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ClientTestimonial
“Since attending the CPCU hosted DiscoveryOnstage workshop, I came back to work in the throws of my company's 2010 Planning Meetings. The workshop was extremely helpful as I worked with my Branch Manager to put together our branch planning for 2010 as well as our rollout. I was amazed at how many of our staff took the time to advise that it was one of the best meetings they have attended in quite some time. I incorporated items that I learned in the session and it was a great success!”
Kerry L. McGrath, CPCU, AU, AIS, CPIW
Senior Branch Marketing Director
Acadia Insurance
DiscoveryOnstage, in collaboration with two long-time business consultants and branding experts, sets out to engage corporate leaders in the creative process and the exploration and valuing of the imagination. It is well understood that these are challenging times in the business world – times that call for a heavy dose of reality. It is the view of DiscoveryOnstage, however, that with an even heavier dose of imagination, opportunity is always and forever in abundance.
We need new leadership enabling us to think collaboratively, to plan and act strategically and to improvise and innovate creatively. Companies increasingly seek leaders with mind-sets and skill-sets that can do all three - relying less on traditional personality traits and more on imaginative leadership qualities and well-honed skills.
DiscoveryOnstage Corporate Programs are designed to provide participants with an alternative to the traditional when it comes to leadership training. By experiencing, first hand, the creative process as seen through the eyes of a theatre artist, participants will gain a more thorough understanding and awareness of self; a more productive and powerful process through which to hatch and develop a ideas; a grander willingness and ability to engage other’s and their ideas; and the skills necessary in presenting ideas in a way that provokes more positive and engaged response.
Like all of DiscoveryOnstage’s programs, DiscoveryOnstage Corporate places special emphasis on the discovery of truth, the importance of collaboration and the exploration of imagination. After all, when ideas are grown from the imagination up, they often lead to a place of the unexpected – and the unexpected is precisely the place we must all seek in order to further our prospective causes.
Creative Leadership for Perilous Times
DiscoveryOnstage, along with consulting partners Kent Jackson and
Ernie Grecsek, is presenting a full day workshop at the annual meeting
of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society (CPCU) in
Orlando Florida on September 24th. Designed for top insurance
executives and managers, scaled versions of this workshop will be made
available to CPCU Chapters. Discovery On Stage also customizes the
workshop curriculum to fit the needs of corporate leadership teams
including leadership training programs and strategic planning and
innovation initiatives including retreats, annual meetings and special
events. Following is a summary of the workshop:
Imaginative Leadership Workshop - Developing Skills to Inspire Creativity and Spawn Innovation
Times of slow recovery and imposing challenges require leaders able to bring teams and organizations together to think creatively, to engage collaboratively and to innovate successfully. Organizations that invest in innovation during downturn tend to seize the opportunities of upturn. This intensive full-day workshop integrates the latest research and thinking about leadership, branding, creativity and innovation with practical and collaborative hands-on techniques and skills drawn from the inherently innovate art of theatrical production. This is a workshop that merges “thinking” with “doing” - pushing beyond the boundaries of habit and inhibition into new worlds of elevated awareness, value discovery and creative collaboration. At the end of the day you will be ready to apply what you have learned, and our organization will realize an enhanced capacity to innovate.
Workshop participants…
- Practice new creative communications techniques
- Develop value-focused and creative collaboration skills
- Learn new ways to think creatively while inspiring innovative capabilities
- Gain confidence in expressing and developing creative value- add ideas
- Experience the dynamics and creative power of the group
Sponsoring organization…
- Demonstrate commitment to creative and innovative leadership
- Encourage emerging leaders to explore and apply ideas
- Strengthen brand equity and commitment to value creation
- Develop inspired leaders while concurrently energizing your workforce
- Discover a new way to develop culture for sustained innovation
“Since attending the CPCU hosted DiscoveryOnstage workshop, I came back to work in the throws of my company's 2010 Planning Meetings. The workshop was extremely helpful as I worked with my Branch Manager to put together our planning for 2010 as well as our roll-out. I was amazed at how many of our staff took the time to advise that it was one of the best meetings they have attended in quite some time. I incorporated some of the items that I learned within the session and it was a great success!”
To find out more about this 2010 Imaginative Leadership Workshop visit the CPCU at www.cpcusociety.org and click on "Orlando 2010"
To find out more about this 2010 Imaginative Leadership Workshop
visit the CPCU at www.cpcusociety.org and click on "Orlando 2010"
KentJackson, PhD., CPCU 
Kent Jackson has over 40 years of professional experience in organizational development and leadership. For the past nine years he has performed consulting services related to branding, market research, training and strategic planning for a range of clients in insurance, education, health care, homebuilding and non-profit sectors.
He is currently an adjunct graduate professor with Regis University, serves as a grievance/mediation source for a community college and professional association of realtors, builders and developers, and manages member research and development services for a national society of ophthalmic surgery center owners.
Before starting his consultant practice in 2000, Dr. Jackson was an internal consultant in agency management and regional planner for State Farm Insurance. Prior to joining State Farm he was owner/manager of a construction engineering and planning firm. Prior to that he served as an academic and public affairs administrator and faculty member in psychology at the University of Northern Colorado.
Dr. Jackson earned Bachelor and Master’s degrees from the University of Northern Colorado and the PhD from Oregon State University. He achieved the CPCU designation in 1996.
ErnieGrecsek, MA, CPCU
Ernie Grecsek, MA, CPCU is a performance management consultant with a focus on training professionals in core leadership competencies. He serves as an instructor for the CPCU Society, Center for Leadership. In his local community, he is a member of the Business Advisory Committee for the Career and Service Center of the South West Florida Workforce Development Board.
In his 25-year insurance claims career, Grecsek held management and executive positions with Nationwide, Wausau, and Allstate Insurance Companies. He was an adjunct professor at the Southwest Florida campus of National-Louis University in the College of Management and Business.
In 2007, Ernie was recognized by the CPCU Loman Education Foundation as an outstanding volunteer who demonstrates consistent and excellent performance within the CPCU Society Center for Leadership, the CPCU Society and other professional activities.
He earned a B.S. in economics and business administration at Wagner College, and a M.A. in human resource development and training from The Ohio State University; he is affiliated with the Society of Human Resource Management, American Society for Training and Development and the CPCU Society.