Innovation Storytellers

What does it really take to close a digital divide in a city as complex, diverse, and dynamic as Long Beach, California?
In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Lea Eriksen, Director of Technology and Innovation and CIO for the City of Long Beach, to unpack the human stories behind civic innovation. We met in an unexpected setting, a steakhouse in Los Angeles during a CXO Rise gathering, where conversations about AI flowed alongside cream spinach and big ideas. That evening sparked a deeper discussion about how technology, when grounded in people and purpose, can reshape communities in meaningful ways.
Lea brings more than 25 years of experience in local government, with a career that spans budget, finance, economic development, and ultimately technology leadership. What makes her perspective stand out is that she did not arrive at innovation through a traditional tech pathway. Instead, she came through public service, relationships, and a deep belief that government can work when it listens first. In our conversation, she shares how Long Beach transformed its technology function from an internal service provider into a catalyst for digital equity, smart city experimentation, and community co-creation, earning national recognition along the way.
We explore how innovation in government differs from innovation in the private sector, why people and process often matter more than tools, and how programs like Smart City Challenge, Pitch Long Beach, and LB CoLab invited city staff, residents, and vendors into the same room to solve shared problems. Lea is refreshingly honest about what worked, what failed, and what cities can learn from pilots that did not survive. She also explains how Long Beach approached the digital divide as more than access to devices, focusing equally on connectivity, skills, language access, and trust.
At the heart of this episode is storytelling. Lea explains why data alone is never enough, and how real resident stories helped secure long-term support for digital inclusion efforts, even as federal funding declined. From building fiber infrastructure to empowering residents to participate directly in procurement decisions, this conversation shows what becomes possible when innovation is designed with communities rather than for them.
So as cities everywhere wrestle with AI hype, budget constraints, and growing inequality, what would change if more leaders started by asking whose voices are missing from the room, and whose stories still need to be told?

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with John Elbing, Business Storytelling Strategist and founder of Standpoint, for a thoughtful conversation on how organizations can tell stronger innovation stories by shifting perspective outward. This interview is the second in The Storytellers Series, where I invite other storytellers I deeply admire, people who bring their own lenses, frameworks, and lived experience to the craft of story.
John introduces his Story Building Method, a three-stage framework built around recognition, perception, and projection. He explains why compelling stories help customers recognize themselves first, understand where a brand fits second, and finally imagine what life looks like after engaging with a product or service. Throughout the discussion, John emphasizes that storytelling works best when it allows customers to see themselves as the hero of the narrative rather than being positioned as an audience to a company's internal achievements.
The conversation also explores why narrowing focus can actually expand impact. John challenges the overuse of demographic personas and argues for building stories around aspirations and challenges instead. By targeting what people are trying to achieve or overcome, organizations can connect with audiences that may look very different on the surface but share the same underlying motivations. Susan and John unpack real-world examples from consumer brands, B2B software, and even nonprofit work to show how this approach changes clarity, positioning, and engagement.
 
They also address common storytelling mistakes, from overreliance on clever language to feature-heavy messaging that misses emotional relevance. John makes a strong case for clarity over cleverness and explains why the most effective brand stories are the ones that make customers feel seen, understood, and supported. The episode closes with John sharing how listeners can continue the conversation through his book, Story Building, and offering a complimentary 45-minute pre-call consultation for those looking to sharpen their own innovation story.

What if the stories you tell about innovation are actually working against you? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I do something a little different. I open a new series by inviting other storytellers I deeply admire, people who bring their own lenses, frameworks, and lived experience to the craft of story.
I want you to think about storytelling as an expansive, evolving practice, not a single narrative you perfect once and reuse forever, but a skill you keep refining as your audiences, challenges, and ambitions change.
To begin that journey, I sat down with Park Howell, a 40-year veteran of brand storytelling and host of the Business of Story. Park shares how he found storytelling through advertising, why stories have a repeatable structure rooted in human biology, and what he calls the science and bewitchery behind stories that truly move people. 
We unpack his deceptively simple "and, but, therefore" framework, why leaders lose rooms with bullet points, and how story becomes the bridge that helps people move from status quo thinking to real behavior change. We also explore why storytelling so often fails in organizations, especially when leaders make the story about themselves rather than their audience. 
Park explains how innovation stories should focus on outcomes, not offerings, and why emotional connection must come before logic if you want ideas to stick. From the hero's journey and Joseph Campbell's influence to the reality of selling ideas in five-minute executive meetings, this conversation is packed with practical insights for anyone trying to communicate change under pressure.
We close by looking at how AI fits into modern storytelling, including Park's work on the Story Cycle Genie, and why emotional intelligence combined with artificial intelligence may shape the next era of leadership communication. If innovation is ultimately about getting people to move, decide, and act, how might your stories need to change to meet them where they are, and what could happen if you finally told the story they were waiting to hear?

