Andrew Grant

We need to be creative to be innovative. But in our rush for end results fast, we could ironically be killing the very thing that will lead us to those end results: creativity. Creativity and innovation are not interchangeable words and its important for effective business to understand why. The relentless push to innovate faster is producing a toxic culture that may undermine the whole process. In this session we explore why we need both, and the paradoxes behind this that can impact our work. This new talk is based on Gaia’s Grant’s Vivid Sydney “The Battle Of Big Thinking” Debate: ‘Has Innovation Killed Imagination?’, and Andrew Grant’s presentation at the Strategy, Execution and Innovation Informa Forum (Dubai).

Takeaways:

• Learn how to best access CREATIVITY (for big ideas) + INNOVATION (for practical implementation) to achieve the most sustainable results.
• Assess participant CQ and assess Innovation Readiness.
• Develop future ready resilience and skills.

When it comes to the ‘innovation race’, are you more of a traveler or a tourist? Or are you simply an armchair observer? Most of us marvel at the pace of innovation, but few understand how to engage with the topic. Yet your approach to innovation may be critical for future survival. Although we are all keen to hear current market leaders share their predictions, hoping to pick up the latest trends in innovation and stay ahead of the curve, we are not always shown how to practically prepare for the innovation race. Perhaps it’s time to identify just how innovation ready you and your organisation are, and what you might need to do about it. This session considers what it really means to compete in the innovation race, and what the implications are for those who win, lose and are eliminated. Unique global and historical research from a broad range of cultures and contexts provides a sobering understanding of what it will take to stay in the innovation race for the long run. Practical tools for becoming an effective ‘ambidextrous’ innovation leader, able to both draw from and build on the past but also see into the future, are then introduced. This is a ‘futurist keynote’ with a difference, providing real strategies that will allow the much talked about ‘Forth Industrial Revolution’ to be a growth opportunity, rather than a dangerously disruptive and potentially eliminating threat.   (Presented at the APEC CEO Summit Danang)

Companies like Google may appear to be leading in the ‘innovation race’, but do they have all the solutions and can they be simply copied? Our research has revealed that most companies today only have half the story right, and that a new perspective and model is needed to overcome the challenges. This presentation identifies core sustainable innovation strategies for surviving and thriving in ‘the innovation race’. It reveals that by simply changing perspective, new ideas can be better supported through to implementation. Discover how to lead and manage innovation through successfully navigating the 4 key innovation paradoxes. Practical strategies and the ‘polar positioning’ tool are introduced to show how to navigate these paradoxical tensions successfully. The fast-paced global adventure reveals how different cultures and companies around the world have effectively managed the key Exploration / Preservation innovation paradox, along with the 4 contributing sub-paradoxes.

This  is a unique keynote that includes a powerful game-theory style interactive session. In this session the participants become involved in a social experiment and discover firsthand what happens when trust is removed from the equation. Leaders and teams can benefit from this program through learning how to build long lasting trust with fellow team members, vendors, partners and associates. They will understand what to look for in a healthy teams and business relationship, and how to collaborate to avoid those that are in it for themselves.

If you can’t answer these 4 questions –  you need this session:

• What happens when the right decision for the individual is the wrong one for the group?
• How can a potentially cooperative strategy get an initial foothold in an environment that is predominantly uncooperative?
• What type of strategy can thrive in a diverse environment composed of other individuals using a wide range of more or less sophisticated strategies?
• Under what conditions can such a strategy, once fully established among a group of people, resist invasion by a less cooperative strategy?

A FAST PACED active session that is packed full of magic tricks, which quickly segues to challenging people about their mindset and mental models, peppered with some interesting information from neuroscience. Through a powerful metaphor, this session shows the strong connection between what magicians and creative thinking have in common: why people are so easily fooled by magic, and so readily blocked from solutions based creative thinking.

At the end of this keynote participants will develop the ability to look for solutions outside their standard boundaries and habitual ways of thinking. (Can also be presented with specialist magician mentalist including pre/ post lobby magic)

We need to be creative to be innovative. We have heard of the importance of ‘design thinking’ as a tool to be more effective.  But the relentless push to innovate faster is producing a toxic culture that may undermine the whole creative process. In our rush for end results fast, we could ironically be killing the very thing that will lead us to innovation: creativity. An IBM survey of over 1500 CEOs has revealed that creative thinking skills are the greatest attribute needed for leaders in the coming years.  And yet research has shown that while IQ has been on the rise, since 1990 creative thinking (CQ) has been rapidly declining. Whilst 98 % of children are ranked as “geniuses” in divergent thinking, by adulthood this number has dropped to a mere 2%. This session takes the participants on a journey from the classroom to the boardroom, helping them understand the current creative thinking crisis. It looks at the implications in the workplace of a number of dramatic statistics, and shows how it is possible to rise above these stats and develop a creative and innovative culture. Includes a quick interactive CQ Torrance testing that thoroughly engages the audience.

Creativity thinking key takeaways:

• How to identify the potential blocks and essential strategies for developing creative thinking
• Identify the importance of developing creative thinking in order to innovate better

Know the key creativity factors that need to be developed to support innovation