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ABOUT RIDG
Michelle S. Royal
FOUNDER & CINO
Michelle Royal is the founder and Chief Innovation Officer of RIDG (Royal Innovation Design Group). She is a self-made speaker, consultant, and entrepreneur, who was raised in the growing Subway franchise empire.
She is an innovation expert with over 20 years of experience, specializing in using visualization and facilitation to create breakthroughs in state of mind and behavior. Michelle is also an artist, that brings visual stories together to unlock the latent collective power of organizations and individuals.
Michelle has helped her clients provide clarity around their organization’s’ vision, build effective and cohesive teams, and tap into their true potential to maximize impact and profit with their ideas. This work has often led to six-to eight-figure returns on the client’s’ growth, all using principles applied through Michelle’s unique methods.
Michelle holds a Masters of Business Innovation (MBI) from the Deusto Business School in Bilbao, Spain and a Master of Arts in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Alliance for Innovation and served as the first ever Innovation Coach to the European Union.
What is the secret to designing change? It is simple. With every decision to change comes a GREAT question. And with every great question comes the transformative action making a better world.
We Build Better Innovators
The Team
Jennifer Oppelt
Director of Operations
Joran Oppelt
Director of Creativity and Innovation
Ben Blackman
Director of Development
Geoff T. Nelson
Talent and Training Manager
Michael Sharkey
Visual Facilitator
Diana Flores
Graphic Recorder
Phillip Leslie
Graphic Recorder
Sarah Page
Graphic Recorder
Our Values
Power of Human Potential
We believe that you are something more — that you are here for a greater purpose. We believe your business expresses that purpose and your relationships with your teams, clients, and customers fulfill that purpose.
We understand the power of human potential and we strive to maximize your hidden genius. We see in you a hero, seeker, storyteller, creator and guide of the human adventure.
Innovation in Action
We believe innovation is turning failure into ideas that work. We are passionate about innovation because we know it is for and about people like you. We empower and embolden those we work with to think outside the box.
Through systems and action we surpass the norms. We know innovation is not a theory; we must live it. This means inspiring, catalyzing and harnessing a state of play and creativity and channeling it into real, sustainable, replicable value. As we grow, so does our impact on the world.
Zone of Certainty
We believe that all obstacles can be overcome with communication. We value the confidence and clarity that comes with being in the “zone of certainty.” We do what it takes to turn people toward one another, equipping them with the tools of all five senses to translate shared experience into meaningful communication and faster, deeper understanding.
We build this “zone of certainty” every day through personal accountability, honest communication, efficient systems and iterative planning. As a result, we have trust and confidence in our team and deliver outstanding results.
Co-Creating Through Deep Relationship
We honor the value of human connection and collaboration by always turning toward each other and inspiring all that we meet to do the same. We stand with people, going deep and doing the inner work together.
Through trust, honesty and respect we create truly aligned teams committed to carrying each other across the finish line. Humans, life, and business systems are complex. We keep it simple; we keep it human.
Unforgettable Moment Makers
We create unmatchable customer experiences — from kick-off to the project plan and from the main event to the final deliverables — we know every moment matters.
Each of these milestones can be “the great beginning,” “the call to adventure,” “the overcoming” or “the sharing of a gift” that changes everything. We strive for next-level engagements that leave people talking. We live for the “wow” and we love the goosebumps.
Make Fun Happen!
We make fun a priority through our mindset of joy, positivity and optimism. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We take time to celebrate wins. We insist on playfulness and curiosity because we know you can’t be curious and closed off at the same time. By infusing fun into everything we do, we challenge old paradigms, cultivate openness and ignite the capacity to build something unexpected. We take the pain and discomfort of change and transform it into the adventure of a lifetime.
