Announcing a New Teleclass Series:

Creativity, Resilience and Making the Most of Transitions

Starts Tues Feb 15, 2011 

With facilitators Linda Naiman and Cathryn Hrudicka

Why do some people suffer real hardships, yet not flounder?
What exactly is that quality of resilience that helps people bounce back from adversity and even excel?
How can you access and use your creativity to become more resilient in your journey?

If you are going through a transition in your career, workplace or life, or...if you must guide your staff through a workplace transition, join us for our 4 week program:

Teleclasses will take place on four Tuesdays:
February 15 –March 8, 2011, at
1:00 -2:00 p.m. PST / 4:00-5:00 p.m. EST

Sign up here to be an affiliate:  http://bit.ly/FebAffiliate and earn $20 for each referral who registers for this program.

Calls will be recorded and made available only to those who enroll in the program. If you are unable to attend all four sessions, you'll be able to listen to the recording for any session you've missed.

Learning Benefits for You or Your Work Team:

• Find your North Star and create your personal compass
• Learn a practical and creative approach to navigating transitions
• Facilitate coping skills and growth in your staff.
• Develop a strategy for creating goals and making decisions, for yourself or your work team.
• Build bridges from present day transitions to a more fulfilling and successful future.

Why is resilience so important?

Resilience is a reflex, a way of facing and understanding the world, that is deeply etched into a person's mind and soul. Resilient people and companies face reality with staunchness, make meaning of hardship instead of crying out in despair, and improvise solutions from thin air. Others do not. — Diane Coutu, “How Resilience Works,” Harvard Business Review, May 2002

We live in a world of turbulent change, and most of us are facing transitions in our lives. Many people have lost jobs, are unhappy in their careers, or have sustained personal losses, due to the challenging economy, changes in life stage, or for other reasons.

Companies, associations and nonprofit organizations are also facing rapid transitions and the necessity to change to meet the demands of a challenging economy, coupled with exponential technological changes. Sometimes pressure can freeze us into non-action, but that is a bit like treading water. It works temporarily, but if we don’t move forward, we sink.

For organizations, treading water is unsustainable and often has disastrous consequences. Standing still and not adapting effectively to change is no longer an option—for individuals, work teams, or organizations.

Who Should Attend this Teleclass:

Leaders and managers of companies, nonprofits, associations and trade organizations; individuals and work team members who are undergoing major workplace, career and life transitions; individuals at mid-life or at other change points who want to thrive and achieve success in the next stage of their lives.

Questions we will discuss and explore:

• What are the transformational coping traits of resilient people?
• Do I have the most effective attitudes and habits to thrive in adversity? How can I guide my staff or work team toward adapting their attitudes and habits?
• What values do I (and my organization) need to embrace to maximize resilience, mastery, and ability to thrive in the rapidly changing economic landscape?
• How do I find meaning and purpose in my situation? How do I motivate other staff to find meaning and purpose in our work together?

Learning Topics:

• Distinctions between change, transition, and transformation. Why transitions are so difficult, and how they can impact us emotionally, physically, spiritually, and economically
• Adaptive change, and the Hero’s Journey (Campbell)
• Strategies for developing resilience
• How to face internal and external challenges and opportunities without sugarcoating them—and create strategies for dealing with or exploiting them;
• The spiritual quest for meaning. Finding meaning and purpose in life or work. How to utilize the meaning-making power of communicating and developing mission, vision, values
• How to develop and enhance your imagination, and nurture creativity Get support to take the necessary mental and action steps needed to solve problems effectively
• Rehearse "what if" options that lead to meaningful insights regarding change.

Resources:

We will draw upon the work of William Bridges and his book, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes; Joseph Campbell's book, The Hero’s Journey; Victor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning; and the research of Diane Coutu, on “How Resilience Works,” as well as the considerable wisdom and experience of the Teleclass facilitators and participants. You'll leave the teleclass with simple, easy-to-implement take-away tools that you can continue to use on an ongoing basis.

Calls will be recorded and made available only to those who enroll in the program. If you are unable to attend all four sessions, you'll be able to listen to the recording for any session you've missed.

About the Teleclass Facilitators:

Linda Naiman is a creativity and innovation consultant, coach, speaker and author, based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She is founder of Creativity at Work, and as co-author of Orchestrating Collaboration at Work, she recognised internationally for pioneering arts-based learning as a catalyst for developing creativity, innovation, and collaborative leadership in organizations. She has spoken at US Navy Leadership Symposiums, the Creativity World Forum,  and the European Summit on the Arts and Business. Clients include Fortune 500 companies and public sector organizations.

Linda has learned about transitions and transformation through embarking on  her own Hero's Journey. She  has been featured in Globe and Mail (Canada's national newspaper) stories about  Career resilience: Midlife prompts many to act on career aspirations, and Managing a Mid-Life Makeover, She is a  an associate business coach at the University of British Columbia and coaches managers on resilience, creativity, innovation and leadership. Visit  Creativity at Work for more information about coaching and consulting.

Cathryn Hrudicka is Founder/Chief Imagination Officer for her company, Creative Sage™. Her experience includes executive, transition, creativity and innovation coaching and consulting with individuals, work groups and organizations. She has served in senior management positions, has owned her own company for over 30 years, and has achieved recognition in a parallel career as a multi-disciplinary artist and author. Most relevant—Cathryn has gone through major transitions, learned how to develop resilience, and has developed dynamic, creative, successful approaches to help other people go through them.

Her company has won awards for innovation and communication using social media. Cathryn is a contributing author to two landmark books on the subject, The Age of Conversation 2 (2008) and The Age of Conversation 3 (2010), as well as a forthcoming book, A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowd Sourcing: Practical Tips, Advice and Examples from Leading Experts in the Field, edited by Paul Sloane, with a foreward by Henry Chesbrough (coming in March, 2011). Two of her blogs provide more information, at: CreativeSage.com/blog and: CreativeSageArts.com/blog

Available Follow-up After the Teleclass:

Follow-up workshops, teleclasses, group and individual coaching will be offered to interested participants who need or want to explore these topics in more depth and receive additional support, skill-building and individual attention. Most sessions will be available by telephone, Skype or Webinar, but some workshops and coaching will be available in person, depending upon location.Further information will be provided at the conclusion of this introductory teleclass—and you can follow registration updates here

Sign up here to be an affiliate:  http://bit.ly/FebAffiliate and earn $20 for each referral who registers for this program.