A Designfulness™ workshop at KPMG Ignition exploring how diverse perspectives can contribute to innovation.
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The experience

In May 2026, I was invited by Kerry Harmer to facilitate a workshop at KPMG Ignition, hosted at Platform Calgary, as part of Ignition Thursday. The session explored how cultural diversity can support innovation, and what helps people feel able to contribute their perspectives openly.

Using an embodied arrival practice and LEGO® Serious Play®, we invited participants to explore moments when they had held back an idea, concern, or perspective at work. Rather than discussing psychological safety only as a concept, the workshop made these experiences tangible through individual reflection, creative expression, and shared conversation.

What surfaced

The stories revealed how the working environment can shape what people feel comfortable expressing. Holding back is not always about a lack of ideas or confidence; it can also reflect how people anticipate being heard, judged, or received by others.

Through building and sharing their experiences, participants had an opportunity to recognize common challenges, encounter different perspectives, and reflect on the role each person plays in creating a more open environment.
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From individual experience to collective insight

The session brought attention to a shared responsibility: creating the conditions for people to contribute more fully. It connected inner awareness with the everyday ways teams listen, respond to difference, and work through challenges together.

As the session demonstrated, creative methods can help bring unspoken experiences into the conversation and give teams a different way to explore complex human dynamics.

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The takeaway

Inclusive innovation is not only about bringing different people into the room. It is also about creating an environment where their perspectives can make a difference.

This workshop inspired the article Psychological Safety as a Strategic Condition for Innovation, co-written by Elisabet Camprubi and Kerry Harmer.