We're all solving problems we never imagined
Whether at work or home, given everything that's going on today, many of us find ourselves in game-changing circumstances.
And while many of us are experiencing a heightened awareness of uncertainty, others feel a loss of control and concern about navigating these changes.
Solving new kinds of problems, particularly in uncertain circumstances, can feel paralyzing and overwhelming.
You might be feeling like your options are limited, and the choices you have aren’t great. Or maybe you’re feeling pressure to conform when you know something different is needed.
Tackling new problems with the same thinking we have in the past isn’t gratifying. It doesn’t get us to where we want to be, and it doesn’t allow us to face the future resourcefully.
In times like these, we need to be creative.
about Being Creative
I've never taken a course on creativity before, given the amount of options I was overwhelmed and not sure what to expect. Pleasantly thrilled so far, very d...
Read MoreI've never taken a course on creativity before, given the amount of options I was overwhelmed and not sure what to expect. Pleasantly thrilled so far, very digestable content that I can use at my own pace, implementing things as I go, + a cool discussion feature that makes things more collaborative and fun.
Read LessI liked this part very much. Janice explains everything very clearly. She also teaches us how the creative thinking process works which helps you to understa...
Read MoreI liked this part very much. Janice explains everything very clearly. She also teaches us how the creative thinking process works which helps you to understand it also our of a rational point of view. It motivates to start the course.
Read LessAnd I'm here to help you.
For over a decade, I worked as a change manager on information technology and business transformation projects. And I observed something that made me curious. When the teams I was working with came up against something new and out of the ordinary, they had difficulty solving problems, and they got stuck.
It sent me on a search for a solution and led me to complete a Masters of Science degree in Creativity and Change Leadership. It inspired me to complete more than ten years of research on how to teach people to be more creative so they can discover innovative solutions and achieve more effective results.
Little did I know that all this learning and research would provide a perfect backdrop to solving problems and navigating change in my own life. It became a lifesaver when my marriage ended, and so many other aspects of my life seemed to move in a perpetual state of change.
What I discovered was the resourcefulness that comes with being creative. And what I learned was that being creative – the stuff that’s the well-spring of innovation, rather than creativity as a form of expression - went far beyond creative thinking.
Being creative meant encompassing a mindset and an emotional skill set – learning a new way of orienting myself mindfully to the world inside me and outside of me. We need to learn to resourcefully and resiliently respond to change and find extraordinary solutions that move us towards our goals.
The ThinkUP Innovation Framework is my approach and toolkit that has helped individuals and teams transform how they operate, adapt to evolving circumstances and navigate change. It gives them the means to work through the unique challenges and opportunities they face as individuals and together as a team to get results every time.
I work with leaders and their teams in small, medium and large enterprises and early and mid-career business professionals like you every year. I’ve worked with over 500 teams globally applying the same framework and use it in my own business. You can use it on any problem that needs new thinking, across any industry or function. Heck, you can even use it at home.
The skills I'm teaching in Being Creative are the core skills we teach in our ThinkUP Innovation Framework program. These skills ground you and keep you focused on the right things, ensuring you're operating from a growth mindset, open to possibilities and able to discover innovative solutions to the challenges you face.
Creativity researchers have uncovered these facts about creativity:
I've seen it in myself, I've seen it with my clients, and I know we'll see it in you.
To me, creativity is an attitude that transcends paradigms and beliefs. It’s a soul level yearning to fulfill a purpose, uniquely contribute, and leave a mark.
I look forward to helping you on your journey to being more creative.
Creatively yours
Janice
Being creative helps you move through life's challenges with confidence, agility and resilience
Maybe you’re being asked to be more creative. Or maybe you feel a pull to think outside the box.
But self-help hasn’t worked. And your efforts to “Google it” isn’t producing results.
Here’s the thing - while we all have the ability to be creative, most people think of creativity as something artists do.
At school, we're cultured to be critical thinkers, not out of the box, creative thinkers. And at work, it turns out that out of the box behaviour is rarer than you might think.
In a recent Harvard Business study of employees across all industries, fewer than 10% said they worked in firms that encouraged non-conformity or thinking outside the box.
In another study, when employees were asked how often they saw senior leaders challenging the status quo or asking their teams to do the same, less than 30% said often or always; the rest said seeing that behaviour was rare.
The risk of not using creativity to think differently is getting locked into solutions that don’t work for you.
