Is it ever too late to be creative?
I gave a presentation / workshop today to the parents of K-8 students at a school in San Francisco. We moved through several design exercises interspersed with talking, reflection, and application to their own lives and the learning experiences of their kids. At one point, the mother of a first and fourth grader said, “my first grader is easily generative and creative, but my fourth grader seems to have lost some of that spark – is it too late for her to be creative? What about me?”
**Cue vigorous shaking**
No!! It’s never too late for anyone to adopt creative practices and apply them successfully to many aspects of their lives. Creativity comes naturally to youngsters who are encouraged to wonder, question, explore, and experiment. Facets of our culture and educational system subdue these pursuits in a large majority of us, leading many adults to believe that creativity is cut and dry, either / or, have or have not. I disagree.
Creativity is a learned, rigorous process. It’s not easy, and it needs to be practiced. Many of us took calculus in high school. We took tests in calculus and passed (usually). How many of us could pass that calculus test today? With no practice? Not me.
You see my point. We all have creative ability baked in us, but we need to nurture, activate, and use it to bring it out and use it successful in our lives and work.
Read MoreDesign thinking, creative capacity, innovation…
We’ll help you find the right process. You pick the name.
(1) We talk with you to discuss your goals, hopes, dreams, and constraints.
(2) We get to know your organization and culture through an initial, pre-project workshop.
(3) We scope and customize a design and innovation offering specific to your needs.
(4) We co-create and co-deliver content with you, so the learning remains embedded in your organization.
Contact us to get started.
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1. Get to know it
Explore design thinking for the first time
Experiment with design tools by tackling a challenge outside of your discipline. Focus on building expertise in process as opposed to content. These high-impact, high-energy workshops are created to give your team an initial taste of process and potential.
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2. Experience it
Hone your skills and push your company forward.
We’ll help you craft a set of design processes applicable to a challenge your organization is facing. You’ll learn to select the right tools for specific tasks with a lot of hands on coaching and guidance throughout the project.
Do you want to lead it, own it, and tweak it?
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3. Lead it, own it, tweak it
Learn to train others.
People, place, stimuli, tools, and time – five components of creating successful design and innovation sessions. We’ll train you in the best way to execute in your organization.
If you’re worried about time, you aren’t alone. We’ll work with you to find the best, most efficient ways to integrate innovation learnings into your company culture. It’s all about creating small, low barrier to entry steps to energize your hard-working team.
Limited budget? We’re flexible in our workshop and engagement setups. We keep our operating costs low so that we can offer you the most competitive prices. Let us know your budget and we’ll maximize what we can offer you.
Trying to create a space for innovation but you’ve got no…space? We’ll show you how to transform hallways, create impromptu nooks, hijack conference rooms with temporary structures and more. There is always a way.
Feel like you’re ready to spread it?
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Testimonials
Carissa Carter
"Carissa is outstanding at leading teams and working with customers. Her Creative Explosion sessions with customers were always engaging entertaining, and valuable. Her enthusiasm and energy is contagious.”-Tom Granzow, Associate Director of R&D, Advanced Concepts at Stryker Medical
"Carissa has been enormously helpful in the early stages of our company. Carissa was referred to me through a mutual friend, and she came in very very early to interview customers and develop insights for design elements needed to win our target customers. I can honestly say that Carissa has provided insights not only in understanding various patterns/behaviors of our customer, but also recommending specific/actionable design innovations we wouldn't have thought of otherwise."
-Rich Menendez, CEO Workshop Cafe