special edition fall performance performance by sargia partners_… · ative business strategies...

PERFORMANCE

SPECIAL EDITION

FALL 2014

YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

IGNITE YOUR

CREATIVITY

SARGIA provides state-of-the art leadership develop-

ment solutions to:

• Align behaviors to transformation strategy

• Inspire leadership to develop bigger minds with vi-

sion, mindfulness and agility

• Embed a culture of resilience and agility in organi-

zations that want to play to win

SARGIA PARTNERS, YOUR CATALYST FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATION

AND LONG-TERM GROWTH.

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SARGIA PARTNERS • 3 • YOUR LEADERSHIP COACH

CREATIVITY FROM THE

INSIDE OUT

YOU MAY THINK creativity is a gift only certain types of people have—the Einsteins, Mozarts, or Shakespeares

of the world. The latest neuroscience research suggests this is not the case at all! Results show that creative men-

tal functioning involves a set of specific brain activation patterns that can be amplified through conscious effort

and a little practice. In other words, with the right training, you and your teams can tap into the creative process.

IT IS TRUE that the information and technology explosion, along with cyber-communication and globalization,

is transforming the way we learn, the way we do business, and the way we form relationships with each other.

The rule books for virtually every aspect of human endeavor and interaction—from corporate life to personal life

to dating and even parenting—are being rewritten right in the middle of the game. So, if all the old bets are off,

how do you survive and thrive? How do you keep yourself balanced when there are so many demands on your

time and personal resources? To maintain your energy—and your sanity—you need to develop creative ways to

manage your time so that you can juggle the demands of modern existence while still ensuring that your hours

and days remain rich and meaningful. The most important asset you have for negotiating this rapidly changing

world is your creative brain.

IN SHORT, creativity is important for artists, writers, musicians, and inventors; but it is also crucial for societies,

businesses, and individuals who need to juggle fulfillment with the demands of our rapid-change culture. You not

only need to be creative to enhance your life, you also need to be creative to survive.

REGARDLESS of your mission for the future, it is crucial that you develop your creative capacities. By devel-

oping your creative brain, you can adapt to the changing world, and make a contribution to that change.

THE LATEST neuroscience findings are proving that your creative brain is already equipped with the tools it

needs, not just to live in the twenty-first century but to help shape it!

THIS SPECIAL EDITION of Peak Performance is designed to provide you with a wealth of ideas, inspiration,

and resources. Read the many expert insights on how you can ignite your creative thought—so you may begin

viewing your life, work, and every-day experiences from novel and fresh perspectives that will augment your ap-

preciation of the complexity and richness of our world.

Enjoy!

Georgia Kartsanis CEO, SARGIA Partners

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INTELLIGENCE VS. CREATIVITY

INTELLIGENCE is classically defined as

“the ability to acquire and utilize knowl-

edge.” Creativity is the ability to come up

with new ideas through a mental process

of connecting existing concepts. To be

creative is to pull existing knowledge into

a new situation and quickly sort through

potential outcomes.

Expert creatives don’t need to be more intelligent than the average person. They

simply do three things more diligently

than anyone else: they have more expe-riences, they think on their experiences more often, and they work more with the ideas they come up with (by evaluating

more possible ideas).

Creativity is kind of reasoning without

all of the information present. So, call it

abductive reasoning. With intelligence,

you’re using deductive reasoning, where

it’s rule-based reasoning where a equals

b and that’s the way it goes. So, creativity and intelligence are probably different types of reasoning.

YOU CANNOT LEARN TO BE

MORE INTELLIGENT

BUT YOU CAN LEARN TO BE

MORE CREATIVE

— R E X E . J U N G , P H D , N E U R O S C I E N T I S T A N D P R O F E S S O R

O F U N E W M E X I C O

CREATIVITY IS JUST

CONNECTING THINGS

When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they

just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because

they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things.

— S T E V E J O B S

THE KEY is to focus on perception,

which leading neuroscientists find is in-

trinsically linked to creativity in the human

brain. To perceive things differently we

must bombard our brains with things it

has never encountered.

