As the saying goes, ‘In calm water, every ship has a good captain’. It’s only in turbulent times that leaders need to show what they are made of.
With financial storms looming, what can leaders do to keep their organisations on an even keel?
In times of crisis, it’s inevitable that organisations need to do more with less. The knee jerk reaction is to cut costs. But when cost are cut – what next?
When the cost cutting is done
Once costs are cut, organisations need to get creative to survive. Leaders need to harness creative thinking and demonstrate this ability, to inspire their teams to do the same. Doing more with less is possible, but requires structured, strategic innovation to change the organisations future.
Successful creative leaders know that creativity is not a “nice to have”. Creative thinking and innovation should be right at the heart of the organisation. Creativity relates to product design and marketing, yes, but it’s also a key element in recruitment and in customer engagement protocols.
Equipped and empowered for creativity
Creative leaders ensure that everyone in an organisation is equipped and empowered for creativity. This means training. It means facilitation. And it means creative tools that are tried and tested, that are practical and proven – so all voices are valid, regardless of what role or how long a staff member has worked there.
When an organisation finds itself in choppy waters, leaders need to captain the ship. They need to steer a clear path and demonstrate Lateral Thinking to avoid the rocks that can sink your organisation.
Creative thinking and facilitation skills
Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking – a 4-stage process to supercharge idea generation:
- Develop a robust focus for your thinking.
- Seek out alternatives to current issues, problems or concerns.
- Employ four incredibly different creative techniques to generate ideas.
- Confidently implement techniques to assess each idea, to make them fit for purpose.
More about Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking…
Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats® – critically analyse any given situation, understand the real problem, investigate improvement and build a collaborative opportunity – unlocking the creative thinking power of your team. It’s also a great meeting management tool:
- Save time when thinking, problem-solving and evaluating ideas.
- Improve behaviour, without attacking it – reducing conflict, encouraging cooperation and empowering both individuals and teams to open up new possibilities and opportunities.
- Supercharge collaboration and group working – by looking at differing and often opposing thinking styles, without judging if any suggestion or solution is ‘right or wrong’.
- It’s practical, simple to learn, quick to implement and accelerates productivity.
More about Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats®…
Edward de Bono’s Focus on Facilitation™ – evolve and enhance your facilitation skills to deal with the toughest challenges and achieve breakthrough results:
- Be creative on demand.
- Consider benefits and risks in a thorough and systematic way.
- Identify missing information before making a decision.
- Take a measured and calm approach, even in a crisis.
- Use a way of thinking that invites the best from everyone around the table.
Prior attendance on Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats® required. More about Edward de Bono’s Focus on Facilitation™…
Face-to-face and online delivery:
- Public workshops – online VILT (virtual instructor-led training) and face-to-face classroom. More…
- In-house workshops – for groups and teams delivered online VILT (virtual instructor-led training) and face-to-face classroom at a time and place to suit you. More…
- For organisations – training for trainer. More…
About Stephanie Butland
Stephanie Butland specialises in creativity, thinking skills, team development and communication.
Having worked with Indigo since 2004, Stephanie is a Master Trainer in Dr de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats®, Lateral Thinking and Focus On Facilitation™ techniques. She also delivers workshops in Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and The Skilled Presenter™ and is a Belbin accredited and CIPD qualified trainer.