Are you an innovator who feels caught between disruption and defensibility, wondering whether corporate innovation has lost its way?
In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I welcome back Greg Larkin, founder of Punks & Pinstripes, for a candid, often uncomfortable conversation about the current state of innovation within large organizations. 
Greg does not sugarcoat it. He argues that much of corporate innovation today earns a C-minus at best, largely because it fails the ultimate test that matters when markets tighten, and investors lose patience. If an innovation team cannot clearly justify why it deserves funding when earnings miss or a disruption hits, it is already on borrowed time.
Drawing on his experience as a former Director of Innovation at Bloomberg and as an entrepreneur with multiple exits, Greg explains why innovation leadership has often been shaped by observers rather than survivors. He challenges familiar frameworks taught in boardrooms and business schools, questioning whether they prepare leaders for activist investors, AI-driven disruption, M&A fallout, or the quiet but relentless brain drain caused by the ongoing Great Resignation. 
The conversation explores why pitching ideas is rarely enough anymore, why outcomes matter more than vision decks, and why many innovation teams are discovering too late that credibility is earned long before the next technological wave arrives.
The episode also moves beyond corporate structures into something more personal. Greg shares why he built Punks & Pinstripes as a community for executives climbing what he calls their second mountain. For many seasoned innovators, success on paper no longer matches purpose in practice. 
Together, we unpack what happens when wartime innovators are asked to settle into peacetime routines, why that mismatch can be soul-crushing, and how authenticity, service, and reinvention are becoming essential currencies for leaders navigating the next chapter of their careers.
If innovation is facing its most precarious moment in decades, and many leaders are quietly questioning whether they still belong in the systems they helped build, what does it really take to stay relevant, investor-defensible, and human at the same time, and which mountain are you climbing right now?

How do you bring discipline to innovation without stripping away the creativity that makes it powerful in the first place?
In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Stephen Parkins, Innovation Strategist and Founder of Culturedge, to unpack what it really takes to turn innovation into a strategic asset rather than a side project fueled by hope and enthusiasm. 
Stephen brings an outside-in perspective shaped by an unconventional career spanning financial markets, startup entrepreneurship, and senior innovation roles within complex global organizations. That distance from the usual corporate playbook allows him to challenge some deeply held assumptions about how innovation should work and why so many well-intentioned efforts struggle to deliver measurable returns.
We talk openly about the tension between creativity and structure, and why innovation does not fail because teams lack ideas, but because organizations lack clarity, consistent decision-making, and shared language. Stephen offers a thoughtful perspective on innovation management systems, including the much-debated ISO standards, and explains why guardrails are often misunderstood as constraints. 
Drawing on real-world experience from large enterprises, he argues that structure, when well designed, creates the conditions for better experimentation, smarter risk-taking, and stronger alignment between innovators and the core business.
The conversation also dives into strategy, funding, and culture, particularly the invisible friction between those running today's business and those inventing tomorrow's. Stephen shares how portfolio thinking, exposure to risk, and optionality can shift innovation from theater to real value creation. 
We also explore his work as co-founder of Strategy Quest, a simulation-based approach that helps leaders practice decision-making under uncertainty, surface blind spots, and learn through consequence rather than theory. It is a compelling look at how scenario thinking and simulated environments can prepare the next generation of innovation leaders to see around corners.
If innovation is meant to help organizations grow stronger in uncertain times, what needs to change in how leaders think about risk, culture, and decision-making, and are we brave enough to build systems that actually support that ambition?