How Strategic Opening Lines Transform Creative Sessions Into Breakthrough Thinking
A Story About Discovering That the First Question in a Brainstorming Session Determines Everything That Follows
Trevor had been running innovation sessions at his mobile health technology company for years. Well-organised. Professionally facilitated. Creatively stagnant.
His team was talented. His process was sound. And somehow — every session produced ideas that were technically competent and entirely predictable.
How Strategic Opening Lines Transform Creative Sessions Into Breakthrough Thinking tells Trevor’s story — a journey from structured facilitator to creative catalyst through mastering innovation session openings. His transformation reveals how leading with possibility-expanding questions rather than problem constraints liberates breakthrough thinking that challenges assumptions and produces genuine innovation.
What you'll learn:
- Why the opening question in a creative session determines whether teams explore possibilities or optimise limitations
- How to shift from constraint-focused openings to possibility-expanding beginnings that liberate breakthrough thinking
- How one question — asked before any agenda item — can transform a brainstorming session your team endures into one they leave energised by
What's included:
- Trevor's complete story
- The Impossible-First Innovation framework
- Reflection questions to apply directly to your own creative sessions and team meetings
The Reading Room — Where stories spark insight and learning begins. Read, reflect, and let the power of stories shape your perspective.
The Writer's Table — The power of the written word to clarify thought and purpose. A writing assignment that makes the lesson personal to your own experience.
The Workshop — Takes your thinking deeper, developing the technique into a systematic approach you can apply across your professional communications.
The Rehearsal Space — This is where you put it all into practice — the power of embracing challenges and pushing boundaries.
The Art of WorkLife Storytelling Story Lessons explore how the stories we tell shape the way we communicate who we are at work — our values, our thinking, our experiences, and what we stand for. Each lesson follows a protagonist who discovers that knowing how to find, shape, and share the right story at the right moment is one of the most powerful professional tools available. These lessons help you recognise the stories within your own experience and learn how to tell them with clarity, authenticity, and purpose.
About School of WorkLife
School of WorkLife creates story-based learning resources that help people think more clearly about the challenges, conversations, and decisions that shape a working life.
Each story is drawn from real WorkLife situations and developed into practical learning experiences that combine narrative, reflection, and structured application.
This lesson is part of The Art of WorkLife Storytelling Story Lessons— a collection focused on how the stories we tell, and how we open them, shape the conversations, relationships, and opportunities that follow.
Author’s Note
The stories I write are based on real WorkLife challenges, obstacles and successes. Persons and companies portrayed in the stories are not based on real people or entities. Carmel O’ Reilly.