Creative Problem Solving Institute 2026

Start your day at CPSI with some delicious breakfast.  Sit with someone new or some old friends.  It's a great way to connect!

Quick and easy check-out process to get you to your sessions and on with your day.

If you are new to CPSI, Foundations of Creative Problem Solving is your fast track to a deliberate creativity process for solving problems and capitalizing on opportunities. You’ll learn the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Process, the research-based gold standard of creativity methods, and be exposed to the FourSight framework, which can help you understand how you and your teammates approach challenges.

In an incredibly engaging format, your team of experienced facilitators will use hands-on activities, real-world examples, and a variety of divergent and convergent thinking tools to give you the skills you need to advance your personal and professional goals.

Foundations of Creative Problem Solving is the first of four skills-building courses in Creative Problem Solving. After completing all four CPS courses, you will deepen your ability to facilitate and train others in the CPS process, while also becoming eligible to be considered to lead CPS programs at future CPSIs!

In this course, you will:
• Recognize and overcome blocks to creativity.
• Identify attitudes and behaviors conducive to creative thinking.
• Apply core concepts of creative thinking.
• Use a variety of divergent and convergent thinking tools.
• Apply the CPS method to many simulated or real situations.
• Consciously be creative when facing problems and opportunities.

NOTE: You must attend your Core CPS Course all four mornings of the conference in order to complete this program. This core track is limited to 45 attendees. You must select Foundations of CPS when registering for CPSI to attend this track (selecting it here in Sched does not qualify as reserved spot).

*PREREQUISITE: Level 1: CPS Foundations at previous CPSI or FLCC. If you did not take Level 1 but have a solid understanding of the Osborne-Parnes Creative Problem Solving process, you must connect with CPSI Program Staff before being enrolled.

Level 2: Creative Problem Solving Tools is a natural stepping stone if you have previously taken Level 1: Foundations of CPS. This fast-paced course allows beginner to intermediate facilitators to go deeper into the CPS process, adding more facilitation tools to your repertoire.

You will gain a clear understanding of which tools to use at each stage of the CPS process, as well as how to modify them to fit your session objectives or add a bit of creative flair. You will have time to practice tools to gain real mastery of them. You will also learn a variety of energizers and fun grouping games to keep your sessions engaging and interactive. Learn through small- and large-group work, including round-robin sharing and show-and-tell exercises.

In this course, you will:

• Explore a variety of divergent and convergent tools for individual and group problem solving.
• Learn how and where to apply different tools within the CPS process.
• Practice facilitating tools.
• Discover how to use tools when you or your team are unable to progress or working in areas of low preference.

NOTE: You must attend your Core CPS Course all four mornings of the conference to complete this program and qualify for the credential assessment for CPS Level 2.
This core track is limited to 25 attendees. You must select Tools when registering for CPSI to attend this track (selecting it here in Sched does not qualify as reserved spot).

*PREREQUISITE: Level 1: Foundations of CPS and Level 2: Creative Problem Solving Tools at previous CPSI or FLCC. If you did not take Level 1 or 2 at CPSI/FLCC but have a solid understanding of the Osborne-Parnes Creative Problem Solving process and have experience with CPS tools, you must connect with CPSI Program Staff before being enrolled.

Level 3: Facilitating CPS
Facilitation skills are central to the effective use of CPS, whether in formal meetings or informal brainstorming sessions. This course is designed for those who already know the CPS process in theory and are ready to put it into action as a facilitator. This course uses peer-group practices to prepare participants for working with actual clients. Characteristics of successful facilitation will be identified and practiced, and you will develop an awareness of your own strengths and areas for development. In this course, you will:

•Review and internalize the CPS process through the lens of the facilitator.
•Experience CPS from several points of view – as a facilitator, as the problem-owner, and as part of the resource group.
•Understand how to facilitate each step of the CPS process.
•Receive general facilitation tips that enhance any meeting.
•Receive individual and group feedback on facilitation skills.
•Explore and develop your facilitation style.

In YouthWise, kids will explore Creative Problem Solving through fun, hands-on activities, "field trips," and games. They will put their new and enhanced skills to work as a team, by creating and presenting a solution to a unique challenge.

This Immersion is designed for experienced CPS practitioners ready to deepen their impact in organizations. Day 1, Tools Off the Beaten Path, explores underutilized convergent tools to strengthen decision-making and group alignment. Days 2-4, Leading Change with Agility, Versatility, and Creativity, focus on what teams create (product), the environments they work in (place), and the people and processes that shape collaboration. Through hands-on application and real-world challenges, participants will learn to diagnose team dynamics, recognize conditions that support creativity, and apply CPS as a unifying engine across ways of working. This is a practical, interactive experience for leading creative work that delivers results.

