Yesterday I attended a conference on innovation that I would describe as an Official Business type of conference -- three days, trade show, well-known speakers, well-plotted session tracks. While there I chatted with a woman I have known for six years, a woman who chaired one of those well-plotted tracks, about a very different event -- the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI). My friend is a versatile and creative corporate innovator who is also leading a session at CPSI this year. CPSI is the place where she honed her creative skills and learned the approach to creative-skills training, as well as the leadership skills, that have seen her through a 25-plus-years career at a Fortune 500 company.
I first encountered CPSI in 2003, falling happily into what I called then the two-step dance of divergence to convergence and back again. I was blogging then too, and you can read my CPSI posts here. I haven't been to every CPSI since then, but I can unequivocally say that CPSI offers a mind-opening experience and the opportunity to pick up creative-thinking and leadership skills that will serve not just your career but your life. Who wouldn't benefit from being able to focus in on a specific problem statement, explore a dozen analogically based idea-generation techniques, learn tools for evaluating choices? So when asked to participate in this blog party for CPSI, which this year is being held in my current hometown of Boston, I readily accepted. I wholeheartedly recommend CPSI experience. CPSI is the un-conference, a place to open your mind and tend to its inner workings, rather than stuffing it full of information.
You can read the other posts in the blog party at these blogs:
New and Improved
Segami
Gregg Fraley
Filed Under Missylaneous
Maternal Dementia
The Artist Within
