DON’T LET YOUR ROUTINES IMPRISON YOUR THINKING.

DON’T LET YOUR ROUTINES IMPRISON YOUR THINKING

18 th Century…Agricultural Age (farmers) 19 th Century…Industrial Age (factory workers) 20 th Century…Information Age (knowledge workers) 21 st Century…Conceptual Age (creators, inventors, visionaries, designers, story-tellers and empathizers )

YOU NEED... to succeed or to maintain a level of success. To create, to change, to grow and to excel. You need ideas to improve operational efficiency and save money, ideas for new products and services that give more value to your clients. Ideas for marketing to sell your products more effectively. You need ideas to stand apart from the competition.

In today’s business world, creative thinking and Innovation are more important than ever. More and more success is determined by our ability to come up with new ideas, innovative and creative solutions to opportunities. It’s all about thinking differently and more often than not we just need a bit of prodding to do just that.

Because it drives growth, generates new ideas, creates breakthroughs and brings to the world something that didn't exist before. An innovative work environment instills energy in people, allowing them to be creative and, in turn, inspiring others. It's a cycle of success! Why is creativity and innovation so important to your business?

Dreams drive our Creativity! "We are a company that always takes on new challenges and provides joys and excitement beyond imagination. We build upon our collective creativity and ingenuity. " Takeo Fukui, President and CEOHONDA

Return on Investment The Wall Street Journal reported that a two year in-house creativity course at General Electric resulted in a 60% increase in patentable concepts. Participants in Pittsburgh Plate Glass creativity training showed a 300% increase in viable ideas compared with those who elected not to take the course. At Sylvania, several thousand employees took a 40 hour course in creative problem solving. ROI: $20 for every $1 spent. Hewlett-Packard invested over $2 billion in R&D in 1999, and generated more than 1,300 patent applications. Net revenue: $42.37 billion. (Source: HP 2000 Annual report) Companies have to nurture [creativity and motivation] and have to do it by building a compassionate yet performance-driven corporate culture. In the knowledge economy the traditional “soft” people side of our business has become the new “hard” side. Gay Mitchell, Executive VP, HR, Royal Bank.

Because the future of your business depends on new ideas. And the future of your company's new ideas depends on the ability of your managers to establish the kind of environment in which these ideas can be originated, communicated, developed, and eventually brought to market. Pep talks aren't enough. What's needed is something very different... Creative managers

"Increasingly, managers and executives need to be hands-on in strengthening organizational talent and filling the leadership pipeline with creative people," says CCL's David Berke.

Companies that are successful innovators and which are able to sustain innovation over time are the ones that create a culture in which innovation can happen at any level at any time. They create a Culture of Innovation Paul Saffo Institute For The FUTURE

The best way to boost your creativity is to boost the communication flow between your two brain hemispheres: During the creative process, our left and right brains are focused on the problem, exchanging information back and forth in a form of a “partnership.”

One of the most important ingredients for a company to become a creative driven company is... COMMUNICATION.

Most successful companies communicate their message to their employees… not their customers. The art of communication is the language of leadership.

I’d rather have an employee quit and leave, then an employee quit and stay.

Good management, without creative effective leadership… is like straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic

They are in your organization Creative Leadership is a product of the nature of connections and relationships among the parts of the system and is dependent on choosing leadership strategies and ideas that address the challenges an organization faces. Creative solutions need not come from outside experts. They are in your organization

1. A variety of participants with different backgrounds and areas of specialization. 2. The right kind of leader. Creative teams are potentially great. They allow a group of people to capitalize on the combined creativity of the entire team. Members build on each others' ideas and push everyone to stretch their ideas. However, in order to work, creative teams need two things: Leadership

1. Directed toward the future 2.Usable today 3. Firmly grounded in the past 4. Stable yet flexible to changing environments 5. Easily understood 6. Well promoted To Achieve A Shared Vision it needs to be...

What Is Creativity? An ability to imagine and/or create something new. Thinking and behaving with both subjectivity and objectivity. It’s a combination of feeling and knowing. An ability …to imagine and/or create something new. Thinking and behaving with both subjectivity and objectivity. It’s a combination of feeling and knowing. An attitude … the ability to accept change. A willingness to play with ideas & possibilities. A flexibility of outlook. Enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it. A process … creative people work to improve ideas and solutions, by making gradual alterations and refinements. They look at a problem from a number of perspectives.

utility significance Design is a combination of utility and significance. For business, it’s no longer enough to create a product/service that’s reasonably priced and adequately functional. It must also be beautiful, unique, and meaningful. It has to reach out and trigger some emotion.

