Contends that the conventions of writing about management inquiry limit the choices for creativity, and potential wider audiences. Using examples taken from teaching and PhD research, critical incidents are explored to demonstrate different forms of writing that offer the potential for alternative ways of sense making. Research indicates the strength of discourses managers encounter in modern-day workplaces that restricts their capacity to act differently, the same forces are present in the researchers own work environment within a UK university business school. These discourses have resulted in a paring down of behaviours amidst a clamour for improvement and advancement. Experimentation with different forms of writing--journal keeping, poetry, creative writing to stimulate conversations, metaphor--have more potential to address the practising manager or researcher's "lived experience".