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Organizations that learn how to bring together and use the diverse talents of their people to solve problems, respond to challenges and quickly seize opportunities will thrive. Teams that know how to invent innovative products and services and get them to the market place quickly will gain a significant competitive advantage for their companies. The Problem… Most organizations don't recognize diversity beyond the obvious surface differences of race, gender, age, and national origin. The critical variable-mental diversity-is almost always overlooked. That's not all. Many organizations just assume people know how to work together effectively in a team setting. They throw them together without a clear direction or agreed upon process and then wonder why so many teams fail to meet corporate expectations. It doesn't have to be that way. Underlying Beliefs… We believe that heterogeneous whole brain teams can outperform homogeneous ones. After all, when everyone is thinking alike, not a lot of thinking is going on. Mental preferences influence how we interact in with one another, process information, make meaning from it, define problems, invent ideas, make decisions and implement plans. When people in a diverse group come together to solve problems and create opportunities, the whole process can be enriched and the results far exceed what a homogeneous group can achieve. Heterogeneous groups can far outperform homogeneous groups; however, they present unique challenges because different styles and different perspectives often cause tension, even open conflict. Good communication skills, creative thinking skills and an agreed upon creative problem solving process help heterogeneous groups evolve into synergistic teams that know how to collaborate. A synergistic reinforcing loop connects creativity with vision and purpose. Vision and purpose focus and guide creative efforts. Teams that think creatively have a better chance at creating an inspiring vision and purpose worth working together to achieve. Then people not only know what to do; they know why they're doing it and care about achieving it. What You Can Do… Give teams an understanding of the dynamics of diverse thinking styles plus the principles and practices of thinking creativity together and you greatly improve the probability of success whatever their mandate. Given the right tools and an opportunity focused mind set, they can clarify what they want to achieve, invent better ideas, implement them more quickly and respond to the unexpected more proactively. Such teams consistently add value to the bottom line. In the CBT Workshop People Learn How To… Appreciate their unique thinking style preferences and those of people who think differently Identify and utilize mental diversity so that they can collaborate creatively with others on their team Use the principles of creativity to create more innovative and successful results Use a group creative problem solving process as they move their organization ahead Experiment with thinking skills that help unlock complicated issues, invent new ideas, and develop them into implementable solutions Use effective communication skills to clarify issues, agree on desired outcomes, openly consider new ideas, develop them into implementable solutions and plan together for implementation Create and maintain a group climate where creative thinking can flourish and things get done Early in the CBT workshop people learn about their own preferred modes of thinking and how to assess the preferences of other. They will received a thinking style profile that will give them insight into why they feel comfortable and contribute easily in some group situations and find working with other groups difficult. Our engaging interactive game, Diversity, helps groups identify their thinking style strengths and potential problem solving blind spots. From there, they learn ways to work together and take advantage of one another's strengths. Throughout the CBT workshop people learn skills that help them work more effectively in different situations. Teams come together for three primary reasons-to share information, invent ideas to solve problems or leverage opportunities, and make decisions. Many groups don't realize that each calls for a different kind of thinking. At the CBT workshop, people will learn how to shift their thinking appropriately as they work together in varying situations. In order for groups to become excellent problem solvers and opportunity finders, they need creative thinking tools and an agreed upon process they can use together to clarify their vision, invent ways to get there and then make it happen. At CBT people have numerous opportunities to practice these skills while working on real time problems that are important to them. General Content Areas… The costs of a badly run team meeting Maximizing time together Finding ideas by letting go of the problem Different roles played out in an effective team meeting How to begin team meetings when the first person arrives How to process team meetings so each one builds on the success of the one before Group idea-finding techniques Idea evaluation techniques How to deal effectively with conflict Learning from what didn't work Why it's important to celebrate success Workshop Logistics… The basic CBT workshop is two days. Maximum number of participants is 18. You will get the best results when intact teams go through the program together. Learning together strengthens a team and assures fast implementation of the principles and practices they learn. Approximately two weeks before the program each participant receives a pre-workshop packet that helps them focus on the coming experience and set expectations. We will work with team leaders to identify important business problems/opportunities to work on during the workshop as they apply the principles and practices presented during the workshop. That means the workshop is a WORKshop…people working together on real time issues and inventing and developing new ideas they can implement. Advanced CBT Workshop… The advanced CBT workshop is designed to teach people to facilitate creative problem solving meetings. Length of time varies depending on the number of participants. People work in groups of seven. Minimum number of workshop days is two. The basic two day CBT workshop is a prerequisite. Workshop Costs… Contact us for current CBT rates. We offer special discounts for booking more than one program over twelve months. Call 727-391-5080 Applied Creativity
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Much of today's corporate work gets done through teams. It's not a short term trend or fad that will soon end. In today's quickly changing global marketplace, more and more people will spend their entire careers moving from one project team to another.
