Joining me this week is Dr. Ken Long.
Ken is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army.
He spent 25 years on active duty and continues to serve with the Army as a Professor of Change Management at the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas training facility. He works with a staff of over 7,000 faculty and is responsible for teaching over 200,000 students.
Boy, oh boy, was this a good conversation. I asked Dr. Long to come on to the podcast to talk about his side of the story in working with Dr. Angus Fletcher. Dr. Fletcher is a previous guest on the show, and he’s responsible for devising a methodology for teaching creativity.
You’ll realize this is unlike any method for teaching creativity that you have ever seen before. Still, both of these episodes only scratched the surface of the power and potential of that method.
This conversation is about:
- Ken’s use of “Fletcher treatments” while working with the army.
- Lessons learned through implementing the method.
- How very little overhead is actually involved in implementing it.
- Compounding benefits resulting from decisions, relationships, and problem-solving transactions that happen on a daily basis.
- Ken’s other work teaching traders in the financial markets using the same methods and similarities to the army.
- The role of trust, safety, truth and opportunity we play in creating learning organizations.
- How creativity training is adaptable to local conditions (good news for anyone’s company!)
There’s so much more to this episode. It was an absolute joy to record, and I know you’ll enjoy this conversation as well.
So please sit back, relax, and enjoy my episode with Dr. Ken Long.
Full Episode
Show Notes
- Ken’s work with Angus Fletcher and the “Fletcher treatment.” (00:04:10-00:08:28)
- The army as a learning organization and the role creativity plays. (00:08:29-00:13:12)
- Lessons learned about how to implement the method and how little overhead is involved. (00:13:13-00:20:48)
- Accumulating benefits and advantages in terms of daily decisions, interactions, and problem-solving transactions. (00:20:49-00:27:39)
- Perspective-taking and plot-twisting. (00:27:40-00:33:00)
- Ken’s perspective on creativity in the organization and the challenges surrounding it. (00:33:39-00:37:48)
- Teaching traders in the financial markets how to use the same methods that the army uses. (00:37:49-00:41:24)
- The importance of trust, safety, truth, and opportunity in the formation of learning organizations. (00:41:25-00:43:30)
- Creativity training’s adaptability to local conditions. (00:43:31-00:53:47)
- Prompting intrinsic motivation through small steps. (00:53:48-00:58:01)
- Ken’s final message to our listeners. (00:58:02-1:01:11)
Selected Links from the Episode
- To learn more about the Fletcher Treatment, check out:
- Creative Thinking: A Field Guide to Building Your Strategic Core, the book by Dr Angus Fletcher
- Our podcast episode with Dr. Fletcher (episode 13).
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~ This episode is brought to you by The Learning Culture Experience~