Tool Kits
The Creative Picnic
You know you need more creativity in your meetings but you’re not sure what to do beyond brainstorming? The Creative Picnic will walk you through the preparation for a meeting and give you step-by-step recipes for proven idea generating techniques. Learn more here.
Assessments
FEBI
The Focus Energy Balance Indicator is my favorite among new assessments. The report describes your ‘Home Pattern’…in your head & heart and in your body. That’s right, it is correlated to physiological patterns—the actual way in which your muscles fire. This tool is the ultimate mind-body psychometric. Once you’ve identified your home pattern you can work with alternate physical movement to enhance your access to your least-preferred patterns. The FEBI is especially powerful in coaching.
Innovation Styles
We are all innovative and we use a mixture of styles. Results describe four different innovation thinking strategies you might employ at any stage of the creative process: Visioning, Modifying, Exploring and Experimenting.
Innovation Styles Introduction
FourSight
Where do you like to play in the creative process? Are you a Clarifier or Idea Generator? Do you like to Develop solutions or Implement them? This tool is ideal for teams who face a lot of novel situations and want to hone their skill at problem-solving and decision-making.
KAI
The Kirton Adaption Innovation Inventory has a powerful theory and an enviable body of research behind it. The theory is elegantly simple. We are all creative. We create differently. Scores are plotted on a continuum and each style has its gifts in managing novelty—that is solving creative problems and managing change. Paper and pencil only
MBTI
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the grandmother of psychometric assessments. It is the assessment against which other assessments are correlated. It is robust across cultures and last year over 6 million people around the world completed the MBTI. It measures your preferences in how you like to take in information and your trusted criteria for decision-making. It describes how you are energized (and fatigued) and your all-around methods for organizing your life. I use the Step II Interpretive Report which includes five sub-sclaes (called Facets) for each Dimension. Even if you have taken the MBTI before this version will give you increased self-understanding to build personal effectiveness.
SOQ Climate Assessment
What’s the outlook for your situation? The Situation Outlook Questionnaire describes your climate for creativity on nine dimensions. Best of all, the research is actually a correlation of market results to climate. Is innovation fostered or squashed? Research suggests that 40% of the variability in a climate is due to the quality of the leadership. Absolutely stellar instrument to improve your team’s impact on results that matter.
Processes
Creative Problem Solving
Brainstorming is one teeny, tiny technique for addressing problems that require a creative approach. CPS is a complete process that includes analyzing and identifying the right problem, idea generation and implementation plans. The entire suite includes tools that will pull the best thinking from all personality styles on your team.
Scenario Planning
Every business has a preferred future—a series of events and desired results from strategic planning. It doesn’t always work like that. Creating alternative stories about the future is the fastest and most effective process I have used with teams to open minds to multiple strategies and ideas. This is a great process for long-range planning and change management.
Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching
Do you have a dream to write a novel, compose a symphony, start a business or invent some technology? You have the passion and that’s part of why it’s so difficult sometimes. You CARE about this! The KM process tricks the brain into bypassing traditional obstacles to the creative path. Whether you are dealing with procrastination, a feeling of overwhelm or self-sabotage, creativity coaching can help you break through your blocks to creative production. More…
SoulCollage®
Creating your own set of cards from simple images becomes a deep tool for insight and inspiration. Research clearly suggests the power of image to reach beyond the merely cognitive. Through the SoulCollage® process you can develop your intuition and capacity to reflect and affirm.
Positive Psychology & Appreciative Inquiry
What if we examined examples of success? What if we could amplify what IS working? More powerful than Pollyanna, this body of research makes it abundantly obvious that identifying problems is only half the story. This is an orientation, more than a single process, which I have used extensively with success.
