Michael Gelb

In this dynamic program blending invigorating audience experience with evidence-based illuminating insights I will show your group how to walk effortlessly, breathe freely, think creatively, and feel deeply alive!

Everyone knows that walking is good for you.  It can help regulate weight, improve sleep, elevate mood, transform stress, and boost productivity.  Most people want to walk more.  But what if you could learn how to walk better? What if you could make every step easier, more comfortable and energizing?

You can!  The secret is to connect with your natural design, unlocking more efficiency and energy in every step,  providing more fuel for imagination and creativity!

TOPICS include:

~ Becoming aware of and releasing the tension that interferes with natural walking

~ Making subtle shifts in the way you sit, stand, lie down and breathe to improve your gait.

~  Better meetings, relationship building, conflict resolution, and creative problem-solving through walking together.

~ The sauntering secrets of great artists, poets, writers, mathematicians, physicists and business geniuses!   Most of history’s greatest minds got their best ideas while walking. You’ll walk in their footsteps.

FORMATS: Keynote and/or workshop/ Live or on-line

When we embrace humility and curiosity, we release egotism and arrogance. We open to our own soul and in the process we are more open to others. People sense this and become more open to you. Leaders need this skill now, more than ever

Recent research confirms that a sense of connectedness with others is the single greatest predictor of longevity, health and happiness. Connecting effectively is also the most important personal and business leadership skill.  It’s the key to building relationships, preventing and resolving conflict and getting others to ‘buy-in” to your ideas. This Dynamic, interactive program emphasizes immediately applicable take home improvement in the communication core competencies of listening, empathy, negotiation, and influence skills.

Objectives:

• Discover a stronger sense of connection and rapport in your relationships.
• Differentiate your self from the growing tendency toward shallow and superficial communication
• Learn new strategies for promoting and selling ideas and projects and overcoming resistance to change.
• Cultivate the emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills necessary to bring out the best in your self and others.

Thinking creatively, learning faster and leading change, these abilities are at a premium in a highly competitive global business environment. What if you could call on history’s greatest genius, Leonardo da Vinci, to be your personal mentor in cultivating these highly prized elements of human capital? Anatomist, architect, botanist, city planner, chef, humorist, engineer, equestrian, inventor, geographer, geologist, military scientist, musician, painter, philosopher and raconteur, Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) helped bring the Western world out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Now his approach to optimizing human potential is more relevant than ever.

The da Vinci principles are:

Curiosità – An insatiable quest for knowledge and continuous improvement;

Dimostrazione – Learning from experience;

Sensazione – Sharpening the senses;

Sfumato – Managing ambiguity and change;

Arte/Scienza – Whole-brain thinking;

Corporalità – Body-mind fitness;

Connessione – Systems thinking;

This dynamic, highly-interactive program brings da Vinci’s genius to life through fascinating biographical and historical information, setting the stage for an introduction to seven principles for thinking “a la Leonardo.” Participants are then guided to apply the principles, through a proven series of practical exercises, to your organization’s greatest challenges.

Participants will learn how to:

-Think creatively.
-Cultivate independent thinking.
-Improve learning ability with age.
-Find opportunity in uncertainty.
-Improve memory and problem solving.
-Balance mind and body to reduce stress.
-Nurture creativity and innovation in the workplace.

Leonardo was probably the most creative person who ever lived but Thomas Edison is history’s greatest practical innovator. Beyond his invention of the phonograph, motion pictures and a system to light the world, Thomas Edison invented the rigorous, disciplined process of innovation.

In addition to creating the world’s first Industrial Research and Development laboratory, Edison was also a master at promoting a culture of innovation. Moreover, he understood that the principles of personal success and organizational innovation go hand-in-hand. Personal success and fulfillment requires you to learn how to think like an innovator; and, for your organization to be successful, innovation is now more important than ever.

This program introduces Edison’s Five Competencies of Innovation™. They are:

    Solution-Centered Mindset

    Kaleidoscopic Thinking

    Full-Spectrum Engagement

    Master Mind Collaboration

    Super-Value Creation

Each competency will be brought to life with specific, practical “take-home” applications. This program is readily adaptable to specific organizational challenges.

In recent years, the best thinking on leadership and organizational performance has shifted away from the idea of managing time to recognize the importance of managing energy. One of the pioneers of this shift, Professor James Clawson, of the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia, explains, “Leadership is about managing energy, first in yourself and then in those around you.  He adds “Most managers want to know how to motivate others, when often the problem lies closer to home.”

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, authors of the New York Times best- seller The Power of Full Engagement, came to similar conclusions. They explain, “Leaders are stewards of organizational energy.” They emphasize:

•  “Positive energy rituals—highly specific routines for managing energy—are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.”

The sages of China came to these same conclusions five thousand years ago. Now we can apply this ancient wisdom to meeting the demand of our contemporary lives. Creative energy is our ultimate resource. Throughout history geniuses (Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, etc.) had an intuitive understanding of how to connect with this energy. 

This program guides participants to generate and express creative energy using simple, elegant, evidence-based methods.  These techniques, based on ancient wisdom and validated by contemporary science, are combined with an understanding of how to adopt a creative mindset and apply the most potent methods of the creative process.  The result is a unique, energizing and transformational program.