“Creativity is the answer to the questions and challenges we’re facing today."
Jo Simpson Tweet
Jo Simpsons is a coach and facilitator and she works with leaders, individuals, and organizations to tap into their creative potential. Her business, Yes Creativity, is founded on the belief that creativity is an essential skill to cultivate so that you can better impact the world around you, it helps us to navigate into tomorrow. Whilst everyone has creativity within them, we sometimes need help harnessing our creative powers and building confidence in our creative ability. With more than two decades of experience in working in innovation and marketing for major global and local brands, and as a meditation teacher and educator, Jo brings a unique perspective to creativity, seeing the potential in bringing a creative mindset to every aspect of work and life.
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Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Jo Simpson: Creativity is the antidote. It fuels growth, progress, and evolution. It is essential to cultivate your creative power so that you can better impact the world around you. Yes, Creativity is a creativity and creative confidence business, which offers practical programs to help individuals and organizations unlock and embrace their creativity. Through providing the tools and knowledge to develop creative capacity, people are empowered to make a rich, dynamic and meaningful contribution.
Focused on three key areas, designed for individuals, teams, groups, and organizations.
- CREATIVE AGENT course
Creativity is an essential skill for leaders and team members, irrespective of the industry you are working in. Every day, creativity is a core pillar for engagement, improvement, and growth. Being able to role model creativity and provide creative leadership within your organization will be an expectation for any current or future leader.
This course covers:
- A deeper understanding of creativity and the two modes.
- Leading and facilitating creativity
- Strategies to optimize the two modes of creativity.
- Tools to unblock and unlock creativity.
- Rituals and practices to keep creatively fresh.
2. CREATIVE SOLUTIONS course
Learn or refresh your problem-solving skills as a team or as a leader. Bring clarity, creativity, and purpose to your problem-solving with this program.
This course covers:
- The essentials of creative problem solving
- Framework of the two modes of creativity
- Tools and processes for ideation
- Tools and processes for evaluating ideas
- THE BOUNCE 1:1 sessions
Leadership can be lonely. the bounce session gives you a partner who can help you to be the best you can be, whether it’s your leadership or your work. Modeled off the “bounce and build” approach – each session is focused on the things that you would like to get feedback, perspective, or inspiration, together we build a better outcome. All sessions are strictly confidential.
Key areas we can bounce and build:
- Growth/innovation strategies
- Innovation plans and pipelines
- Key presentations
- Team leadership
- Stakeholder management
- Individual behaviors
“Creativity is the answer to the questions and challenges we’re facing today. With the right tools, practices, and mindset, anyone can access their inner creativity, whether you believe you’re a naturally creative person or not.”
– Jo Simpson, Founder, Yes Creativity
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Jo Simpson: I was lucky enough to spend my first six years growing up on a small hobby farm – with nature and my imagination meant every day was different. This encouraged my curiosity and natural problem solving and also meant that I was interested in pretty much-doing anything. This has developed into a love for variety and very broad interests, my openness to the possibilities of the world around me and what could be eventually lead me to innovation, whether it’s an incremental change or major disruption, purposefully putting together something new and fresh has always appealed.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Jo Simpson: I used to tutor some of my fellow students in accounting.
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Jo Simpson: I believe an entrepreneur is someone motivated to reimagine the world the way they think it could be and then act on it. Entrepreneurs bring about change, they want something different and are prepared to make it happen.
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Jo Simpson: Fundamentally, a genuinely supportive and inclusive culture engenders much deeper trust. Trust is the foundation for any successful business particularly those that want longevity. When trust is high within organizations, we are braver and more vulnerable and this is where real growth happens – for the organization and its people. Having this part of culture means that these behaviors are encoded and socially endorsed, making it easier for everyone to uphold them.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Jo Simpson: To be a successful CEO and leader, you need to be able to tap into and harness creativity. Creative leaders can identify and embrace innovation, and encourage their team members to be creative in their problem solving and ideation. Creative leaders are open to new ideas and ways of thinking. They’re not afraid to admit they don’t have the answers, and they permit their teams to contribute creative ideas. Creativity and vulnerability in leadership also go hand in hand, as being vulnerable permits us to admit we don’t have the answers, and to explore creative ideas fully, without ego.
If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Jo Simpson: I help people solve problems.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Jo Simpson: Innovation is always fraught with difficult decisions, there is never a right or wrong, at best you can choose better but even then success is not guaranteed. A couple of years ago when I was in another business, leading the Innovation team, we had been first to market with an exciting new product in a brand new category.
It was well researched with our customers and had all the ingredients for a winning proposition. The early signals in the market were positive. Within three months of launch, a major distributor decided to delete the product and focus on a completely alternative approach. This decision ultimately killed our chance of any scale success that the business needed and whilst we tried a few alternatives to keep it viable, the marketplace had changed and we had to respond. We chose to remove the product from the market, unheard of at such an early stage in a new product launch. We then focused our attention and resources on an alternative product and became number one in the category. By being honest with the changing state of the market and the impact this had on our very new launch and by letting go of the “lost success”, supporting our people, we were able to take the learning and move quickly in the new direction.
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Jo Simpson: What a great question! I have a natural aptitude for quoits.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Jo Simpson: “Always Moving Towards Who I Want To Be”
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Jo Simpson for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jo Simpson or her company, you can do it through her – Instagram
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