This kind of novelty is vital because the

brain has evolved for efficiency and rou-

tinely takes perceptual shortcuts to save

energy; perceiving information in the usual

way requires little of it. Only by forcing

our brains to recategorize information

and move beyond our habitual thinking patterns can we begin to imagine truly

novel alternatives.


CREATIVITY IS DIVERGENT REASONING

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

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Divergent ThinkingConvergent Thinking

The dominant thinking about creativity revolves around the classic model of the

four stages of creativity:

SHAKING UP INGRAINED PERCEPTIONS

SOLUTION

SOLUTIONS

SOLUTIONS

PROBLEM

1. PreparationFind, define and frame the prob-

lem or creative challenge—you

see problems and challenges

and ask questions that no one

else sees or asks

2. IncubationImmerse yourself, dig deep,

gather ideas, data, and infor-

mation that might help you with

a creative breakthrough

3. Illumination or Insight

Relax, let it all go—the best ideas

come while you’re taking a long

hot shower, going for a walk, or

on vacation (self-mastery comes

in knowing when to let go, and

knowing that you need to let go)

4. Verification and Execution

Many brilliant ideas fail here,

because they aren’t implement-

ed well. This model is accurate

to a point, but life is not that

simple.

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THE MOMENT OF INSIGHT

IF WE MEASURE EEG brain waves during a creative moment, we see very high gamma activity that spikes 300 milliseconds before the answer comes. Gamma

activity indicates the binding together of neurons, as far-flung brain cells connect in

a new neural network—as when a new association emerges. Immediately after that

gamma spike, the new idea enters your consciousness.

The best way to mobilize this brainability is first to concentrate intently on the goal

or problem, and then relax and let go. The converse of letting go—trying to force an

insight—can stifle creative breakthrough. If you’re thinking and thinking about it, you

may just be getting more tense and not coming up with fresh ways of seeing things.

The let go stage is characterized by a high alpha rhythm, which signals mental relaxation, a state of openness, daydreaming and drifting, where you are more receptive to new ideas.

Gamma spikes normally come at random—they can’t be forced. But the mental stage can be set. The pre-work for the gamma spike includes defining the problem, then

immersing yourself in it. And then you let it all go. There’s a physical marker you may

feel during a gamma spike: pleasure. With the “Aha!” comes joy.

Alpha StateThe unconscious

connection with PFC*Spark of

Gamma waves

*Prefrontal Cortex

TRUST. CONNECTING THE DOTS. These two concepts reflect the relation-

ship between mindfulness and creativity.

It’s difficult to be creative when we fear

uncertainty. Mindfulness helps us become more comfortable with the unknown, and

gives us the space to observe our thoughts

and the world around us, opening the door

for us to make the daring connections that

are at the heart of creative thinking.

The bonus of becoming more mindful is

that we can also grow happier, healthier and less judgmental of ourselves, which

will motivate us to become even more

bold and innovative. Mindfulness cul-

tivates empathy for yourself and your

customers, which is the origin of cre-

ative business strategies and crucial for

leadership, design, social good, and all

of the relationships in your life.

Mindfulness helps us to drop our old stories

about ourselves, so that we can create new

ones. When we embrace the present, the

stress of our past and our future fades,

and we can expand the boundaries of our

imagination. Once we strip away the cal-

cified assumptions about ourselves and

our world, we can see everything from a fresh perspective.

MINDFULNESS

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THE CORE OF ALL CREATIVE ACTIVITY IS... MINDFULNESS

25 MINUTES OF MINDFULNESS EVERY DAY• Improves memory and focus

• Reduces stress and anxiety

• Improves mental clarity

• Better emotional feeling

• Better creative thought

TECHNIQUES TO IGNITE YOUR

CREATIVE GENIUSA) GPT OVERCOMINGMENTAL FIXEDNESS

ANTHONY MCCAFFREY, a cognitive

psychology researcher at the Universi-

ty of Massachusetts Amherst, says that

an “Aha moment” is rare and reaching it

means overcoming formidable mental

obstacles. He has developed a toolkit for

enhancing anyone’s skills by overcoming functional fixedness. For each part of an

object, the “generic parts technique” (GPT) asks users to list function-free de-

scriptions, including its material, shape

and size. “The trick is how to unconceal

the features relevant to your purposes,”

McCaffrey points out. The description of

each part does not imply a use, helping

subjects see beyond common functions

of any object and its parts.

