Creating a Culture for Strategic Innovation

Emotional Intelligence for Leaders Part 1 – Me at my best
Develop the self-awareness that allows you to bring your finest self to work.

• Self-awareness - preferences, values and emotions 
• Self-management - resilience, peak performance, balance 

Reflection Question: If you had everything you needed to handle ambiguity and perform at your best, what problems could you solve at work?

Emotional Intelligence for Leaders Part 2 – My team and relationships
Build effective work practices that support your team, its members and their goals

• Relationship management - praise, motivation, difficult dynamics, conflict navigation and repair 
• Social awareness - empathy, passive resistance, response to change (SCARF model)
  • Status: Our relative importance to others
  • Certainty: Our ability to predict the future
  • Autonomy: Our sense of control over events
  • Relatedness: How safe we feel with others
  • Fairness: How fair we perceive exchanges between people to be.

Reflection Question: What’s the most important problem for you and your team to solve at work?

Team Dynamics
Become a high-performing, creative and innovative team

• Team roles, the composition of membership and the team charter 
• Team purpose and clarity - common goals, purpose and approach  
• Communication, accountability and team culture  
• The 5 dysfunctions of a team, and how to manage them 
• Team trust, proving competence, integrity and benevolence

Reflection Question: If your team had everything they needed to perform at their best, what could they achieve?

Diversity and Unconscious Bias
Create the space for more innovation and creativity in your work environment

• Evidence - an examination of the evidence for bias and how it impacts our organisations
• Awareness - exercises and tools for developing awareness of how bias impacts your thinking and decision making
• Tools - introduction of tools to help mitigate harmful impacts of bias and create more diverse and inclusive workplaces 

Reflection Questions: What will you do in your daily activities to help mitigate the negative impacts of bias? What can you do to help your organisation confront ‘stinky fish’ problems?

Storytelling for Business Success
Tell stories of impact, stories that influence and inspire

• An introduction to business storytelling 
• The science of story
• The skill of storytelling 
• How we can use the strategic stories in our businesses going forward

Reflection Question: Following this programme, what is the most important story for you to tell in your organisation next?

The Greenhouse is a space where seeds are planted and new ideas grow. These are facilitator-led collaborative sessions (held in weeks 3, 6 and 8) where participants begin to apply their learning to a specific work-related challenge. Reflective questions, posed in each programme session, are designed to trigger the challenge you decide to address. The Greenhouse is a time and place to receive support, gather feedback and experiment in a non-judgemental environment.

The first Greenhouse (Week 3) provides the opportunity to articulate your challenge, with some initial ideas on how to address it. This is a chance to share with peers, seek alternative perspectives and adjust your ideas accordingly.

The second Greenhouse (Week 6) is where your refined approach shall be shared for further discussion and comment, this time with a direct focus on implementation. Following this, your idea can be brought forward to the ‘Storytelling for Business success’ session (Week 7). Here, you shall learn how to turn your idea into a compelling and impactful story

The third and final Greenhouse (Week 8) is a programme-closing Showcase event, where you shall communicate your ideas through the use of storytelling, and include steps for implementation. Following this, you will return to your organisation with a clear plan to address the challenge and a compelling narrative to share with others.

This programme recognises that Innovation is not just about the tools and processes, it focuses on people and it starts with you. The programme includes three Greenhouse sessions - providing you with the support to develop your plan for making organisational culture change.

Next delivery for Creating a Culture for Strategic Innovation begins Q4 2023
Five masterclass sessions from 10am to 1pm;
Three greenhouse sessions from 11:30 to 1pm.

Jess Hayden,  BA, MSc

Jess is an organisational psychologist who works with clients who are trying to break boundaries. Jess helps prepare leaders and teams to withstand challenging situations at work and find their optimum performance environment using tools and evidence from emotional intelligence, decision-making and innovation research.

Lucy McKenna,  BA, MA 

Lucy is a learning designer, facilitator and coach, with a focus on innovation and change. Lucy has extensive experience designing impactful programmes that take individuals and teams on a journey from reflection to action. Drawing on research and tools from coaching and design she facilitates leaders to push outside their comfort zone and tackle challenges in innovative and creative ways.

Steve Rawling,  BA

With over 20 years of experience as a TV journalist, Steve knows how to make his message work on television and now helps clients like Google, Roche, the BBC, and IDEO to tell better stories about their work. Steve has worked with media companies, designers, innovators, charities, start-ups and CEOs across Europe.

The Creating a Culture for Strategic Innovation Programme showed me new skills and tools to progress innovative thinking and change in my team and my organisation.  The sessions on Bias and Problem-solving really got me thinking about how I view others and how changing or tailoring my approach can really have an effect on an outcome or situation.  The sessions on storytelling were a game changer - I will use the storytelling decks again and again.  Fantastic programme and highly recommended. 

Gwen Callanan, Cork City Council