Do you face challenges that don't lend themselves to obvious or straightforward solutions? Is hard work not paying off for you anymore? Do you need new insights to move your business forward? Do you worry that your ideas are not worth the investment of time and energy required to bring them to fruition?
You may need to become more creative in your business problem solving.
Creativity is the formation of something original, either tangible, such as work of art, or intangible, such as an idea. Creativity can be applied to descriptions, to how we see the world. It can be applied to problem solving and it can be used to design new things. Mastering creativity opens up a whole new world of possibilities. It enlists your imagination as an effective problem solving tool.
While this workshop series is business-focused, it adds another dimension of thought often missing from practical disciplines. Anyone who wants to find and develop a new business idea will benefit from it.
In this first creativity workshop you will learn:
Participants can expect to come away from this workshop series with a greater creativity in every task they approach both individually and in collaboration with others. This includes the ability to invent new possibilities and to solve problems more effectively. Creativity is the foundation to creating new products, services, processes, business models, and startups. Additionally, creative individuals are more engaged and productive even in tasks that don’t require creativity.
This workshop is a series of one hour planned, instructor-led presentations in which concepts are taught and reinforced through discussions, demonstrations, and exercises, using real situations and problems that the participants face.
The overall series will include:
Fee: Free
Location
CreateFW
400 Bryan Ave
Fort Worth, 76104
Edward A. Ipser, Jr. PhD is President of IpserLab LLC, a startup foundry and Managing Partner at Coactify Inc., a creative pivot and turnaround consultancy. He has founded, cofounded, joined, and advised many startups. As founder of MarketFusion he raised $23M in venture capital. He also founded SVASE (Silicon Valley Association of Software Entrepreneurs) in 1996 which became the premier Silicon Valley entrepreneurial organization before merging into SVForum. He graduated from TCU with majors in Math, Psychology, and Economics and received a PhD in computer science from USC.
Creativity is the formation of something original, either tangible, such as work of art, or intangible, such as an idea. Creativity can be applied to descriptions, to how we see the world. It can be applied to problem solving. And it can be used to design new things. Mastering creativity opens up a whole new world of possibilities. It enlists your imagination as an effective problem solving tool.
Problem solving is the process of identifying solutions to problems in order to achieve goals. Our pursuit of goals often leads us into obstacles that we must overcome in order to make progress. Problems can range from the simple to the complex or even seemingly intractable. Sometimes problem solving requires nothing more than applying proven techniques but often overcoming an obstacle requires creativity and innovation to find a new, unique solution which may be turned into valuable intellectual property.
Innovation is the commercialization of new and better products, technologies, methods, processes, and business models. Innovation, thus, has a practical, market focus. The ultimate test of an innovation is its fate in the marketplace as a product or service, such as the smart phone or a cellular service, or as part of a larger business model, such as an improved manufacturing process.
A startup is a new company that aims to discover a scalable business model that enables it to grow quickly to address a very large market opportunity. Working with new technologies and entering new markets it faces high uncertainty and risks a higher rate of failure than most businesses. Founders struggle, sometimes for years, to birth their vision. But when they finally succeed they are instantly vaulted into fame and fortune and their business becomes a new household name.
Critical thinking is the deliberate, methodical, and purposeful pursuit of truth. It aims to discern the best answer to a question, conclusion to a discussion or debate, or judgment of a situation by utilizing the best methods and avoiding common errors. It is purposeful, directed at questions and problems of importance.
Execution is getting the right things done. Individual execution entails setting goals and prioritizing actions in order to best meet those goals. Execution requires focus, leverage, engagement, and accountability. Organizational execution requires assigning the right people to the right tasks. But execution is challenging because we face uncertainty and shifting priorities and this often requires us to change our behavior, to do new things and learn new ways.
Communication is the presentation or exchange of information and ideas through speech, writing, and behavior. It aims to align our understanding, requests, demands, and expectations. Organizational success depends utterly upon effective internal communication. But communication is also crucial to relationships with customers, suppliers, partners, not to mention family and friends.
Marketing has a twofold mission: first, to identify and understand customers and their needs and, second, to persuade potential customers to buy the products and services offered by the firm. Marketing is communication that generates leads for sales. It begins with customer and industry research including individual interviews and focus groups and ends with brand building, content marketing, advertisement campaigns, social media, trade shows, and direct mail campaigns.
Management is the coordination of resources and, especially, employee activity towards the goals of the firm. Managers direct employees to use resources including budget, materials, components, parts, and technology in defined processes as well as open ended problem solving. Managers also develop and refine those processes from their experience as well as higher level business strategies, working on the business as well as in it.
Leadership is the act of inspiring, motivating, and ultimately enlisting others toward shared goals through communication and by example. Leaders create and share a vision and mission for the future of the team or organization and bring others into enthusiastic alignment with it. Successful leaders draw followers who are willing to set aside their individual interests for the shared goals of the group.
Coaching is a technique for bringing out the best in another through an intimate conversation that includes probing questions that uncover opportunities for improvement and includes mentoring, teaching, tutoring, and training. Usually, but not always, the coach brings his own expertise to the coaching but he eschews directing, telling, giving advice, problem solving in favor of asking, listening, acknowledging, articulating, and challenging.
Economics is a model of individual, corporate, and government behavior in the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Microeconomics describes the interactions of individual agents as buyers and sellers and the outcomes of those interactions. Macroeconomics looks at the economy as a complete system where production, consumption, saving, and investment interact including labor, capital, and land, currency inflation, economic growth, and the impact of public policies.
For more information, contact Edward A. Ipser, Jr. (ipser@ipser.com)
Copyright © Edward A. Ipser, Jr. All rights reserved.