Executives looking to liberate their cre-

ative instincts by exploring company or-

thodoxies can begin by asking questions

about customers, industry norms, and even

business models—and then systematical-

ly challenging the answers. For example:

• What business are we in?

• What level of customer service do peo-

ple expect?

• What would customers never be willing

to pay for?

• What channel strategy is essential to us?

B) USE ANALOGIESRECENT research proves that the most

powerful overall driver of innovation is

associating—making connections across

“seemingly unrelated questions, prob-

lems, or ideas.” A straightforward, acces-

sible way to begin harnessing innovative

behavior is: using analogies. By forcing

comparisons between one company and a

second, seemingly unrelated one, teams

make considerable creative progress, par-

ticularly in situations requiring greenfield

ideas. Consider analogies such as these

and use them as a starting point for your

team discussion.

• How would Google manage our data?

• How might Disney engage with our con-

sumers?

• How would Zara redesign our supply

chain?

• How would Starwood Hotels design our

customer loyalty program?

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GPT TRAINED PEOPLE

SOLVED 67.4% MORE

OF INSIGHT PROBLEMS

SARGIA PARTNERS PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS FOR CREATIVITYCREATIVITY FROM THE INSIDE OUT

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I. IGNITING YOUR CREATIVE BRAIN WORKSHOPCREATIVITY is the strategic leverage that allows you to grow and thrive—even in

difficult times—no matter what the outside scenario is.

Given the challenge of accessing innovative thinking during volatile times, what can

you do to activate the “sleeping” creative potential that is within you and your team?

AGENDA TOPICS

Unlocking YourselfYou can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore

What is possible if you break through your barriers?Explore the unknown territory of your potential by doing a deep search of your re-

sources and opportunities.

What is holding you back?A powerful reality check will allow you to take inventory of some of the self-deceptions

and fears that have kept you from moving forwards and taking the steps necessary

to reach the next level.

Explore Your Unprecedented PotentialProblems cannot be solved with the same kind of thinking that created them

How can you synchronize your brain’s circuitry to expand the boundaries of your imagination?Learn how to practice mindfulness, the core of all creative activity that helps drop your

old narratives about yourselves—so that you can create new ones.

How can you turn your brain on and unleash what you thought was too “abstract”?Ignite your mental wiring, venturing into your discomfort zones, and apply a different

mental frameworks to facilitate original thinking.

Generate Renewed Participation If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl. But

whatever you do, you must keep moving forward.

What resources in yourself and your team have you not yet accessed?Invite participation—the force that is created when commitment and potential col-

lide into action.

What is possible with complete commitment?Create commitment, communicating your plan and momentum with a “now” action.

II. STRATEGY RETREATS OUR STRATEGIC Planning Retreats

are customized to your needs, define your

current business scenario and provide you

with the tools with a focus on mindfulness

to design your future with a shared vision.

Together we help you bridge the distance

between the future and now, designing

your key strategic initiatives with original

thought and creative exploration.

Garnering the energy of each participant

and focusing on future possibilities gener-

ates a sense of commitment and renewal

from every team member.

Each Strategy Retreat has a bespoke ap-

proach and typically includes:

a) A Pre-retreat Stage

whith a preparatory questionnaire

that identifies the current situation,

and

b) A 2-Day Offsite Workshop

with agenda which includes

assessment of the current situation,

agreement of where the team

wants the company to go and the

definition of the key strategic pillars

During the workshop we’ll use neurosci-

ence techniques for exploring deep-rooted

company (or even industry) orthodoxies

to jolt your brain out of the familiar in an

idea generation session.

By identifying and challenging such core

beliefs, your team will improve their ability

to embrace new ideas and design com-

petitive strategies.

LEADERSHIP SEMINAR

WAKE UP YOUR CREATIVE MIND!

