THE INNOVATION EDGE

From Ideas to the Marketplace
Miguel E. Chavez, Manager of UPS New Product Development
Steve Keenan, Director of HR
Eaton Corporation

Innovation involves:

      - Understanding the marketplace for your product or services
      - Determining the highest likelihood of success
      - Setting an environment which allows creative ideas to develop
      - Managing products or services to the customer

“From Ideas to the Marketplace” explores the people and business process sides of innovation.  In this interactive workshop learn about some of the people and business processes, both successful and unsuccessful, that will help you to manage innovation in order to seek and sustain the Innovation Edge.

Innovative Leadership That Works!
John Kanengieter; Professional Leadership Trainer, National Outdoor Leadership School

The dynamics of our fast paced world involve quick decisions, changing situations, and the need for system thinking. Innovative and creative leadership requires one to assess and motivate teams by recognizing and capitalizing on the unique styles of your team members. In this workshop you will learn the NOLS’ leadership model—7 leadership skills, 4 leadership roles, and an individual signature style.  In the second part of the session, you will have the opportunity to exercise your personal method of analyzing the leadership tendencies of any team.  During the final segment, you will be introduced to “the waterline” metaphor of team dynamics, which can be used for group project planning, team development, or troubleshooting.  Don’t miss out on learning how to elevate your leadership skills and awareness.

THE STRATEGIC ORGANIZATION EDGE

In Extremis Leadership: Leading as if Your Life Depended on It
Colonel Tom Kolditz; Head, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership
United States Military Academy

Those who lead in dangerous environments represent the purest sample of great leadership for other practitioners to emulate.  In life and death circumstances, the threat of physical harm strips away followers' tolerance for ineffective leaders. Elite and high risk businesses operate under very similar principles.  Learn about in extremis leadership: the formal study of leadership under conditions where followers believe their own lives are at grave risk.  Colonel Tom Kolditz, a soldier, skydiver, and scholar--professor and head of The Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point--will coach you through real world lessons from combat zones, mountain tops, SWAT raids, and freefall skydiving, and help you to apply them to the challenges inherent in today’s business world.


Applied Strategic Thinking
Eric Mead; Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness

The future is full of opportunity, but it takes strategic thinkers to make the future exciting and productive.  In today’s fast-changing business environment, managers need a broad perspective, vision, and awareness of trends and developments shaping their markets and business.  Many managers are so preoccupied with day-to-day tactics, thinking only of delivering today’s business results that they fail to prepare for long-term success in the future within their own responsibility areas.

The "Applied Strategic Thinking" Workshop is designed to help leaders find balance in two equally important skills:

• Delivering business results and meeting today’s expectations.
• Keeping an eye on future opportunities, issues, and concerns that will affect business results tomorrow.

Developing strategic vision helps managers successfully capitalize on the forces and events that are shaping their world.  Managers can become architects of their future by balancing today’s demands with a clear vision for the future.

Specifically, "Applied Strategic Thinking" is:

• Personal or team level strategy rather than grand, corporate, high-level strategy.
• Practical, very focused, and useful for anyone in any position.
• Simple, straightforward, and uncomplicated (tools and resources).
• Informal; not a structured event or an annual ritual.
• On-going; a process that unfolds and emerges at any time.
• Deliberate and emerging from the grass roots of the organization.
• Linked and aligned with “high level” strategy.

The "Applied Strategic Thinking" Workshop is a highly interactive experience based on a practical Applied Strategic Thinking Model and Tools.  These resources provide a process for leaders to think strategically fulfilling current demands.  The workshop features an experiential learning exercise to provide skill development opportunities for participants. Participants will also measure their current skill level and areas for development using the Applied Strategic Thinking Assessment.   The workshop concludes with a focus on specific action and sustainability plans to ensure long-term results.

Workshop Objectives

• Clarify the meaning of "Applied Strategic Thinking" and the principles that go with it.
• Learn the skills and principles necessary to think at a strategic level.
• Learn how to apply practical tools to bring added value to the organization.
• Learn how to balance today’s demands with consideration for future opportunities.
• Create and analyze practical examples that illustrate strategic thinking.
• Discover how to use strategic thinking skills to enhance future success.
• Understand how to align and link Applied Strategic Thinking to broad business issues and organization strategy.

Read more about CMOE and the "Applied Strategic Thinking" Workshop in their brochure by the same name by clicking the picture at left.