Quest Development
Building business through creativity
Promoting !nnovation
Innovation at the Thinktank
A - Z ... From Accountants - To Chinese - To Formula 1 - To Zebras
Since becoming a facilitator for the promoting!nnovation programme run by Winning Moves Ltd (www.winningmoves.com) I've been all over the place. From Shropshire to Tamworth, Newcastle to Leamington, I have worked with membership societies, double glazing firms, timing services for Formula 1 cars, accountants and engineers. I cover ground from simple sales techniques - to advanced creative thinking skills - to rapid expansion strategies. It's been a hair raising but enormously fulfilling ride!
The work I've been doing is in-company consultancy and I have had such an inspirational time working with small business in the West Midlands. My role has mainly been to facilitate in-company workshops (see box).
Promoting!nnovation is a new and exciting programme
for businesses in the West Midlands. It's aims are
simple and direct;
to improve the performance and sustainability
of your organisation through the development of more a
innovative approach to how you do
business.
promoting innovation will challenge your current
perceptions, encourage you to look at your business
from different perspectives and provide you with
powerful tools and techniques to help you develop new
ways of thinking and doing.
ONE programme - THREE elements - INFINITE
possibilities - ZERO cost
ONE | innovation workshops (innovation tools -
techniques - perspectives) Half or full day workshops
looking at innovation and what it means. An
introduction to tools and techniques you can use to
create a more innovative approach to your business
TWO | in-company support (your ideas - your people -
your business) Up to two days in-company facilitation
and support to help you and your team develop new ideas
for you products, services and processes, ulitising the
tools introduced in the innovation workshops
THREE | innovation champions (sustaining momentum
through training and development) A five day accredited
programme and work based project for individuals
(leading to a professional qualification) that will
develop the skills, tools and techniques required to
facilitate and spread innovation culture in your
organisation.
Alternative Meats
At 'Alternative Meats', we quickly realised no innovation was necessary, so successful had Jeanette and Rachel been in their service and marketing, such that the whole workshop was focused on coping with the tidal wave of orders rapidly approaching (see more details in the Case Study)
The Chinese Society
Before I went to the 'Chinese Society', I found an internet site that translates English into Chinese and they were pretty taken with my attempts to welcome them, in Chinese, to the workshop!
The Operational Research Society
At the 'Operational Research Society' Ð they liked the programme so much they took advantage of their second workshop by shipping in all of the chairmen of their committees to do it too (15 in all!).
quest / kwest/n.&v.- n. 1 the act of looking for or seeking; searching; - in quest of seeking - quester n. questingly adv.
A recent email of mine to Winning Moves
Hi Paul,
When I left my in-company workshop yesterday I suddenly
got a real sense of what the DTI's ambitions are on this
programme. It had gone so well for the participants and
given them so much value which they had not got from
anything else they had done or could foresee themselves
doing - and that was so unexpected for them.
So I just wanted to say what a fantastic offering it is. The way the engagement workshop works and is invariably referred to as a great event, the toolkit, the approach of in-company by getting deep into the 'here and now'. I really hope the DTI recognise all that!
