Innovating solo is a myth...

We spend a lot of our time at Curious Catalyst literally catalyzing the creativity of teams by designing sessions to guide them through a structured approach to problem definition and breakthrough - whether that's reframing solution spaces at college campuses or in corporate boardrooms or backcasting from a future vision at an open-enrollment conference. As Keith Sawyer shows in Group Genius, there is a persistent myth of the lone inventor, one great genius slaving away in obscurity. But this is, indeed, a myth. Innovation usually comes from group interaction, from cross-fertilization between team-members and from rapid feedback cycles. Creativity happens in teams. The most groundbreaking new ideas increasingly emerge from a process that harnesses the discipline of kicking the tires at the right points, constant learning from your consumers, users or the humans for whom you're designing, and an approach that treats scale and systems dynamics as factors in the design effort from the start.  Get in touch today to learn more about how we can help you design and facilitate better brainstorms for transformative impact.

Yale University

We were invited to design and lead a session for the inaugural program of the Yale Undergraduate Civic Leadership Program.  We often begin with setting some context on the process of how human-centered design works and why it matters more and more in today's rapidly-changing landscape.  This was followed by an interactive session of team-based exercises in approaching systemic challenges in new ways, to open up unforeseen solution spaces.

FUEL Forum

FUEL is a collaborative forum for leaders, entrepreneurs, creators and engaged citizens to come together and re-imagine our collective future - inspiring creativity, encouraging participation, and igniting the culture of Vancouver. We designed and facilitated a day-long design thinking workshop around real challenges citizens were facing, in partnership with THNK School of Creative Leadership before their Vancouver launch. You can read more about the process and the concepts that emerged here.

UN Women National Committee

The United States National Committee (USNC) for UN Women is an independent non-profit organization that supports UN Women programs. These projects promote social, political, and economic equality for women and girls spanning 100 countries around the globe. They engaged us to lead interactive segments of their annual Los Angeles general conference to create deeper connections to the themes of human trafficking and unlock new perspectives on participation as citizens.