Spark Consulting Group

09/07/2026

The latest issue of Making Sense of Innovation is now available on LinkedIn. I publish a new issue each Monday in 2026.

Welcome to Making Sense of Innovation, a year-long series about what it takes for organizations to create and capture new value when the answer is not obvious and helping teams metabolize uncertainty and complexity so they can make better bets on the future. I’m Matt Arnold.

06/29/2026

Organizations don’t execute agreements. They execute interpretations.

Most of us have seen this happen: everyone leaves a meeting thinking there is agreement, but a week later the work starts drifting in different directions.

That is the gap between agreement and alignment.

On July 23, Matt Arnold is leading a free Maven Lightning Lesson with The Sensemakers Club on how teams create shared understanding when the picture is incomplete.

Free and open to all.

Register here:

Teams often leave a meeting believing they are aligned, only to discover later that everyone is executing a different version of the same decision. The issue is rarely communication. More often, it's a lack of shared understanding. As complexity increases, organizations must collaborate across more....

01/19/2026

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beware-innovation-tax-matt-arnold-ulcyc

If the first barrier to innovation is definition, the second is perception. Inside many organizations, innovation can feel like a tax.

01/12/2026

In 2026, I will be posting 52 issues of "Making Sense of Innovation" on LinkedIn. Please subscribe to the newsletter to improve your organization's capability to create and capture new value and de-risk the future.

These issues are based on insights gained working with organizations around the world and content from my Leading Innovation course that I taught at The University of Iowa.

Subscribe on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7414099550694699008

10/20/2025

Unmasking uncertainty: The October 2025 Spark Newsletter - https://mailchi.mp/inspiredbyspark/703vv77ibh-17447772

10/08/2025

A new episode of Spark Q&A is available. Here I address a fun and provocative question from friend and collaborator Nick Scappaticci.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxZ_G7pmEw0

WTF?!?!

In this episode of the Spark Q&A series, I answer a provocative question from Nick Scappaticci, Managing Director and Founder of Big Dreams Studio.Nick Scap...

09/29/2025

Join us on October 8 for From Ideas to Action: Fireside Insights on Community Innovation; a conversation about how our community can come together to navigate complexity and create meaningful change.

This free event will feature local leaders sharing stories and practical tips for collaboration and innovation in Iowa City and beyond.

📍 Location: MERGE, Iowa City
📅 Time: 5:30 - 7:00 PM
🔗 Register here - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-ideas-to-action-fireside-insights-on-community-innovation-tickets-1692733765259?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Let's connect, share ideas, and explore what’s possible for our community.
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A campfire-style conversation with Iowa City leaders and innovators on collaboration, innovation, and turning ideas into action!

09/16/2025

Introducing the Spark Q&A series on YouTube where I answer your questions on innovation, collaboration, and addressing uncertainty in a few minutes. Episode 1 kicks off with two questions from Justin Ahrens.

09/15/2025

From Ideas to Action: A Fireside Conversation on Community Innovation 🔥

I’m excited to invite Iowa City area leaders, entrepreneurs, and friends of Spark to a special evening exploring how community collaboration can turn ideas into action. This "Stoke" event is designed like a campfire conversation, thoughtful, interactive, and focused on sparking actionable ideas around leadership and innovation in our community.

🗓 When: Wednesday, October 8, 5:30 to 7:30 PM
📍 Where: MERGE, 136 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City
🥂 Light bites and beverages provided
🎟 Cost: Free, registration required

Join our panel of local leaders Jay Cooper, David L. Gould, Chris Parker, and Michael Chen, for a fireside style discussion. This prototype will explore community collaboration and leadership in driving innovation. Bring your curiosity, questions, and ideas, and we will have a way for you to submit questions to the expert panel.

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/yfx4dz7z - the event is free, but registration is required.

I’d love to see you there, and if you have any questions or want to learn more, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let’s stoke the conversation together.

A campfire-style conversation with Iowa City leaders and innovators on collaboration, innovation, and turning ideas into action!

08/20/2025

Innovation is how we create and capture new value. It’s also how we de-risk the future.

I’m starting a new Q&A video series as an experiment, focused on the real-world challenges of innovating inside organizations, especially when you're working in systems designed for stability, not change.

If you're navigating complexity, uncertainty, or just trying to move something forward without clear authority, this is for you.

Each week, I’ll answer one or two questions from my network with a short video. I’ll draw from years of experience helping teams push through resistance, make sense of ambiguity, and build momentum for innovation that actually sticks.

No hype. Just honest and practical insights into what makes innovation work, and what makes it fail, under real conditions.

Got a question about leading innovation in the real world?
➤ Drop it in the comments
➤ Or DM me if it’s more sensitive

A few prompts to get you started:
• How do I innovate when everything is optimized for the status quo?
• What do I do when stakeholders say they want innovation, but act like they don’t?
• How can I make progress when the path forward isn’t clear?

I’ll share responses on LinkedIn and on Spark’s YouTube channel as I build out Practical Innovation, a space for people doing the hard and human work of change.

Let’s make innovation less mystical, and more practical, actionable, and valuable.

Send a message to learn more