2. TH!NK DIFFERENTLY Upping the Ante to Your Leadership Approach
Jean Nitchals, Niche Solutions, LLC
May 18, 2016

3. Let’s Get Curious

4. Expand Your Reach Diverge Defer judgment Go big! Strive for quantity
Seek unusual ideas
Build & expand on other ideas

5. Take Time To Reflect Converge Be affirmative Be deliberative
Check objectives
Improve ideas
Consider novelty
Prioritize

6. Creative & Innovative Thinking is…
Making a change that sticks (for awhile) – Talbot, 1997
Ability to produce new ideas that has some value (to others) – Gerard Puccio
Original ideas that meet a need
A mindset, an approach to life. Unleashing your inner curiosity in a way that allows you to be open-minded and true to yourself

7. Creative & Innovative Change Leadership
“Ability to deliberately engage one’s imagination to define and guide a group towards a common goal – a new direction for the group.”
Gerard Puccio
Author, Key Note Speaker on Creative Leadership

8. Traits of Innovative Change Leaders Brainstorm!!

9. Traits of Innovative Change Leaders
Curious
Energetic
Experimenting
Independent
Open minded
Flexible
Playful
Perceptive
Questioning
Self-Aware

10. Traits of Innovative Change Leaders
Curious
Energetic
Experimenting
Independent
Open minded
Flexible
Playful
Perceptive
Questioning
Self-Aware
Which are needed TODAY with your Change Agents and Sponsors?

11. Skills for Innovative Change Leaders
Be open to novelty, the unique and different
Give yourself permission to be tolerate the unknown or ambiguity
Be comfortable and open to complexity
How might these skills help Change Agents and Sponsors?

12. Innovative Thinking Styles
Clarify
Pinpoint the
problem to solve
Ideate
Come up
with new
ideas
Develop
Refine ideas
into strong
solutions
Implement
Put the plan
into action
Which style are you working with? What’s needed?

13. Practice 1: What’s The Itch?
Step 1: Brainstorm: Current Project
Challenges
Opportunities
Ideas
Step 2: Prioritize
Which are you the most passionate about?
Which keep you up at night?
If you solved one, which would make a biggest impact?
Step 3: For each statement identify
Are there 1 or many solutions available
Is it a reactive or proactive challenge or opportunity
If you solve this one, who might it impact the most?

14. Types of Challenges We Solve
Management
1-1 problem-solution
Reactive: Something breaks, process, formula or steps to fix
Proactive: updates to prevent issue; maintenance
Creative Management
1-Many (problem-many solutions)
Predicament
Threat to current levels of service, support, business
New approach needed to maintain current level of acceptance
Creative & Innovative Leadership
1-Many (problems to solutions)
Opportunities for a new future state
Active pursuit of desired possibilities
Opportunities to engage audiences
i.e. unmet stakeholder need
As Change Leaders, which challenges are you facing?
Are your Stakeholders?

15. What’s the Landscape?

16. Changing Perspective
What does the image represent? What does the situation need?

17. Changing Perspective How might someone else look at the situation?
What questions or ideas might they offer?

18. Future State through Behaviors
Empathy mapping can be used to:
identify impacts of various stakeholder groups
system design impacts
customer impacts
team building and branding
Grounds key stakeholders to understand the change impacts on people (current / future).
Goal is to draw out insights and key messages through the lens of each stakeholder group and user

19. Let’s Practice Again!

20. Thank you! Jean M. Nitchals Niche Solutions, LLC
Thank you!

21. Questions