The Athena Group can customize hands-on learning experiences to the specific needs of your organization or department. Whether you're looking for leadership development, to improve team productivity or manage corporate change, let us apply the knowledge and best practices of hundreds of experiences with Fortune 1000 companies.

Below is one example of a recent workshop we developed to unleash the creativity and problem-solving skills of a corporate team:

The success of business today is increasingly dependent upon new, innovative ways to develop creative solutions to complex issues. Through a series of three, one-half day training workshops, participants will develop high-impact, flexible choices to execute creative strategies. There will be private coaching sessions for each participant between each workshop. Under the guidance of a coach, participants will expand their innovation potential. The last telephone coaching session will be after the workshops have been completed. Ideal class size is 12 participants.

Overall Learning Outcomes include creating a unique experience where each participant will become more confident in his/her own creative abilities. Emphasis will be placed on immersion activities and processes, as well as practical tools that can translate to the workplace to drive results. The identification of alternative creative approaches that engage the entire team will be both demonstrated and discussed.

Day 1
DESCRIPTION: Heterogeneous (mixed) groups are capable of significantly richer creative output. On this first day, the work focuses on feeling the differences between immersion and analytical approaches to problem solving. There will be a discussion of the values of and reasons for expanding your creativity quotient. This discussion will be followed by trying out several approaches that engage the participant more fully through visualization and additional techniques to expand the idea pool. The concept of “Mind Mapping” will also be introduced.

Day 2
DESCRIPTION: Successes, challenges, solutions and strategies that developed as a result of coaching will kick off this day. The participant’s use of metaphor will be strengthened and keys to effective teams will be explored. Digging deeper for ideas will be practiced and discussed. Edward de Bono’s concept of “Six Thinking Hats”, as non-adversarial thinking, will be practiced, as it relates to brainstorming, creative meetings and the critical skill of evaluating ideas.

Day 3
DESCRIPTION: Many additional “thinking” tools and visualization techniques that expand the thinking process will be demonstrated. Some include “what if”, subconscious relevance, joke scripts, quotes, props, room considerations, and vignettes. How the brain works & the importance of protein, water and oxygen will also be highlighted. The option to break from self limiting beliefs in order to expand one’s curiosity and work for paradigm shifts will be discussed and demonstrated. Work will also include the development of a self-guided committed action plan that each participant will design, to further their work on creativity and innovation.