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SARGIA Partners held another successful Leadership Seminar on June 19th 2014

DURING the seminar participants dis-

covered new techniques to “awaken” their

creative self and boost their performance,

their work and interpersonal relationships.

Seminar igniters were Mr. Hendre Coet-zee, Lead Trainer of Center for Advanced

Coaching (CAC) - USA and Ms Georgia Kartsanis, Leadership Coach and CEO

of SARGIA Partners.

Hendre Coetzee, the world-renowned

master of the Master Coaches, unlocked

the inner self of participants. He showed

how creativity is a process and not neces-

sarily an inherent trait. Creativity resides

inside us and surfaces the very moment

we try something different.

Georgia Kartsanis, through interactive

exercises, showed that creativity is some-

thing anyone can learn and develop. Par-

ticipants also had the opportunity to prac-

tice mindfulness, which was, according to

comments, highly revealing. Ms Kartsanis

demonstrated how the creative process

activates specific neural networks, and how

this activation can be enhanced through

conscious effort and practice.

Georgia suggested that participants serve

society with their creative strengths, and

promote well-being and prosperity. She

urged everyone to search for inspiration

in their environment and to search out the

creativity inside each of their inner selves.

THE SEMINAR WAS“WELL-STRUCTURED”

“PRACTICAL”“INSPIRING” “CHALLENGING”

IGNITERS WERE “PASSIONATE” “INTERACTIVE”

“PROFESSIONALS”

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LEADERSHIP SEMINARIN YOUR WORDS…

“Very inspiring, made me think I need to take change in my life and has got me going to do so”

— T A L E E N T C H A L I K I A N , H R D I R E C T O R – L O U I S C R U I S E S

“Very good for professional as well as personal development. Excellent opportunity also for my staff to be introduced to new ideas and ways of thinking”

— M I C H A E L S P A N O S , M A N A G I N G D I R E C T O R – G L O B A L S U S T A I N

“Helps you understand “why” to change. Helps you understand that “you!” need to change. Helps you understand “how” to do that”

— C H R I S T I N A A L E V I Z O U , C O U N T R Y G E N E R A L M A N A G E R – T N T H E L L A S

“A life changing experience, a continuation of last year’s seminar”

— E L E N A G E O R G A N A , M A N A G I N G D I R E C T O R O F F I N A N C E & A D M I N I S T R A T I O N – S W A R O V S K I H E L L A S

“It was a very well organized seminar which can help me on my professional and per-sonal life. The part “Learn to use mindfulness” showed up a different way how to see

things from different perspective and to generate more fresh ideas”

— S T A M O U L A K A T O S K O N S T A N T I N O S , F I N A N C E A N D A D M I N I S T R A T I O N M A N A G E R – A C T E L I O N

“Useful for overloaded people like myself or prejudiced people in the sense that things can be done only in one way or, in other words, their way. Creativity and inno-

vation after all are the parts that make working life worth it”

— V A S I L I K I S T A M A T O P O U L O U , D I R E C T O R O F I N T E R N A T I O N A L O P E R A T I O N S C C S – M E L L O N

“I would describe it as enlightening and revealing”

— K O S T A S O I K O N O M O U , V P & C E O – M A R I N E T O U R S

DID YOU KNOW?SARGIA PARTNERS’ POLL ON CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION, MAY 2014

(252 executives responded)

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THE MOST COMMON REASONS EXECUTIVES OPT TO BE CREATIVE

THE MOST COMMON FACTORS THAT DEPRIVE EXECUTIVES OF BEING INNOVATIVE

THE WAYS EXECUTIVES ARE TRYING TO GENERATE INNOVATION AT WORK

EXECUTIVES’ MOST PREFERRED STRATEGIES FOR SPARKING THEIR CREATIVITY

Respondents have a clear focus on competitive advantage

and financial issues, however the most important factor, the

progression of human well-being, has been underestimated.

Why we need creativity & innovation?

Respondents make use of innovative techniques but they ap-

pear to avoid risk. Risking failure is a prerequisite for creativ-

ity and innovation.

Are you innovating at work?

Executives seem to have useful strategies, but they underes-

timate self-development and balance

What are your key strategies for sparking your creative flame?

