This course teaches students about creative thinking and innovation in the workplace. Students will develop creative thinking skills, mentally and physically prepare for creativity, incorporate innocence intuition and adventure into creative thinking, and use creativity to generate ideas and solve problems. The course describes exercises that can be used to prepare the mind and body for creative thinking and explains the most common ways creativity is incorporated into problem solving.
Participants are introduced to an array of methods including the work of brain scientist John Medina, education reformer Ken Robinson, design gurus Tom and David Kelley, Six Thinking Hats creator Edward de Bono and even comedian John Cleese.
As a workshop, the session is heavily focused on hands-on applications, both individual and group-based.
John is adjunct professor in International Business Studies at Temple University Japan. He has been instructing an array of business management courses in Continuing Education at TUJ since 2007. As well as TUJ, he has been teaching business management at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) School of Business since 2000.
John has a varied business career working as a stockbroker and investment advisor in information systems and e-commerce management, as an IT project manager with Microsoft and recently in marketing and public relations with Toys"R"Us Japan. He has written and consulted on business start-ups, launching and operating his own small business. He has written and published: "Making Conversation" and his second book: "The Child's Guide to Nuclear Radiation" is due out in 2017.
John has a BA in Economics from The University of British Columbia, an MBA from Deakin University, a Certificate (with honors) in Electronic Commerce Management from BCIT and is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM).
There was a very comfortable atmosphere in the class. The instructor gave us new approaches, and we gained a lot of useful skills on the subject.