Innovation Workshops
Cognitive Flexibility
Your #1 Skill to manage change and uncertainty
What You Will Get
- Enhanced ability to manage uncertainty in a rapidly and profoundly changing world
- Strengthened sense of individual and collective agency to bring about change and transformation
- A range of cognitive tools to boost creativity and identify new possibilities and opportunities for action
- Strengthened teamwork, respect and cooperation
- Greater focus, motivation, alignment and well-being
- Lasting and sustainable change which endures long after participation in workshops or coaching
CORE FOCUS AREAS
We offer in-house courses and workshops, lasting from a few hours to a few days, depending upon your needs.
Generally, most of our work fits within the broad categories below. But don’t worry if your priorities do not fit neatly into these, as our approach is entirely cross-cutting and modular – after all, we use the same brain whatever we are doing. Therefore, we can tailor our approach to almost any topic or theme. Simply let us know.
Leadership In Uncertain Times
Embracing Uncertainty
The paradox is that while the fundamental operating principle of our predictive brains is to reduce uncertainty, new learning and action can only emerge as a result of uncertainty.
Cognitive Flexibility For Well-being, Focus and Performance
Beyond Resilience
The solution is not just to become 'more resilient'. Rather, to help people identify and access more of their inherent resourcefulness, creativity and desire for meaningful engagement.
Social Change and Innovation
New Solutions Needed
By understanding how our brains (and those of others!) make sense of the world, we open up new opportunities and possibilities for change.
Leadership In Uncertain Times
Embracing Uncertainty
The paradox is that while the fundamental operating principle of our predictive brains is to reduce uncertainty, new learning and action can only emerge as a result of uncertainty.
Well-being, Focus and Performance
Beyond Resilience
The solution is not just to become 'more resilient'. Rather, to help people identify and access more of their inherent resourcefulness, creativity and desire for meaningful engagement.
Social Change and Innovation
New Solutions Needed
By understanding how our brains (and those of others!) make sense of the world, we open up new opportunities and possibilities for change.
LeveragingAdaptive Natural Intelligence
Our Approach
Our unique workshops are highly experiential, combining cutting-edge theoretical background with practical tools and techniques. They are also surprising and enjoyable, as they go far beyond learning a new ‘skill’, transforming how we see the world and ourselves as we explore just how astonishing our brains really are.
We do not seek to replace your existing innovation practices or systems. Rather, to boost them by supporting people to explore new cognitive tools and practices to embrace, respond to and promote change.
One of the primary lenses we use is our AAA+ Innovation Mindset Framework, which helps people identify and resolve hidden blockages to innovation and change. It revolves around four interrelated dimensions and is entirely scalable across individuals, teams, organisations and societies:
- Agency: our perceived possibilities and limits
- Adaptability: our capacity to learn and act effectively
- Aspirations: our goals and drivers, both explicit and implicit
- + Internal State: The overall internal alignment, resourcefulness and motivation of the system
The extent to which they explicitly use the AAA+ Framework or focus more on the tools and techniques depends upon your specific needs.
Note: To keep informed of our public workshops open to everyone, please sign up to our mailing list at the bottom of the page.
Typical Workshop Contents
Below are topics or lenses that we typically use in our workshops, all of which are accompanied by practical tools and techniques to bring them alive.
Which are used will depend upon the focus of your workshop.
An Innovation Mindset
Here we explore how innovation is not only a process to be managed, but a mindset which shapes daily activity. This de-mythologises different layers of innovation, opening the way for an environment which embraces creativity and fosters change.
Our PRedictive Brains
Modern neuroscience views the brain as a ‘prediction machine’ which is constantly seeking to minimise the uncertainty or surprise between its existing model of the world and the world itself. This deceptively simple principle has far-reaching and profound consequences as to how we respond to change at all levels, both individually and collectively. It provides a core lens and entry point for all our workshops and approach.
