2008 Directions and 2007 Year in Review

2008 Direction: Group Genius - The Creative Power of Collaboration

Our theme for 2008 is based on a new book of the same name by Keith Sawyer, Associate Professor of Education and Psychology, Washington University, St Louis USA. It is a book I would have written!! It looks at collaboration from three perspectives - team, mind, organization. Sawyer claims creativity is the driver of to-day's global economy and contends that all the conventional wisdom around creativity and innovation is false. When he writes collaborative organizations need to embrace "equivocality, improvised innovation and constant conversation", he may be stating the obvious yet it seems it is far from obvious to to-days organizational leaders.

If you read one book on how to implement your new business model or strategy for 2008 on summer holidays, this should be it!!

---

Collaboration One 2008

Age Proof Your Brain
An International Master Class
led by
Tony Buzan (UK) the world's leading author on the brain and learning and the inventor of the Mind Map
February 2008 - Sydney, Melbourne Brisbane

Are you and your company prepared to face the dramatic changes looming in Australian workplaces?

Over the next for decades in Australia, the number of people aged over 65 will almost double. Within just seven years, 85% of labor market growth will come from people of the age of 45 or over. Our aging population - and aging workforce - is a reality. Yet an individuals cognitive skills can not only be maintained as they get older - they can be enhanced.

Click here for the programme and to book.

Our collaborators in this project are the Australian Institute of Commercialization, Buzan Centre, Fast Thinking, MIndwerx, Australian Institute of Training and Development

---

Collaboration Two 2008

The American Creativity Association Conference
Creativity Across Cultures
Singapore
Feb 22-29, 2008

The American Creativity Association is one of the world's oldest and longest running creativity events. This is the first time it has been convened outside the US so this is an opportunity to experience world leaders in applied and theoretical creativity right on our doorstep. The conference theme "Creativity Across Cultures" focuses on how knowledge and wisdom are created and transferred to practitioners both now and in the future. What role does collaboration play within and between cultures to reach surprising new ideas that benefit everyone? When, where, how and why does the search for solutions cause people to reach across borders, boundaries, disciplines and intellectual territory for creative approaches and answers?

The Creative Leadership Forum as the Australian affiliate for the American Creativity Association strongly recommends you attend this event, if you have the chance and you wish to expand your knowledge on the practice and application of creativity as it occurs globally to-day. I am presenting a mid week featured workshop entitled Making Creativity Concrete and would welcome your attendance.

Check the programme for full details and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me direct on rk@thecreativeleadershipforum.com

---

Collaboration Three 2008
How We Converse Creatively at Work
An International Thought Leaders Forum
led by Linda Naiman (Canada), Creativity at Work with international and national presenters to be added.
Sydney and Auckland March/April (Date to be finalized)

This International Thought Leader Forum, over two and a half days is modeled on the Banff Centre Leadership Learning Lab, the purpose of which is to surface new knowledge and understandings through international peer to peer information exchanges.

Everyday conversations occur at work that recreate and inform the culture and surface the knowledge that resides in organizations. Conversations drive organizations. How do creative conversations occur? How do they affect an organizational culture? What form do they take? Are conversations only words? Is it possible for leaders to direct and manage organizational conversations? How Do Converse Creatively at Work will explore in a very practical way this phenomena from a diverse range of international presenters and perspectives allowing for reflection and movement in the programme as knowledge and understanding surfaces in the group.

Forums will be limited to 30 people. Participants will be invited from wide range of disciplines and organizations. This is not an academic conference, rather a peer to peer practice led information exchange. Ideal for innovation leaders within organizations., consultants and creative practitioners. We are seeking expressions of interest from participants who might like to present as well as participate.

Price $650plusGST includes all meals. Transfers and accommodation are additional. To register your interest please email converse@thecreativeleadershipforum.com

---

2007 Year in Review

A quick summary of the 2007 Creative Leadership Forum Initiatives

The major national research project "Is the Australian workforce creative and innovative?" survey closes December 30 and we expect to have a report written and released some time in the first 6 months of next year. The raw data offers some surprising insights around Australian's perception of creativity. 82.4% of Australians say they recognize when they are being creative. Yet if I ask that same question of people in an audience, rule of thumb tells me the response is far less than that. This perceived gap between inner and external behavior around creativity is of real interest and one of the areas we will be investigating further.

Thanks to all our collaborators in this major endeavor. Australian Institute of Commercialization, Australian Services Roundtable, Fast Thinking, Innovation and Business Skills Australia, IXC Australia (InformationXChange) Mindwerx, The Australian Facilitators Network The Creative Skills Training Council Asia Pacific and Australia, The Creativity Exchange Network, The Global Achievers Network The Leadership Consortium, The Society for Knowledge Economics

---

The International Master Class

"Serious Play - How To Stimulate Innovation in Your Organization"
with Michael Schrage.

Michael Schrage, computer scientist, author, journalist for the Financial Times and former head of MIT Executive Education made a compelling argument for less use of the word "innovation" and in its place the word "experimentation". Michael's position is that it is important to work with probability rather than prediction. The best way for organization to innovate is to have a whole series of small low cost experiments taking place simultaneously across an organization. Once an idea seems to have some receptivity from its organizational and customer stakeholders, the organization should rapidly prototype to determine what the uptake might be. The real trick is to know when to kill the prototype off or to proceed to investment.

Thanks to our collaborators on this project AMP, Deloitte, The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

---

A new CLF program
"Creating Your Future in the Digital World"
presented by Ralph Kerle CEO, the Creative Leadership Forum and Peter Williams, CEO, Deloitte Digital.

The building of a digital community offers an excellent opportunity to explore emergent business models. The purpose of the programme was to explore the Web 2.0 technology available to provide the framework for a digital community and the creative thinking tools and methodologies to fully enable the technology. This was the first showing of this program and like any new programme the content evolved as we found our audience and their needs We started out exploring creativity in the first half of the day, technology in the second half. The complete reverse proved the way to go. Beginning with the framework for the technology enabled us to use that to build creatively the business model and offering. A new series is now planned for Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, late March, early April 2008.

Thanks to our collaborators Deloitte and Fast Thinking.

---

A publication and editorial partnership with Fast Thinking

Fast Thinking magazine has quickly established itself as the major publication in the area of creativity and innovation in Australasia. ETN Communications, the publisher, has just recently signed a deal for distribution of the magazine through Barnes and Noble outlets in the US, without amendment to content. A major victory for an Australian publisher!! The Creative Leadership[Forum will be the main provider of creative leadership and creativity content for Fast Thinking on-line as well as contributing to the magazine. In return, ETN Communications will act as a sales and marketing arm for the Creative Leadership Forum International Master Class Series and Programmes

---

Finally thank you for you're support in 2007. I hope we have been able to inform, engage and provoke you in a thoughtful and creative manner. Our rapid development could not have occurred without your support and collaboration. We look forward to meeting you on one of our 2008 Programmes.