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“In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth.” ― Eric Hoffer

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From the Mobile Office of Mark Brian Vanderkam – International Marketing Strategist / Award-Winning Wilderness Photographer / Mountain Guide

Dear Business Leader,

Today is innovation day!

I offer a fun, exciting, transforming professional development workshop drawing lessons from the world of landscape photography and business success to spark your team’s creative fire!

What sets one business or organization apart from others? Why does one company consistently come out with winning products while others always seem to be playing the “me too” catch up game?

Why does one organization such as a school or hospital have better outcomes, higher retention rates and greater staff satisfaction than others which lag behind?

Unless they sit on an exclusive physical resource like a gold mine or own valuable patents that were handed down to them, the main reason one company or organization consistently wins and stands out when compared to others is very simple …

It’s the people!!!!

On a level playing field, the team with people who are more innovative and more highly motivated will always outperform.

Companies use the term “Human Resources” which suggests they understand that humans are critical resources behind the success of their mission. But are your people supported and empowered as though they are your most valuable resource? Too often, the bureaucrats take over and create policies that seem designed to change those humans from difference-makers to cogs in the machine.

There’s gotta be a better way!!!!

Imagine the positive forces for change and success that could be unleashed in your organization if your people were given tools and strategies to help them innovate more and a mandate to actually do it! People excel when they tap into their innate talents and creative energies, so that is why it is essential to wake them up and help them along. 

That's right, empower people to take the bull by the horns, solve problems, fend off threats, overcome inertia, try new approaches, create new products, maybe fail (YES, FAIL!!!) a few times along the way while they figure things out, and then achieve new levels of success ... what a concept!!!!

To help you unleash the beast and give power to the people, I offer a high-impact professional development workshop that opens eyes and hearts and gets people moving again …

Innovation Workshop for Greatness

This fun and power-packed 60-90 minute workshop is called “Innovate for Greatness” and draws lessons from the everyday world around us to show how we can all learn to be more innovative in our day-to-day lives. Right now! Today!

The workshop draws upon both my own personal career as a business innovator and international marketing guru and also my "secret" calling as a wilderness landscape photographer. I use photography as a model for learning how to be more innovative. I begin by teaching participants some easy techniques for taking better pictures immediately, today, and then seamlessly flip the workshop into a transformational event on innovation.

The introductory photography section makes the workshop incredibly relevant and engaging, because everyone carries a powerful camera in their pockets these days (on their phone!), yet few people have any idea of the basic principles needed to make beautiful photographs. I therefore lay out some of the core principles and techniques behind good photographs and get people out of their seats practicing and comparing and having fun.

Then, while everyone is having a good time learning to take awesome shots on their camera phones, I get everyone to take a step back and begin to understand how the road to better photographs is analogous to being more creative in their day to day work lives. 

Just as learning a few simple principles can elevate their photography, so they can also begin to be more inventive and innovative in their daily lives and work by learning and implementing a few key principles of the innovation mindset. 

Why I Use Photography in Workshops to Spark Innovation
While I have enjoyed a successful 25-year career as a business consultant and sales/marketing leader, I have a secret passion as an award-winning mountain landscape photographer and wilderness guide. I am a certified licensed guide with the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides and take photography clients to wilderness locations throughout the Canadian Rockies, British Columbia, and the Yukon. 

As such, I am well equipped to teach workshop participants the fundamentals of good photography. And because everyone loves looking at beautiful wilderness shots, you can bet that I am able to hold everyone’s attention as I take them through the lessons of good shooting while ripping off a few good yarns about face-to-face grizzly bear encounters and other fun adventures in the Canadian back country.

I'm not your typical boring business consultant! There is nothing like spicing things up to entertain, energize and illuminate the troops!

The Workshop – Innovate for Greatness

The Photography Chunk

The workshop, which can be delivered in 60, 75, or 90 minutes, begins with a slightly crazed-looking guy (yours truly) rambling through a box of household junk which is then magically transformed into the very tools a person needs to create compelling portraits.

I get audience participants onstage to act as both models and photographers. In fact, by the time the seminar is finished, most participants will have a pretty professional shot of themselves taken on their own phone by a fellow participant! 

Photography topics covered include:

• How Not to Do Composition
• When to Abandon the Rule of Thirds
• Is the Golden Mean Meaningless?
• Lessons from Master Painters
• Illuminating Lighting
• “Leading Lines” is Not a Leading Subject
• You Shot It, Now Own It
• Rules are so Awesome
• Breaking the Rules is Even Awesomer
• Meditate on Transcendence
• Cool Tools Are Everywhere ya Look

The Innovation Chunk

Segueing from the opening section, the workshop quickly shifts gears to extrapolate from the specifics of photography to the universal principles of innovation itself and how to cultivate and apply it in everyday situations.

The photography chunk shows ‘em how to be a budding photographic artiste; the innovation chunk shows ‘em that it is not just POSSIBLE but ACHIEVABLE to come up with inventive new steps, solutions, processes, leaps, products, services and methods in virtually every kind of business situation.

Innovation is a mindset – a skill – and everyone can learn it and apply it TODAY!

As we dive into the innovation pool, we cover topics such as …

• Strategic Innovation – More than an Oxymoron
• First, Learn the Language
• The 5% Solution
• Ready, Fire, Aim -- The Law of Motion
• Cliches Cause Creativity
• Don’t Quote the Status Quo
• Sorry, Creativity Ain’t Innovation
• Gutenberg and Steve Jobs Shared One Secret
• Archimedes’s Takes a Bath … Alone
• Steve Jobs and the OTHER Secret of Life
• Lever with Leverage
• The Paradox of Structured Brainstorming
• Brainstorming vs. Painstorming
• Why Teams Can’t Possibly Innovate
• Established Norms Can Block You and Launch You
• Sample Sample Sample
• Pain, Meet Gain
• Learning to See All Over Again
• D’ya Feel Your Feelings Yet?
• Beginners Dad, Rich Dad
• Can’t You Control the Weather with Your Mind?
• Fail Not, O Ye of Little Faith
• Seriously Now, just Chillax

Resulting Results -- A New Way of Seeing
What can you expect from subjecting your crew to the machinations of this madness?

First, I guarantee that everyone will head out with new ideas and enthusiasm to go out and take some amazing photographs. Second, they will get a jolt of positive energy and inspiration.

Third and most importantly, participants will look at their roles from a fresh perspective, with a new set of eyes if you will, and they will be inspired and confident to INNOVATE FOR GREATNESS! 

One sad truth in any business or organization is that the pipes get clogged, the plugs start to lose their spark, and inertia sets in. Let’s face it, work can be hard and can wear people down.

Innovate for Greatness is designed to open your people to new visions and ideas and inject some much needed energy to get things moving. Innovation is a dance of possibility combined with the drive to get down to brass tacks and try new things and adjust. This workshop unleashes these positive forces within your organization. 

It is visionary – it is pragmatic. The ROI will be seen in the results that begin to infiltrate everyday work situations and transform your people into those who lead and create.

Let’s Get Started ...

Please click the button below to flip to my Contact Page. I look forward to speaking with you and inspiring your team!