THE INNOVATION RACE
Innovation Keynote 1: Who wins, who loses, who gets eliminated? The Traveller, the Tourist, and the Reality of the Innovation Race:
Research shows that organisations that innovate better perform better. These organisations have more productivity (up to 50 per cent more), better employee engagement, and higher decision-making effectiveness. The study of global innovation maps reveals that some countries and companies have thrived while others have floundered, and they are a reminder of how critical it is for all leaders to understand what can lead to innovation success. This knowledge helps to unlock innovation in any organization, and enables the development of clear strategies on how to stay ahead. Through the presentation, potential ‘roadblocks’, ‘detours’ and ‘fast forward’ strategies are identified and addressed in a unique and memorable way. Participants soon discover that it is not possible to be an ‘armchair viewer’ who can passively sit back and watch innovation pass them by as inaction too often leads to elimination. Using an interactive transformational learning experience (which has been shown to boast creative thinking), participants are out of their comfort zone and on a unique international tour. Rather than being passive ‘tourists’, they learn to become actively engaged ‘travellers’. Through this process the savvy leader learns to take the best of each culture’s contribution and apply it to their building a strong innovation culture in their organization. This session is a highly motivating and highly practical guide to innovation that lasts.
Innovation Keynote 2: The Monk and the Mobile. Navigating the paradoxes of innovation
For many years there has been an enduring belief that innovation is ignited by being open and taking risks. While this is partially true, Gaia Grant has discovered from her research with the University of Sydney Business School that much more is needed for sustainable innovation. By identifying the key innovation paradoxes, Gaia has found it is possible to learn how navigate the process more productively and successfully. Balancing the two sides of a paradox, the interdependent ‘paradoxical pairings’, can create a powerful dynamic that fuels innovation more effectively over the long term. Failing to balance them effectively will inevitably lead to frustration and ineffectiveness. By avoiding the typical swing between one state or the other, the ‘polar positioning’ strategy revels how it is possible to avoid oscillation, compromising and sidelining important innovation factors. This fast-paced global adventure reveals how different cultures and companies around the world have effectively managed the key Preservation / Exploration innovation paradox, along with the 4 contributing sub-paradoxes. It provides a fascinating insight into strategic innovation for all contemporary organization leaders. – leads into the full workshop / game options.
Innovation Keynote 3: The Innovation Game Changers
How to create a purposeful innovation culture
How often do we stop to think about why and how we innovate? Are we in danger of innovating for the sake of innovating? The invention of products that don’t appear to meet any real needs like purple Pepsi may indicate that perhaps innovation for the sake of innovation has gone too far. This session dives deep below the surface of the most innovative cultures, and challenges the typical assumption that innovation is simply about designing bigger, better, and faster products and services. It suggests, instead, that innovation should be about creative culture change. By turning the standard ‘success’ paradigm upside down, the real meaning of progress is examined and a better way forward is identified. It demonstrates how it is possible to transform an organization at the most fundamental levels through truly human-centric ethical and responsible innovation.
CREATIVE SCENE INVESTIGATION
The Magic of Creative Thinking & How To Really Think Outside The Box
“We see not the world ‘as it is’ – but we see the world in a way that proved useful in the past.”
A FAST PACED active session that is packed full of magic tricks, which quickly segues to challenging people about their mindset and mental models, peppered with some interesting information from neuroscience. Through a powerful metaphor, this session shows the strong connection between what magicians and creative thinking have in common: why people are so easily fooled by magic, and so readily blocked from solutions based creative thinking.
At the end of this keynote participants will develop the ability to look for solutions outside their standard boundaries and habitual ways of thinking. (Can also be presented with specialist magician mentalist including pre/ post lobby magic)
The Crime: Is Creative Thinking Dying? & What Can We Do About It?
An IBM survey of over 1500 CEOs has revealed that creative thinking skills are the greatest attribute needed for leaders in the next 5 years. And yet research has shown that while IQ has been on the rise, since 1990 creative thinking (CQ) has been rapidly declining. Whilst 98 % of children are ranked as “geniuses” in divergent thinking, by adulthood this number has dropped to a mere 2%.
This session takes the participants on a journey from the classroom to the boardroom, helping them understand the current creative thinking crisis. It looks at the implications in the workplace of a number of dramatic statistics, and shows how it is possible to rise above these stats and develop a creative and innovative culture. Includes a quick interactive CQ Torrance testing that thoroughly engages the audience.
At the end of this keynote participants will be able to identify the importance of developing creative thinking.
