Innovation Moments from the FEI Summit

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Staying Comfortable During the Uncomfortable Moments of Innovation

Under the theme, “Moments of Consequence,” FEI explored nuanced themes of the business of innovation, from moonshot ideas to mainstream product development. All Things Innovation was on hand, and gathered some comments on the conference.

“Three days at TMRE & FEI, and one theme kept coming up: insights teams are being asked for answers faster, but they still have to be answers leadership will trust. That’s the gap we’re here to close. AI trained only on real, human data, cited and inspectable, so speed doesn’t cost you credibility. Thank you to everyone who chatted, shared a challenge or pushed back on an idea. And thank you to the TMRE & FEI Informa Connect teams for a great week.” —Panoplai

“A promising idea can win a room and still lose momentum before anyone commits to it. I’m interested in what happens in that gap. How do leaders decide which ideas deserve backing, build the case for them, and keep teams moving when priorities compete? At FEI 2026 in Denver, I’m moderating ‘Why Great Ideas Die—and How Leaders Keep Them Alive.’” —Katie Trauth Taylor, CEO and Cofounder, Narratize

“NotedSource is out at the Front End of Innovation in Denver this week as a Bronze sponsor, and Day 1 delivered. Three talks stood out:

  • Jenny Gusba, VP of R&D Strategy at PepsiCo, on lowering the fear of failure so teams can take smarter risks earlier.
  • Marci Ruman, Global Innovation Strategist at Kimberly-Clark, gave an exhilarating talk on how to ‘hook on a feeling.’
  • Tammy Butterworth, Senior Director of R&D Operations at McCain, on betting on the right future when the data points you the wrong way.

All three came back to the same point: good innovation decisions depend on getting the right perspective into the room early. That’s the work we do every day, connecting R&D teams with the experts who can make that happen.” —Noted Source

“Challenging the status quo is where innovation starts. I had the opportunity to join an incredible group of innovation leaders at the Front End of Innovation (FEI) in Denver for a conversation on what it takes to drive meaningful innovation. We explored balancing risk with iconic brands, the evolving role of AI and synthetic data, navigating uncertainty, and knowing when to push an idea forward—or stop it sooner.

My biggest takeaway: Great innovation isn’t about chasing what’s new. It’s about protecting what makes a brand distinctive while being brave enough to challenge convention and unlock new growth.

A huge thank you to All Things Innovation and my fellow panelists Cordell Hardy, Michele Sandoval, and Eric Tayce for a great conversation. I left Denver energized and excited to keep challenging what’s possible.” —Bianca Goins, Director of Innovation, Diageo

“Really grateful and energized to have attended the FEI Summit in Denver this week! It was amazing to be surrounded by so many inspirational speakers, leaders, innovators, and product developers. I can’t wait to bring the learnings back to Cincinnati and to continue conversations with the brilliant people I met. Oh… taking swings and hanging in the dugout at Coors Field was pretty sweet too.” —Mike Thomas, CEO, Upstream 360

“Another whirlwind of a day split between TMRE, FEI26, and CMWorld! Really enjoyed the conversation Eric Tayce led with leaders from Cargill, John Haas, and Diageo on innovation strategy and portfolio management. It was a great reminder that the most innovative organizations aren’t just chasing what’s next, they’re creating space to push beyond the status quo while staying disciplined and aligned to business priorities.

And naturally, I loved the panel Mike Deinlein led with leaders from Clorox, Pinterest, Consumer Insights Group, and Amazon on future-proofing the insights function with foresight, agility, and (of course) the evolving role of AI.

The day wrapped up with Gabrielle Union , whose perspective on authenticity, values, and building a brand that genuinely reflects who you are was both inspiring and thought-provoking. Whether you’re serving customers, employees, or a broader community, there’s something powerful about brands staying true to their values while continuing to evolve.

Lots of great ideas to bring home around innovation, AI, and the connection between brand, authenticity, and impact. And now for Day 3!” —Megan Pokrywka, Marketing Director, Burke, Inc.

