Think creatively Communicate effectively
Building active citizenship from the inside out
Course description
Creative thinking can produce good and original ideas in everyday life and in the workplace. Active listening and the ability to express oneself fuels constructive dialogue and facilitates originality and adaptability for effective communications in personal and professional relationships.
Methodology
- Highly experiential learning – all theory resulting from practice
- Partly co-creation of each day’s final program, according to needs and wishes of participants
- Agile learning and democratic education techniques
- Every day team challenges designed to create entertainment and feeling of “belonging”
Benefits
Participants will use practical exercises and tools in the following ways:
- Self empowerment
- Development of important life skills
- Enrichment of teaching methods
- Developing their positive perspective
Programme
This workshop is highly experiential and participatory. It consists of short theoretical lessons, concrete exercises, and group discussions. Reflecting upon and applying each tool to your real-life cases, you practise and gain new insights into your current situations.
- Increase our Energy – Positive core
- What “creativity” means – The characteristics of the creative person – The characteristics of the creative student – The obstacles of creative thinking ·
- The stages of the creative cycle (simulations in various problems, utilization in work projects, team issues and collaboration)·
- Evaluation of creative thinking
- Basic creative thinking techniques·
- Theatrical activities promoting self confidence and free oral expression
(Team Challenge No. 1)
Local Evening – welcome reception
- Discovery process
- Ed de Bono’s creative thinking techniques and programs: CoRT program
- Kieran Egan’s imaginative education in everyday school and family action
- Oral and written speech
(key features and differences in assessment, examples and discourse analysis) - Orality (“We do not speak as we write” – style exercises)
- The body language in oral communication and how it “underlines” our speech
- Public speaking: how to develop self-confidence and cultivate a good relationship with my audience
- Let’s Improvise! (Team Challenge No. 2)
- Sensing the Nature with Outdoor & indoor activities
- Team and Leadership games in nature.
- Team management: coordinate discussions, set goals, plan and implement actions, take initiatives, encourage and support.
- Storytelling by the fire! (Team Challenge No. 3)
- Inspiring speech: the aesthetic side of speech as a means of oral and written expression (creative writing and narration).
- Do it like Aristoteles – Principles of communicating effectively with your audience and how to avoid the 12 basic obstacles.
- Conflict resolution in a peaceful way: develop empathy, learn the method of “no defeat” (“win-win”), use active listening and “I” messages (Team Challenge No. 4)
- Ways and means of persuasion: the rhetorical argument and the “traps of persuasion” (the game of fallacies),
- Logical reasoning and emotion: when, where and how
- “Don’t hate, debate!” – Argumentation as a way of thinking and acting in the public sphere (Team Challenge No. 5)
Excursion – Outdoor activity
- Morning Check in Opening Round
- Open Public Speaking Event with local educators and students
- Participants vote for Best Team
- Open Space Technology process
- Sharing and processing round for the whole group
- Debriefing, Certificates & evaluations
- Closing
The workshop is proudly supported by the MA “Rhetoric, Humanities and Education” (University of Athens) and the Hellenic Association for the Promotion of Rhetoric in Education – a renowned non-profit organization devoted in promoting experiential learning through rhetorical and democratic education since 2009.
Duration: 6 days
Dates: 02-11/09
Location: Chania- Crete, Greece
Designed for participants/groups
This workshop is designed for those who want to enrich oral speech and communication skills and to cultivate creative thinking using specific techniques for producing ideas. This is useful for team leaders, managers, journalists, writers, lawyers and educators.
Instructors
Valia Loutrianaki (www.valialoutrianaki.com) is a teacher of classics, rhetoric and creative thinking in Arsakeia Schools (the oldest educational organization in Greece, founded in 1836) since 2001, holder of DEA (Paris IV, Sorbonne) and a PhD candidate in the research field “Rhetoric as a method and as a teaching subject”. She has taught experiential learning in the M.A. program of “Rhetoric, Humanities and Education” at the University of Athens since 2015. Her innovative program “Teisias” for the cultivation of oral speech and communication was chosen for implementation by teachers in Greek schools as part of “Life Skills Workshops” of the Ministry of Education. This innovative program combines classical rhetoric, techniques for generating ideas (such as de Bono’s work), principles of effective communication (Gordon model), drama in education (Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert), rhetorical games, team work and generally the concept of learning communities.
As president of the Hellenic Association for the Promotion of Rhetoric in Education (www.rhetoricedu.com) since 2009 and co-ordinator of the “Sympraxis Team for Democracy on Education” European Democratic Education Community Greece, she has organized on a voluntary basis more than 250 workshops of 2.300 hours’ duration all around Greece. In 2021 ActionAid Hellas assigned to her the organization of the panhellenic debate tournament as part of the European finals “Climate of Change Debates” in Brussels. She is founder and main organizer of Open Your Mind Summer Camps and International Democracy Camps for teenagers and university students since 2017. As an official TEDed Club leader, she promotes TED events in schools and universities. She believes in the power of connecting people through experiential learning and in educating kids and teens to become effective citizens through rhetorical and democratic education.
Dr. Markos Perrakis, founder and managing director of Fractality, designs and implements projects in the areas of leadership development and strategic planning to promote effective communication and individual and collective process development.
Dr. Perrakis is one of the first persons in Greece to apply the methodology of appreciative inquiry for individual and organizational development. This approach seeks to strengthen human capital and social bonds to generate organizational capacity.
Fractality offers services in coaching, training, assessments, supervision, process facilitation and speaking, systemic consultation, solution focused and cognitive behavioural approaches, methods of participatory design, spiritual intelligence and psychometric assessment. Dr. Perrakis is a certified provider of Vocational Guidance and Professional Orientation and an ISO 9001 lead auditor.
Dr. Perrakis is a representative of the Association of International Institution Supervision in Europe, a member of International Intervision Groups, scientific assistant of the Society for Organisational Learning, and scientific partner of the European Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (EUMU) in Greece in the Strategic Planning and Human Capital Development programmes.
Dr. Perrakis holds a Ph.D. in social psychology on leadership styles and their efficiency in organisations and an M.A. in clinical psychology.
Venue
Our programme takes place on the island of Crete in Greece in the pleasant seaside town of Platanias close to Chania, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Porto Platanias Village Resort, located on the northwest coast of Crete, provides luxurious accommodations and fully serviced workshop facilities. Beaches, local eateries, shops and sites are within walking distance of Porto Platanias. This setting provides ample opportunity for participants to continue discussions outside of formal workshop hours in a relaxed atmosphere. For further information about the venue, see https://village.portoplatanias.com/
The closest international airports are Chania International Airport (24 km) and Heraklion International Airport (165 km).
Participation Fee
Option A.
The fee for this course is 780 Euros each year. It includes tuition fees and educational materials, certificates. Beverages and a welcome cocktail, a one-day excursion (optional).
Accommodation and meals are not included in the above fees.
Option B.
Total full package price for participants with double room accommodation: 1,300€ (approx. depending on the period)
All prices include:
– A 5-star hotel accommodation, 6 nights
– Breakfast
– Welcome cocktail
– Lunch
– Workshop tuition fee
– Educational materials
– Certificate of participation at the end
Additional option:
- A half-day excursion with the group led by locals – €50
Contact us
Questions or concerns? please contact us at [email protected] or call +302106010522. Cancellation Policy*
Until 30 days before the starting date of the selected workshop, cancellation will be free of charge and the pre-payment will be fully refunded. Between 30 to 15 days before the starting date of the workshop, 50% of the fee will be refunded. Within the 15 days before the starting date of the workshop no refunds will be made.