THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS GROUP

This group has been particularly active within the institute in recent years.  The group has produced a number of world class courses that have been made available to professionals all over the globe.  A number of the courses have been offered through the Continuing Education departments of a number of universities including the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia.  Numerous courses have also been delivered to eager audiences within various organizations and corporations.   The world famous Program for Executive Development offered by the University of British Columbia has featured the Institute Director, Dr. Paul Tinari, presenting a course in the area of methods for enhancing executive creativity and innovation.

Below follows a partial listing of some of the more popular courses offered by the Pacific Institute.  For additional information on these and other educational programs offered by the institute, please contact the Director by E-Mail.

Advanced Concepts in Innovation Thinking & Creative Problem Solving for Professionals 

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Paul D. Tinari Ph.D., M.Ed., P.Eng.

POSITION: Director, Pacific Institute for Advanced Study. 

ADDRESS: 936 Thermal Drive, Coquitlam, B.C., V3J-6R8. 

TEL: (604) 469-7946  FAX: (604) 469-3552  E-MAIL: pacific@imag.net 

Why Topic is Important: 

More than 90% of the technology that we will interact with at the beginning of the 21st century has not yet been invented. Those responsible for introducing these critical innovations will be greatly rewarded. Those who are unable to adapt, innovate and create will be left behind. It is therefore imperative to foster the development of creativity and innovative thinking in today's technical and business leaders. Innovative thinking is a skill that can be taught. Many highly intelligent people are actually poor innovators because of inefficient thinking patterns. This course will provide the skills necessary for individuals to think critically about a broad spectrum of difficult problems of concern to them and  to develop the ability to produce innovative solutions to these problems at will. 

 

Most Important Concepts Conveyed by the Seminar: 

• To learn how to use the brain's capabilities to the fullest possible extent. 

• To develop creative problem solving skills. 

• To investigate how to become a change agent within an organization. 

Target Audience 

This course is designed for all those whose success and survival in their jobs or in their daily lives depends on their ability to innovate and to sustain a high level of creativity. This course will benefit everyone from the CEO and executive managers, to engineering professionals, military/peacekeeping personnel, inventor, software developer or interested layperson. 

Projected Level of Interest: 

Previous presentations of the seminar have generated high levels of interest and significant enthusiasm. This course has been given consistently excellent ratings by participants. 

Seminar Content

FUNDAMENTALS 

* The Difference Between Intelligence and Creativity 

* The Nature of Knowledge 

* Factors in Learning & Memory 

* Brain Architecture 

* The Roots of Creative Genius 

* Innovation, Change and Personality 

* Application of Elements of Personality to Creativity 

* Application of the Five Elements to Problem Solving 

* Profiles of Some Creative Individuals 

* Why Traditional Management is Anti-Innovative 

THE ESSENCE OF CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING 

* Enhancing Creative Potential 

* Mind Mapping 

* Creative Use of Play and Humour 

* Limiting Mind Sets 

* Relating to the Unrelated 

* The Four Roles of the Creative Process 

* Generating New Ideas 

* Quality of Ideas & Solutions 

CREATIVE THINKING 

* Thinking 

* Understanding Creative Thinking 

* Developing Creative Thinking 

* Application of Creative Thinking to Problem Solving 

* Perceiving 

* Belief & Knowledge 

* Language & Imagery 

* Relating & Organizing

INVENTION 

* The Requirements and Environment for Invention 

* The Establishment of an Optimal Intellectual Climate 

* Innovation and the Technical Environment 

* The Business and Social Environment for Invention 

* Innovation, Risk and the Economic & Political Environment 

* How to Kill Creativity 

THE ART AND PRACTICE OF THE LEARNING, CREATING AND INNOVATING ORGANIZATION 

* Why Innovation? 

* The Learning Individual 

* The Continuously Learning & Innovating Organization 

* A Case Study: SEMCO 

* Rules Governing New Product Innovation 

* The Stage-Gate System for Product Innovation 

* Assuring New Product Success 

* Organizing for Innovation - The Office 

* Skunkworks - How to Set One Up Without Smelling Up the Place. 

* The Joy of Procrastinating 

* Commercializing New Ideas 

* The Successful Failure 

* Commercializing New Ideas 

* How to Innovate Without Getting Fired First 

* Creative Problem Solving Techniques for Innovative Organizations. 

Creativity techniques include: Fountainheading,   Attribute Radiating,  The FCB Grid,  Neural Writing,  Storyboarding, The Idea Interaction Matrix,  The Lotus Blossom Technique,  The Mitsubishi Brainstorming Method,  Scenario Plotting. 

SOLVING PROBLEMS 

* Problem Theory 

* Inference 

* Classification of Action Sequences 

* Subgoals 

* Contradiction 

* Working Backward 

* Finding Relations Between Problems 

ALTERNATE WAYS OF THINKING 

* Transcending the Limitations of Language 

* Thinking Dimensionally 

* Sneak Attacks on Problems 

* Understanding Clearly 

* Exploring Alternatives 

* Refinement of Ideas 

* Intuition 

* Resistance and Non-Resistance 

SUCCESS 

* The Many Paths of Success 

* The Art and Science of Success 

* Fear of Success 

Distinguishing Characteristics of the Course: 

This seminar presents an unusually broad range of subjects and covers material unavailable in any other creativity course. The most important topics are explored in significant depth and numerous original exercises are assigned to reinforce the seminar material. The take-home notes available to the participants are far more detailed and comprehensive than is usual for a seminar of this type. 

Benefits of Attending 

Relevance to the Workplace: By the end of the course, participants will be able to understand the principles of innovative thinking and apply them to the solutions of the most difficult problems that they face in their daily lives. Participants will understand the psychological and sociological barriers to innovation and learn how to overcome them, how to harness the creative use of play, the efficient use of random chance, the application of intuition in decision making, the efficient generation, testing, development and deployment of innovative ideas, the art of seeking unorthodox and illogical solutions, and how to optimize the structure of the modern corporation for innovation. 

Specific Benefits: Participants will learn how to: 

• Extract maximum results from private and group thinking time. 

• Construct Mind-Maps in order to release creative energy. 

• Effectively and creatively deal with new and unusual situations. 

• Change point of views in order to gain new insights into possible solutions to difficult problems. 

• Explore for new "raw" ideas, develop them into useful concepts, judge their potential, and how to promote them within a bureaucratic organization. 

• Set up new product development teams. 

• Start a corporate "skunk works". 

• Use intuition in daily decision making. 

• Use the most effective corporate creativity enhancement techniques 

Teaching Methods 

This seminar is involves a wide variety of learning techniques including lecture, individual exercises, two-person problem solving and group exercises. Exercises will include construction of mind maps, drawing activities, mental visualizations, difficult situation and puzzle solution. 

Networking Opportunities: 

Numerous group activities will ensure that participants are able to compare individual problem solving to group process. Problems will be assigned for general discussion during lunch and in the breaks. 

Special Features: 

The course includes a creativity quiz and many mind expanding exercises that can be brought back to the participant's place of work. Many of the skills and activities learned will lead to life-long development and improvement.