Considering both overwhelming and anxiety, work pressure

qualifies as the main block to innovation.

What are your most usual blocks to innovation?

You mix ideas from different fields

You openly express what’s in your mind

You cutomize the tools you need to work

The answers you need aren’t in books

You don’t have to be right all the time

You are willing to risk failure

You don’t know how to do what you’re doing

For competitive advantage

For better returns

Because cost-cutting is not enough

For business survival

For economic growth

For higher business revenues

For the progression of the human well-being

4.204.114.11

4.003.95

3.883.75

Brainstorming with my team

Finding inspiration from partners and friends

Soliciting advice from unlikely sources

Disconnecting- creating space between work and myself

Checking in with my mission- my WHY

Reading

Finding inspiration from my role models of creativity

Meditating/mind wandering

Living a healthy life

Taking time off to go some-where that inspires me

55.3%50.5%

31.1%30.1%

27.2%24.3%23.3%

20.4%18.4%18.4%

911 14 85

2081118

65

2237

4025

7052429

773

90

Rarely Sometimes Often

Being overwhelmed

Lack of resources

Fear of failure

Being too serious

Thinking you are not creative

Needing to be right

Anxiety

44.7%41.7%

39.8%17.5%16.5%16.5%14.6%

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THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE EXECUTIVE BRAIN

— A N D R E W B L A C K M A N – T H E W A L L S T R E E T J O U R N A L

NEW RESEARCH shows that the best business minds make decisions very differently than we thought. Take much

of what you know about how the best

executives make decisions. Now, forget

it. For instance, we all “know” that tight deadlines lead to inspiration. Except they

often don’t. Instead, they typically are counterproductive—making people less creative precisely when they need

to be. Or most of us assume that when

we try to solve problems, we’re drawing

on the logical parts of our brains. But, in

fact, great strategists seem to draw on

the emotional and intuitive parts of their

brain much more.

People show more activity in the brain’s

“task positive” network, which we use

for problem solving. But it’s not the part

of the brain that comes up with original

ideas. Dr. Boyatzis says that “The very moments when in organizations we want people to think outside the box, they can’t even see the box.” For example,

an IT manager being pushed to launch a

new software product quickly might rush

to get all the bugs fixed. With less pres-

sure, he or she might have taken a step

back, asked why all those problems were

cropping up in the first place, and come

up with a completely different approach

to writing the code that worked more

smoothly and didn’t produce the glitches.

Does that mean companies should get rid

of deadlines? In most cases, that’s not re-

alistic. So, Srini Pillay, an assistant clinical

professor at Harvard Medical School and

founder of the coaching firm NeuroBusi-

ness Group, suggests that companies help employees reduce stress and ac-

cess the creative parts of the brain even

when they’re under pressure.

One such technique is learning to let the mind wander, with exercises like mind-

fulness. In that mental state, the creative

part of the brain tends to be active. “When

people hit a wall in their thinking, in gen-

eral they start thinking harder,” says Dr.

Pillay. “What the neuroscience research

tells us is that it’s more important to think differently.”

“THE VERY MOMENTS WHEN IN ORGANIZATIONS WE

WANT PEOPLE TO THINK OUTSIDE

THE BOX, THEY CAN’T EVEN

SEE THE BOX”

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UNLOCKING CREATIVITY AND

INNOVATION — H E N D R E C O E T Z E E

CREATIVITY and Innovation requires

navigating uncertainty. It is the willing-

ness to forfeit the known and the secure to

explore the undiscovered and the territory

beyond the rules of the game. It requires

us to ensure accessibility to tools for tal-

ented people and finally a whole-hearted

commitment to the unprecedented. I

have chosen to expound on some of the

key thoughts that I believe are required

to produce an environment of Creativity

and Innovation.

EXPLORE THE EDGESThe starting point of so-called “creative

planning sessions” is usually a problem

or situation that needs to be resolved. We

are finding a fix vs. creating an unprec-edented possibility. This then sets up a

context where the very objective of the

session is to answer an existing question

vs. discovering a new set of variables.

