New Product/Process Development
The objective was to design and deliver an innovation workshop for 100 engineers and jet fighter pilots:
To instil a sense of shared conviction towards productivity and innovation in daily work while equipping pilots and engineers with the skill set to: i) Identify potential challenges to be improved or overcome, ii) Brainstorm and innovate ideas to overcome challenges, iii) Implementation of ideas (i.e. developing a effective product/solution from simple ideas) and iv.) Recognise the importance of creativity and innovation in the workplace so as to create a effective and efficient working environment.
Result: After introducing the group to a framework for creativity and innovation, as well as a variety of idea-generation tools, including the arts, teams built 3D prototypes using art media, and presented their ideas to improve efficiency and productivity at work. Three teams received funding to bring their ideas into fruition.
Creativity for Innovation
Our company has a mandate to accelerate business growth through innovation and in order to reach our targets we recognised the need for skills development in creativity.
We asked Linda Naiman to conduct a creativity workshop at our global meeting for our Business Unit team of chemists, engineers and marketers, to inspire creative thinking, introduce idea generation methodologies, and develop a set of tangible ideas for new products and services.
Linda offered us a challenging, unusual approach to creativity, which was highly valuable for me. While some sceptics in the audience made it a real challenge for Linda, she mastered it extremely well and provided all of us with highly valuable insights.
We now have a set of principles and practices for fostering creativity and innovation that we are implementing at our Business Unit. I recommend Linda Naiman to companies looking for effective ways to cultivate creativity in their people.
Arts-based Approach to Strategic Planning
Challenge: The vice-president of marketing for an international transportation company presented Linda Naiman with this challenge:
We want to ensure that everyone knows where the company has been, what we are up against and what is our plan for tomorrow. Obviously, one of the key success factors we identified is an experienced team approach to our business. One of the concerns I have is that the marketing staff is involved with the plan but other departments which include systems, human resources, finance and accounting, fleet development and corporate are not as involved. We need to have their input and as well, they need to understand why they are part of the plan. We need to identify key success factors for them. We see ourselves as a company that is opportunistic with an appetite for risk and innovation. How do we convince everyone here of that fact?
Solution: We designed strategic planning meetings to ensure employee engagement in co-creating the future direction company. We used Appreciative Inquiry, World Café dialogue, and drawings to bring ideas into sharper focus and map out a strategic plan that incorporated ideas from management and staff.
Result: “Linda was instrumental in assisting our group to “create” outside the box and to improve also the working relationship between the crews and our office personnel.”