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. 

 

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Get in touch at [email protected]  

   

Credits:  

Host: Amantha Imber  

Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler 

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