Often our starting point for a “creative

session” is the question - “How?”. And

should we then not have an adequate an-

swer we then change the initial frame of

an outcome to questioning whether we

should be embarking on this process at

all. We are then doomed to only have ac-

cess to existing theories or strategies that

are slightly adapted or adjusted. This is

because the question “how” requires us

to access existing knowledge. Over the

last 10 years the answer to just about

any question can be answered through

one simple action. By “Google-ing” it. Ein-

stein said: “The thinking that generated the

problem is not sufficient for the solution.”

In fact it may be true that our current ac-

cess to, and reliance upon the pervasive

access to information via the Internet has

made us lazy and less creative. We allow

our boundaries to be determined by our

access to existing knowledge vs. commit-

ting to an unprecedented possibility and

discovering what we need to know along

the way. True creativity requires us to

push and explore beyond these edges.

ENROL TALENTEDPEOPLEThe key to creativity is “accessibility” and

the courage to start experimenting. It is

amazing how, when a group of people em-

braces a curious and exploratory stance,

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the collective mind eclipses the sum of all

the individual contributors. Our newest

experiences of creativity are unlocked in

the world of social media. It seems that

the accessibility of a megapixel camera

may have given rise to greater creativity

vs. eliminating it. The fear was that uni-

versal access to what was once privileged

information or tools will ultimately lower

the quality of production and yet it has

been proven over and over that acces-

sibility inevitably will create completely

new genres. Think Pinterest, Etsy or Twit-

ter. Giving a greater amount of people

the tools to showcase their work invites

greater creativity and more innovation

all the time. If you could build on values

but yet not feel compelled to protect the

application as sacred you will uncover

new ways of creating possibility emerge

all the time.

EMBRACE THE UNKNOWNI believe that we are designed to venture out beyond our own current narrative,

our already existing frame of reference;

which is doomed to continue to produce

the same results. It is pretty clear – “If

you keep doing what you have always

done then you will keep having what you

have always had. Creativity is that place

beyond what already is known or experi-

enced. And to go “there” requires a com-

mitment. It is a huge commitment to a

journey beyond your own knowing and

sense of expertise. It may require you to

be willing to feel insecure for moments,

to perhaps even lose your confidence or

“sure-footedness”. It may demand that we

be willing to venture beyond our known

context and discover new boundaries to

our own capability. It is safe to say there-

fore that our past won’t solve our future.

This does not mean that we don’t learn

from past or that we do not remember.

It does mean that we do not underesti-

mate the difference in context when we

look at the past vs. future.

COMMITMENT PRECEDES CREATIVITYJohn F Kennedy in his famous Man on

the Moon speech said - “First, I believe

that this nation should commit itself to

achieving the goal, before this decade is

out, of landing a man on the moon and

returning him safely to the earth.” This

commitment beyond any precedent is

what governed and inspired all the people

to pursue what had never been done be-

fore. Commitment was first, discovering

the way followed. Unfortunately many would like to skip this vital part of the process. This reminds me of a quote that

has guided my own discovery process

over the years:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitan-

cy, the chance to draw back. Concerning

all acts of initiative (and creation), there

is one elementary truth, the ignorance of

which kills countless ideas and splendid

plans: that the moment one definitely com-

mits oneself, then Providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that

would never otherwise have occurred. A

whole stream of events issues from the

decision, raising in one’s favor all man-

ner of unforeseen incidents and meetings

and material assistance, which no man

could have dreamed would have come

his way. Whatever you can do, or dream

you can do, begin it. Boldness has ge-

nius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

—William Murray

IN A 2010 IBM STUDY, CEOS RANKED

“CREATIVITY” AS THE MOST CRUCIAL

LEADERSHIP QUALITY

FOR THE ENTERPRISE

OF THE FUTURE.

For more information about SARGIA Partners Leadership Services please go to www.sargiapartners.com.

To discuss bringing SARGIA Partners leadership services, programs, or executive coaching to your

organization please write to: [email protected]

YOU CAN NEVER

CROSS THE OCEANUNLESS

YOU HAVE THE

COURAGE TO LOSE SIGHT OF THE SHORE”

– C H R I S T O P H E R C O L U M B U S

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