Why Classical Music Shows Us How To Innovate

Benjamin Zander, a UK classical pianist and conductor, has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. Zanders work with corporations around passion and process is compelling and makes the case strongly for why aesthetic skills must become part of any organisational executive's management training and education.

How To Make Money By Giving..Creatively!!

The Creative Leadership Forum is currently conducting research to gauge reactions to our new series of workshops. When I talk to organisations I am trying to ascertain whether they embody creative leadership and creative and innovative thinking. 9 times out of 10, no I should say, always, there is general agreement that an organization should be creative and innovative. The problem seems to be though how the organization can actually implement and live those concepts. Contemporary IT and its emphasis on measurement of everything, the ever pervasive risk managers and the importance of order in the system, in other words, bureaucracy have made creativity and innovation something organisations can speak about and in most cases that is how far it goes. So are there examples of organisations who live the ideals of creative leadership, creativity and innovation 100% of the time and, if so, how do they operate?

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Executive Leadership Programmes in Creative Leadership - A First in Australia

The Creative Leadership Forum takes pleasure in announcing the first series of executive training programmes to be rolled out nationally commencing July 2008. These unique programmes have been shaped by the results of the recent major national survey "Is Australian management creative and innovative?"conducted by the Creative Leadership Forum in association with Australian top 500 companies and relevant industry associations. The survey revealed that over 81% of Australians had no training in creative leadership, creativity and innovation. The common theme amongst senior management participants in the survey was the urgent need to develop senior executives and employees skills and capabilities in these areas so organisations can better face the challenges of emerging global business opportunities and competition. Programme content focuses on the practice and application of creativity and innovation and the role of the leader in facilitating and driving that practice to produce value for organizations. All programmes have certification from the University of Southern Maine, USA through their Leadership and Organizational Development programme at a post graduate Masters level.

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The Value of A Strengths Based Approach To Life

Marcus Buckingham's presentation in Sydney came as a pleasant surprise and breath of fresh air courtesy of Business Connect. Anybody who has written a book entitled "Go Put Your Strengths To Work - 6 Powerful Steps To Achieve Outstanding Performance" I view with a degree of cynicism - I don't need another self help guru - and with a seminar title "The One Thing You Need To Know" I was sure this was going to be a short visit. s Buckingham, a Cambridge educated sociologist worked for the Gallup Organization for 17 years where he developed a real interest in asking questions, in particular about what made people successful. Out of this inquiring mind influenced by the likes of Peter Drucker, David Cooperrider, the founder of Appreciative Inquiry and Dr Martin Seligman, who is acknowledged as the founder of the Positive Psychology movement, came a view that if you built on your strengths rather than try to improve your weaknesses you were likely to be far more successful in life. His anecdotes were sharp.

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The Power of Disguised Leadership and How To Find It

I was watching the budget speech and the opposition's response the other night and became more and more disillusioned about our leaders and our leadership models. Both sides of parliament seemed to be more content on scoring points, tearing each other apart as if they were in a school playground. Naughty Swan wagged his finger at top boy Turnbull provoking leadership tensions in the opposition. Ice Hockey produced bottles of alcohol in a weak childish and meaningless visual gag to make a point about taxing alcohol and both house captains Rudd and Nelson accused each other of missing opportunities, whatever they were. A no time was there any politeness, any meaningful dialogue. It was basically school boy gibberish as was the meaningless statistics produced by both sides aired on the media immediately afterwards.

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