This face to face course is run by the Researcher Academy 

The Researcher Academy courses are very popular and the majority are run in both semesters to give you the opportunity to attend at a time of the year that suits you. 

FOSTERING A CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING MIND-SET
LEARNING BLOCK 2 of the Researcher Academy’s Training Programme on Developing Innovative, Enterprising, Knowledge Exchange (KE) Focussed Mind-sets

Target Audience: PGRs/ECRs/Technicians/Research staff 

Description: 

A half-day face-to-face workshop focussing on exploring, unpacking, unlocking, embracing and cultivating, the fourth of five co-related innovation based cultures and mind-sets: Creative

Creative problem solving is a prized and increasingly sought-after skill across private and public sectors and a wide range of diverse organisations. Employees, managers, and leaders are all required to find and research valuable opportunities, generate and develop new ideas and trial and implement innovative solutions. 

This interactive workshop will introduce delegates to multiple perspectives on creativity, creative approaches and processes and the use of tools to enhance creative thinking, as mechanisms for exploring aspects of their own creativity and developing their own creative thinking within research active contexts. This workshop will help delegates with underlying assumption busting and idea-generation. It will enable them to identify various stages of the creative process, employ and experiment with creative thinking techniques to generate new ideas and discuss these with other researchers from a range of disciplines and backgrounds.

Delegates will have the opportunity for individual and collaborative creative practice via several course specific scenarios and case studies relevant to research active contexts.

Note there is a requirement for delegates to:

• have confirmed registrations to attend Learning Block 1 and Learning Block 3 running in the same semester.
• engage in all interactive tasks
• undertake some course reflection

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the importance of developing complimentary creative mind-sets within innovative research active and academic environments and role of creativity in problem solving
• Identify stages of the creative process, components of creative work, and the skills (and biases) involved
• Employ idea generation, exploration and development strategies
• Explore own creativity and creative thinking in context, applying and experimenting with creative processes and tools, via structured and innovative approaches to problem solving
• Recognise and explore own assumptions, preferences, personal values, perspectives, habits, reasoning, false logic, ways of thinking and behavioural attributes that may underpin or hold back your own innovative, enterprising, creative thinking
• Test out own creative ability (personal effectiveness, agency, approaches to creativity) whilst simultaneously learning from and leveraging creative ability, thinking and action demonstrated in others.
• Develop confidence in your creative skills as well as your ability to improve those skills, moving past learned behaviour to reach new and effective solutions
• Consider insights gained to re-examine your own performance within innovative, creative, enterprising research active environments as well as the direction of your own research project or innovation.

Important information: places are limited and offered to researchers on condition they commit to a series and sequence of 3 connected online and in person workshops. Those who do so will be awarded a certificate in Embracing an Innovative & KE Focussed Mind-set.

Delegates must sign up to all THREE interconnected learning blocks and associated workshops in either semester one OR semester two.

Process:

Practical interactive workshops with some group based activities and post course reflection

Course Accessibility

The following table shows a summary of what is needed to participate in the course. 

If you feel you will experience any difficulties participating, please let us know via the ‘special requirements’ tab, providing as much information as possible. The special requirements tab can be completed when you book your place. Alternatively, you can contact us directly at BB-RA-Training@nottingham.ac.uk

Access seminar room on campus (or) access computer room on campus
Attend the course at the specified date and time
Watch and listen to the course tutor(s) and/or other attendees
Follow presentation slides during the course

Booking Conditions

Researcher Academy courses are very popular, and we are experiencing large volumes of people on our waiting lists, at present.

Please do let us know if you would like to cancel your place on this course so we can offer your place to another delegate. 

Please note, attendances for courses will be recorded. There are no training points associated with courses run by the Researcher Academy.