Join us for an interactive day of learning and the practical application of 10 thinking tools at Melbourne’s most prestigious training venue.

People and organisations are seeking improvement and quality across many areas except that which is the most important – the quality of the way they think. If we improve the quality of our thinking the quality of the actions that follow will improve.

The Six Thinking Hats are designed to dramatically improve the way individuals and groups think. The methods are used to look at issues from multiple perspectives and help teams to move beyond their habitual thinking styles to achieve a more rounded and thorough view of a given situation. In this full day session participants will develop:

• a sound understanding of multiple thinking styles,
  

• the ability to design and lay out a thinking process,
  

• The ability to better navigate complex and difficult issues,

• the ability to design and facilitate effective, outcome oriented meetings,     

• the ability to generate genuinely new ideas using lateral thinking methods,     

• and become more thorough and objective thinkers.

The session will be held at Melbourne’s premier training venue and all participants will be provided with an optional work-based assessment with which to immediately start to apply and embed the methods and practice back in the workplace. Successful completion of this assessment provides the “Blue Hat Facilitator” Pin.  Email & telephone coaching will be provided to assist with this at no additional cost.

Course Brochure: Six Thinking Hats ALDC May 29, 2012

To Register: Click Here

For more information, contact Frank at Think Quick on 0400 109727, or think.quick@me.com

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We often see strategic plans, change projects and innovation approaches struggle to gain traction in organisations for a range of reasons. The reasons are many and varied depending upon context, yet from experience I have found that there is one key area that is often taken for granted or ignored.  Getting the collaborative approaches and attitudes right to start off with.

The premise behind this brief post is that you cannot develop sound strategy and then the new ideas you need to evolve unless you can incorporate multiple and diverse perspectives from the start.

The problem is that that when we elicit perspectives, their diverse nature brings us into disagreement and conflict.

Despite our claims to the contrary, we are not good at collaborating in ways that allow these perspectives to both emerge and be fully considered. This is almost a default position for us given 1000′s of years of relying largely on the winning and losing of debate to determine the best outcome.

We all bring very diverse ranges of experience, education, learning, backgrounds and knowledge to the table. These in themselves are powerful forces for addressing difficult issues.  However, this very diversity can be  an impediment to our success. So, before we start to ask our people to become more innovative and produce new ideas,  we need to assist them with techniques that allow them to collaborate in a manner that allows alternate opinions to prevail and be considered, instead of being rejected out of hand.

This diversity is an essential element of good strategy. A good strategy involves broadly scanning and incorporating multiple perspectives. Once we have a good strategy in place we are then well place to generate new insights, perspective and ideas to achieve that strategy. To get the best possible perspectives and ideas we need to have a broad and inclusive strategic view of the world. To be able to develop up a broad and inclusive view of the world we must learn learn to Collaborate and Interact better. If we ignore this aspect we are building on sand.

Therefore before you attempt to drive innovative approaches and new ideas to generate better business results, get your broad and inclusive strategic scanning done first, but don’t forget, that to do this well you must have you people interacting in a manner that allows the inclusion of diverse and multiple perspectives. This is the hard part and the part we most routinely ignore. As a result our strategies, new approaches and outcomes are often not quite as good as they might be.

First Collaborate, Second Strategise and then the best Ideas will come!

Do it by the numbers and your business results will improve.

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Lateral thinking is a way of breaking existing and predictable patterns of thought so that new perspectives, new concepts and new ideas can emerge.

The complexity of the problems we face today demand that we approach them in an altogether different manner. We are not well served by the logical and linear methods we have become so comfortable with over time, and need new means of addressing those issues that seem to have gotten-away from us over time.  These could be environmental issues, public order issues, a failing health system or any of a litany that are never long out of the news.

When thinking laterally we seeks solutions to an intractable problems through unorthodox methods that would normally be ignored by logical thinking. New ways of thinking can provide new options and open doors we didn’t know existed. This is why we have an absolute need for Lateral Thinking. Through this type of thinking we disrupt linear thinking sequences and arrive at potential solution from other angles.

Developing breakthrough ideas does not have to be the result of luck. Lateral thinking provides a deliberate, systematic process that results in more innovative thinking. You do not need to be a creative genius to use these methods, they follow very specific processes and I’d back someone who can follow process using the tools to produce more ideas than any creative genius without the tools, any day!

The video attached is an impromptu capture of a lateral thinking process that trainees undertook to complete their two day training in the methods earlier this month. The and simply outlines the key stages of an end to end approach to developing new insights and ideas to address a complex issue.

Logical and linear thinking are fine in context, but they are not nearly enough. It’s time to seriously consider new ways of dealing with those issues that will just not go away.

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Think Quick, in conjunction with Humour Australia and Absolutely Positive are pleased to announce the first of a unique set of learning opportunities designed to provide participants with a range of take-away tools and thinking methods to add immediate and practical value to the work they do on a daily basis.

This 3 hr “BrainBlast” which will be held on Dec 3 in Melbourne, will provide an ideal learning platform enabling attendees to hit the ground running in 2011 with fresh ideas, powerful goals and the resilience to really achieve.

In one powerful (and fun) morning you’ll learn:

• How to triple your output of new concepts and ideas

• Insights into positive resilience that will help you to perform better in your roles
  

• How to go from Goal-setting to Goal-getting!

As an added bonus for attendees, it doesn’t end at lunchtime on Dec 3rd, there will be an ongoing “BrainBlast” support and networking website to help keep the group momentum going.

In addition to the serious personal and organisational value designed into this session, we have also gone to some trouble to ensure the three hours provides a number of prize give-aways along with a  high degree of deadly serious fun. The aim is for you to not only walk away with a head full of valuable ideas, but also a serious smile on your face.

More Detail & Registration

Brain Blast Flyer & Registration

To register, please visit our BrainBlast site or download the document attached and we look forward to assisting you and your staff to get charged and focused to see off 2010 – and blast into 2011.

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