As a chief innovation officer, writing fiction helps me with my job. I'm now a better strategist.

The author shares how writing fiction has made her better at her 9-to-5 job.

Courtesy of the author

• Fiction writing builds the scenario-planning muscles AI can't replicate.
• A novelist's research discipline outperforms a slide deck's worth of analysis.
• Creative imagination is a strategic asset — not a soft skill.

Earlier this year, I shook a strategy leader out of her deeply held convictions by asking three questions that made her stop and think. It shifted the tenor of the discussion...