WD-40 for the Creative Soul:

No matter how much we love our jobs, the daily routine of work – the repetition, stress, and workload – can sometimes bog us down. When this happens, talented professionals can lose sight of the creative spark that resides at the core of every successful business.

A WD40 for the Creative Soul workshop will bring renewed vigor to your workplace, infusing participants with a vital sense of enthusiasm and creativity. This stimulating “mind spa” creates the confidence to look at problems and challenges from different angles, to try new approaches, and to work with a light touch.

> For executives and management

Inspiration and creativity have always served as the drivers for sustainable revenue, profit, and market share. A WD-40 for the Creative Soul workshop will build these qualities directly into your corporate culture.

The office environment narrows sensory perception, thereby blocking one of the fundamental avenues to innovative thinking. By expanding the creative energy that produces successful problem-solving, your team can innovate in response to a broad range of business pressures.

The WD-40 workshop focuses for a single day on visual and conceptual investigations that yield a clearer, more playful state of mind – oene that can respond successfully to daily workplace challenges and interpersonal relationships. Because participants interact outside of daily roles and hierarchies, the workshop opens new avenues of communication and teamwork.

> For in-house creative teams

Communications materials that don’t communicate clearly or speak meaningfully to customers result in lost opportunity.

Renewing the creative energy of an in-house team – copywriters, photographers, interface designers, art directors and graphic designers – supports them as individuals, while strengthening the creative team as a whole. Hardworking professional artists who give everything for a high-quality product can benefit greatly from a one-day “creative vacation”.

Ellen Ziegler has worked as an art director for over 25 years and understands the pressures of the creative environment. She knows that non-linear processes can sometimes produce unexpected innovations. A WD-40 workshop can give creative teams a new set of tools for producing work that speaks directly and meaningfully to customers, partners, and stake holders.

> Creative workshops and retreats

A WD-40 workshop is hands-on! The focus is on investigation and self-awareness – at the individual level, in partnership, and as a team. Team-building – a vital process in a successful company – is strengthened by these interactions.

The workshop includes a broad range of dynamic activities and explorations:

> Sharpen conceptual skills and build confidence with creative practices. These include visual and writing exercises that derail habitual approaches to problem-solving. They’re also fun. We’ll work with simple art materials like paint, clay, collage and mask-making to remind people how to play – a vital component of accessing our innate creativity. We won’t distinguish between the kind of creativity required from a visual, word or idea person. It’s all the same energy.

> Explore habitual states of mind and how to break out of them. We’ll do exercises to understand more about where our creativity might lie hidden and how to get to it — techniques that will un-stick us when we’re stuck, and “increasingly accelerate the current of our intuition”.

> Support creative activity with awareness. Integrating the body and the mind brings relaxation and alertness. We’ll perform simple movement exercises to remind us that our big brains are carried around in a body that is prone to stress and tension, conditions that limit our mental flexibility.

> Address negative attitudes toward the things that challenge us. Private investigation using contemplation and writing will yield insights that can stimulate daily work. Sharing these insights strengthens team cohesiveness.

> Connect the hand and eye as one perceptual tool. Seeing is something we take for granted. Awareness of vision reminds us to see clearly, and think in a fresh way.

> Learn to keep a visual journal that records perceptions and predilections – a powerful and personal tool for defining vision.

WD-40 for the Creative Soul rekindles that fire of enthusiasm and creativity that we begin with before it gets dampened by routine, overwork, disappointment, stress, and sometimes life in general.

The ultimate goal: to instill an inner process that delivers value long after the workshop is finished.

Where:

> In-house workshops can occur on-site at your company with groups of up to fifteen participants. Consecutive days can be scheduled to accommodate larger groups.

> Retreats are held at a beautiful Seattle studio with a view of the Ship Canal and the Olympics. Meals are catered.

Retreats are limited to ten participants per day – ideal for executives, top managers and small teams.