“How do you influence those around you? Part of what you need to do is bring confidence in the data you are bringing forward. Knowing your stakeholders, building that organizational empathy and helping build that body of evidence. Hearing from the consumer, or a combination of market and consumer data, knowing your audience and stakeholders brings confidence to your organization.” —Denise Nelson, Senior Director & Head of Research, The Garage Group

“A few takeaways from FEI Innovation Summit in Denver. Mike Thomas, CEO and owner of Upstream 360, took the stage to talk about breaking through the BS filter and what product communication needs to look like in a world of infinite noise. The challenge isn’t a lack of information. It’s getting people to notice, understand, and remember what actually matters. Mike shared a few principles we think about every day at Upstream 360:

  • 6 words. 3 seconds. Make the value clear before attention disappears.
  • Real. Proven. Magic. Product communication has to be credible enough to trust, proven enough to believe, and compelling enough to notice.

Because great product communication isn’t about adding more noise. It’s about making the right thing impossible to miss.

Thanks to the FEI team for having us. We had a great time and left with plenty of new ideas, conversations, and curiosity.” —UpStream 360

“Informa Connect hosted FEI and TMRE together this year—what an honor to go speak and share stories about the importance of asking the right questions of the right people, in order to innovate with impact! As ever I left with lots to think about—a different edge this year on maintaining our edge in the age of AI, how to be discerning, and above all curious! Great to see old friends and make some new connections too.” —Tammy Butterworth, Senior Director Global R&D Operational Excellence, McCain Foods

“Front End of Innovation recap: My favorite presentations of the conference are centered on a single theme: enabling our authentic selves to be present. I saw it in three presentations, which I’ll name as 1) Legos, 2) Poems, and 3) Minds.

1) The best was by Garret Westlake, who spoke about using the program Lego Serious Play as a tool for sharing ideas. It’s effective because by externalizing ideas as Lego builds, individuals share without the typical fear associated with a critique. You get all the engagement, but none (or at least a lot less) of the defensiveness.

It’s similar to the idea that underpins IFS (Internal Family Systems) therapy where the identification of ‘parts’ is used to disentangle our authentic selves from all the tools we’ve developed for coping with less-than-ideal circumstances. (If IFS sounds interesting, check out a really brilliant practitioner, Natalie Deering and her podcasts. Great stuff!)

Leading up to Garret’s talk, none of the people at my table had even made eye contact with me (and I was trying). Completely closed off. By the end we were best friends. I’ve not stopped thinking about the ideas Garret shared. It’s the simplicity that makes it so powerful! Really looking forward to bringing it into the innovation work I’m doing.” —Eric Tayce, Vice President, Innovation, Burke

“Yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting at the Front End of Innovation conference. I shared lessons I’ve learned from being a spoken word poet and how I apply them in change management as I lead AI initiatives in market research. Our central theme was that you have to understand people to move them. You have to be able to step into their shoes and connect with them before they will be open to change.

We didn’t just talk though. We got hands on and channeled our inner poets. People explored persona poems, where they wrote from the points of view from characters like Winnie the Pooh, Batman, and Belle. We also looked at the world through the eyes of people in our company who are experiencing a wide range of change initiatives. By the end of it, we had shifted from just focusing on our goals to asking, ‘If I were them, what would I need to experience to be open to change?’ Here’s to keeping life more human and nerdtastic!” —Andrew Embry, Sr. Director – Insights Innovation Capabilities, Customer Insights & Analytics, Eli Lilly and Company

“Your competition is bigger than you think. Erin Jacobs Mays and Betsy Pendergast had a full room at FEI yesterday, showing how to find growth beyond your category’s conventional boundaries. Three things we’re taking with us:

1. The question you ask decides the market you see.

“Which shampoo should I buy?” measures inside the shampoo frame. “How do I get healthier hair?” reveals the wider solution landscape. Before improving the instrument, decide which market you need to see.

2. Look at the market earlier.

Markets change shape before they settle. In 2021, 1 in 3 new RTD launches was a hard seltzer. By 2024, it was 1 in 9 (IWSR). The strategic window was before the market agreed on the template.

