American Creativity Association
2007 International Conference

Conference Presentations and Presenters
2007 ACA International Conference
March 21 - 23, 2007 with pre-Conference Institutes - March 20, 2007
in Austin, Texas

PRE-CONFERENCE INSTITUTE: Thinking Expedition (1:00 - 5:00 pm)

Rolf Smith
Thinking Guide
The Virtual Thinking Expedition Company (vTx)
907 Alamo Road
Alamo Springs
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
 (830) 992-2153
basecamp@thinking-expedition.com
www.thinking-expedition.com

Colonel Rolf Smith (U.S. Air Force, retired) is managing director of The Virtual Thinking Expedition Company (Texas), a process consulting group, and the School for Innovators where he teaches innovation skills that transmogrify everyday heroes into change agents. He spent 24 controversial and innovative years on active duty with the U.S. military and NATO, and in 1986 created the first military Office of Innovation and a worldwide network of Innovation Centers. Rolf retired from active duty in 1987. Since then, his focus has been on helping organizations think creatively and differently. He worked with Exxon Marketing's Innovations Group as a contract executive for four years, and in 1988 founded The School for Innovators to kick-start Exxon's Continuous Improvement & Innovation initiative.

His passion lies in organizing and leading Thinking Expeditions into the unknown to explore uncharted areas and discover unusual opportunities. Since 1994, his Expeditions have brought back ideas, changes and innovations which have contributed to more than $1 Billion in bottom line business results in chunks ranging from $2.5 Million to $305 Million. He has also led a number of Thinking Expeditions for the Navy, Army and Air Force, and both Procter & Gamble and General Mills have sent five different teams each off on a variety of Thinking Expeditions with Rolf. He recently led the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on a 5-stage Thinking Expedition exploring and defining an Enterprise Information Technology Architecture - one of the largest in the Federal government.

He is the author of The 7 Levels of Change (2nd Edition 2002), a fieldguide for thinking differently for different results.

 

PRE-CONFERENCE INSTITUTE: Thinking Expedition (1:00 - 5:00 pm)

VOLUNTEERS WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS ADVENTURE!
Join a team of world-class thinkers on a glorious adventure into Different. Capitalize on your natural love for exploration, excitement, discovery – and the unknown. Explore the 7 Levels of Change, 7 Levels of Thinking and the 7 Levels of Fear. Return to normal doubtful…

ad•ven•ture \ãd-‘ven-chür\ n 1. an undertaking involving risk and unforeseeable danger. 2. a remarkable and exciting experience.

What would you do if you absolutely knew you would not fail? Wrapped around the framework and processes of the Creative Problem Solving model in a very diffferent way, this session becomes the basecamp and mental jumping off point from which you launch a Thinking Expedition into the conference. Explore your own thinking and mindshifts as we push into the unknown. Move rapidly to higher levels of change as you cross the frontiers of your own mind and begin climbing mental mountain ranges far beyond Everest.

Objectives of the session: A personal plan for turning your life into an adventure – not just an adventure in doing and being different, but also in thinking different. How to get ideas differently, how to use almost anything to spark the excitement of adventure and expeditionary thinking in your soul. High-speed movement through the metaphor of a Thinking Adventure – largely extracted from the proven results of the School for Innovators. Tie backs to examples from Fortune 100 and government/military Thinking Expeditions (e.g., US Navy SMART SHIP, Texaco Knowledge Expedition and three Procter & Gamble Expeditions), the May 1999 Everest Extreme Expedition (NASA, Yale & International Explorers Club), African safaris, and climbing adventures in the Rockies.

Participants will understand and internalize the 7 Levels of Change, mindshifts into the 7 Levels of Thinking, and the 7 Levels of Fear that hover behind them. Upon completion of this session, the participant will understand the power of the adventure metaphor, and will be poised to integrate a wide range of CPS tools, techniques, processes and psychometric instruments into their lives as a personalized, large-scale, complex CPS model.

Registration fee:

All will find this Experiential/ Hands-On experience of interest and useful.