Activating Creative Resiliency and Change Agency in Teams
Patricia Colley, Creative Catalysts Consulting | Matt Smith, Actor

How do you drive innovation from within the ranks, when innovation processes aren’t well established, or don’t have a clear executive champion? The simplest answer is to start with your immediate sphere of influence.

That’s what we’ll explore in this hands-on practicum. We’ve brought together a veteran UX strategist and a veteran of live theater to bring you a set of collaborative approaches and techniques you can start using right away, to inspire your teams to engage more creatively.

We’ll explore how to:

  • understand the state of product strategy and design maturity in your organization, and how they affect your agency
  • articulate and deliver on the value of the creative process – how it impacts product quality and ROI
  • inspire creative curiosity and courage in your teams, while embracing the chaos, complexity and pressure to deliver
  • recognize default behaviors in colleagues and stakeholders, and use that knowledge to collaborate more effectively
  • model trust and transparency in team communication
  • assess what to do when things fall apart

About the Speakers

Patricia Colley, Creative Catalysts ConsultingPatricia Colley, Creative Catalysts Consulting

From an early age, Patricia had a natural sense of wonder about the world, a passion for the craft of creativity, and an affinity for deep collaborative play. This has led to a lifetime of diverse creative pursuits, including 7 years studying and practicing improv theater.

She’s a designer, researcher and strategist that specializes in untangling complex, deep-structure problems in collaboration, or as a team of one. Her creative approach is contextual, qualitative and human-centered. Using design methods, critical inquiry and co-design techniques, she helps clients clarify and achieve their business goals as Lead UX Designer with CDK Global and as a Independent Consultant with Creative Catalysts.

Creative Catalysts is a Portland-based strategic design firm. Our mission is to improve the quality of our customers’ lives, one interaction at a time. We believe that thoughtful creativity, intelligent collaboration, and rigorous craftsmanship are essential elements of great design cultures.

Clients include: Adaptive Path, Zaaz/Wunderman, Intel, Microsoft, Sapient, Kodak Dental, Duke Health, Salesforce, Rackspace, Groupon, PlayNetwork, Banfield Pet Hospitals, Quark, Dell, IBM, Halliburton, Leapfrog Toys, and more.

Matt Smith, Creativity & Communications TrainerMatt Smith, Creativity & Communications Trainer

Matt Smith is a true improv legend. As a founding member of Seattle Improv, Matt has decades of performance, writing and teaching experience. Matt has taught thousands of people to improvise, in both the theatre and the workplace. He delivers practical, usable improv-theory based trainings for Agile, team building team building, change management, stress management, conflict resolution, and group creativity. One of his trademark techniques is “The Failure Bow”, a practical, accountable, reality-based response to mistakes and other unexpected results. Matt’s TEDx talk on the Failure Bow can be seen on Youtube. Johnstone’s focus on self-honesty, generosity, and collaborative storytelling are all reflected in Matt’s work.

Clients include: British Petroleum, Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Amaze Entertainment, Charles Schwab, California Department of Social and Health Services and Washington DSHS. Matt’s workshops are an integral part of basic training for Washington Child Protective Services.

Matt’s screen credits include Outsourced, Spiderman, Sleepless in Seattle, Interview with a Zombie and Almost live!. His theatrical monologue, My Last Year with the Nuns, is now a feature film available on Amazon Prime.

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Innovating From Within: Activating Creative Resiliency and Change Agency in Teams from CHIFOO Communications on Vimeo.