EVOLUTION EVOLUTION SYNTHESIS SYNTHESIS REVOLUTION REVOLUTION REAPPLICATION REAPPLICATION CHANGING DIRECTION CHANGING DIRECTION REVERSAL REVERSAL WHAT- IFFING WHAT- IFFING FUNCTIONAL FIXATION FUNCTIONAL FIXATION

Brainstorming is an idea generating technique. It’s main goals are... 1. To break us out of our habit-bound thinking 2. To produce a set of ideas from which we can choose

Ways To Improve Something Simplify (remove complexity) Apply to new use Automate Reduce cost Make easier to use/understand Reduce fear to own/use Make safer Give more performance/capacity Make portable Make faster, less waiting Provide more durability and reliability Give better appearance Add features, functions Integrate functions Make more versatile Make lighter/heavier weight Make smaller/larger Make quieter

It’s not in the budget The boss will never go for it It’s too far ahead of the times Total laughter What will people say? Get a committee to look into it If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it You’ve got to be kidding No! Don’t rock the boat We’ve always done it this way Be realistic It isn’t your responsibility Killer Phrases Put it in writing It’s more trouble than it’s worth We’ve tried something like that before We haven’t got the manpower Let’s stick to what works Great idea but not for us It’ll never fly Don’t be ridiculous People don’t want change We’ve done all right so far We don’t do it that way here

Part 1  The Conceptual Age  Lateral/creative thinking, & Serial/critical thinking  What is creativity?  The importance of Design/Story/Imprint  Mind mapping  Five creative methods for producing good creative results.  Attitudes that block creativity?  Myths about creative thinking and problem solving  Mental blocks to creative thinking and problem solving  Positive attitudes for creativity  Creative Leadership/Communications Part 2  Creative thinking techniques  Achieving a shared vision  Brainstorming techniques and guidelines  Idea generating questions  Historical examination  Sources of blocking (Functional fixation)  Block busting techniques  Idea list of ways to improve something  What ‘iffing’  Removing blocks to creativity  Attribute analysis and check list  Morphological Analysis  Reversal  Analogy and metaphor  Trigger concepts  Creative thinkers check list  The five senses THANK YOU for taking the time to view this short power point presentation which represents a small part of the CCT workshop. The workshop is a full day and covers the following: For more information on hosting a CCT workshop call 905 227-5432

Two or more existing ideas are combined into a third new idea

BY SHIFTING THE CONTEXTS IN WHICH YOU THINK ABOUT IT, YOU'LL DISCOVER NEW...

Brainstorming is an idea generating technique. It’s main goals are... 1. To break us out of our habit- bound thinking 2. To produce a set of ideas from which we can choose

Four Basic Guidelines for Brainstorming

Tag on Tag on Quantity of ideas Quantity of ideas Suspend judgement Suspend judgement Think freely Think freely

This is the method of incremental improvement. New ideas derive from other ideas, new solutions from previous ones, the new ones slightly improved over the old ones This is the method of incremental improvement. New ideas derive from other ideas, new solutions from previous ones, the new ones slightly improved over the old ones.

Sometimes the best new idea is a completely different one

Reapplication Look at something old in a new way Go beyond labels Remove prejudices, expectations and assumptions Discover how something can be reapplied See beyond the previous or stated applications for some idea/solution, and see what other application is possible

When attention is shifted from one angle of a problem to another... This is called Creative insight Changing Direction

The reversal method for examining a problem or generating new ideas takes a situation as it is and turns it around, inside out, backwards, upside down, etc.

One of the major blocks to creativity is the minds firm grasp on reality. It keeps us from thinking beyond what we know to be true. “What if” is a tool for activating the right brain and freeing us from being blocked by reality. What if?

A trigger concept is an idea creating technique operated by bringing an unrelated idea into the problem and forcing connections or similarities between the two

Sources of Blocking Functional Fixation arises when someone is unable to see beyond the historical or accepted use for an item, often identified by its name or label.

BLOCK BUSTING TECHNIQUES Uses for... Think of an object or an item, something fairly common like a hammer, pencil, toothpick etc and think of all the possible uses for that object other than what it is normally used for.

The Five Senses 1. Touch 1. Touch: 2. Taste: 3. Smell: 4. Sound: 5. Sight: Feeling, texture, pressure, temperature, vibration Flavour, sweet, bitter, salty Aroma, odor Hearing, speech, noise, music Vision, brightness, colour, movement, symbol

Human Needs I. Physical Comfort: 2. Emotional Comfort: 3. Social Comfort: 4. Psychological Comfort: 5. Spiritual Comfort: Food, clothing, shelter, warmth, health Safety, security, freedom from fear, love Fellowship, friendship, group activity Self-esteem, praise, recognition, power, self-determination, life control Belief structure, cosmic organizing principal

Shape Colour Texture Material Weight Hardness/Softness Flexibility Stability Usefulness State

Create Your Success!

