You know the drill: Competition's up. Profits are down. And everything you're doing is changing. It's the nanosecond 90's and most of us are reeling out of breath, out of time and out of what's left of our minds. It's business as unusual whether we like it or not - and it's time to do something different. Now! But what? And, more specifically, how?

Enter Banking On Innovation - a unique, one or two-day training experience that gives fast-moving, overworked, "no-time-to-think" corporate citizens a chance to step back, THINK BIG, and become a creative force for change.    Suitable for intact work teams or open enrollment groups, Banking On Innovation sparks the kind of breakthrough ideas and behavioral changes that lead to bottom-line results. And its impact does not end after the "happy sheets" are filled out. Participants establish coaching partnerships with each other to ensure optimum follow-through.

What You'll Do:

• Get out of the box (and out of your head)
• Make significant progress on at least one pressing business challenge
• Generate a wide range of new ideas to make a difference on the job
• Learn 7 creative thinking techniques to help you work smarter
• Gain real insights into what it takes to be a corporate innovator
• Brainstorm effectively with peers, direct reports and managers
• Re-discover your passion for work
• Have some fun for a change

What You Won't Do:

• Yawn
• Lose Interest
• Fry
• Wish you were somewhere else
• Waste your time
• Nod out
• Space out
• Hold out
• Squirm
• Leave early
• Wish you'd gone into your father's business.

"You don't just teach creativity, you teach it creatively. In fact, you embody creativity. You live it. You are sowers of a wonderfully powerful seed that now has begun to germinate and revitalize our organization."
Candace Thompson, Director of Training, First Chicago NBD Corp.

Leading Innovation in the Workplace

A fast-paced workshop for managers and change agents committed to fostering a climate of innovation in the workplace. Non-prescriptive, this one day session provides an all too rare opportunity for business leaders to step back, think big and reinvent themselves as catalysts for change. (Complements Banking on Innovation).

Team Innovation!
Get Your Team Turned On, Tuned In, and Tooled Up!

Let's cut to the chase: your team is under the gun and stressed to the max most of the time. You want to be profitable and efficient, but finding the time to reflect, innovate or even plan seems like a pipe dream. Your team has all the talent and expertise to work smarter, but lacks the connectedness, the vision, and tools to make the necessary shift.Enter Team Innovation...

Team Innovation - a highly engaging two-day intervention enables teams to get their act together. A lively hybrid of training and consulting, Team Innovation weaves together the very best of what Mitch does: visioning, creative thinking and team building - the elements most vital to any organization's success.

Team Innovation is not a magic pill, but it will work magic. How? By creating the kind of learning environment that allows real behavioral change to occur. If your team (or department) lacks an inspired vision of their future, needs to tackle business challenges more innovatively, or simply wants to discover better ways of working together, this program is for you.

How We Work:

Our approach is a simple one: long before the session begins, we interview the team leader and each team member to determine the real issues. We then distill these issues down to a manageable few that will become the key drivers of the session. The session is a blend of experiential problem-solving challenges, group discussion, straight talk, vision ing work and creative thinking strategies that get people meeting challenges in new ways. People connect. Fences are mended. Breakthrough ideas are generated. And all without participants feeling self-conscious, lectured to, or "in need of training."

Team Innovation will:

• Foster a safe and open team environment
• Spark innovative solutions to pressing business challenges
• Generate a shared vision of your team's future
• Sharpen team problem-solving skills
• Enhance feedback, communication and meeting skills
• Increase synergy, trust and commitment
• Provide the positive momentum your team needs to succeed

Team Innovation will not:

• Degenerate into group analysis or blame making
• Force individuals into "touchy feely" exercises
• Resurface the same old tired ideas
• Waste your valuable time and money

High Velocity Brainstorming

Expertly-facilitated ideation sessions for forward thinking teams committed to originating breakthrough solutions and acting on them quickly. The deliverable here is ideas, and lots of them, winnowed down to the very best, all with action plans, intentionality and committed teams. 1-2 days.

Idea Alchemy

A 2-3 day certification training for managers, change agents and trainers committed to learning how to lead breakthrough ideation sessions that lead to bottom-line results. Ideas may be a dime a dozen, but a masterful facilitator of the creative thinking process is priceless. Not for the weak of heart. Previous facilitation experience is a prerequisite. 100 page Trainers Manual and "Free the Genie" creative thinking guidebooks included.

Face The Music

Face The Music is a totally unique offering, an interactive "musical edutainment," featuring The Face the Music Blues Band. Our premise is a simple one: Most people who work in a business or organization are usually experiencing some form of the "blues"-- a mixed bag of complaints, gripes, and grumbles that become a kind of low-grade virus on the job. The causes, of course-- real or imagined-- are many: everything from downsizing to restructuring to the lack of a cappuccino machine in the cafeteria. Left unaddressed, these issues restrict and disempower your workforce-- eventually eroding the motivation, purpose, and focus of your entire organization.

"I didn't think it could be done. You turned a room full of analytic executives into raving blues singer for a night. Finally, a conference activity that wasn't the same old thing!"
Ralf Christian, General Manager, GE Industrial Systems

The Idea Cafe

Looking for something out of the box to spark breakthrough ideas and networking at your next conference? The Idea Cafe is an interactive "edutainment" that enables even the crustiest of business people to become brilliant and collaborative in a relaxed café-like setting facilitated by our savvy crew of "facilitators" (disguised as waiters, maitre d's and performers.) The place where Eureka! meets Tiramisu. Fun. Great evening event.

The Idea Greenhouse

A powerful way to kickstart a culture of innovation. ideally suited to large groups, each greenhouse can be customized to meet the specific needs of your audience. teaches serveal core concepts vital to breakthrough thinking and organizational innovation.Helps get everyone on board and taking personal responsibility for being a force for change.

Internovation

Guess who the future of your company is? That's right: the interns, the newly hired. They are the ones with the fresh ideas, who have not been acculturated. They are the ones already outside of the box. unfortunatly, most companies are wired to orient their new hires in a way that initiates them into the old ways: "the way we've always done it" and by doing so almost always diminshes the quality of innovation that can be expected from new hires. Internovation is a powerful half day or full day session that raises the "innovation bar" for new employees and gives them a powerful experience of becoming an acknowledged force for change in your organization.

* Please note that while this speaker's specific fee falls within the range posted at the top of this page (for Continental U.S. based events), fees are subject to change without notice. Also note that most celebrity keynotes begin in the $25,000 and up range (most list "Contact for Fee Schedule"). For current fee information or international event fees, please contact your Speakers Platform representative.