The Scene:
- A) Dealing with Disruptive Innovation & How to End Up On Top
This session explores the difference between an ordinary organisation and one that has a culture of creativity & learn how to attract and retain the creative class. This session reveals why it’s going to be critical to become a creative and innovative organisation, and demonstrates how organisations can best prepare for the future. The future is described as a place where small companies topple the large, the super large eat up industries, and customers will innovate with or without the organisations: good news for the prepared, but devastating for those in denial. This session will encourage participants to see the importance of thinking ahead and being prepared, showing that creative thinking is no longer a luxury for the gifted few, but a necessity for survival.
At the end of this session participants will be able to identify the importance of harnessing disruptive innovation and creating a positive innovative culture, facilitate better decisions by showing how to pay close attention to signals that point the way forward. AND help question unconsciously held biases and world views to come up with authentic alternative realities.
- B) Seeing the Moments that Matter in The Customer Journey (Sales focus)
This session reveals how to help all stakeholders involved in the sales & marketing process ‘see the moments that matter’ in the customer experience. By using creative thinking to look beyond the traditional roles of selling & marketing, participants discover how it is possible to connect better with the complete customer journey. Using elements of the popular design thinking strategy, such as connecting through empathy, participants learn how to see familiar situations from completely different perspectives. The Torrance Test (the gold standard in benchmarking for creative thinking) is also introduced as an engaging exercise to help show how possibilities can become better illuminated through the creative process. This interactive and inspirational session demonstrates the 6 key researched attributes that are needed to truly be creative. Fascinating activities, magic illusions and case studies of how market leaders have used creative thinking to get ahead are woven into the experience. This experience leads to new market possibilities and blue ocean opportunities.
At the end of this session participants will be motived to look for new ways to work with their key customers to add value, extend important relationships, and ensure loyalty.
The Investigation: Profiling the Creative Thinking Killers & Creating A Culture of Innovation
“The most ambitious criminologists are not just satisfied with analysing data from the past – they want to predict and control the future.”
MODERN DAY PROFILING is not only used to catch criminals, but predicative methodology is now being used in many areas to predict and control an environment. This interactive keynote turns the audience into detectives, and investigates what kills creative thinking in a fun Cluedo (Clue) CSI style session. It takes the 7 ‘creative killer’ suspects and puts them through a line up and profiling process. A few suspects are then examined in-depth. Humorous facts and interesting research into neuroscience reveal how it is possible to overcome these blockages or at least avoid them, both on an individual, team and organisational level. (A Special Asian cultural version of this keynote is available). Suspects include: Control, Fear, Pressure, Insulation, Narrow Mindedness, Apathy & Pessimism.
At the end of this keynote participants will be able to identify the key blocks to creative thinking and how they can be dealt with.
The Forensic Lab & The Neuroscience Of Creative Thinking
Why is it important for adults to learn to play intelligently, and why is having “down time” simply not good enough for creating an innovative environment? How can individuals capitalize on the power of the neural network to create profound “Eureka!” moments?
Most people hang on to habitual behaviors and attitudes as a survival mechanism, and yet outside of these boundaries is a universe of possibilities. We can become trapped inside these perceived limits by our instinctive ‘fight, flight or freeze’ responses to stress. The primitive human brain is designed to respond at an instinctive ‘reptilian’ level under pressure without allowing more reflective and advanced creative thinking. Learning to be creative takes more than some quick inspiration, it involves developing a plastic receptivity and cognitive flexibility that enables us to imagine and invent the potential future. By re-training the brain to utilise these innate creative processes effectively, highly creative thinking and problem solving can be achieved. This session reveals how it is possible to maximise individual creativity – and how to avoid the potential ‘creativity killers’. With fascinating insights from the latest research in neuroscience into the workings of the creative brain, individuals learn how to access and harness their unique creative skills.
The Rescuers: Creative Thinking Rescue Strategies
Creativity can occur in any company on a haphazard basis. But how can leaders promote creative thinking as a way to solve problems better, faster and more cost effectively?
THIS KEYNOTE focuses on the key rescue strategies and works through them to show participants how they can use these strategies to develop their creative thinking skills. It reveals a model for developing DESIGN THINKING, IDEATION & CREATIVE THINKING that directly addresses the key creative thinking blockers, and works towards creating a positive organizational culture that supports creative thinking and innovation. The practical and immediately applicable approach provides a valuable structure for promoting creative thinking on an ongoing basis.
Rescue approaches include: 1. Enquiry: Opening up thinking, 2. Exploration: Imagining options, 3. Solution: Making connections, 4. Application: Testing for implementation
At the end of this keynote participants will have learnt a practical model for developing a human centric design thinking approach, creative thinking and will have had practice in using it.