3. Adjacent and ownable are two different things.

Expand the landscape to find possibilities, then pressure-test consumer relevance, brand permission, right to win, feasibility and strategic role to decide which ones deserve action.

Thanks to Erin and Betsy for leading this insightful session! And we’re already getting ready to see Sarah Polansky and Tyler Monroe from Molson Coors Beverage Company this afternoon.” —Dig Insights

“When you are innovating, you should come up with a lot of proof of concepts because it keeps you emotionally neutral during the situation. It’s very easy to champion one idea but instead of championing one concept from start to finish, stay neutral. This helps you really stay focused on learning and understanding when it’s time to pivot. Really stay open and trust the journey, trust the insights… With innovation, try to be comfortable in the uncomfortable moments.” —Courtney Stacks, Director, The Garage Group

“FEI is making one thing clear: as ideas get easier to generate, knowing which ones to trust matters more. I spent yesterday moving between sessions and conversations with innovation leaders, and three ideas kept converging into the same uncomfortable question: how do you know what deserves to survive?

Jenny Gusba asked: “What if we could de-risk innovation by taking more risks?” Her point was not simply to test more. PepsiCo uses “killer questions” to work out what could break an idea early, then pushes it through competing or iterative proofs of concept. If nothing ever gets killed, you probably are not stretching far enough.

Chris Gurr put it more directly: “We don’t have an ideas problem, we have a selection problem.” If ideas are easier to create, choosing gets harder. Which ones actually deserve more time, money, and attention?

Tammy Butterworth challenged the evidence itself: “Tomorrow’s customers weren’t in today’s data.” Even good selection can fail if the evidence only tells you what people like today. Tomorrow’s winner might look strange in today’s research.

Three companies, three different conversations, but the same shift kept showing up. Generate more possibilities. Ask harder questions. Get better at killing weak ideas early. And be careful that today’s data does not rule out tomorrow’s opportunity. That feels like one of the defining innovation challenges of 2026.” —James Hantho, Principal, AI Innovation, Aucctus AI

Video: In this interview from the TMRE 2025 market research conference, Dr. Garret Westlake, Associate Vice Provost for Innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University, explains how LEGO Serious Play serves as a powerful framework for unlocking insights and driving innovation.

Cultural Diversity Doesn’t Drive Innovation, Unless You Let It

But unfortunately, many of those diversity goals start and end at the time of hire. These companies might be diversifying their ranks but fall short when leveraging that talent to innovate, develop and bring new products to market.

The question isn’t how many cultures are represented in your company. It’s how many of those perspectives make their way into your company’s decisions and actions.

Cultural diversity isn’t merely an HR responsibility. It’s an innovation architecture issue.

If you believe different perspectives produce better ideas, then you need an environment where those perspectives can come together and make an impact.

Diversity does more than enrich your work environment. It can drive innovation, improve decision-making, and increase customer satisfaction. But only if you let it.

From my experience at Macnica, I’ve seen that teams with different backgrounds and viewpoints can look at old problems in new ways and find creative answers that uniform groups miss. They challenge our normal habits and test old rules.

Homogeneous decision-making leads to mistakes and missed opportunities.

Applying Diversity

I’ve known the value of diversity from an early age. I grew up in Quebec, where Franco-Ontariens are considered a minority group. I also had the privilege of studying in an international business program that brought together students from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds. But it wasn’t until much later in my career that I learned about the importance of applying diversity.

As I was joining Macnica, I came across a custodian waiting to clean a train car at Japan’s Narita Express train station. The gentleman stood dutifully for 10 minutes, patiently waiting for the train that he would clean. He politely asked me not to enter until he was finished cleaning. When the train arrived, he gave it a courteous bow, diligently ensured the car was tidy, and then welcomed me onboard with a warm smile.

I was amazed by the pride this man took in his work and truly felt like a guest entering his home. I probably would not have fully appreciated his work ethic and discipline had I not experienced it in person.

