Program Aims to Solve Your Biggest Problems

There's usually no quick solution to a problem. But Greensboro, N.C.-based nonprofit leadership educational institute Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) thinks it has the next best thing. It's launched a program that provides a problem-solving methodology to avoid the madness.

The program, Navigating Complex Challenges, gives participants a problem-solving strategy they can use right as they're learning it, says Brenda McManigle, global manager of open enrollment programs at CCL. The program begins with pre-work before participants ever arrive, and continues with online follow-up after they leave the three-day face-to-face sessions. Altogether, the total experience is 12 weeks.

Students can bring any challenge they like to the sessions, but it should be complex, meaning it can't be solved by just one person and may defy known solutions. Examples of problems brought to the Center include how to integrate organizations following an acquisition and how to effectively bring a new product to market. Exercises focus on giving participants problem- solving tools they can take back to the office after practicing them at the Center, McManigle says.

The $4,800 tuition includes meals, but students are expected to pay for travel and accommodation themselves. The cost for additional time with the coach is $250 an hour.

"I think one of the things we really try to get people to focus on is the fact that they don't have all the answers; they're not going to have all the answers," says McManigle, "and so how do they develop their network and reach out to people to get the greatest degree of difference in perspective on what they're trying to accomplish."

—M.W.


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