Leading for Creativity
Employ the Full Creative Potential of Your Organization
The complexity and scale of the ecological, technological, social, and economic transformation taking place now is greater than anything we have experienced before. Instead of waiting for the change to unfold, we need new thinking to find tangible solutions for the complex challenges it brings. Creativity is crucial to overcoming prevailing assumptions with new ideas and systemic solutions.
The Leading for Creativity program gives you an overall understanding of how to reach the creative potential of yourself, your team, your organization, and your networks. Besides addressing how to lead creative processes and creativity as an organizational attribute, you will explore practical ways to develop an everyday creative mindset at work and discover the potential of bodily consciousness.
During the program, you will learn to tap into your creativity and to lead and motivate your team or organization to find an innovative mindset and a creative way of working be it in a self-directing empowered organization or in a more traditional setting.
Combining the latest research on creativity and how to boost an innovative mindset with exploring your personal potential, the program will leave you with a new way of thinking and a solid set of tools to lead your organization for creativity.
4.5 ECTS credits can be transferred from this program to the Aalto Executive MBA or Aalto MBA program.
This is not just theoretical knowledge – experience creativity in body and mind!
Radical creativity lies at the core of Aalto University – come and explore it with us!
Program Benefits
Creativity is a crucial asset for modern organizations striving in the fast-changing business environment to respond proactively to continuous innovation and renewal needs. Increasingly, companies are moving towards more empowered teams or even to organizations that are more self-directing. This program addresses the need to motivate individuals and teams to reach common goals by tapping into their inherent creativity.
For
The program is designed for executives and managers in any industry. Creativity thrives in collaboration and multidisciplinary teams. It is needed in all job roles and at all levels in an organization to reach ambitious goals. Many participants come from forward-looking companies that have embraced the green transition and want to find novel disruptive solutions to some of the global challenges we face today.
The program benefits
- executives who wish to transition their company to be more creatively proactive or even a self-directing empowered organization,
- managers who want to motivate their teams and ecosystem to aspire to reach beyond the known targets, and
- executives and managers who want to tap into their inherent creativity in their everyday work.
Contents and Schedule
The program topics cover comparing and contrasting different types of creativity, what they require, and what they can give to organizations. The topics also include the knowledge and tools needed to apply and lead various processes and approach problem-solving with a creative mindset. You will reflect and justify your own and your team´s role in embracing creativity in your organization. Besides theoretical knowledge, a strong emphasis will be put on acquiring practical individual insight.
The program will be delivered face-to-face over three days from Thursday morning to Saturday evening. Before the sessions, you will prepare a pre-assignment. The sessions are interactive and will include discussions and exercises. You will also be working on a team challenge. After the sessions, you will have the opportunity to hand in a post-assignment. You will receive faculty feedback for it and it will be graded. The post-assignment is mandatory if you want to pursue the (E)MBA credits.
Program Structure
Pre-program period
Individual preparation and assignments
Three days face-to-face with faculty and peers
Intensive, interactive sessions
Post-session period of 4 weeks
Voluntary post-assignment for (E)MBA credits and faculty feedback
Modules
Instructors
Tuomas Auvinen
Tuomas Auvinen is the Dean of the School of Arts, Design, and Architecture at Aalto University.
Tuomas Auvinen has built his career in the field of creativity and cultural leadership and has broad experience in demanding leadership roles at arts institutions.
He has worked as the CEO of The Association of Finnish Theatres, as Administrative Director of the Finnish National Theatre, and as the Principal and Dean of the Sibelius Academy, amongst other positions. In addition, Auvinen has extensive experience in creative leadership training and consultancy and has held several chairman and board member positions in cultural and creative industries companies.
Ville Eloranta
Dr. Ville Eloranta is currently working as a Senior University Lecturer at Aalto University School of Business.
He is also Director of the IDBM Master's Program (the Aalto International Design Business Management program for future transdisciplinary professionals) and involved in developing Network University Fitech (a transformative education endeavor of the seven biggest Finnish universities, Technology Industries of Finland, and TEK, the trade union for academic engineers and architects in Finland).
Dr. Ville Eloranta is an expert in design management (connecting design paradigms to management practice), business model innovation (especially platform business models), and distributed ledger technologies (especially open blockchain implementations). He has a solid track record of publications in top-level management journals.
Besides a strong academic track record, Dr. Ville Eloranta has 20 years of experience in design and entrepreneurship solving digitalization challenges, especially for big B2B customers.
Ville Eloranta holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management from Aalto University School of Science and Technology.
Oana Velcu-Laitinen
Dr. Oana Velcu-Laitinen is a NeuroLeadership coach, author, and speaker focusing on the importance of creative thinking abilities to improve work performance. Her main areas of specialization are creativity, collaboration, communication, and emotional intelligence.
Dr. Velcu-Laitinen has a background in academia. During her research on the implementation of ERP systems in mid-sized companies, she repeatedly noticed the underestimation of change management, leading her to dive deeper into how to support individuals and organizations to create cultures of creativity and change.
In 2016, Dr. Velcu-Laitinen founded Velcu Coaching. Since then, she’s been training knowledge workers to sharpen their creativity and collaboration skills. She also enjoys delivering inspirational talks on how leaders, researchers, and entrepreneurs can rediscover their creative potential for breakthroughs.
Dr. Velcu-Laitinen holds a Ph.D. from Hanken School of Economics.
Hanna Brotherus
Hanna Brotherus is a choreographer, director, and author. She is a specialist in bodily expression, and encounters between human beings lie at the core of her work.
Moving smoothly at the interface between art and well-being, Brotherus is working to increase humaneness, being seen, and authenticity. She is an expert in the performing arts bringing together different groups of people and collaborators in communal and societal productions.
Brotherus has choreographed more than 30 full-length dance productions and dozens of shorter live and filmed pieces that have been performed in Stockholm, Seoul, and Hong Kong, as well as Finland. She is among Finland's most renowned and productive artists in her field. Her accomplishments have been recognized in Finland and internationally. Besides numerous grants from the state and several foundations, she was awarded the Tanssin Maineteko award in 2014 and the Pro Dance Choreographer Award in 2020.
Hanna Brotherus has written books and articles on dance and two novels. She has taught dance and movement extensively to different audiences. She also coaches the personnel of large organizations in bodily awareness.
Hanna Brotherus holds an MA in (Dance) Choreography from the Theatre Academy of The University of the Arts Helsinki.