Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents

The 43rd episode of the Creative Flow Podcast features a conversation with Sarah Thurber and Blair Miller, the co-founders of Foursight, a company that develops research-based tools and training to help teams think more creatively, work more collaboratively, and achieve better results. They share their personal journeys into the field of deliberate creativity and explore how their shared passion for creativity has shaped their marriage and collaborative efforts. 

Sarah and Blair discuss their new book Good Team, Bad Team:  Lead Your People to Go After Big Challenges, Not Each Other, and provide examples of how they've used creative problem-solving to tackle personal and professional challenges, from managing household finances to leading volunteer efforts in their community. This is your chance to learn the inside story of Foursight, a framework that measures individual and team preferences for four critical types of thinking: clarifying, ideating, developing, and implementing. Their work has deepened the understanding of the interconnectivity between person, process, press (environment), and product in the creative process and shows how self-knowledge can help teams solve complex problems.

Blair and Sarah share their hopes for the future of the science of creativity in leadership development and making creative problem-solving accessible to all. Don’t miss this conversation that explores the power of creativity to transform personal relationships, organizational cultures, and societal challenges.

The 42nd episode of the Creative Flow Podcast features guest Elien Pragt, M.D., an intensivist at an academic hospital in the Netherlands, working to bring creativity into medicine. She shares her journey of learning creative problem solving techniques and pursuing a Master's Degree in Creativity and Change Leaders at Buffalo State University's International Center for Studies in Creativity. 

Elien discusses why creativity is essential in healthcare to address issues such as burnout and retaining hospital personnel. One of her goals is to create a workshop for a shared vision for creativity in her hospital by 2030. She designed an interactive course for second-year medical students, where they can work on a self-chosen medical problem in groups using creative problem-solving and design thinking to solve it. 

Don’t miss this conversation, which explores how creativity can be spread throughout an entire healthcare ecosystem over the next decade. Learn powerful advice to help others trying to implement creativity in their organizations, emphasizing the need for a motivated role model. 

The 41st episode of the Creative Flow Podcast features retired lecturer John Michael Fox sharing his journey to deliberate creativity. Mike reflects on feeling uncreative early in his career as a landscape architect and finding inspiration at Buffalo State's International Center for Studies in Creativity. He discusses his philosophy of embracing challenges and the role of cognitive styles in determining your approach to deliberate creativity.

Mike describes becoming a student, advancing to a teacher, and achieving personal and professional success over 25 years in academia. He shares how he came to write his books with his wife, Ronnie Fox. His insights on the future of creativity include research and its implementation, emphasizing access for all. He discusses his creative flow and his role in empowering others to enhance the flow of creative projects and solutions.

Don’t miss Mike's enjoyable storytelling skills, describing a fascinating life of many careers, from landscape architecture to airplane pilot to creativity professor and author. 

Our 40th episode of the Creative Flow podcast features Sue Keller-Mathers, an associate professor who teaches graduate courses in Creativity at the Center for Applied Imagination, SUNY Buffalo State. Sue shares her passion for growing Creativity in education and continuing the development of the Torrance Incubation Model (TIM) for designing learning. She highlights the success of engaging learners through the Torrance Incubation Model (TIM) to “set purpose and motivation up front, to dig the learners deep into their content, and to connect it to things to go beyond.”

Sue emphasizes the importance of attitudes like openness and flexibility in creative problem-solving. She discusses her work researching the history of Creativity through scholars like Ruth Knoller and Calvin Taylor. When describing the future, she shares her vision of fostering Creativity in schools and understanding diversity. “Wouldn't it be great if every kid grew up knowing their creative abilities were present and appreciated?”

Don’t miss Sue's insights from her extensive career experience in creative education and problem-solving. You will also enjoy her tips on entering a state of creative flow deliberately through visualization and isolation to immerse yourself in complex projects fully. 

Our 39th episode of the Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents Podcast Series features Miggie Wong, a museum professional and artist who creates situation-based performance projects exploring ideas of social interaction, a sense of belonging, and acts of sincerity. Born and raised in Hong Kong and later migrating to the United States, Miggie was creative from a young age but did not have a way to describe her process to others. Studying the Science of Creativity at the Center for Applied Imagination, SUNY Buffalo State, helped her understand how to utilize Creativity as an artist and have a common framework and language to promote it in others. 

