Creative Problem Solving Institute 2025

Exploring the human-machine interactions for all steps of CPS

Literally taking participants through the basics of LLM and image generative AI formats to show how AI can fuel increased creativity but not provide the best ideas without human interaction.

I’ll run an exercise (invent a snack food item) where participants will find the most relevant market to address, ideate food items, create packaging, and present their final products at the end of the session.

Clarify: What market to address, what themes fit the market, what’s trending in.
Ideate: Names, conceptual themes, trend ingredients.
Develop: refine the idea to fit the market
Ideate: Package design, marketing campaign ideas
Develop: refine the packaging and campaign into a direction for the skit / commercial
Implement: Present your idea with an acted out “commercial” then a quick (less than one minute) description of how AI helped you, but didn’t answer the prompt without your help.

That process runs Human-AI-Human-AI-Human etc. Never AI-AI-AI, nor Human-Human-Human. The result is like the chess example that proved that a human-machine pairing is superior to either human or machine alone.

The project (workshop) is designed to neither advocate for or against AI, but to show how this exciting new tool can be leveraged in creativity. The result is that participants see how to use AI well instead of being concerned about it or accusing AI of doing things it can’t.

Founder of InsideOut Creativity, Katie Ravich, and Polarity Thinking™ expert, Liz Monroe-Cook, introduce you to the powerful, creative process of working with Polarities specifically in Educational settings.

Polarities can be leveraged in your everyday life and also within your classrooms, and within your teams. Understanding and integrating Polarity Thinking™ as a creative process has positive impacts across the whole learning ecosystem.

We deep-dive into how this can happen, exploring this creative process using common Polarities educators are working within every day, through collaborative discussion and hands-on processes:

• Mapping interdependent relationships using affective creative thinking skills and heightening emotional intelligence.
• Exploring the partnership of Polarity Thinking™ and Creative Problem-Solving (CPS).
• Raising curiosity and thinking flexibly about the concept of ‘blameless discernment’ and becoming unconsciously competent in this shared creative practice.

If you are a curious-minded teacher or leader in schools, universities, or community colleges, this workshop will ignite both thinking and action, offering a fresh perspective on familiar challenges. We invite you to be both Challenged (and) Supported as you shift your thinking to transform your practice.

Explore how neuroscience fuels creativity in this engaging, interactive workshop. You’ll uncover how key brain networks drive creative thinking and practice science-backed techniques like brainstorming with constraints and collaborative idea mapping to tackle challenges. Leave with actionable tools to spark innovation individually and within your teams.

Whether you are leading a team or facilitating a group, how you behave creates a working climate. The question is, are you creating the right kind of climate, one that helps those you lead engage, solve problems creatively, and use their collective talent to better the team or company? During this session you will discover how the climate you create can turn your efforts toward innovation or stagnation; you will see how developing a creative climate leads to measurable business results; you will learn about nine dimensions of climate; and walk away with tools to help build climate and stretch groups to new levels of innovation and change.

We all know self-care is important, but finding time for it often feels impossible. In this session, we'll break down the myths around "self-care" and dive into the essential elements of rest, renewal, and review—and why each one is crucial for keeping our creativity and energy flowing. Using creative problem solving tools, you’ll develop personalized strategies that actually fit into your life, so you can recharge, reignite your creativity, and avoid burnout.