Todd Henry

You need ideas… fast. But, you’re already running on fumes from that last big project you had to crank out in record time. How do you find the focus and energy you need to do it again… and again? Have no fear! In this talk you’ll learn five key practices that will prepare you to produce brilliant work when it matters most, especially under pressure.

Learning Objectives:

• How to identify the 3 “assassins” of creativity and keep them from stealing your focus and time.
• How to leverage the five areas of “creative rhythm” to help you stay fresh and deeply engaged with your work.
• The keys to effectively managing energy and channeling it toward what matters most so that you avoid burnout and needless frustration.
• How to find inspiration even in the most mundane places.
• The secret skill that high performers master that keeps them on top of their game.

Even the most talented, driven pros get stuck at some point. They don’t intend to – they’re working hard – but they find that they just aren’t getting the same results they used to. In this talk we identify the 7 “deadly sins” that lead to personal and organizational stasis and teach how to overcome them. You’ll challenge assumptions, re-discover your passion, and ignite your drive to produce brilliant work.

Learning Objectives:

• The 7 common areas where talented pros and teams get stuck.
• How to uncover and claim “productive passion” in life and work.
• The four questions to ask in order to uncover hidden assumptions and roadblocks.
• How to move through the natural phases of personal and career growth.
• How to overcome the fear of failure… and success.
• How to collaborate and handle conflict like a pro.

You’ve built the “Ferrari” of teams! You’re talented and driven and all the pieces seem to be in place. Still… you can’t figure out why motivating and leading all of these talented people is such a challenge. In this talk, you’ll discover the few things that all talented, creative people need from their leader (they’re not what you think!) and how to deliver them consistently.

Learning Objectives:

• The two conflicting things that every talented person craves from their leader.
• Why each person on your team must be individually and strategically led, and specifics for doing so.
• How many leaders unknowingly forfeit the one thing that’s foundational to effective leadership, and how to re-claim it.
• Why protecting your team’s time and attention must be a central focus of your leadership effort.
• The three reasons most idea sessions fail to produce great results, and how to build a better brainstorm.
• Why great leadership begins with leadership of self, and how to do so effectively.

Doing the work and leading the work are very different things. When you make the transition from maker to manager, you give ownership of projects to your team even though you could do them yourself better and faster. You’re juggling expectations from your manager, who wants consistent, predictable output from an inherently unpredictable creative process. And you’re managing the pushback from your team of brilliant, headstrong, and possibly overqualified creatives.

Leading talented, creative people requires a unique skill set and mind set. In the Herding Tigers Workshop, we address the seven key behaviors that separate brilliant leaders from average ones, and the critical things that every creative person needs from their organization in order to thrive.

Is it possible for teams to produce consistently great work sustainably? This workshop is designed to provide strategies and practices that counteract common organizational pitfalls and help your team unleash its potential.

Modules Covered:

• Understand the dynamics of creative work, the most common pitfalls, and how they affect teams
• Learn to identify and eliminate the assassins of creativity
• Discover specific, everyday practices that lead to long-term effectiveness
• Understand the pillars of effective collaboration and creative leadership
• Participants will walk away with a personal action plan.

It’s not enough to just create “on-demand” anymore. In today’s marketplace, teams need to build a culture that values ideas and is designed to generate them quickly, consistently and effectively.

This workshop utilizes a pragmatic, hands-on approach to teach your team how to generate ideas when you need them most, and to help you implement repeatable systems that put the value of ideas at the heart of your organization.

Topics:

• Simple strategies for exploring all aspects of creative problems
• Learn to use frames and horizons to think strategically about opportunities
• See how to discover stimulus that inspires new and exciting ideas
• Understand how to build systems and rhythms that lead to continual ideation
• Learn how to stay out of organizational ruts
• Participants will receive a handful of tools (such as the Personal Idea Pad) to help them generate valuable ideas.