Likewise, the value and potential of diversity cannot be fully appreciated if it’s not fully embraced and integrated within an organization’s complete operations. Otherwise, those experiences are confined to a location, building, or conference room and never fully reach and influence the company’s culture.

Cultural Diversity in Practice

In many ways, Macnica has opened my eyes to the connection between innovation and diversity. It’s a 50-year-old company that has grown from a distribution business in Japan to a $10 billion international company with 4,000 employees. Our employees are as diverse as our technology portfolio, which spans cyber security, AI, autonomous vehicles, engineering services, imaging, smart manufacturing, and robotics.

Macnica combines innovation with the traditional Japanese service-oriented approach to business that fosters and maintains traditional business relationships.

During my nearly four years with the company, I’ve learned how to convert cultural diversity into an operating advantage. I’ve learned there’s a difference between having diversity and using diversity.

A company can employ people from 20 countries and still have a culture in which everyone is expected to think, communicate and make decisions the same way. That’s demographic diversity, but it doesn’t necessarily create cognitive or cultural diversity in practice.

Seven Ways to Improve Innovation Through Diversity

To improve innovation through diversity, you must deliberately create mechanisms that allow different cultural perspectives to influence decisions. Here are seven ways to get there.

1. Enable Cultural Diversity to Influence

Your organization might be incredibly diverse from a 1,000-foot level. But what does it look like on the ground when it comes to making decisions? Does a diverse workforce run your projects and programs, or does the same group, region or demographic always call the shots? Cultural diversity farther down the organization doesn’t accomplish much if major decisions continue to be made by a culturally homogeneous leadership group.

2. Build Global Teams, Not Headquarters with Satellites

It’s not uncommon for global companies to make decisions as a group without input from the region charged with execution. That’s an important difference. Multinationals can unintentionally operate as a central organization that develops a strategy for regional employees to execute.

Instead, bring people from different markets into product development, strategy, and innovation before decisions are made. If you’re a global company, every product should be brought to market by a global team.

Introduce cultural diversity early in innovation, not as a validation exercise. Don’t develop something in the U.S. and then ask a Japanese, Brazilian or European team if it will work there. Bring those perspectives into the original problem definition. That’s the difference between localization and genuinely global innovation.

3. Embrace Cultural Friction

When you bring different cultures into the room, there will always be friction. And that’s okay. In fact – the more, the better. Friction uncovers issues before they become problems.

Different cultures approach hierarchy, risk, disagreement, consensus, customer relationships and even time differently. Those differences can make collaboration harder.

But eliminating that friction by forcing everyone into one corporate norm can diminish the value of diversity. Your objective shouldn’t be cultural harmony at all costs. Instead, strive for productive cultural friction.

4. Make Curiosity a Leadership Competency

Leaders of culturally diverse organizations should understand it’s okay to say, “I wouldn’t have thought about it that way.” Instead of viewing unfamiliar approaches as obstacles, they need to investigate why someone sees the problem differently. Likewise, global team members need to feel comfortable surfacing issues. No single country or region should ever fear headquarters. Encourage a culture of curiosity. And reward it.

5. Design Meetings so Every Culture Contributes

Some business cultures reward speaking quickly and forcefully. Others emphasize listening, reflection, consensus or deference to seniority. Put everyone in an American-style brainstorming session and you may inadvertently select an American-style solution instead of the best idea.

Written input before meetings, rotating facilitators and deliberate solicitation of viewpoints can change that.

6. Measure Diversity Outcomes

Instead of measuring only representation, look at how many product initiatives include multiple regions at inception. How many strategic teams have cross-cultural representation? How frequently do ideas originating outside headquarters become global initiatives? That’s much closer to measuring whether diversity is affecting innovation.

7. Remember Cultural Diversity Isn’t the Same for Everyone

It’s a common mistake to assume diversity means the same thing everywhere. It doesn’t.

In the U.S., diversity conversations often center on race, gender and ethnicity. In other countries, the focus may be on nationality, language, religion, socioeconomic backgrounds, indigenous communities, migration or regional differences.

