The BOOK is ON! Please be part of it.

Dear reader,

I wouldn't write a book until Innovators' Compass tools were passed around the world, and powerful stories came back.

With profound thanksgiving to all of you who shaped and shared the tools, and shared back the stories, it's time.

My publishing partner is Diversion Books, distributed by Simon & Schuster.

This milestone moment—at a milestone birthday for me—was years in the making.

However, the book development time is just months.

Please find easy ways to be a part of the book below, and more in coming newsletters. You'll have undying gratitude in my heart and acknowledgments!

And as always, find new resources here and at innovatorscompass.org

To a new chapter for this work and community,

Ela Ben-Ur, Founder of innovatorscompass.org

Call for Stories!

Now's the time to share your Compass stories by email or interview if you haven't yet.

Whether your story is private or a candidate for the book and newsletters, it'll inspire me!

I'll always reach out before stories are included.

Please Share Stories!

Test new free tools!

These deceivingly playful-looking prompts finally pack in all three core tools!

Compass your Thanksgiving or anything else in your life, work, or world, exploring the five questions in powerful ways using punctuation marks and the tools your body gives you.

As always, I've made different free formats: one double-sided page, or half-page cards.

Please let me know your thoughts and/or join me below!

Try the Compass Tools

Let's Compass together!

ONLINE

In these free, small and informal sessions, you get my coaching using new tools for the book, and I get your feedback!

Come solo, or bring a friend or small group.

No experience needed.

1st Wednesdays at 12pm ET or
3rd Wednesdays at 8pm ET.

Come for a WOW!

IN-PERSON

In Boston on 1/6/26! ? Join the next Collaborative Designers Unite gathering!

YOU DID IT! Thanks to your votes, this workshop, codeveloped with Innovators for Purpose, is SXSW-bound! See you there!

Sip a New Story

A Sweet Scene Inside the Sausage Being Made

As I drafted my Fall 2025 newsletter, coming out for Thanksgiving—the 20th edition, and 5th anniversary of the first grateful newsletter I posted at Thanksgiving 2020—the scene on the floor next to me caught my eye, and I had to capture it for you.

I love seeing how my younger daughter's work (on a middle school history project) and mine intertwine. In the foreground, you can see both of our scrap piles, working toward the outcomes further away. To the other side, on our not-pictured shared workbench, my older daughter’s steadily-growing experiments hand-painting pins made from bottle caps crimped over can tabs.

It occurred to me to share a bit of how “the sausage”—the most powerful and accessible tools for making things better and less stuck in our lives, work, and world that I can muster—gets made from all of the observations and ideas that people share. Those people range from readers of my newsletter, to participants in all my workshops and coaching, to the unwitting taxi drivers and fellow parents who share their life conundrums with me—to the many, many using innovatorscompass.org tools around the world.