Introduction

This seminar is designed to provide leaders and professionals with a set of transformational tools and techniques to help them maximize their own and their team’s creative potential. Its starting-point is self-discovery: participants will work on the inside first and then focus outwards to impact on the world of business.

The focus of the seminar will be on thinking in different ways. Participants should be prepared to move out of their comfort zone and experiment with new ways of creating and communicating an inspiring leadership vision.

The highlights of this seminar are:

• How to identify opportunities for new kinds of thinking
• How to profile peoples personality types
• How to create and communicate a compelling vision
• How to harness the creative power of the team
• How to facilitate others’ creativity in innovative ways

Course Objectives of Leading Creatively

By the end of this seminar, participants will be able to:

• Set out their personal leadership brand
• Select appropriate techniques for self-discovery
• Demonstrate innovative methods for harnessing others’ creative potential
• Articulate a vision using multiple sensory representations
• Communicate their vision in refreshing and engaging ways
• Explore the outer limits of group creativity

Training Methodology

This seminar will not rely on a series of lectures to tell you what you should be doing. Instead, it uses a range of approaches to learning, including experiential group activities, individual visioning exercises, and syndicate discussions, to allow you to see and feel for yourself the power of the creative mind. Formal inputs are used to introduce a limited amount of underpinning theory. A key part of the learning process is sharing the differing experiences participants bring, as well as experimenting with the novel – and sometimes challenging – techniques.

Organizational Impact of Leading Creatively

• Linking creativity and innovation to organizational performance
• Leaders at all levels who can develop and communicate a shared vision
• Leaders who can engage and motivate their teams
• Focus on long-term organizational and customer needs
• Increased effectiveness against personal KPI’s through more effective use of team
• Leaders with a focus on actions and outcomes, not theory

Personal Impact of Leading Creatively

• A clear sense of personal and professional vision of the future
• Aligned and coherent personal values
• Stronger personal self-confidence levels
• Stronger in dealing with challenging team in work
• The program will present opportunities for networking
• Sharing ideas which will provide a further catalyst to personal growth

Course Outlines of Leading Creatively

DAY 1

Creative Problem-Solving

• Leadership Reality Assessment
• Leadership Vs Management
• Understanding Our Brain Function
• Myths of Creativity
• The limitations of the rational
• Divergent approaches to problem-solving
• Letting go of logic
• Analogous thinking modes
• Convergent and divergent modes

DAY 2

Overcoming Personal Blockers to Creativity

• Sigmoid Curve - Lifecycle Model
• Continuous Improvement
• Breakthrough step change
• Self-awareness and the nature of the ego
• Personal goal alignment
• Adaption and innovation: personal preferences for creating meaning
• Exploring attitudes to risk
• Left- and right-brain thinking

DAY 3

Developing the Vision Creatively

• Six thinking hats
• Using differing thinking styles
• Johari's window
• The business plan process & creating a vision
• Harnessing the power of the team
• Organizational culture and its influence on innovation
• Letting go of the ego
• Working with different creative preferences

DAY 4

Communicating the Vision Creatively

• The 7 Step Creative Process
• Models of communication
• Viral visioning
• Authenticity and trust
• Creativity tools, techniques & strategy
• Letting go of the vision
• Leading without directing
• Possible leadership beliefs

DAY 5

From Ideas to Action: Creativity and Change

• Motivation - Hierarchy of Needs
• Overcoming organizational barriers to creativity and change
• Nurturing a learning environment
• Is Money a motivator?
• Personality Profiling
• Building a creative consensus
• Engaging stakeholders creatively
• Influencing and motivating through change