Pulse Topics and Extension Workshops

With minds and imaginations primed for exploration, an immersion in "pulse topics" which drive learning and performance can be ideal.

“We are still basking in the glow! Your contribution to the success of our conference was magnificent!”

Stanley S. Gryskiewicz
Vice President - Center for Creative Leadership, International Creativity & Innovation Networking Conference
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Pulse Topics and Extension Workshops

As part of our initial planning with clients and partners, we work to identify what we call pulse topics or areas of development just beneath the surface or perhaps partially obscured from view, which nonetheless drive learning and performance in important ways. Selected pulse topics can be addressed in Extension Workshops of one to two hours in length and might focus on subjects such as dimensions of leadership, perception and decision-making, complexity and change, peak performance, stress management, diversity and creativity, to name but a few. A handful of examples follow.

Leadership: Thinking, Perceiving and Judgment

Fluid Perspective, Paradox and Metaphor plus Eight Attitudes of Leadership

Leadership in complex, dynamic environments has literally redefined what leadership is and what we mean by leadership characteristics.New leadership competencies are proving essential, including fluid perspective, exploration in the absence of rules, subtle noticing, the ability to portray paradox and facility with metaphor.Researchers at the Center for Creative Leadership in North Carolina and Creative Leaps International in New York have defined these new capabilities as aesthetic competencies linked powerfully to our everyday habits of perception, styles of thinking and approaches to making judgments.Equally important is a revised understanding of leadership as partnership, leadership as an emergent property of groups, and groups comprised of ever greater diversity.Participants in this workshop will immerse themselves in these new sensibilities and, finally, assess themselves via renowned statesman Harlan Cleveland's Eight Attitudes of Leadership for the 21st Century. (Facilitated by John Cimino, President & CEO of Creative Leaps International)

Of Color & Courage

The Gift and the Challenge: Diversity in Corporate and Learning Communities

In racially diverse workplaces, cultural differences can be a powerful two-edged sword: enriched creativity and human resources on the one side, unrest and failing productivity on the other.Of Color & Courage begins with a "celebration of differences" setting in motion an upbeat, candid dialogue aimed at demystifying the unknowns and harvesting for practical use the unique perspectives from differing cultures. Themes include: perseverance in the face of adversity, facing issues head-on, adversity as opportunity, going beyond lip service, taking the time to walk in another man's shoes, discovering the reality of inner resources, and tapping the power of personal will.Workshop leader Paul Spencer Adkins narrates the journey of celebrated concert artist Roland Hayes, known as "the Jackie Robinson of classical music".Of Color & Courage will challenge participants to chart personally meaningful strategies for their leadership roles in the workplace, roles which stand to profit from diversity as a source of creativity and adaptive human talent.

Top Form: Risk, Focus, Flow

Learning about Vulnerability and Peak Performance from the Arts and Sports

The complexity of today's world demands of its leaders, managers and those ascending into those roles a new combination of personal and psychological excellence: on the one side, habits of mental toughness, strategies for successful performance and improved personal awareness, and on the other, habits of curiosity and appreciative inquiry blended with inclinations toward community and the pursuit of deepening perspectives. The former are the celebrated attributes of high performance athletes, the latter of outstanding creative and performing artists. Participants in this workshop will learn to leverage the powerful techniques of both as they discover the power we each possess to transform our habits of everyday experience into synergies which enable success and meaningful lives of our own choosing. “It is in the moments in which we dare to live as we would choose that we define our lives.” “Every time I do my best my best gets better.” (Presenters, Donna Wissinger and Jon Klibonoff

The Kinesthetics of Leadership

Authentic Leadership Presence: Mastering Your “Still-point”

In this workshop, presentation expert and performer Dianne Legro will lead exercises that help you to experience how it feels (your physical imprint) to perform freely calmly and effectively in the upper ranges of your skills and abilities- while under pressure and in high stakes moments. Dianne will help participants learn to form the still point centeredness (physically, mentally, emotionally and kinesthetically) and quiet mind necessary for authenticity and sustained quality performance. Outcomes: participants will: *experience their own still point kinesthetically... *experience that special state of inner stillness while being fine-tuned, active and alert mentally and emotionally... *learn to replace their current bio feedback system with conscious constructive thought during high performance situations...*learn how to recharge, connect and renew their thoughts and physical energy during daily work performance... *learn to lead with authenticity, confidence, and wisdom.

The Hero’s Journey through the Bach Chaconne

Stages of Awareness: Aligning Your Life with its Deepest Passions and Dreams

“As Man thinks, so Man creates.” This has been a guiding principle of philosophers, scientists and educators down through the centuries. So it is not surprising that one can get deep insights into who we are and how we think by studying some of the great works of music: their logic, their flow, their overall design, the transformational qualities inherent in them that we can apply to our own lives. This monumental work, the Back Chaconne, originally written for solo violin, takes us through the stages of the Hero’s journey: “the call of God” --- a call to transform our lives and undertake a life-changing mission --- and our response to this call. What is required of us to reach that state at which fundamental change is possible? What mind processes must we undergo, what sacrifices will we entail? As the music wends its through to its powerful conclusion we will examine these stages of awareness, reflect on the pain and sacrifice that may be required, and exult in the power that can come from aligning your life with its deepest passions and dreams. (Richard Albagli)

The Arts, the Brain and the Mind’s Best Work

Bridging the Ingenuity Gap in the 21st Century

Scholar Thomas Homer Dixon describes the “ingenuity gap” – the space between problems that arise and our ability to solve them – as growing today at an alarming rate (in business, industry, education, the environment and world affairs).Author Ken Robinson proclaims we are “Out of Our Minds” in America to have sidelined creativity and the arts when every layer of American society from elementary education to supply-side economics is starved for more imagination, more original thinking, more creative intelligence.Presenter John Cimino takes a look inside the arts at the habits of mind linked to creativity, ingenuity and imaginative insight.He also reviews recent findings in the field of neuroscience exploring the brain’s unique experience of the arts and the role of the arts in shaping our most fundamental habits of mind.Lastly, Cimino takes us into the realm of big business, higher education, science and global issues to experience these habits of mind in action.