Course Description
We all have a mindset for innovative and creative thinking, but when processes have been in place for many years, introducing fresh ideas can be a struggle for many organizations. SkillPath’s newly refreshed LIVE, virtual training program presents all-new strategies for adopting a creative mindset and removing barriers to innovation.
Sparking Innovation and Creativity helps you build innovative thinking skills and clears the way so you can reach your creative peak. This highly interactive, instructor-led online course encourages learners at all levels in their careers to open their minds to innovative and creative thinking, which can lead to fresh ideas, new product development and solutions to long-standing problems.
WORKSHOP AGENDA
Program time: 3 hours
Session 1: Creativity and Insight Meet Innovation
- Learn how to begin thinking creatively
- Describe how the brain works when it’s at its creative peak
- Discover new ways to flex your brain “muscles.”
- Define innovation and the components necessary for successful innovation to occur.
- Recognize how creativity and innovation work together to generate a new service, good or process.
Session 2: Developing a Creative Mindset
- Discuss the importance of curiosity and its role in developing a creative mindset.
- Explain how curiosity can change the way you look at situations, products and services.
- Identify convergent and divergent thinkers and their roles in creativity and innovation.
- Describe the effect of functional fixedness on the creative mind
Session 3: Overcoming Barriers to Creativity
- Identify how the absence of psychological safety can inhibit the generation of new ideas.
- Describe the concept of failing fast and how failure is imperative to the creative process.
- Explain how everyone can be creative and why it’s so important to innovate.
- Discuss how creativity and innovation make organizations stronger, more engaged and productive
What you will learn
Program hours: 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Session 1: Where new ideas come from
- What innovative thought really is—and the 3 keys to unlocking it and putting its power to work for you
- How to foster a creative and innovative workplace environment
- The steps in the creative process that give your ideas meaning
- The 2 critical phases in the development of every idea—and the role your thinking style plays in the process
- The characteristics of innovative thinkers—and what you can do to develop them in yourself and others
- The “Triple H” model of innovation: 3 ingredients necessary for seeing every new idea through, from conception to implementation
Session 2: How your thinking habits inhibit your effectiveness and affect results
- What your natural thinking style says about the way you make decisions and solve problems—and how it affects your overall effectiveness and success
- Tuning into the signals that you’re practicing “straight-line” thinking
- A tool for assessing your current “creative-thinking quotient”
- You can’t come up with the right solution unless you’re focusing on the right problem: How to make sure you’re working on the real problem
- Traditional approaches to problem solving that signal trouble—and how to avoid them
- The 8 steps to effective problem solving embraced by America’s most innovative and successful companies
- An overview of decision-making styles
Session 3: Overcoming negativity and other obstacles to an open mind
- Understanding how your perception of a problem or situation influences the way you think about it
- How to change your mindset to see problems as opportunities
- How to make your emotions—both positive and negative—work for you to achieve successful results
- How to turn “I can’t” messages into action-producing “I can” statements
- How to overcome mental blocks, self-defeating habits and other barriers that stifle innovation and keep you from thinking in new ways
Session 4: Techniques for generating new ideas, solving problems and making decisions
- Mind mapping, clustering and other techniques for uncovering relationships and making associations
- Brainstorming alone or with others to encourage free thinking and idea generation
- How to develop a “What if?” perspective to change or improve entrenched organizational practices and other “sacred cows”
- Flexing your creative muscle: Proven exercises for pumping up your brain and breaking through thinking gridlocks
- Innovative exercises and techniques that will jolt your habitual ways of thinking and challenge you to see problems in ways that reveal hidden solutions
- Techniques for stimulating innovative thinking in a group setting
- How to storyboard to solve complex problems
- How to use lateral thinking to become receptive to new ways of exploring ideas
- How to develop your concentration skills to focus on the “creativity clues” all around you and hone your memory skills to rediscover things you didn’t think you knew
- What you see isn’t necessarily what’s there: The role your senses play in shaping your perceptions and your thinking
- Specific techniques and strategies the world’s most innovative companies use to brainstorm for new products and product improvements
Session 5: Keeping your ideas focused and on target
- How to stay focused and direct your creative efforts once you find you’re moving in the right direction
- 3 models of strategic thinking—and how to decide which one to use for a particular problem-solving or decision-making situation
- 3 steps for making the best decision when you’re faced with several alternatives
- How to use PMI thinking to judge the merit of an idea
- A simple tool for focusing your energy and evaluating which problem needs your most immediate attention, when several decisions must be made
Session 6: Putting your ideas into action—with successful results
- A straightforward plan for moving your idea from the thinking stage to successful reality
- Non-traditional tools for accurately predicting the results you planned for
- How to perform a “success analysis” and other techniques for weighing the risk involved in implementing a new idea
- How to ask for and use feedback to fine-tune your ideas
- How to be a catalyst for innovation in your workplace and teach others to think creatively
- How to overcome resistance to change when selling your ideas to others
- How to win allies, resolve conflicts and build a consensus for implementing your ideas
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Cancelation Policy
If you cannot attend an event, you may send someone else in your place. If that isn’t an option for you, cancellations received up to five working days before the event are refundable, minus a registration service charge ($10 for one-day events; $25 for multiple-day events). After that, cancellations are subject to the entire seminar fee, which you may apply toward a future seminar. Please note that if you don’t cancel and don’t attend, you are still responsible for payment.