Days 2 - 4: Leading Change with Agility, Versatility, and Creativity - Michael Ackerbauer, PhD, and Christa Heydt-Hernandez
Every organization has a rhythm. Some teams find it and produce work they didn't know was possible. Others grind against each other and call it culture. The difference isn't luck — it's whether leaders can read the signals their teams are already sending and respond with the right move at the right time. This three-day immersion adapts a three-week graduate course into a hands-on practitioner experience. Across three 3.5-hour sessions, we'll work the creative systems that shape what gets built, where creativity can breathe, and how people actually collaborate when the work gets hard. Day 2 opens with the product of creativity: what we're here to make, how innovation actually happens in organizations, and why most change efforts stall before they start. Day 3 turns to place: the climate, culture, and psychological conditions that either invite creative work or quietly shut it down. Day 4 lands on the person and process: how cognitive preferences, emotional intelligence, and creative problem solving become the substrate underneath agile, design thinking, and every other framework you're already using. You'll leave able to:

• Diagnose where your team spends its collaborative energy, and where it doesn't
• Recognize the climate signals that predict creative outcomes before they appear in results
• Apply Creative Problem Solving as the integrative engine beneath your existing ways of working

Bring a challenge from your own context. We'll work it together.

Step into a high-energy, hands-on series designed to expand both your creative skillset and your facilitation toolbox. Through playful methods and real-time practice, participants will build practical tools while strengthening their ability to guide groups with confidence, presence, and flow. Experience what it means to learn by doing as you explore approaches that spark collaboration, deepen thinking, and elevate group outcomes.
Day 4 (Thur): Play, Connect, Create: Improv-Inspired Tools in Action
Bring energy, spontaneity, and connection into your creative facilitation and training. This experiential, interactive session explores how applied improvisation can be leveraged within creativity-based workshops, trainings, and group sessions to strengthen collaboration, trust, communication, and creative thinking. Improvisation is built on principles such as listening, accepting offers, co-creating, redefining risk and failure, and building on ideas through “yes, and.” These same principles are at the core of deliberate creative problem-solving. Through hands-on activities and shared experiences, participants will discover how improvisation techniques can help groups clarify situations, generate fresh ideas and connections, develop and refine concepts, and prepare teams for implementation.

Participants will actively play, explore, take risks, support one another, and experience how improv-based methods can create more engaged, open, and collaborative group dynamics. The session emphasizes practical application, helping facilitators understand not only how to use improvisation activities but also when and why to integrate them into facilitation and training environments.

Participants will:

• Acquire a selection of improvisation activities that can be adapted and applied with groups, teams, trainings, and workshops

• Learn how to use the principle of “yes, and” to build trust, encourage creative collaboration, and strengthen group interaction

• Explore how and when to integrate improvisation techniques into creative sessions to support idea generation, development, team connection, and implementation readiness
  

This week of programming explores the shared foundation of Creative Problem Solving (CPS), coaching skills, and affective skills: each shaping how people think, connect, and create change. You’ll begin the week with A Creative Coach’s Toolbox, building practical coaching tools that bring the CPS process to life in real conversations. The second half of the week focuses on The Head and Heart of Innovation: Affective Skills of CPS, where you'll deepen your awareness of the emotional and mental conditions that influence every stage of thinking. Together, these elements reveal a powerful truth: effective creativity and innovation isn’t just about process, but about how we show up within it. By the end of the week, you’ll be equipped to guide both the path of ideas and the human experience that fuels them.
 
Part 2 (Wednesday - Thursday): 
The Head and Heart of Innovation: Affective Skills of CPS - Jessica Andrews-Wilson and Kim Macuare
Whether you’re a pro at using the Creative Problem Solving process or this is the first time you’re hearing of it, this session will give you a chance to explore some of the CPS skills with a new lens! Put on your rose-colored glasses, tap into your biggest dreams, and join us to explore some of the emotions that influence our thinking and how that shows up as we clarify, ideate, develop, and implement!

This immersive week explores the dynamic power of polarities as a catalyst for creativity, collaboration, and innovation. We begin with Genius Teams: Polarities in Practice, a deep dive into polarities in practice, building a shared foundation and observing live facilitation to see how teams navigate real-time tensions and unlock high performance. As the week unfolds, participants will sharpen their ability to recognize and work with these dynamics in their own contexts. We close with Assumption: Friend AND Foe, using playful, perspective-shifting approaches to challenge thinking and expand what’s possible, using polarity thinking and humor for insight and exploration.

Part 2 (Thursday):  Assumption: Friend AND Foe - Liz Monroe Cook and Beth Slazak
This session explores how assumptions shape the way we define problems and influence what we see as possible. In Creative Problem Solving, assumptions can be helpful because they allow us to move quickly and draw on experience, but they can also limit thinking and reinforce blind spots. Using Polarity Thinking and humor, participants will learn how to surface and question assumptions, reframe false either/or thinking, and open up more flexible, creative possibilities. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for using “both/and” thinking and light, intentional humor to support deeper and more innovative problem solving.

