What happens when a team generates a thousand ideas - and kills most of them within minutes?

In this Quick Win, I speak with Exploding Kittens co-creator Elan Lee about how he and his team turn chaos into creativity during their quarterly design retreats. Over three intense days, they generate, test, and ruthlessly discard ideas - all without bruising egos.

Elan shares how he’s built a culture of trust where killing ideas isn’t failure, it’s focus - and why showing your team it’s safe to let go might be the most powerful leadership move you can make.

Elan and I discuss:

• Inside Exploding Kittens’ quarterly design retreats

• Why Elan ditched the “yes, and…” rule for “no, kill it”

• How to create psychological safety in creative chaos

• The leadership habit that helps teams detach from their ideas

• Why rejecting ideas fast can unlock better ones

KEY QUOTE

“All the best ideas start out as terrible ideas - they just need room to evolve.”

Explore Elan’s games at explodingkittens.com and connect with him on Instagram, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn.

Listen to my full conversation with Elan here.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

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Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:

Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

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