Innovation Creativity and Leadership – Research and Practice 13th June 2011
Archived abstracts and slides: http://creativity.city.ac.uk/ICLcity_talks.html
This event showcased a diverse range of research and activity in this field. It very successfully met its aim “to be a forum for exchanging ideas and sharing experience of innovation, creativity and leadership in both research and practice.” Central to this was the vibrant attending crowd. True to its interdisciplinary nature, the event enabled lively networking across the disciplines, between lecturers, services, students and researchers, between academics, consultancies, and companies, from City University London and beyond. Among the many people I encountered were a MICL (Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership) student glowing about his inspiring and rewarding study experience and a creativity consultant that provided me with a list of useful techniques for change management.
The performance space proved to be an excellent venue although the area used for catering was a little cramped. It would have been exciting to use the space to perform and have had sessions that enabled physical movement, interactivity and engagement with the actual techniques discussed.
Highlights for me included Patrick Jordan’s opening keynote. He is described as a “design, marketing and brand strategist” as well as an academic. His presentation was eye-opening and highly visual and exploded a number of assumptions about human behaviour in his discussion of bringing about change. www.patrickwjordan.com
Clive Holtham co-created his slides with the audience using a crayoned flip book and invitations to interpret the symbols.
Kathy Molloy and Kathryn Waddington explored critical reflection as a tool for learning about leadership. This introduced me to the term ‘toxic leadership’ and also demonstrated how medical staff were able to embrace and benefit from the seemingly uncomfortable practice of reflection.
Sara Jones gave an excellent overview of the technologically enhanced spaces for creative conversations that they have been evaluating and experimenting with. http://hcid.soi.city.ac.uk/cityinteractionlab/
Above all I took away this quote shared by Andres Roberts that “there is no scientific evidence that seriousness leads to greater growth..”. I left with a stronger conviction that bringing about change requires play and creativity. This was an enjoyable day and excellent networking opportunity. It was a demonstration of the kind of event that City University London should do more of and I look forward to the next one.
