Linda Naiman

Linda Naiman is founder of Creativity at Work, and recognized internationally for pioneering arts-based learning as a catalyst for developing creativity, innovation, and collaborative leadership in organizations.

As an innovation consultant, Linda advises senior leaders and managers on developing creativity and innovation skills in employees, and fostering an organizational culture that supports innovation. Her consulting is informed by principals and practices of business, arts, design, and social science research.

She has spoken at US Navy Leadership Symposiums, Syracuse University, Leadership Labs at the Banff Centre, and Singapore Management University. Organizations who have sought out Linda for her expertise include American Express, GE, BASF and Intel.

Linda is co-author with Arthur VanGundy of Orchestrating Collaboration at Work: Using Music, Improv, Storytelling, and Other Arts to Improve Teamwork (Wiley 2003) and her writings on creativity and innovation have appeared in numerous business journals including Perspectives on Business and Global Change, published by the World Business Academy.

She has been featured in The Vancouver Sun, The New Zealand Herald, The Globe and Mail, Profitguide.com, Canadian Business Magazine, and interviewed on CBC Radio, NPR and BCTV. Linda’s work has been documented in several books: Artbased Approaches: A Practical Handbook to Creativity at Work (Chemi 2006), Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results (Silverman 2006), and Artful Creation: Learning Tales of Arts-in-Business (Darsø 2004).

Linda began her career as a design consultant in marketing communications in the 1980s and the multi-disciplinary nature of her work in business, art and design, led her to explore artistic processes and their applications to leadership and transformation. She has been helping business, non-profits, and government organizations find creative solutions and improve business performance, through creativity, design-thinking and innovation, since 1995.

Linda coaches executives, innovators and change agents on leadership, creativity, innovation and career advancement. She has been an associate business coach at the University of British Columbia since 2007.

Linda is on the editorial board of Organizational Aesthetics, and was recognized as a creative leader by IBM in 2011. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from California College of the Arts and is a  graduate of Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design as well as The Advanced Business Coaching Program at Corporate Coach University.  Linda is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and her mission is to make life and work a work of art.

 Testimonials

Featured/Cited in the Media

• Fine arts degrees open doors – Toronto Star, Oct 4, 2012
• “How budget cuts could kick-start creativity in the public sector.” Part of The Creativity Gap Series in The Globe and Mail, May 16, 2012
• Interview about Creativity and Leadership, on “The Winds of Change” JoyTV Feb 6, 2010
• “Workplace creativity shrivels on the vine,” The Globe and Mail, Feb 19, 2010
• Portrait of the artist as a business science student, Business Today, South Africa April 26, 2010
• Career resilience: Midlife prompts many to act on career aspirations, The Globe and Mail, Oct 22, 2009
• Managing a Mid-Life Makeover, The Globe and Mail, May 14, 2009
• Creativity at Work featured in “Igniting a spark of creativity” New Zealand Herald. March 31, 2007
• Quoted in a Vancouver Sun article on bully cultures in toxic workplace environments Sept. 24, 2005
• “Can We Talk?” Canadian Business Magazine interview. Sept 11-14, 2006
• Quoted in CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Magazine Sept. 2005
• Interviewed about workplace productivity in The Globe and Mail (Canada), July 13, 2005
• Danish Television “Tu-Danmark” Feb. 2005
• “The Art of Creativity: ‘Corporate alchemist’ Linda Naiman shows businesses how to nurture creativity to ensure success.” The Vancouver Sun, Aug. 2004
• North by North West, CBC Radio, June 2003
• Dynamic Graphics Magazine feature, Jan. 2003
• ProfitGuide.com interview May 9, 2002
• Location Matters with Stephen Roulac. National Public Radio (USA) March 2001
• “Trends: Going Postal,” Benefits Canada Magazine 1997
• “Overcoming the Fear of Art,” Workshop review, The Georgia Straight 1994
• “The Mural Project: A child’s vision of the future of Vancouver in the year 2020″
  BCTV News Hour, Nov. 18, 1994

Publications:

• ORCHESTRATING COLLABORATION AT WORK: Using Music, Improv, Storytelling, and other arts to improve teamwork. Coauthored with Arthur B. VanGundy. Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2003
• “A Question of Values” PeopleTalk Magazine. BCHRMA, Spring 2008
• Top Ten Brainjuicers to Enhance your Creativity Human Resources Magazine, Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management. 2002
• Fostering Innovation in an IT World CIPS journal May/June 1998. Reprinted 2002 by Human Resources Magazine, Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management.
• Creativity and the Meaning of Work Perspectives on Business and Global Change,
  The World Business Academy and Berrett-Koehler, March 1998.
• Life as a Work of Art Shared Vision Magazine. March 1995

Linda Naiman has been featured or cited in the following publications:

• Artbased Approaches: A Practical Handbook to Creativity at Work (Chemi 2006)
• Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results (Silverman 2006)
• Artful Creation: Learning-Tales of Arts-in-Business by Lotte Darsø (Samfundslitteratur 2004).
• Smart Women. B. Thrasher and M. Smid, Macmillan Canada, 1998.

 Testimonials

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