Perceptions about inclusion, identity and representation can vary significantly from one culture to another. Resist the temptation to export a single definition of diversity from headquarters. Instead, listen to your local teams, understand the cultural dynamics of each market and recognize that fostering cultural diversity on a global scale sometimes means allowing different regions to define it.

Remember, being culturally diverse requires accepting culturally diverse definitions of diversity. And that can be difficult.

Taking A Different Perspective

With a company steeped in Japanese culture and tradition, I’ve learned to view business differently. While the traditional Silicon Valley approach centers around understanding technology and adding value, I’ve come to understand the importance of a Japanese service-oriented way of doing business. That’s an entirely different way of looking at business for many North American organizations.

Just like the custodian on the trainway, my colleagues and I are driven by the need to serve and align our services with our customers and partners. And we realize that can only happen when we allow cultural diversity to lead the way.

Natural Wiring: Creating Winning Product Teams

A graphic of 2 wired light bulbs, one is incorrect and one is green and correctly installed.

The key is not just hiring top talent with the right work ethic—it is more intrinsic, closer to a personality than a skill. There are four archetypes under what I’ll call a person’s “Natural Wiring”: the Idea Generator, the Problem Solver, the Doer, and the Implementer. Dr. Min Basadur discovered these archetypes while at P&G in the 1970’s and published his work in the 1980’s. My own observations come from building and leading real world product development teams over the past 12 years.

What to Look for When Evaluating a New Hire

When we hire for our innovation teams, there are three critical areas to evaluate:

  1. Character – A person’s value system, their personal standards, ethics and morals.
  2. Technical abilities – The items that show up on a person’s resume.
  3. Natural Wiring – A person’s natural bent towards how they work and what they find enjoyable.

Hiring should be based on someone’s character first, then technical abilities. Although a person’s technical abilities are important, character is paramount. Character is both how a person was raised and their personal choices for how they conduct themselves. Character shows up when a person works hard, is diligent, holds high standards for work quality, and takes ownership. Technical abilities are easy to observe and measure, while character is more difficult to observe. Character is difficult to train; technical ability can be trained, which is why focusing on character is most important.

Natural Wiring: The Overlooked Third Aspect

The third aspect that became apparent to me while building and leading teams is what I call a person’s Natural Wiring, their intrinsic behaviors for how they work and what they like to work on. We might refer to these as a person’s natural bent towards something, much like a person has certain hobbies that they enjoy.

The four archetypes for Natural Wiring are:

  1. Idea Generator
  2. Problem Solver
  3. Doer
  4. Implementer

The Four Archetypes for Natural Wiring

The Idea Generator has a superpower for coming up with new ideas. They are an idea factory. These are the trailblazers that come up with new solution pathways. They have original thinking and ideas. Their solution to problems is to come up with a brand-new solution versus refine the current solution. They thrive on the unknown and the excitement of what they might discover.

The Problem Solver is the person who harnesses the Idea Generator’s numerous ideas and turns those ideas into reality. They can wrangle complex topics, defining a pathway that translates newfound information into a viable product. They help refine the idea into a practical solution. Both the Idea Generator and Problem Solver work together like hand in glove. The Idea Generator helps the Problem Solver think through potential pathways for refining the solution, while the Problem Solver brainstorms the pitfalls and ideas for improving an existing idea.

The Doer is the person that goes into the lab and executes on the Idea Generator and Problem Solver’s ideas. The Doer usually is low profile, but their superpower is going through the details, thinking through the scenarios, developing a plan, and doing the deep data analysis. Often the Doers receive little credit because they did not come up with the original idea, but they were a critical piece in ensuring that the solution was viable. The Doer brings steadiness and demonstrates the viability of the Idea Generator’s and Problem Solver’s inventions.

The Implementer is the person overseeing the work, directing the outcome. This could be an engineering or technology manager, project manager, or any person that sees the big picture, guiding the team through. Like the Doer, the Implementer has a block-and-tackle mindset, they like to organize the complexities of the work, ensuring the goals and timelines are met. The Implementer knows the direction, the requirements, and ensures that the work aligns with the stated objectives.

