped my hands. The group managed that easily enough. Then I changed the instruction.
This time there would be no clap. The only way they could stop and start together was by paying attention to one another.
At first, the movement was hesitant. People slowed, waited, and looked around to see what others were doing. A few stopped early. Others kept walking. The timing was uneven, and the room felt slightly uncertain.
As is common in applied improvisation, we paused briefly to reflect on what we were noticing. What would it take for the group to move as one?
When we tried again, something shifted. People lifted their heads. Peripheral awareness sharpened. Instead of waiting for a signal, they began to watch each other more closely.
And then it happened. Without anyone leading, the entire group stopped at the same moment. The room erupted. People laughed, clapped, and congratulated one another. For a brief moment they had experienced something very tangible. Alignment that emerged not because someone instructed them to collaborate, but because they practiced paying attention and responding together.
Bring a brick, not a cathedral
In improvisation, we often remind participants to bring a brick, not a cathedral, a phrase often attributed to improvisation pioneer Keith Johnstone. No one is expected to arrive with a perfectly constructed idea. The invitation is simply to contribute something small that others can build upon.
We also encourage people to trust the process. When individuals listen closely, respond to what is offered, and keep contributing their own pieces, something larger begins to take shape.
When teams begin to treat ideas this way, as something to build with rather than something to judge too quickly, the interaction starts to move. Energy rises. Possibilities expand.
Moments like the one in Panama are simple, but they are powerful. Teams suddenly realize that collaboration and alignment are not qualities a group either has or does not have. They are patterns of interaction that can be practiced.
What happens when teams practice these skills
The exercise happened in person, but the principle applies just as strongly in virtual teams. Whether people are standing in the same room or meeting through a screen, the quality of collaboration depends on how individuals respond to one another moment by moment.
When teams deliberately practice listening, building on contributions, and adjusting in real time, something begins to shift. Participation widens. Ideas travel further before they are evaluated. Risk taking becomes easier because people trust that the group will help shape what comes next.
Repeatedly, I see teams shift from cautious participation to genuine collaboration simply because of the opportunity to practice these interaction patterns together.
In my team coaching work, it is not unusual to watch a group move from hesitant contributions to lively idea building within just a few sessions. The change is rarely about having better ideas. More often, it comes from creating the conditions where people feel able to offer something small and trust that the team will help shape what comes next.
Innovation is built one idea at a time
Innovation rarely begins with a perfect idea. More often, it begins when someone offers a small contribution and others help it grow.
In improvisation, we sometimes say that great scenes are built one offer at a time. The same is true in organizations. Innovation is rarely the result of one brilliant insight. More often, it emerges from what teams choose to do with each other’s ideas once they appear.
After many years working with applied improvisation, and now serving on the global board of the Applied Improvisation Network, the international professional community advancing the use of improvisation in business, education, and leadership, I continue to see how these simple practices transform the way teams interact.
Which raises a simple question. If innovation is something your organization values, when was the last time your team actually practiced the skills and behaviors that make innovation possible?
Let’s talk
If you are exploring fresh ways to develop real collaboration and innovation in your teams, I am happy to share how an applied improvisation team coaching journey is structured. Message me on LinkedIn and I will send you an outline you can use internally.
Read more from Michelle Clarke
Michelle Clarke, Global Leadership Coach & Facilitator
Global leadership Coach Michelle Clarke explores how individuals and teams learn to trust, adapt, and think together when certainty disappears. As a coach and facilitator living and working globally, she examines how improvisation mindsets build trust, agility, and real collaboration in a world that refuses to stand still. Her writing is for those who are done waiting for clarity and are learning to move without a script.