One example of how Miggie uses Creativity as a survival skill is a project she did when studying for her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts. She created a participatory art project by playing Mahjong for 24 hours to help her make friends despite the language barrier. In 2021, she withstood the enforced isolation of quarantine in a hotel room for 14 days while visiting Hong Kong during the pandemic by working on a creative art project that resulted in her publishing a graphic diary called ‘14 Days Quarantine Meal Drawing Project’. Her current work uses participatory art to connect with her audience and encourage them to tell her stories about the community.

Don’t miss our discussion of Miggie's wish for the future of Creativity as “using scientific and artistic creativity to continue to maintain and improve our well-being.” This concept of art as essential to mental health is aligned with her Creative Flow of making art that encourages a connection with the viewer. Find our podcast today on all of your favorite platforms.

Our 38th episode of the Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents Podcast Series features Erin Habes, a dedicated fashion and textile technology department lecturer and Runway Faculty Director at Buffalo State University who is passionate about being a catalyst for inclusive fashion in the Buffalo community. 

Erin started her career in New York City, opened her store when she returned to Buffalo, and is well-known for producing large-scale fashion shows such as Runway and Mass Appeal. When appointed adjunct faculty in the fashion program, she learned about the Master's Degree in Creativity and Change Leadership at Buffalo State University, and it was what she was seeking to extend her education. She dedicated ten years to completing the degree and discusses how it continues to help her combine the fashion world and Deliberate Creativity.

Erin has developed many partnerships through her work on fashion shows and often plays the role of facilitating meaningful collaborations between students, alums, and entrepreneurs, ensuring diverse perspectives are heard and celebrated. One great example is her work with Visit Buffalo Niagara Buffalo to showcase her home city's beautiful boutiques, fashion, and shopping. 

Erin describes the creativity she uses in the classroom and how she helps her students and the Buffalo community champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in fashion. Using design thinking and a focus on empathy, she encourages her students to understand that they are responsible for the products that we are making.

Don’t miss this discussion of how Erin used AI to help her students get new ideas to create a collection for this year’s Runway. To bring the Creative Community together, she is hosting an in-person mixer on January 18, at 7 pm, at Twin Petrels Selzer Company (1250 Niagara St, Buffalo, NY 14213). Please join us if you are in the WNY Region. Find our podcast today on all of your favorite platforms.

Our 37th episode of the Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents Podcast Series features William Shepard, a thought leader who worked closely with Sid Parnes and many greats in the field of Creative Problem Solving. 

Bill's first exposure to Deliberate Creativity was in 1972 when he provided technical and logistical support at the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), which impacted him personally and professionally. He later obtained a Graduate Certificate in Creativity from the Center for Applied Imagination, SUNY Buffalo State, and served as Director of CPSI and its programs for 18 years. 

Bill masterfully walks us through how the history and evolution of the field of Creativity have changed from the beginning to the present day. He describes traveling around the world with  Sid and Bea Parnes and working with many of the seminal thought leaders of Creative Problem Solving, such as Ruth Noller, Paul Torrance, and Edward DeBono. He discusses his own emotional breakthrough as he found the side of him that could be creative and the tools to do it deliberately. 

Don’t miss this discussion of how he uses the principles and tools personally and professionally for individuals, teams, organizations, and executive coaching. As the Group Vice President of the Creative Problem Solving Group – Buffalo (CPSB), he worked on projects with leading firms worldwide. For him, the most personally and professionally rewarding activity was training individuals within organizations to address problems and challenges better. Find our podcast today on all of your favorite platforms.

Our 36th episode of the Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents Podcast Series features Jane Fischer, a Creative Change Facilitator for individuals and groups who focuses on the tools of applied improvisation and Creativity. Jane is a creative trainer at the Creative Education Foundation with over 25 years of experience developing and delivering educational sessions and 20 years of experience as a professional improv comedy performer. 

