Description: This workshop allows a group or team to experience the “case study” resolution of the mystery of the soggy pizza box. A soggy pizza box is a simulated problem that everyone understands immediately without a tremendous amount of preparation. The 1-day training session allows the participants to explore Parallel, Pre-Idea, Ideation and Post-Idea Thinking.

Target Audience: Members of management, individual contributors, suppliers and customers who want to benefit from approaching thinking as a skill. 

Organization Issues: Modern organizations continue to say, in 2015, that “Innovation” is their path forward to success. They base this on the fact that unless they can create new ideas they will fall behind their competitors. Turning business as usual “upside down” will enable organizations to see differently. Unfortunately when they use the word “Innovation” it is not constructed with any systems perspective on how or where it fits. Too often when people start to work on a problem or look for an opportunity they jump to creating new ideas without understanding:

• The “focus” of the thinking required
  
• If the new ideas are in alignment with the business needs
  
• A valid quantitative and qualitative measurement of the new ideas
• The grading criteria required to differentiate a good idea from a bad idea. Many times all of the ideas a good ideas but understanding which one is “Better” or Best.

Objectives:

Parallel Thinking – An introduction to 6-Thinking Hats is provided to help participants understand how to use different thinking modes together as a group or team. Additionally, thinking mode exercises are conducted to reinforce the ability to generate amini-culture of creativity.

Pre-Idea Thinking – The iF tool is used to create an Innovation Strategy, set of Innovation Goals, KPI’s, Purpose Statement and Challenge Statement. A series of cluesare provided to the participant so they can create logical assumptions and generate idea design philosophies.

Post-Idea Thinking – The “SCORE” tool is used to Sort, Organize, Rank, Rate, and provide a Qualitative and Quantitative evaluation of the ideas created to identify the best idea to solve the mystery of the soggy pizza box. The entire process is outbriefed to all participants.
Workshop participants will use laptops in their teams of 5-7 to run the background information research, iF and SCORE modules to create an idea sensitivity criteria that is used for qualitative and quantitative evaluation and grading of ideas from the simulation case study.

Additionally, the participants will use the Novate innovation process to coordinate and guide their thinking flow. All workshop participants will receive a set of Provocation Idea Cards to help create new ideas for the Pizza Box case study.

Upon conclusion of the simulation workshop, the participants will be able to replicate all of the processes and tools to use for their own entrepreneurship innovation projects.   

Cost: None

Pre-work: None

Materials Needed: None

Handouts: CD with EIVS case Study files and tools provided to session participants

Website Material: www.rockypeaklc.com/cards/provocation1.htm

Biography: Dale S. Deardorff, DM, is a dynamic, energized leader known for his ability to change the way organizations think and act. A self-proclaimed leadership futurist and acknowledged authority on process and systemic innovation methods; he is a mentor and a catalyst of renewal to many forward thinking profit and non-profit organizations. Dale has a passion for imparting the values of goals of sustainability while balancing the social contradictions of ethics and personal choice.

Dale continues as an instructor for the Business and Management bachelor's program at DeVry and Keller Management schools. For over 10 years he has facilitated classes on Project Management and Human Resources & Communication in Project Management classes.

For over 15 years, he has run a consulting company that focuses on training and teaching "Thinking" tools for Innovation and Organizational performance. He is a prolific extroverted speaker, prominent facilitator, and pioneer in the development & integration between individual thinking preferences and team based performance outcomes. With over 30 years of previous professional experience as a project/program manager, a training consultant, a research and development director, an innovation and a change agent, Dale has often been called a renaissance man.

Dale has a master's degrees in 2-dimensional design and engineering and a doctoral degree in organizational leadership. Dr. Deardorff completed 2 years in an Executive Jurist Doctorate program specializing in Intellectual Property, Trademark and Patent law. Dale is currently writing a manuscript on Think-tion® describing the process of integrating specific thinking steps into prescribed action statements.

His current efforts as the Executive Leadership & Innovation Consultant for the Rocky Peak Leadership Center will be to establish an integrated Innovation International research program using the © Innovation Cube and HBDI™ toolsets. Additionally he is focused on creating "Thinking" development programs for young adults.  He is finalizing a Leadership Almanac and accompanying unique sets of Leadership Cards used for modeling, understanding and creating positive Leadership actions, behaviors and communication ideas.

Website: www.rockypeaklc.com

Blog: www.rockypeaklc.com/blog/

Contact: Dale can be reached by e-mail at dale@rockypeaklc.com for additional information about this Pre-Conference session.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dalesdeardorff