I saw this happen over and over again on teams that I worked with as a change manager. As soon as they found themselves in unfamiliar territory, what they normally did, didn’t work. The solutions they found weren’t optimal. It created conflict on the team and challenged their ability to meet their goals.
Are you:
If you’d like to lead yourself and others to new ways of thinking, you can find a way out.
Through Being Creative, you can become an out of the box thinker who can move through life’s challenges more resourcefully and resiliently.
And achieve more creative and effective results.
Solve problems and challenges more creatively and effectively
Research by IBM, Linkedin Learning and World Economic Forum recognizes creativity as one of the most desirable skills for dealing with change, adapting to new technologies and being future-ready.
Being Creative helps early and mid-career business professionals learn how to become out of the box thinkers who can move through life’s challenges more resourcefully and resiliently so that they can adapt to an evolving world and achieve more creative and effective results.
Use 6 creativity skills to think outside the box, solve problems and find more innovative solutions
Adapt to an evolving world with more choice and confidence
Get unstuck and inspired to find your way forward even in dynamic circumstances
Lead yourself and others to new ways of thinking
Achieve more creative and effective results in your professional and personal life
Enhance collaboration and communication
Evolve and influence how you work
Leverage diversity and promote inclusion
Uncover and manage the underlying causes of conflict
Move through life's challenges with enhanced agility, resourcefulness and resilience
Start with small steps and build micro-habits
Being open, curious, original, playful, mindful and optimistic are at the core of what it means to be creative. They form the mindset and heart set skills of the Being Creative Operating System, a framework that will help you develop skills in yourself to take on the task of solving problems more creatively and discovering innovative solutions.
This deep-dive course uses video, text-based lessons, hands-on exercises, a moderated discussion forum to introduce and pragmatically explore how to leverage each skill in your work and personal life.
Enrich your learning experience with the support of our online learning community.
The course unfolds over six (6) weeks, starting with an introductory module that sets the context for being creative and the skill Being Open. Then, over the next 5 weeks, you'll dive into each of the other 5 Being Creative skills, with one skill being released every week.
Being Creative is an asynchronous online course that launches with an introductory module to set the context for creativity in your work and personal life. It serves to answer these common questions:
You'll be introduced to creative thinking guidelines and shown how the simple habit of separating your thinking will help you immediately produce more effective results when working on your own and with others.
Each of the six skill lessons facilitates a deep and meaningful exploration of what it means to be creative as seen through the lens of each of three core mindset skills and three heart set (affective skills).
Collectively these skills help you enhance your growth mindset and develop the confidence, agility and resilience to navigate an evolving world.
You'll first be introduced to three essential mindset skills:
These skills equip you with the ability to suspend judgment, develop a genuine desire to explore and actively seek novelty, so you can harness the power of using deliberately creative processes.
You'll then be introduced to three heart set skills:
These affective skills represent the attitude with which a creative individual engages with the world around them. When you augment your core mindset skills with the attitudinal power of humour, awareness and hopefulness, you develop inner resilience, which allows you to foster a sustainable effort for change.
The six Being Creative skill lessons are designed to quickly, pragmatically and relevantly immerse you in the skill and provide the hands-on, interactive practice you can engage in on your own and with others. Each lesson is organized like this:
As a skill is released to you every two weeks, it will take you less than 30 minutes to be introduced to the skill and complete warm-up activities to help you embrace using it.
Practical hands-on activities can then be completed at your convenience and are easily integrated into your day-to-day work and personal life.
A reflection activity follows each hands-on exercise via the discussion forum. This encourages everyone to complete the learning cycle after each exercise and helps the learning to stick.
The discussion forum is moderated by a trained course facilitator who can offer encouragement, highlight the insights and offer builds that create a rich learning opportunity. You get the benefit of experiencing how others are learning and the guidance of a trained course facilitator.
For each skill, you'll receive:
The 6 Being Creative Skill lessons are designed to quickly, pragmatically and relevantly immerse you in the skill and provide a hands-on, interactive practice you can engage in on your own and with others. Each lesson is organized to help you:
Warm up to the skill
Guided practice - know exactly how to approach real-life practice on your own and with others
Use the Discussion Forum after each practice activity to complete the learning cycle; reflect on your experience, capture ideas and insights and connect to future possibilities
Learn from others - make connections and build on others' experience
Interact with a trained facilitator in the Discussion Forum who can provide encouragement, highlight insights, answer questions and offer builds that create a rich learning opportunity
Welcome to Being Creative!
