Innovation Institute flies high!

I just came back from another session of the Innovation Institute and heard that there was a nice promotional piece in US Airways magazine.  An executive from BASF read the article and contacted McColl. They had 90 people there last week and were excited about the possibilities. Great job! Looking forward to working with them in the future.

 

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Cultivating Creativity: Innovation Institute redefines leadership and corporate innovation.

A Haven for right-brain creatives, McColl Center for Visual Art also provides a bridge for left-brainers.

The Innovation Institute at McColl Center for Visual Art helps executives not just think outside the box, but throw the box out the window.

In a post-recession economy, businesses are searching for new and effective ways to lead, problem-solve, and drive the kind of innovation that will propel an organization forward in the new economy. Innovation Institute works to restore creativity in corporate environments through smart risk taking and harnessing the imagination. It explains, "No one ever learned to innovate by talking about it. It's all in the doing—risking, revealing, setting aside theories and never, ever hiding behind the familiar."

Engineers, marketing executives, accountants, physicians, and more (including corporations like Duke Energy, Bank of America, and Ingersoll Rand) are seeking out the Innovation Institute programs to strengthen their work place.

Programs are led by an artist, and the Transformational Leadership program takes place over six days. Class themes include Courage in the Face of Struggle and Unlocking the Creative Voice, among others. Leadership program participants work with six specific artists who help the participants find their inner creativity and learn how to manage and act on creative impulses. The Transformational Leadership program is limited to a small number of participants to ensure a more personal experience. The team takes part in presentations and challenging hands-on group and individual exercises. One day's session may produce paintings and sculptures, another may include drafting poetry about...

taking risks. No matter what the project, the goal is always the same: to push participants to tap their inner creativity and to use it effectively.
Innovation Institute custom programs lead teams through provocative processes that generate breakthroughs, teach the importance and value of creative space, and unleash personal creativity—all building blocks to driving real innovation.
A corporation that seems to be "stuck" following the same procedures and getting the same results can try a half-day "creative session" or a multi-day retreat as part of the Institute's customized innovation work. If brainstorming and creative sessions feel more like brain-draining sessions, Innovation Institute can open new doors with half-day or full-day Focused Creativity sessions. And if team collaboration isn't producing break-through outcomes, a multi-day retreat would provide a welcome windfall of true results.
Regardless of the issues or business or individual may face, the Innovation Institute can help unleash your creative core, experience the challenges of creativity, harness imagination, and develop the capacity to recognize, influence, and support creativity in others. Those skills are critical to business success in today's competitive environment.

The Innovation Institute

Yesterday, I was the participating artist in a corporate curriculum at the Innovation Institute sponsored by McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, N. Carolina. The course, created by McColl's director, Suzanne Fetscher, was designed to bring corporate personnel and artists together. Led by artists and aided by a professional executive coach and consultant in organizational development, the students are immersed in a curriculum full of challenging hands-on and experiential creative exercises that attempts to reinvigorate their creative core.

In their words: "From childhood through adulthood, our educational system reduces the emphasis on maintaining creative abilities and focuses, instead, on developing our analytical abilities. The workplace reinforces this thinking and, over time, the value of creativity in the workplace has diminished. The Innovation Institute’s mission is to help you reconnect to your creative side and use it to change the way you live. Experience creative challenges, explore the boundaries of your imagination and, most importantly, develop the ability to clearly recognize, influence, and support creativity in others, and apply these new abilities to your personal and professional lives."

I start of the first session - Unlocking The Creative Voice - and tell them about my creative journey. Afterwards, we have two creative sessions where they get to explore and exploit the source of their creativity. Every other week for the next ten weeks, they will encounter another artist that builds upon my beginning salvo. The ultimate goal is to get them to the point that they recognize their own innate (often forgotten or under utilized) creative abilities. They can then begin to apply the lessons learned in the workplace and inspire themselves and other to take chances and be more innovative in their thinking and approach to work. I've been a part of this course for the past four years and am always amazed at how much I take away from those whom I am supposed to teach. It's a great course and I urge anyone who feels as though they are creatively stagnating in the workplace to contact Barbara Spradling at; abspradling@mccollcenter.org / 704-332-5535 ext. 23 to get more information about the innovation Institute. You can read more about the Innovation Institute at: www.innovationatmccoll.org It will literally change your life.

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