Course: The Art of Creative Leadership

If your leadership team still treats creativity as a "nice to have", they're costing the Business real advantage.

## Course Title: Creative Leadership Lab, From Vision to Practical Impact

## Target audience and level
- Emerging leaders and aspiring middle managers in professional services, government agencies and large retail operations, people who have operational responsibility, direct reports and influence across teams but aren't yet senior execs.
- Level: Intermediate, participants should have 2 to 7 years of supervisory experience and be ready to lead change initiatives.

## Preferred duration and format
- 3 × 2 hour live virtual sessions (fortnightly), plus a half day face to face immersion workshop in Sydney or Melbourne, and a 6 week peer practice cohort for follow through.
- Hybrid delivery: virtual theory and planning; face to face applied lab and roleplays.

## Practical constraints and logistics (randomised but realistic)
- Price: $495 per person (inc. GST) for the core 3×2 hour virtual series; $1,295 (inc. GST) for the full blended programme including the face to face day and cohort coaching.
- Minimum cohort size: 8; maximum: 24 (optimised at 12 to 16 for interaction).
- Locations for face to face lab: Sydney CBD, Melbourne CBD, Brisbane (ad hoc depending on demand). Virtual delivery via organisation approved platform.
- Materials: participant workbook (digital), pre read case study, short assessment survey, facilitator notes and sample roleplay scenarios.
- Accessibility: captioning for live sessions; materials available in Word and PDF.

## Primary learning outcomes (behavioural and metric focused)
- Behavioural outcomes:
- Lead structured creative conversations that surface diverse perspectives without defaulting to hierarchy.
- Run rapid, evidence based experiments (small prototypes) that de risk big ideas.
- Convert creative concepts into actionable plans with measurable milestones.
- Foster psychological safety so teams propose and test bold ideas.
- Metric outcomes (for sponsors/HR):
- Increase in "idea to prototype" conversion rate by X% within 3 months (baseline to be set per Organisation).
- Improved team innovation climate score on pulse survey (target +10 points).
- Reduction in stalled projects due to "analysis paralysis" (target 20% fewer stalls in 6 months).

## Structure overview (module by module)
1. Pre program diagnostics and set up (asynchronous)
- 15 minute online self assessment: creative leadership readiness and barriers.
- Pre read: a short case where a mid sized public service unit shifted procurement with a user centred pilot (500 to 800 words).
- Manager brief: 5 minute summary for participants' managers explaining role of manager in follow up.

2. Session One, Creative Leadership Fundamentals (2 hours, virtual)
- Aim: Define creative leadership versus traditional management; build shared language.
- Components:
- Quick pulse: reflections on pre assessment (what surprised you?).
- Short, provocative framing (why creative leadership now, organisational examples).
- Mini workshop: rapid empathy mapping for a chosen team problem.
- Tool spotlight: divergent/convergent thinking cadence, how to run a 15 minute ideation burst.
- Micro commitment: each participant names one micro experiment to run before Session Two.
- Materials: empathy map template, ideation timer, micro experiment checklist.

3. Session Two, Designing Experiments and Prototypes (2 hours, virtual)
- Aim: Move from idea to testable prototype quickly, cheaply and with clear measures.
- Components:
- Review of micro experiments (peer feedback in breakout rooms).
- Framework: How to design an experiment that answers the riskiest assumption.
- Hands on: Build a two step prototype plan (hypothesis, measure, fail fast exit criteria).
- Governance moment: aligning small experiments with risk appetite and compliance.
- Practical deliverable: a one page experiment plan to run within 2 to 3 weeks.

4. Session Three, Scaling and Embedding Creativity (2 hours, virtual)
- Aim: Translate successful tests into sustainable change while managing resistance.
- Components:
- Case deconstruction: a successful scale plan, what kept it alive (funding, sponsorship, measurement).
- Roleplay: handling the "but we've always done it this way" stakeholder conversation.
- Tools: experimentation backlog, lightweight business case template, governance checklist for scaling.
- Peer clinic: 3×10 minute clinics where participants get facilitator and peer inputs.
- Deliverable: scaling roadmap and sponsor pitch script.

5. Face to Face Immersion Lab, The Practicum (half day)
- Aim: Deep practice in cross functional collaboration, non linear problem solving and real time prototype testing.
- Activities:
- Cross team jigsaw: participants swap problems and run a condensed design sprint (60 to 90 minutes), empathy, ideation, prototype, user test.
- Live feedback from facilitators and invited end users (when possible).
- Psychological safety session: building rituals to normalise dissent and iteration.
- Commitment workshop: drafting team level charters to support creative leadership behaviours.
- Output: Prototype demo, user feedback summary, team charter.

6. Six week peer practice cohort (post program)
- Aim: Turn learning into habit via structured practice and manager involvement.
- Elements:
- Weekly 30 minute peer check ins (facilitator moderated; fortnightly for larger cohorts).
- Manager checkpoints at weeks 3 and 6 (15 minutes).
- Final showcase: 10 minute presentations of scaled experiments and measured outcomes.

