CREATIVE LEAPS INTERNATIONAL

"John Cimino and Creative Leaps International are truly global leaders in the art of   bringing the performing arts to bear on business issues."

Robert Nalewajek, Chair,

Human Issues in Management Conferences

"If I ever had doubts about the power of the arts on business executives, my work with Creative Leaps International at McDonnell Douglas and SC Johnson put those doubts to rest."

Frank P. Bordonaro, Chief Learning Officer,
McDonnell Douglas, S.C. Johnson
 

We are learning specialists, performing artists, scientists and renewal partners working in the corporate and educational arenas. Our clients are leading Fortune 500 companies, centers for leadership and professional development, research institutions, Federal agencies, NGOs, universities, and centers for teacher training and renewal. Major corporations including General Electric, IBM, the SC Johnson Company, McDonnell Douglas and Fannie Mae as well as top government agencies from the White House to the Social Security Administration have also recruited Creative Leaps International for keynote presentations and Professional Learning Initiatives aimed at catalyzing executive thinking, renewal and change.

• IBM Research Division – To refresh and sharpen creative thinking and enhance constructive interaction among researchers in the material sciences division.
• S.C. Johnson Company – To move beyond established traditions in order to reach new levels of performance, to re-think and re-design deeply rooted management habits.
• Starbucks Coffee Company—To introduce the principles of Servant Leadership to the company’s national team of over 5000 store managers.
• General Electric - To enliven executive education and grow the company's internal identity as a global organization containing rich cultural diversity
• Pfizer - To establish a highly innovative setting for creative problem solving and risk taking at an international conference of the healthcare industry
• Bank of Montreal - To cultivate a highly resonsive culture of innovation and connectivity across all branches of the bank in both Canada and the United States.
  

Our uniqueness lies in our strategic and creative use of the performing arts within highly integrated learning environments. Our programs and activities are aimed at jump-starting and fanning the fires of creativity, leadership and scientific research as well as rekindling individual motivational passions and personal connections to deeply held values. 

Our custom keynote presentations are called Concerts of Ideas, in essence, highly innovative fusions of lively performing arts with imaginative, cross-disciplinary stimulation for the intellect, the heart and soul. They are a powerful catalyst for change and have launched scores of professional conferences, symposia, retreats, training initiatives and meetings coast to coast and abroad. Participants are royally entertained, but they are simultaneously challenged to entertain new perspectives and re-connect with their deepest values. Our style is celebratory, exploratory, intensely serious and great fun - ideal for digesting new ideas, re-energizing for creative problem-solving, alternating our left brain/right brain learning modalities, and priming the mind and imagination for thoughtful dialogue. http://www.creativeleaps.org/concerts/concertofideas.htm   To contact John: JCimino@creativeleaps.org.

Leadership: Thinking, Perceiving and Judgment
Fluid Perspective, Paradox and Imagination plus Eight Attitudes of Leadership

Of Color & Courage
The Gift and the Challenge of Diversity in Learning Communities

Top Form: Risk, Focus, Flow
Learning about Peak Performance and Vulnerability from the Arts and Sports

The Kinesthetics of Leadership
Authentic Leadership Presence: Mastering Your "Still-point"

The Hero's Journey through the Bach Chaconne
A Leader's Archetypal Stages of Awareness: An Alignment of Values and Passion

What leaders from business say about their experience with Creative Leaps International

"The arts and banking? The arts and productivity? At first, an unlikely match, but innovation is like that, isn't it? This learning has proven to be learning worth banking on!"

James Rush,
Institute for Learning, Bank of Montreal

"Right after the music -- boom! People went together. It accelerated that bonding and relationships -- and got people interacting at a level that normally takes much longer into the conference. John Cimino and Creative Leaps are truly global leaders in the art of bringing the performing arts to bear on business issues. They are quite expert in fine tuning their presentations to customer needs and have never, in my association with them, failed to deliver an outstanding product, as testified to by their clients!"

Robert Nalewajek, Chair,
Human Issues in Management Conferences

"We are still basking in the glow! Your contribution to the success of our conference was magnificent!"

Stanley S. Gryskiewicz,
Center for Creative Leadership International Creativity & Innovation Networking Conference

 

"Transformational leadership -- out-of-the-box thinking -- is the kind of thing that truly transforms governments. Creative Leaps and the Concert of Ideas are examples of how you use advanced thought and out-of-the-box thinking to create new paradigms of action. And I've never seen anything else that so clearly demonstrates this. Everybody I've had go through this experience has liked it and been really impressed with this concept. I, myself, have been through 12 of the 15 Concerts of Ideas here at CEMM and I've learned something different every time. So, I'm a big fan".

"What is different about Creative Leaps is the mindset that they put you into, the thoughts they cause you to think. Understanding yourself is very important when you're trying to be a better leader. And this parallels what they do with the music in terms of getting you in touch with yourself and then bringing this into the classroom and into the way you deal with people. This has been a powerful message for me in my involvement with Creative Leaps."

Herbert Tillery, Deputy Mayor for Operations,
Washington D.C. former Director, Center for Excellence in Municipal Management (CEMM)

"If I ever had doubts about the power of the arts on business executives, my work with Creative Leaps International at McDonnell Douglas and SC Johnson put those doubts to rest. In each case, the companies were battling tradition in order to reach new levels of performance, and the leaders were under pressure to re-think and re-design some deeply rooted management habits. That meant personal discovery would be foundational to their work.

White papers, speeches and conceptual models all have their place. But savvy executives are inured to much of the inspiration offered therein. Music, movement and performance are closer to the bone-more direct-less controvertible. Sharing in, and participating in experiences designed and delivered by Creative Leaps International set our learning dialogue on a new, more candid, more inspirational path-and cracked a few protective shells. In both engagements, Creative Leaps helped us leap to a better place more quickly. And...it was fun!!"

Frank P. Bordonaro, Chief Learning Officer,
McDonnell Douglas, S.C. Johnson

 

"John Cimino and his team from Creative Leaps International created and put on some of the very best programs I was privileged to see during my seven years with GE. His work has always been exceptionally well received, both by GE's senior executives and by customers and other visitors to Crotonville. This is no small achievement, because rather than offering "off the shelf" material in the manner of most of the other presenters, each of the programs John put on was specifically tailored to reflect one of GE's corporate initiatives or specific priorities. The uniformly positive results say a great deal about John's originality and creativity, and his ability to produce content that has practical value.

Steve Kerr, Chief Learning Officer
Goldman Sachs and formerly, GE