EMBODIED, Embedded and enactive COGNITION
Our brains are often referred to as computers. But this analogy is highly misleading, as it portrays our cognition as something abstract and mechanical which is separated from our deeper underlying biological architecture. We explore how this fundamentally limits our natural adaptive innovation capacity and is the root of many of the problems related to well-being and motivation. It also highlights the key difference between current Artificial Intelligence Large Language Models and the embodied, lived, adaptive intelligence of humans and other biological organism.
Radical Curiosity
While our brains seek to minimise surprise or uncertainty, as we explore, it is precisely in uncertainty (our brains’ Prediction Errors) that change can occur. Thus, our innovation challenge becomes to balance existing expertise with actively embracing what we don’t yet know. This is often easier said than done, but is essential if we are to find new ways of doing things.
AGENCY
Our brain’s operate on the basis of powerful, but always incomplete, models of what we believe we are capable of and can influence, i.e., our sense of agency. Not only is a strong sense of agency crucial for our wellbeing, it also underpins our individual and collective innovation capacity, as it provides the narrative, structure and boundaries within which we operate and can envisage future possibilities.
Beyond Positive Thinking: STATE CHANGE
Individually and collectively, our internal states (e.g., fearful v open, motivated v disengaged, low v high energy) fundamentally shape how we perceive the world around us and the opportunities available. Our states go far beyond just emotions, moods or thoughts, reflecting our total physiological and psychological configuration at any one time. We explore how we can manage our states, which is arguably THE key competence of successful modern organisations which seek motivated, resourceful, engaged and creative people.
Changing Perspectives and Modes Of Thinking
A key to cognitive flexibility and innovation is awareness of and adaptation to context, both in the short and longer term. Without this we become stuck in rigid thinking and action patterns, with our brains acting to reinforce their existing world models. We explore our brains’ different operating modes or states (e.g., task-oriented to broader awareness) and how to deliberately switch between them to fit the task at hand.
Team Work and COMMUNICATION
Our brains are hard-wired for cooperation with others, albeit not with everyone and not always for benign purposes. This is important, since innovation is essentially a team endeavor and it is therefore critical to understand how and why we collaborate (or don’t) in the way we do. This is less obvious than it sounds, given the complex drivers behind communication and our world models.
Imagination and Planning
Although normally thought of as separate, imagination and planning are both ways that our brains seek to develop scenarios and resolve uncertainties about the future. Understanding how our brains imagine and plan allows us to hack into their (our) natural processes more strategically, making delivery and coherent action more effective.
Insight and AHA Moments
While most innovation is the result of patient trial and error, moments of sudden insight and deep understanding are a peak and profound human experience to be cherished. While we cannot produce insight and ‘aha moments’ on demand, we can learn to cultivate the circumstances where they are more likely to occur. In particular, this means exploring imagination, rest, sleep and dreams, where our pre-existing models of the world (see Predictive Brain above) relax, allowing new connections to form.
Who Are The WORKSHOPS For?
Workshops are suitable all for individuals and teams from leadership teams to young professionals and from social change agents to researchers and academics. While each workshop is tailor-made to the specific audience, the underlying approach is cross-cutting and adaptable to different topics, issues and sectors.
Where are they held?
Workshops are offered as in-house training opportunities, hosted by you. They can be either in-person or online. However, given the limitations of online interaction, only relativley short introductory courses are recommended in an online format.
How Long are They?
The length depends upon what you want to accomplish and how much time you have. They can last from a few hours to a few days, depending on how much depth you wish to go into.
How Much Do They Cost?
All workshops are designed to meet your specific requirements. Please contact us for a quote.
Do You Do Public Workshops?
Yes. We also run workshops which are open to everyone. Please sign up to our mailing list at the bottom of the page to keep informed about dates and topics.
Practical. Powerful. Enjoyable. Surprising.
What Others Say
From leadership teams to diverse organisations across the globe, here are some things people who have worked with us say.
