We spend time teaching employees how to communicate better, manage projects, and use social media all while expecting them to be creative and innovative. Yet, we rarely teach them how to actually be creative. Creativity is a teachable, learnable skill that can be successfully developed in both individuals and groups. If you want to be creative but you wait for inspiration to strike, you might be waiting a long time. Artist, inventors, entrepreneurs, and other highly creative people use creative strategies deliberately to help them be more innovative and implement change.

In this workshop, learn and practice the Creative Problem Solving process, a research-based strategy that has been used in organizations around the world. Employees have used the Creative Problem Solving process to invent new programs, products, and processes that have generated and saved millions of dollars. During the workshop, you will work on a real challenge from your organization and leave with dozens, even hundreds, of new ideas. More importantly, you will learn the tools and techniques to repeat the process anytime. Learn to get creative when you need it and push your organization to the next level of innovation.

It is often a challenge to bring creative ideas and projects into an organization. This challenge is partly due to the unique interaction between creativity, risk taking, and trust. Sharing and implementing creative ideas requires taking a risk and we are more likely to do this with people we trust. Additionally, it also requires trust and risk-taking to say “yes” to other people’s creative ideas. Understanding how these concepts work together can help you be more creative in your organization. In this workshop, we’ll explore these concepts through interactive activities, group discussion, and videos.

Organizations who innovate are more likely to succeed. However, most companies struggle with coming up with new ideas. Since the 1950’s research has shown that typical brainstorms often don’t work. In this fast-paced interactive workshop, explore new ways to generate ideas quickly and learn what research says about the ineffectiveness of typical brainstorms.  Bring a challenge you have been working on and leave with lots of new ideas.

Educational Outcomes:

• Understand why brainstorms typically fail and what to do about it.
• Learn at least three new techniques for generating ideas.
• Practice new techniques while focusing on a real challenge.

Leaders play a crucial role in the development of a team’s creative potential. In this workshop you will learn how leaders can transform ordinary teams into creative teams. Drawing upon the research on transformational leadership, team leadership, and creativity, you will leave understanding the components of highly creative teams and how to lead your team to innovative success.

We spend time teaching our team how to communicate better, manage projects, and use social media all while expecting them to be creative and innovative. Yet, we rarely teach them how to actually be creative. Creativity is a teachable, learnable skill that can be successfully developed in both individuals and groups.

In this workshop, you will explore ways to increase innovation and avoid creative blocks, explore the intersection between risk and innovation, and examine group versus individual creativity. Through video, discussions, and interactive activity, you will leave with several ideas to help you and your company’s employees become more creative and innovative.