Getting Started and Tour of your Learning Portal
TO DO: Download Adobe Acrobat
TO DO: Survey
Warming up to Being Creative
The Wisdom in Being Curious
Warming Up to Being Curious
Practice Being Curious with Yourself
Becoming Curious with Others
Leading Others to Be More Curious
The Wisdom in Being Open
Warming Up to Being Open
Practice Being Open with Yourself
Becoming Open with Others
Leading Others to Be More Open
The Wisdom in Being Original
Warming Up to Being Original
Practice Being Original with Yourself
Becoming Original with Others
Leading Others to Be More Original
The Wisdom in Being Mindful
Warming Up to Being Mindful
Practice Being Mindful with Yourself and Others
Leading Others to Be More Mindful
The Wisdom in Being Playful
Warming Up to Being Playful
Practice Being Playful with Yourself and Others
Leading Others to Be More Playful
The Wisdom in Being Optimistic
Warming Up to Being Optimistic
Practice Being Optimistic with Yourself and Others
Leading Others to Be More Optimistic
Liked, Learned, Surprised
Congrats! Here's what's next...
Micro-lessons help you build skills quickly
Practice anytime, anywhere
By deepening your practice
All prices are in USD.
$197.00
Regular price
Top Features
Learning: Take a deep dive into learning the Being Creative Mindset skills - Being Open, Being Curious, Being Original; and the Heart set skills - Being Playful, Being Mindful and Being Optimistic. Start your Being Creative journey with an introductory lesson to set the context for being creative and reflect on key learnings as you wrap up the course.
Community: Weekly check-ins via the in course discussion forum by a trained facilitator.
about Being Creative
on their teams and across the organization
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The course runs over 12 weeks. There are 7 main lessons that will take you 20 - 30 minutes to complete, and practice exercises you can do at your own pace and in real-life situations where you want to leverage creativity.
This is a self-paced course. You'll get access to the Introductory and the Being Curious skill modules when you register. The balance of the skill modules releases every two weeks from the date you enroll. You have access to the course for one year. Whatever your timeline, we recommend students participate in the discussion forums as they move through each module. This enables you to learn from others, pose questions to the learning community, and get encouragement, insights and builds from the trained course facilitator.
No worries. You can complete the modules at your own pace. While they are released every two weeks. Each module consists of a short micro-lesson and warming up activity that take only 20 - 30 minutes to complete. Practice activities follow these to help you deepen your skill. You complete these activities on your own or with others, and you can complete them over the two-week period when they are released or when you are able. Once we've released a module, you can discover the content and learn the skill. You use practice activities and feedback through the Discussion Forum and Online Learning Community to build your expertise. If you cannot complete a lesson or any practice activities in a given two-week period, they will be ready and waiting for your return. You have access to the content for 1-year from the date of registration.
Yes! Of course! Our goal is to set you up for success from the start and provide you with the best opportunity to excel in Being Creative. Besides offering a budget-friendly and competitive price for our course, we offer installment plans to minimize any financial obstacles in your way.
When you register for the course, you will be charged based on the payment plan you select. In full payments will be processed at the time of registration. If you opt to use a payment plan, we’ll charge your first installment at registration, and the balance of your course fees will be processed based on the installment plan you select.
Yes. To obtain your Being Creative course completion certification, you must purchase the PREMIUM course offering and complete all course modules and lessons, and engage in practice activities to the best of your ability. Having completed these, we ask that you engage in a reflective thinking activity and submit a short personal videotaped or written record that highlights the essence of what you liked, learned and found surprising about the practice of Being Creative during your course of study.
We have no formal agreements in place for continuing education course credits yet. If you feel that your professional organization would benefit from using Being Creative as a course eligible for continuing education course credits, please direct your professional association to contact our Founder, Janice Francisco, at janice@bridgepointeffect.com. We can, however, issue you a course completion certificate if you select the PREMIUM course offering. Please see the answer to the FAQ – Do you issue course completion certificates.
To withdraw or cancel, please send us an email with the subject line: Withdrawal /Cancellation Request. If you withdraw or cancel within 30 days of registering, we will provide a full refund.
Janice Francisco
Janice Francisco