## Assessment and measurement
- Pre/post surveys: measure shifts in mindset (psychological safety, experimentation appetite), and self reported behaviours.
- Roleplay scoring: facilitators use a rubric during Session Three and the face to face lab (criteria: framing, stakeholder empathy, risk management, clarity of experiment).
- Manager observation: short behavioural checklist for managers to rate application at 3 and 6 months.
- Business metrics: agreed KPIs (idea to prototype conversion, project stall rate, employee innovation climate) measured at baseline and at 3 months.

## Core modules and session breakdown (detailed activities)
- Module A, Vision & Narrative: workshops on crafting a compelling, practical vision that invites participation. Exercise: write a 90 second narrative that connects competitive context and a clear invitation to the team.
- Module B, Creative Process Toolkit: teach and practise design thinking basics, rapid experiments, and non linear mapping. Tools: double diamond, assumption map, prototype funnel.
- Module C, Leading Culture: practical rituals for psychological safety (after action reviews, blameless post mortems, asymmetric praise). Exercise: create a fortnightly ritual for your team.
- Module D, Governance for Creativity: how to create guardrails, minimal compliance checks, escalation points and budget lines for experiments.
- Module E, Measuring What Matters: designing simple metrics for experimentation (leading indicators) and aligning to business outcomes.
- Module F, Communication & Influence: stakeholder mapping, sponsor pitch, and handling resistance roleplays.

## Learning activities and adult learning methods
- Short lectures with real examples (no theory bloat).
- Breakouts for peer coaching.
- Hands on prototyping in every session.
- Roleplays with observer feedback.
- Manager involvement tasks, because culture shift needs sponsorship.
- Real work integration: every participant applies tools to a current, live problem.

## Facilitator notes and trainer pack
- Ideal facilitators: experienced consultants with facilitation chops and practical change experience, someone who has run a change pilot in a public sector agency or in retail operations.
- Trainer pack items: facilitator script, timing guide, roleplay instructions, rubric for experiment plans, participant workbook.
- Risk management: a guide on when experiments need legal/compliance sign off.

## Typical programme timeline (sample 8 week schedule)
- Week 0: Pre assessment + manager brief.
- Week 1: Session One (virtual).
- Week 3: Session Two (virtual).
- Week 5: Session Three (virtual).
- Week 6: Face to face immersion lab.
- Weeks 1 to 8: Six week peer cohort running concurrently, with manager checkpoints.

## Stakeholder engagement and sponsorship
- Sponsor briefing template (one page): how the programme supports strategy, asks of sponsors (time, decisions, budget), and expected returns.
- Communications plan: two pre launch emails, manager briefing pack, programme completion note with ROI snapshot.

## Common risks and mitigation
- Risk: "Too woolly" outcomes, mitigate with experiment templates and short business cases.
- Risk: Manager pushback, include manager brief and explicit manager checkpoints.
- Risk: Compliance/legal barriers, early legal touchpoint on experiments that touch Customer data.
- Risk: Participant drop off, small group accountability and micro commitments.

## A few blunt opinions, because programmes need honesty
- Creativity without accountability is just daydreaming. Leaders must be able to count outcomes.
- Too many organisations treat innovation as a separate function, wrong. It needs to be distributed across operations and performance managers.
- Yes, we should value craft and process; but sometimes heavy process is the enemy of good prototypes.

## Tools, templates and deliverables participants leave with
- One page experiment plan.
- Empathy map template.
- Stakeholder influence map.
- Mini business case template for scaling.
- Psychological safety checklist for team rituals.
- Facilitator rubric for roleplay scoring.

## How we measure success for sponsors
- Participation metrics: attendance, micro experiment completion rate.
- Behavioural metrics: pre/post change in psychological safety and experimentation scores.
- Business outcomes: number of experiments moved to scale, reduction in stalled projects.
- Case study at 6 months: short narrative showing decisions made differently and impact.

## Customisation options (we can adapt)
- Tailor scenarios to regulated sectors (health, finance, government).
- Deliver full day intensive for senior leadership teams.
- Add one on one coaching for high potential leaders.

## Final note, a realistic promise
This outline doesn't promise miracles. What it does promise is practical muscle memory: small experiments, clearer decisions, and a repeatable way to turn creative instincts into measurable work. Expect friction. Expect a learning curve. Expect results if you commit.

## Sources & Notes
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, "Business Characteristics and Performance, Australia, 2021 to 22" (innovation activity data indicating ~45% of Australian businesses engaged in innovation activity). Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2023.
- World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2020, identifies creativity as one of the top skills for the future workforce.
- Programme pricing and delivery assumptions: internal benchmarking and standard market rates for short blended leadership programmes in Australia (2024 to 25 market context).