What Happens When One Archetype is Missing?

When we pull any one of these archetypes out of the team there is an imbalance that favors the other archetypes. The Idea Generator on their own never launches a product. The Problem Solver optimizes the existing solution. The result is a subpar product, an overdue launch, or a product that lacks technical validation. The most successful teams that I’ve assembled have had a balance of skillsets. Just like in a play, there are main characters and supporting characters, and this is the case with product development teams. Not everyone needs to fit one of these archetypes, some people on your team will be supporting cast members, but they are just as important because they keep the innovation engine functioning as well.

In the next three columns, I will cover the relationship dynamics between each of these Natural Wiring aspects and my observations for how they work together. In column two, I will focus on the front-end innovators, the Idea Generator and Problem Solver. In the third column, I’ll focus on the Doers and Implementers. In the fourth column, I’ll address the team gaps and dynamics when all four are structured and synchronized.

Click here for more columns from Peter Schulz on All Things Innovation.

Blending Poetry and Change Management

A graphic of a quill pen in inkwell next to a parchment paper.

Embry explores the intersection of spoken word poetry and corporate change management, emphasizing the importance of empathy and understanding stakeholders’ perspectives to drive successful innovation. He also discusses common leadership blind spots, such as losing touch with frontline employees and over-relying on purely rational models rather than acknowledging human emotions during organizational shifts.

Stepping into Their Shoes

Your upcoming FEI Summit session is called, “Lessons in Change Management from a Spoken Word Poet Working in Corporate Innovation.” The innovation community, of course, grapples with a lot of uncertainty and the session is going to delve into empathy and this change management focus, which can be challenging for innovation executives. But you also add spoken word poetry to the mix and leverage that in change management.

“I joke with people all the time that I am a poetry spitting nerd that just happens to hang out in corporate America,” says Embry. “When they hear that, they ask how do those things go together and how does that fit with research and how does that fit with innovation? But there’s a lot of overlap. As a poet, I’m really trying to understand the audience and what they’re going through and the way that they’re viewing the world. Then I share a poem with them that influences them to understand, feel, and do something differently.”

Embry continues, “When I started working in corporate America, I realized it’s very similar but instead of having an audience we have stakeholders. It’s really trying to step into the shoes of our stakeholders, view things through their eyes, what are their questions, their thoughts, their fears, their concerns. If I could do that then I could create communications and interventions to get them to understand, feel, and do something. At the end of the day, the whole thesis of this entire session is understand people first and then you can move them.”

Reframing the Conversation

It’s fascinating to leverage spoken word poetry in this unique way. What do you find challenging from a poetic perspective when focusing on innovation processes and transformation. How do you turn these initiatives into successful ones? What do you feel is an example of a successful time you’ve used it?

“In my role, I’m responsible for leading all the AI initiatives across our market research organization, so all of our business units,” Embry relates. “I needed to introduce this AI tool to about 70, maybe 80 market researchers. Market researchers are a tough audience. Their entire job is asking questions and poking holes in things. I knew it would be tricky going into it. I’m probably two minutes, maybe three minutes into talking about this AI tool and the questions and the pushback start right away. There’s so much skepticism. Now normally what a lot of people would do is they would then allow that to become an argument and it would be, hey, let my rationale overcome your skepticism. It would be headbutting back and forth.”

He continues, “But I didn’t do that. I go back to this poetic, empathetic approach before I ever began talking to them, when I was preparing for this, and I really put myself in their shoes and I said if I was them and I’m a project owner and the world is asking me to move faster and I have all this pressure on me and AI swirling around, what are the questions and what are the thoughts, how am I going to be viewing the world? I knew that the skepticism would come. Instead of bumping up against it and being across from each other, I went and I stood beside them and I said you’re asking all the right questions. Right away, that lowers the defenses a little bit. I want to take this a step further. I understand my success and my job is getting us to leverage AI.”

