News.

In Context newsletter April 2011

In Context Update

The seasons are changing and summer is almost over. With Easter around the corner, our workplace is filled with Easter egg wrappers and thoughts of long, lazy weekends with family and friends. For those of you who will be taking a break at the end of April, consider reading our book of the month. You might find some inspiration for your personal and work life. 
A reminder: we offer a full range of training courses, and our latest editions include Media Training and Lego Serious Play™. For more information email us @ .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Until next time!
The In Context Team

Featured course

Powerful PowerPoint

Course description:
This workshop provides practical tips and techniques for the creation of presentations.

Outcomes:
By the end of the workshop you should:

• understand how people learn best in multimedia presentation settings
• know how to tailor your presentation for different audiences and purposes
• understand how to prepare and organise your presentation
• know how to deliver your presentation

Who should attend?
Perfect for your entire company
Length of course: 
Full day

If this sounds perfect for someone in your team, email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Our bookshelf

Disciplined Dreaming:  A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity by Josh Linkner

Disciplined Dreaming consist out of a 5-part process that will transform your organisation or your career into a non-stop creativity juggernaut. As two-time author Josh Linker, a change agent for business innovation and Founder, Chairman and former CEO of the largest interactive promotion agency in the world, ePrize, puts it, “We live in an era when business cycles are measured in months, not years. The only way to sustain long term innovation and growth is through creativity-at all levels of an organisation. Disciplined Dreaming shows you how to create profitable new ideas, empower all your employees to be creative, and sustain your competitive advantage over the long term.”  In this book, Josh distils his years of experience in business and jazz as well as hundreds of interviews with CEOs, entrepreneurs, and artists, into a 5-step process that will make creativity easy for you and your organisation.

The methodology is simple, backed by proven results. It will empower individuals, teams, and organisations to meet creative challenges posed by the marketplace. We love it because it has loads of practical exercises, thought-starters, workouts to grow “creative muscles,” and case studies. It also shows corporate bureaucracies how to cultivate creativity in order to become more competitive in today’s shifting marketplace.

Industry Update

Random Acts of Kindness

According to trendwatching.com one of the important trends of 2011 is Random Acts of Kindness (R.A.K.).  As explained by trendwatching.com: For consumers long used to (and annoyed by) distant, inflexible and self-serving corporations, any acts of kindness by brands will be gratefully received. For brands, increasingly open communications both with and between consumers (especially online), means that it’s never been easier to surprise and delight audiences with R.A.K.: whether sending gifts, responding to publicly expressed moods or just showing that they care.  Just to be absolutely clear: R.A.K. are not about rewarding customers for tweeting / liking your product, and not about giving away lots of free samples (that would be FREE LOVE), but about selected, random acts of kindness.

Trendwatching.com, gives us three ideal reasons why we need to engage in some R.A.K:

1. Human touch: Consumers increasingly wanting to see the human side of brands (or if indeed a brand has a human side at all , making R.A.K. more welcome than ever).
2. Putting it out there:  Audiences publicly disclosing more and more personal information on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, about their lives, moods and whereabouts, both current and intended, enabling R.A.K. to be more relevant.
3. Pass it on: More consumers than ever are now sharing their experiences with their friends and wider audiences on social networks, meaning R.A.K. can spread far beyond the original recipients.

For examples of R.A.K. in action, visit: http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/11trends2011/#rak

Source: http://www.trendwatching.com/briefing/
Note:  In Context Consulting can help you to turn R.A.K. into action for your organisation. If you would like us to get in touch, mail us: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)