Michael Gelb

Michael Gelb: Program Outlines

Based on the book How to Think Like Leonard da VinciThinking creatively, learning faster and leading change, these abilities are at a premium in a highly competitive global business environment. What if you could call on history’s greatest genius, Leonardo da Vinci, to be your personal mentor in cultivating these highly prized elements of human capital? Anatomist, architect, botanist, city planner, chef, humorist, engineer, equestrian, inventor, geographer, geologist, military scientist, musician, painter, philosopher and raconteur, Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) helped bring the Western world out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Now, as we move from the Bureaucratic/Industrial Age into the Information/Imagination Age, his approach to optimizing human potential is more relevant than ever.

This dynamic, highly-interactive program brings da Vinci’s genius to life through fascinating biographical and historical information, setting the stage for an introduction to seven principles for thinking “a la Leonardo.”

Participants are then guided to apply the principles, through a proven series of practical exercises, to your organization’s greatest challenges. Participants will learn how to:

• Think creatively.
• Cultivate independent thinking.
• Improve learning ability with age.
• Find opportunity in uncertainty.
• Improve memory and problem solving.
• Balance mind and body to reduce stress.
• Nurture creativity and innovation in the workplace.

Leonardo invented the parachute before anyone could fly! Imagine what your organization could accomplish with that kind of innovative thinking.

Innovate Like Edison
The 5-Step System for Breakthrough Business Success
Audience: Leaders, managers, professionals, people working on innovation teams
Competencies: Individual innovation literacy, cultivating an organizational culture that supports innovation
Program formats: keynote to three-day workshop

Leonardo was probably the most creative person who ever lived but Thomas Edison is history’s greatest practical innovator. Beyond his invention of the phonograph, motion pictures and a system to light the world, Thomas Edison invented the rigorous, disciplined process of innovation.

In addition to creating the world’s first Industrial Research and Development laboratory, Edison was also a master at promoting a culture of innovation. Moreover, he understood that the principles of personal success and organizational innovation go hand-in-hand. Personal success and fulfillment requires you to learn how to think like an innovator; and, for your organization to be successful, innovation is now more important than ever.

This program introduces Edison’s Five Competencies of Innovation™. They are:

• Solution-Centered Mindset
• Kaleidoscopic Thinking
• Full-Spectrum Engagement
• Master Mind Collaboration
• Super-Value Creation

Each competency will be brought to life with specific, practical “take-home” applications. This program is readily adaptable to specific organizational challenges. It can also be combined with “How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci” to focus on optimizing creativity AND innovation.

BRAIN POWER: Improve Your Mind as You Age
Audience: Anyone with a brain who is aging
Competencies: Creative longevity, memory improvement, wellness
Program formats: Keynote speech, half-day to three-day workshop

In the last 30 years the scientific evidence supporting the notion that your mind can improve through the years has become overwhelming. Clearly, the question is no longer whether your mind can improve with age, but rather how you can optimize your mental powers as you get older.

This program presents practical, evidence-based information on improving your mind throughout life. Most of us were raised with faulty ideas about our mental capacity – such as the notion that IQ is fixed at age 5, that brain cells degrade yearly after age 30, and that memory and learning ability inevitably decline with age.

These notions, based on the scientific understanding that was prevalent in the 1950s, are myths – dangerous myths that can stifle our ability to flourish in the second half of life.

Just as Copernicus overturned the myth that the earth was at the center of the universe, so contemporary neuroscience has revolutionized our understanding of the potential to improve mental functioning as we age.

In this compelling, inspirational and supremely practical program you’ll be presented with the evidence for this new paradigm and, most importantly, you will learn to incorporate this new way of understanding aging so you can improve your mind every year of your life.

Topics include:

• The New Paradigm: A Whole New Brain
• Think Counterclockwise: Adopting the Most Adaptive Attitudes
• Be a Life-Long Learner: How to Improve Your Memory and Learning Ability
• Exercise for More Brain Power: The Most Beneficial Activities
• Mind Your Diet to Nourish Your Mind: 7 Simple Elements of a Brain-Friendly Diet
• How to Create a Brain-Enhancing Environment
• Investing in Your Social Wealth: Cultivate Healthy Relationships (and Stay Sexy!)
• Sleep, Naps and Meditation: Rest Peacefully to Delay Resting in Peace
• Applied Neuroplasticity: The Brain That Changes Itself

Conscious Capitalism: The 8 Characteristics of Transformational Leaders
Audience: Leaders interested in Conscious Capitalism
Competencies: Transformational leadership
Program formats: Keynote speech, half-day to two-day workshop

The 8 Characteristics of Transformational Leaders are:

• Authenticity
• Passion
• Creativity
• Self Knowledge/Awareness
• Interpersonal Intelligence/Sensitivity
• Integrity
• Clarity of Purpose
• Global Awareness

Michael J. Gelb provides inspiring examples and practical guidance on how to cultivate these traits individually and organizationally.

Juggling in Business and Life: Five Keys to High Performance
Audience: Managers, professionals, people working in teams
Competencies: Accelerated learning, teamwork
Program formats: Keynote speech or half-day workshop

This program creates a fun, cooperative learning environment. Participants coach one another in the art of juggling, and pick up the balls for each other as they drop! In the process, everyone learns the core principles of accelerated learning and organizational high performance.

The ability to learn is life’s most important skill. This delightful program uses juggling as a metaphor for learning how to learn.

Participants will learn how to:

• Manage complexity and thrive on chaos by gracefully keeping a number of things “up in the air” at the same time.
• Approach mistakes creatively as you learn to “let the balls drop.”
• Use teamwork to create a cooperative learning environment.
• Learn anything you want to as well and as fast as you can.
• Apply the principles of accelerated learning to become a more effective coach for your colleagues, subordinates, family, and friends.
• Juggle!

Discover Your Genius
How to Think Like History’s Ten Most Revolutionary Minds
Audience: Leaders, managers, professionals, and employees working in teams
Competencies: Manage change, develop creative thinking skills, cultivate emotional intelligence, promote “learning organization”
Program formats: Keynote speech, half-day to two-day workshop

In this compelling, multi-media presentation you will have the opportunity to get to know ten of the most amazing people who have ever lived. Each of these extraordinary individuals embodies a special “Genius” characteristic that you will be invited to integrate into your daily life and apply to your most important organizational challenges. Each genius will be introduced through specially commissioned original watercolor portraits and a brief biography illustrating the role of the key principle in his or her life and work. You will then explore how that principle can and does relate to you and your organization.

The full Genius “Dream Team” includes:

• Plato (circa 428 – 348 BC): “Deepening your love of wisdom”
• Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – 1446): “Expanding your perspective”
• Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506): “Going perpendicular: Strengthening your optimism, vision and courage”
• Nicholas Copernicus (1473 – 1543): “Re-organizing your vision of the world”
• Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603): “Wielding your power with balance and effectiveness”
• William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616): “Cultivating your emotional intelligence
• Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826): “Celebrating your freedom in the pursuit of happiness”
• Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882): “Developing your power of observation and cultivating an open mind”
• Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948): “Applying the principles of spiritual genius to harmonize spirit, mind and body”
• Albert Einstein (1875 – 1955): “Unleashing your imagination and ‘combinatory play”

The “Genius Modules” are easily customized to focus on your most important concerns. A recent program for a global construction management group, for example, emphasized the life of Filippo Brunelleschi, the world’s first design-builder; while a program for a computer sales force emphasized Columbus’ optimism and Shakespeare’s “Emotional Intelligence.”