Takeaways:

• Recognize hidden assumptions that shape how they define problems and make decisions. 
• Differentiate between helpful and limiting assumptions in creative problem solving. 
• Practice with play and whole picture thinking to enhance your creative problem solving experience.

In this immersion, you’ll apply the CPS process to the art of facilitation design to create experiences that truly deliver. We’ll begin by unpacking the factors that influence great design, including timing, flow, and session dynamics, so you can design with clarity and intention. You’ll also rethink how to select tools and activities.
The Lab comes to life as we move beyond choosing from existing tools to confidently creating what’s needed in the moment. Through rapid prototyping, you’ll co-create new activities and build a repeatable method for inventing, adapting, and refining tools on the fly.
Ideal for facilitators and trainers, this is a hands-on, design-intensive experience with meaningful, ready-to-use outcomes.

Stop by our pop-up bookstore and explore a curated collection of titles published by our very own CEF Press.
Everyone’s invited—leaders, attendees, and curious minds alike! Take a moment during your break to browse, grab a snack, and maybe even spark a conversation with a fellow creative thinker. There’s something for everyone!

12:00-1:00 Core CPS Track and YouthWise
12:30-1:30 Immersion Track

Join everyone at the Dining Hall for an array of meal options. Healthy, fun, and specialty diet options are available. Join a table of people you have not met yet and find your next best friend!

Every afternoon, treat yourself to "you time" after lunch. Visit the bookstore in Caudell Hall, go for a walk outside, or go back to your room and decompress. How you use this mini midday break is up to you.

Charting Your Path Without a Map invites participants to explore how deliberate creativity can support forward movement when certainty is unavailable and conditions continue to change. Building on the Osborn–Parnes tradition, this live session frames creative problem solving as a shared foundation for anticipating change, adapting with intention, and making progress without waiting for perfect clarity. Designed for both emerging and experienced practitioners, the session elevates how deliberate creativity is understood, taught and practiced-strengthening its relevance and impact in an uncertain future.

Takeaways

• Position deliberate creativity, grounded in the Osborn–Parnes tradition, as a shared foundation for anticipating change, adapting with intention, and charting purposeful paths forward in uncertain environments.
• Interpret signals that indicate when to persist and when to pivot, using progress, iteration, and learning as feedback to guide creative action rather than waiting for certainty.
• Translate key insights from the session into one elevated reframing or teaching move that strengthens how deliberate creativity is practiced, facilitated, or introduced to others.

All aboard! Step into an interactive, fast-paced session designed to bring your facilitation skills to life.

In this hands-on experience, you’ll take a quick journey through the Wayfinding Method—a simple framework for guiding groups from intention to insight—before diving into the real fun: practical tools and facilitation moves you can use right away.

Along the way, you’ll explore your own “traveler” style as a facilitator and experiment with techniques that spark participation, balance voices, and keep groups engaged and energized. Expect to try things out, reflect in real time, and leave with ideas you can immediately apply in meetings, workshops, and collaborative settings.

Whether you’re new to facilitation or looking to refresh your approach, this session will equip you with the confidence, creativity, and tools to make every journey more dynamic.

At the end of this session, you’ll leave with:

• A fresh way to think about facilitation as a dynamic, guided journey
• Ready-to-use techniques to energize conversations, involve participants, and keep groups moving forward
• New insight into how you show up as a facilitator—and how to stretch your range in the moment

Do you suffer from an unrequited creativity, a particular creative itch you haven’t—for reasons you can’t identify—been able to scratch? In this session, we’ll look at why you might resist doing the creative work you’re called to do, and how to jumpstart and sustain it. First, we’ll identify your creative blocks, drawing on Stephen Pressfield’s The War of Art, Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s Immunity to Change, and using the CPS tool “Why? What’s Stopping You?” Then, we’ll introduce several brain- and behavior-based solutions, including James Clear’s Atomic Habits, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Paul’s “Creating Time” framework, and Haley’s new research on how the neuroscience of focus and attention affects creativity. At the session’s end, you’ll have a roadmap of your own design that you can use to understand your creative drivers that you can use for this project and future ones.    

Takeaways

• Identify why you might resist doing something that you (might) truly wish to do.
• Review relevant research that shows what might help you overcome resistance.
• Make a personalized plan for how to get started and keep going on your project.

Join us in the Hub (Caudell Hall Lobby) and grab a quick drink and snack so you can recharge your batteries!

All good things must come to an end—but at CPSI, the Closing Celebration is just the beginning of what’s next. Join us as we reflect on our shared experience, explore ways to stay connected, and discover how to keep stretching, growing, and creating beyond the conference.

Enjoy our farewell dinner at CPSI 2026.