June 22 - June 27 Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA will hostThe Creative Problem Solving Institute’s 54th annual conference – The Nature of Inspiration

One of the presenters is Andy Stefanovich who will discuss the importance of bringing inspiration and creativity to your business.

As one of the most disruptive advisors in business, Play's founder Andy Stefanovich brings creativity and innovation to the world's top companies.  After 17 years of changing business, Andy has realized that creative processes and innovation outputs are only as good as the inspiration that fuels them.  How do you seek new inspiration to spur creativity and innovation?  How do you stay inspired and engaged in your daily life and work?  Andy shares inspiring best practice stories and critical problem solving methods to empower to people, and thereby enhance their ability to develop and share new ideas.  Andy proves that it's not only necessary to encourage creativity and innovation in today's marketplace; it's dangerous to ignore them.

• Creativity and innovation in business.
• Practical skills, leadership behaviors, and methods for developing and implementing ideas at work.
• Making business a lot more creative and its people continually inspired.

I had the opportunity to ask Andy a few questions about his passion of having creativity in business.

What motivates you to want to change the way business is done and encourage organizations to bring creativity and innovation to the world's top companies?

After working across industries for almost twenty years, I’ve seen so many uninspired individuals.  Everyone from the facilities manager to the CEO can change the way they individually work to positively affect the culture of the entire organization.  By teaching a small group of catalysts how to change their individual mindset, it creates a ripple effect to make others more engaged as well.

What are the risks to companies who go about each day following the status quo without regard to nurturing their employee’s creativity?

People are the source of tomorrow’s great ideas.  By ignoring your people’s creativity, you are ignoring the best resource you have for tomorrow’s business growth. 

What are some of the resistance points you get from companies about your message?

Innovation is everywhere and it can be hard to sort through the cluttered space to find the real value.  Companies have focused too much on the process and not enough on their people.  By inspiring your people and enabling them to be more creative, you’ll see the results of innovation.  In short, Inspiration + Creativity = Innovation.

How do you overcome objections to your offerings?

Generally, our clients come to us with a specific need or problem they are facing.  Innovation is no longer a new term, and companies are searching for the real how to steps.  We try and find the right blend between knowing their culture and knowing when to push a little.   

How do you think your message relates to the generation coming into the workforce today?

The millennials that are entering the workforce today will soon be managers and then leaders.  By giving them the tools they need to create now, we leave the door open for new possibilities.  They grew up in an overscheduled, socially open and technology rich world, so they crave individualism and expression.  Inspire the people – without people, the process is hollow.

The conference will also host:

Frank Prince - Be Creative 24/7!  11 Key Strategies to Boost Your Creativity

Michael Jones - Moments of Illumination:  An Evening of Music, Story and Reflection

Susan Davis and Denise Knight -  coke^®/care

Dimis Michaelides - The Art of Innovation:  How to Integrate Creativity in Organizations

Barry Johnson - Tapping Our Gift of Polarities: For Families, Organizations, Nations and Planet

For more information visit http://www.cpsiconference.com/home.cfm