The Story of Warren Yu - Lessons From a Systemic Pirate -

Every now and then you meet someone who comes from a world so far from your own that you expect the conversation to be polite, distant, and maybe a bit abstract. That's what I thought when Warren Yu joined us for Creative Leaders Unplugged. He carries decades of experience inside one of the most rigid and hierarchical systems imaginable, the U.S. military and government. I come from design, creativity, messy entrepreneurship. Two planets, right?

But from the very first minute, something unexpected happened. We didn't meet as a military officer and a designer. We met as humans. He told stories about family, heritage, loss, identity, the same stories we all carry whether we come from Shanghai, Hungary, New York or Haarlem.

That's when I realised: the starting point for creative leadership is always the same. Strip away the titles, the roles, the armour. Ask someone who they are. And then simply listen.

What unfolded after that was like watching a movie. Warren is one of those natural storytellers who pulls you straight into the world he's lived in, from his grandfather's assassination to CIA front companies to being accused of "witchcraft and black magic" on a Navy ship because he dared to bring a new idea into a rigid system.

And still, somehow, everything he said resonated deeply with what we talk about in design thinking. The power of culture over technology. The need to make it safe to fail. The importance of "yes, and…". The courage to hold space for others. The leader's job of clearing obstacles so people can run freely.

At one point he describes his design studio, a simple conference room he quietly transformed into a kind of pirate ship inside the system. A place where people could bring fragile ideas, experiment, fail, recover, collaborate across ranks and cultures. A NICU for innovation, he called it. And I thought: yes, this is creative leadership in its purest form.

Not the shiny version. The subversive version. The courageous, slightly rebellious, meaningful version.

What struck me most is how his whole journey mirrors something many creative leaders recognise:

being an outsider, navigating contradictions, learning to adapt, holding multiple perspectives, and seeing what others miss. The pirate who doesn't disrupt for ego, but for the greater good.

We ended our conversation with one simple question:

What are you looking forward to?

His answer was surprisingly soft and human, to help people, to create meaning, to help organisations rediscover their purpose when they've drifted away from it.

That's the thing about pirates.

They're not trying to burn the ship.

They're trying to remind everyone why they're sailing in the first place.

This episode is full of stories, insights, emotion, humour and hard-earned wisdom. Honestly, we could have talked for hours. But I hope the part we captured inspires anyone who feels stuck in a system, anyone wondering how to make change from the inside.

Maybe the answer isn't to break the system.

Maybe it's to create a small space where new possibilities can breathe.

A place where people feel safe to bring their ideas, their doubts, their scars.

A place where stories can be told.

A place where pirates are welcome.

Enjoy the episode.

And Warren, go write that book. The world needs it.