Jane was involved in the Applied Improvisation community for many years in her hometown of Jamestown and was introduced to the Center for Applied Imagination by a graduate in this group. The program was so transformative that she described her life “BC – Before Creativity” and “AC – After Creativity.” One surprising benefit of the Graduate Certificate in Creativity from the Center for Applied Imagination, SUNY Buffalo State, was the inclusion of Creative Leadership in the curriculum. She credits this degree with helping her to empower her workplace and make everything “exponentially better” for the people who worked for her. 

Jane discusses how she uses the improvisational mindset to help teams and organizations experience Creativity. She incorporates exercises and activities from the world of improv, and participants learn how to balance divergent and convergent thinking while finding new and exciting possibilities. One of her favorite success stories involved a person who considered improv fluff until she could practice it and experience the impact it can have on collaboration and communication skills. 

Don't miss this chance to laugh while you also hear insights from a respected leader who  has a vision for the future of the creativity community, where we will continue to convert people and help them make their “own meaning with creativity.” Find our podcast today on all of your favorite platforms.

Our 35th episode of the Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents Podcast Series features Karina Loera, MS founder of Strategik Minds LLC, and a faculty member for the Masters in Innovation Management at Universidad de la Sabana in Colombia. Karina discusses how she sees Creativity transform the entrepreneurs she works with to grow their businesses. Her other passion is teaching and seeing her students increase their organizational impact by mastering the creative problem solving process. Born and raised in Mexico City, teaching in Colombia, and living in the USA for eight years, she shares insights on how culture impacts our creativity mindset and the tools she uses to create common ground. 

Karina left behind a high-powered marketing career to achieve a Master's in Creative Studies and Change Leadership at the Center for Applied Imagination, SUNY Buffalo State University. Her work at the Small Business Development Center gave her an understanding of how entrepreneurs represent the creative person because they constantly face uncertainty. Working with a startup company and now in her own business, she understands how the creative process can help solve daily problems entrepreneurs face.

Karina helped organize the Masters in Innovation Management at Universidad de la Sabana in Colombia and teaches a class on innovation management to give students the tools and resources to develop and ensure innovation is happening in their organization. She shares the thrill of reading their dissertations and describes the many success stories her students have achieved. Learn about Karina's Creative Flow, training people, and imagining the experience she wants participants to have in her class.

Don't miss this discussion of the future of creativity and the insights of a multicultural leader. Find our podcast today on all of your favorite platforms.

Our 34th episode of the Creative Flow: Thinkers and Change Agents Podcast Series features Roger Firestien, Ph.D., who has proudly trained more people to lead the creative process than anyone else in the world. He is a Senior Faculty member at the Center for Applied Imagination at SUNY Buffalo State, President of Innovation Resources, Inc., and Author of Create in a Flash: A leader's recipe for breakthrough innovation.

Roger discusses how he came to creativity through music and a desire to help his students become more creative and enjoy their music lessons more. Research led him to the Center for Applied Imagination, where he was the seventh person to graduate with the degree. He discusses his work facilitating, teaching, and creating resources such as offering a breakthrough lab for clients facing a challenging problem to solve. You will feel his passion and fire as he describes a legendary career: "It's just extraordinary to have been in this business for 40-plus years and still just having a blast.”

Roger describes three success stories that stood out in his long and impressive career. Working with Clorox, the team solved a problem that plagued the company for 70 years in 15 minutes. He helped Mazda Motor Manufacturing USA combine creative problem-solving with quality techniques, resulting in the plant coming up to speed faster than any other plant in the automobile maker's operation. His work with the New York State Economic Development Council, the Western New York division, helped Buffalo, New York, secure a billion dollars in economic development funding. Now Roger works at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine, teaching residents and medical students to ask creative questions to get better diagnoses.

Roger is a prolific author and shares a preview of his new book that will be coming out in the Summer of 2023 called "Solve the Real Problem." His creative flow is writing, and he shares his knowledge in his courses, free videos, and numerous books.

Don't miss this discussion of the future of creativity and the insights of a leader who has positively impacted the field of Creativity in many ways. Find our podcast today on all of your favorite platforms.