As creative professionals, we are called upon to produce and deliver original strategies and solutions to make our companies or clients stand out in the crowd, requiring a high level of creative thinking and generation of innovative ideas. But sometimes constantly having to be “on” creatively can be mentally taxing. Furthermore, standard working conditions often can extinguish our creative fire, making it tough to come up with fresh ideas precisely when we need them most. What is needed is a way to work better – so that we can create more.

Through exploring various concepts and approaches, including the neuroscience of creativity, productivity techniques, and emerging practices that spur innovation, we’ll discover not only the ways in which our brains work best, but also what’s behind the times when we feel on fire with creativity and when we don’t. We’ll translate this information into processes and techniques for dramatically enhanced creative productivity. Beware: this workshop challenges the standard norms around concentration, focus, productivity, and may change how you work… for the better.

Topics include:

• How to identify and eliminate the mental blocks that thwart creative thinking
• Methods for getting the brain into the state where one accesses creative ideas and ideates best
• Techniques for leveraging the relationship between collaboration and playing games to foment creative inspiration
• Tips for achieving flow states for optimum creative productivity

The goal of the workshop is to help participants:

• Challenge and replace standard approaches to work in order to be more creative and innovative
• Manage time and eliminate distractions to achieve optimal creative productivity
• Transmute negative stress into eustress to inspire and spur creativity
• Re-structure time and priorities in order to be more productive
• Develop and/or regain creative confidence as well as feel re-engaged with work and other creative projects

Despite the prevalent mythology of the lone creative genius, many of the most innovative contributions spring from the creative chemistry of a group and the blending of everyone’s ideas and concepts. How can we best leverage this collective wisdom to generate creative synergy and co-create? Let’s look at the process of recognizing and removing our personal creative blocks, connecting and communicating with others, combining ideas using play, and constructing a collaborative environment to discover effective methods for tapping into a group’s creative brilliance. Through these steps, you’ll learn to capitalize on the super- linearity of creativity to embrace and leverage diversity to create better together.