The Half Sheet

Welcome to The Idea Bucket

This is the first post of The Idea Bucket — a weekly newsletter for leaders building subcultures of innovation. Each issue features one visual framework supporting one act of leadership to help you build a culture where your team can experiment, learn, and grow.

I’m building this in public — sharing the tools and frameworks I use every day with coaching clients. My point of view is clear: to help my clients strengthen their innovation leadership, and to equip them with tools they can use to turn their teammates into leaders, too.

Building a great place to work isn’t easy — especially in times of constant change. But it’s some of the most important work a leader can do.

With each framework, I hope the leaders I work with feel more confident answering the question:

Leadership is a craft honed through continuous acts. Each week, you’ll receive one new framework — shared in Half Sheet form. I’ll explain the idea, show you how to apply it, and invite you to share what you try.

Over time, The Idea Bucket will become a growing, glanceable wall of frameworks — something you can draw from to get unstuck, stay inspired, and keep building your own leadership playbook.

And maybe, one day, it will become the foundation for the leadership book my clients and students keep asking me to write. And if it doesn’t? That’s okay too. Let’s embrace building in public — and failing fast.

I’m excited to have you on this journey.

For this first post, we’re going a little meta — because before you can understand what an Idea Bucket is, you need to understand its atomic unit: The Half Sheet.

The Half Sheet

• A clear headline
• A sticky tagline
• An imperfect visual

That’s it. No decks. No slides. No hiding in the gray areas.
The constraints are the magic.

There’s no room for hand-waving or abstraction — just the essence of an idea, made tangible. Something your team can react to, remix, or reject.

You should be able to tape a Half Sheet to the wall, step back a few feet, and read it at a glance. That’s how ideas get concrete. And that's how they stay visible, allowing intentional serendipity to happen.

A Half Sheet with a very imperfect visual. We all can sketch!

The Power of The Half Sheet

The Half Sheet isn't just for creatives. (And yes — anyone can do an imperfect sketch.)

It’s a tool that helps even the most self-described “non-creative” teams get aligned, move faster, and collaborate better. It’s not about artistry — it’s about clarity and culture.

Here’s what The Half Sheet unlocks:

1) Clarity

2) A Prototyping Mindset

The Half Sheet gives your team permission to be rough early, so you can learn faster and waste less time perfecting the wrong thing.

3) Detachment From The First Idea

The first idea is almost never the best idea — but we’re wired to get attached to it.

The Half Sheet breaks that attachment. Once it’s up on the wall, it’s not your idea anymore — it’s an idea.

The format gives it structure — but also distance, so you can move forward without ego. When every idea has a Half Sheet, it becomes easier to compare, remix, or let go.

Sulzberger Fellows discussing their Half Sheets during Venture Design Bootcamp.

4) Alignment

It’s common for teams to think they agree — until they sketch.

When I teach The Half Sheet, I usually do it right after a brainstorm. The team has used The Post-It Note Voting Method to narrow 100 ideas down to a handful — maybe they’ve circled something on the whiteboard like: “Build a dating app.”

They think they’re aligned. Then I ask each team member to create their own Half Sheet version of that same idea — individually, before discussing.

When they come back together, two things happen:

1. They realize they weren’t on the same page at all.
2. They now have a set of concrete creative interpretations and new directions to explore.

The Half Sheet surfaces assumptions, reveals hidden perspectives, and creates alignment by making ideas visual — not just verbal.

5) Momentum

Ideas stop swirling. They start evolving.

Your Challenge This Week

Try The Half Sheet — first on your own, then with your team.

Step 1: Practice solo

• A clear headline
• A sticky tagline
• An imperfect visual

Try it. Don’t overthink it. Just sketch.
Feel what shifts when the idea becomes visible.
What suddenly becomes clear? What gaps appear?
That’s natural — you’re building to think.

Participants in Venture Design Bootcamp discuss their Half Sheets after sketching them

Step 2: Try it with your team

Choose one idea your team thinks it’s aligned on — a next step, product iteration, strategy, or initiative.

Have each person independently create a Half Sheet version of that same idea. Same format: headline, tagline, visual.

Then come back together, post the Half Sheets side by side, and compare:

• What do you notice?
• Where were you aligned — and where weren’t you?
• What assumptions surfaced?
• What new possibilities emerged?

You’ll likely discover that what felt like consensus was actually a set of diverse interpretations and exciting directions — and that’s the point.

The Half Sheet isn’t just about sketching. It’s a tool for spotting assumptions, sharpening clarity, and creating momentum — together.

If you try this, I’d love to hear what happened. Send a photo, a quick story, or even just your favorite quote from the discussion. You can post in the comments below or reach me at [email protected].

Next Week

Next week, I’ll show you how to organize, remix, and activate your growing wall of Half Sheets — by introducing the framework that gives this newsletter its name: The Idea Bucket

About This Newsletter

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