“With that said, I never want you to blindly follow anything that I say or do. You are a market researcher, you are supposed to be objectively skeptical. That’s what I always want from you. You could see the wall coming down a little bit more. I said, let’s be honest for a minute. Qualitative research, can we all agree that that’s a great approach? Can we also agree it’s not the right tool for every situation? We know this isn’t the best tool for everything.”

“This is when I bridge over to AI,” adds Embry. “I say in the same vein, AI is not the answer for everything. This AI tool is not going to solve all of your problems. We’re going to talk about where it fits, and where it does not fit. I’m going to continue to encourage you to be objectively skeptical about these things. But the key is to be objective about it and not throw out the entire idea just because we have questions. By being able to put myself in their shoes, by being able to see the world from their eyes, by being able to write what that would look like and understand and anticipate their frustration, their questions, I was able to reframe that entire conversation and get people willing to embrace something quite a bit different than what they were used to.”

Understanding the Room

Let’s talk about some of your tactics and process. You’ll ask an innovation leader to write from someone else’s point of view, look from a different perspective. What do you find are the blind spots or the resistance points that you encounter?

“There are a few that come to mind,” Embry says. “The first one, and we need to be honest about this, is leaders may not always know the people doing the work. What I’ve experienced in my almost twenty-year career is that people move up the ladder, they lose touch with the folks on the front lines who are doing the work day in and day out. As you lose that touch, you lose that understanding of what they’re going through and what they’re doing. That’s the first blind spot. People assume that they understand and know more than they actually do.”

“That begins to take us over to this other potential area,” he says. “Oftentimes when we try to view the world from someone else’s point of view, we approach it as if that person is entirely rational, almost like a robot. And we say, well if I was in their position, here are the rational one, two, three things I would be thinking. But we know that humans are not rational. We are emotional creatures. Part of my encouragement is that we need to go deeper. It’s not just the surface level questions. It’s really to dive into the feelings. What are they afraid of? What are they nervous about? What are they super excited about? Let’s get into something a little bit rawer. If we can get people to get there then they can have a more honest assessment of what’s really going on and they can find a better way to connect with the person.”

A Different Paradigm Shift

When you have these innovation leaders going through these exercises, what’s one practice or mindset shift that you hope they take back to their teams?

“What it all boils down to is you really need to understand people to be able to move them. And so really spending the time to understand them, to look at the world through their eyes, that’s what this entire FEI session is all about,” Embry says.

How does this approach differ from traditional change management frameworks?

“In full transparency, the change management frameworks, they’re good ones. There are some really great frameworks out there,” Embry says. “In my experience, the breakdown happens when you go from ideal framework to execution. The mistake that we often make is as humans we get focused on our own goals, our own thoughts and it becomes all about how can I make you change? What do I want to achieve? My little pivot is to start from a different spot. Instead of saying what do I need to achieve, I step into their shoes. If I were them, what would I need to hear so I would understand, feel, and do something differently? That small pivot is a huge paradigm shift and will lead you to a different way of thinking every time.”

FEI Innovation Summit Spotlight: Bringing Empathy as a Practical Tool

The FEI: Innovation Summit will be held October 5-6, 2026, at The Colorado Convention Center, Denver. The summit will be co-located with TMRE.

The session, “Lessons in Change Management from a Spoken Word Poet Working in Corporate Innovation,” will be presented by Andrew Embry, Senior Director- Insights Innovation and Capabilities, Lilly MR HIT Team at Eli Lilly and Company.

Most change efforts fail not because the idea is wrong, but because no one takes the time to understand the people being asked to change. In this interactive session, spoken word poet and innovation leader Andrew Embry blends poetry and change management to make empathy a practical, actionable tool — not a soft skill. Through creative exercises like perspective-taking and writing from someone else’s point of view, you’ll learn how to intentionally shape what people think, feel, and do. Expect an engaging, slightly uncomfortable experience that challenges corporate norms, invites authenticity, and equips you with a simple practice to apply before your next initiative: understand first, then design.

Click here for more information about the FEI: Innovation Summit