Gaia Grant

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.