My partner Indy Neogy at KILN is one of the most brilliant people I know. An MIT trained engineer who is also an MBA from Leeds, he’s both entrepreneurial and a masterful cultural scanner. He’s going to publish a book soon related to cross cultural communication, Where Culture Matters, so, you get he’s a star right?

He’s a star — and — he’s an introvert. It’s not a bad thing. We can thank Susan Cain and her recent book Quiet for a new awareness about the value of, and large number of introverts who have a very challenging time with classic group work. Introverts have a great deal to offer the innovation process, and, they tend to be under-utilized resources. On average, between 35% and 50% of any team will be introverts.

Indy is quietly the best innovation leader and facilitator I know. Partnered with two over-the-top extroverts, myself and Kate Hammer, it’s amazing he gets a word in edgewise. When Kate and I finally stop talking Indy often has the wisest and most innovative insight.

All this as a lead-in to announce his workshop on Imaginative Problem Solving for Introverts. It’s going to take place in central London on July 12th. If you have a facilitator, a team, or a team member that is introverted and doesn’t respond well to the extrovert-biased tools and techniques of creative problem solving/brainstorming — this is the workshop to learn how to get the most from them. Indy will focus his efforts on teaching classic Osborn-Parnes “CPS” creative problem solving — but in a manner that suits introverts best. He’ll instruct on tools that work better for introverts, and help teams and organizations balance their approach to problem solving. How’s that for a concept — designing innovation process in such a way that everyone is included.

Indy also facilitates Idea Generation sessions for introverted-heavy teams. You won’t be asked to dance, shout or do energizers that only manage to ruin an introverts creative mindset. You will get results, partly because of the introvert inclusion, but also because KILN’s innovation system is a balanced mix of kinesthetic, trend-based, and experiential tools and techniques.

You can register for the course at the KILN site, or click here to reserve your slot for the July 12th central London event. Or get in touch with me for more details.