The objectives of the CCT Workshops are... 1. To inspire and motivate creative people in companies, by gaining access to universal ways of discovering and developing new ideas and uncover and remove blocks to creativity, passion, purpose and vision. 2. Stimulate, accelerate and build creativity within a team building context and unleash consistent breakthrough thinking for innovative problem solving. 3. Create a means of communicating ideas across your organization and develop a way for employees to collaborate on ideas and increase individual and organizational confidence in facing risk, uncertainty, and change. 4. Build lasting capability for individual, team and organizational creativity, including skills for personal effectiveness. 5. Promote and build sustainable relationships within organizations as well as with customers and external partners. 6. Learn and develop right brain thinking techniques that will help you reach your personal & business goals. Result: * A happier more team oriented work environment * Better productivity * Stronger bottom line

The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind…computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBA’s who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind…creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people…artist, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers…will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys. We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computer like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age. For nearly a century, Western society in general, and American society in particular, has been dominated y a form of thinking and an approach to life that is narrowly reductive and deeply analytical. Ours has been the age of the "knowledge worker", the well-educated manipulator of information and deployer of expertise. But that is changing. Thanks to an array of forces, material abundance that is deepening our nonmaterial yearnings, globalization that is shipping white-collar work overseas, and powerful technologies that are eliminating certain kinds of work altogether… we are entering a new age. It is an age animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life… one that prizes aptitudes that I call "high concept" and "high touch". High concept involves the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new. Today, the defining skills of the previous era… the "left brain" capabilities that powered the Information Age… are necessary but no longer sufficient. And that capabilities we once disdained or thought frivolous… the "right brain" qualities of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning… increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders. (From Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind”)

Most successful companies communicate their message to their employees… not their customers

COURSE OUTLINE This creative thinking course helps participants develop creative leadership skills, expanded sense perception, concept innovation and problem solving, increased inspiration and brain storming. Course Objectives 1. Understanding of how the right and left brain work in partnership during the creative process 2.Learn new methods and techniques to become more creative and effective in problem solving 3. Communicate better and enhance employee morale and productivity 4. Develop new creative visionary leaders within the organization 5. Improve efficiency and greater effectiveness, or innovation in products and/or process

Communication and Innovation The one ingredient essential for a company to become an innovation driven firm, is communication. Consider the old parable: One day while wandering, I came across three bricklayers. I asked the first bricklayer what he was doing. “Laying bricks,” he told me. I asked the second what he was doing.“Making a brick wall” he told me. I asked the third.“Building a cathedral” he explained. There are still many firms today that communicate to their employees like the cathedral makers communicated to the first bricklayer. Employees are told to lay bricks and lay them well. But, without knowing why they are laying bricks, bricklayers like the first are unable to make much of a creative contribution to the firm. How can they suggest ideas when they hardly know what the firm is doing? Today, far too many firms treat their employees like the cathedral makers treated the second bricklayer. Employees know their place within their department. They know they are part of a team building a wall. But they are unclear as to why they are building a wall or where that wall fits into the big picture. Although bricklayers like these can contribute creative ideas, their ideas are largely limited to making better walls. To many firms communicate to their entire workforce the way the cathedral makers communicated to the third bricklayer. But, those insightful cathedral makers who do fully communicate their plans and strategy will be richly rewarded as long as they open their ears to the bricklayers, concrete pourers, diggers, scaffolding makers and others involved in building the cathedral. That's because bricklayers are so much more than bricklayers. They are multifaceted human beings with experience, knowledge, compassion and pride.

Good management, without creative effective leadership… is like straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic

1. A variety of participants with different backgrounds and areas of specialization. 2. The right kind of leader. Creative teams are potentially great. They allow a group of people to capitalize on the combined creativity of the entire team. Members build on each others' ideas and push everyone to stretch their ideas. However, in order to work, creative teams need two things: Leadership

Because it drives growth, generates new ideas, creates breakthroughs and brings to the world something that didn't exist before. An innovative work environment instills energy in people, allowing them to be creative and, in turn, inspiring others. It's a cycle of success! Why is creativity and innovation so important to your business?

The best way to boost your creativity is to boost the communication flow between your two brain hemispheres: During the creative process, our left and right brains are focused on the problem, exchanging information back and forth in a form of a “partnership.” Highly creative people are known to have an easy and unobstructed flow of information between their left and right brains. They know how to increase the stimulation to their brain and expose it to lots of experiential stimulation, stretching and expanding its creative prowess by bringing it to new uncharted waters. After all, they understand that every learning experience is a mental one. And the more mentally stimulating and experiential an activity is, the more they learn.

18 th Century…Agricultural Age (farmers) 19 th Century…Industrial Age (factory workers) 20 th Century…Information Age (knowledge workers) 21 st Century…Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers )

utility significance Design is a combination of utility and significance. For business, it’s no longer enough to create a product/service that’s reasonably priced and adequately functional. It must also be beautiful, unique, and meaningful. It has to reach out and trigger some emotion.

Don’t let your routines imprison your thinking

This is the method of incremental improvement. New ideas derive from other ideas, new solutions from previous ones, the new ones slightly improved over the old ones This is the method of incremental improvement. New ideas derive from other ideas, new solutions from previous ones, the new ones slightly improved over the old ones.

Two or more existing ideas are combined into a third new idea

Businesses, for-profit and nonprofit, are facing change like never before. Numerous driving forces to this change included a rapidly expanding marketplace (globalization), and increasing competition, diversity among consumers, and availability to new forms of technology. Creativity and innovation are often key to the success of a business, particularly when strategizing during strategic planning, and when designing new products and services.