Hello, I’m James Allen.
I started my career in public relations and marketing, promoting a range of luxury hotels (including Gleneagles) and destinations (including Jamaica, California, Sydney, the Maldives and Sri Lanka). It was a hard life, getting paid to travel the world.
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As I progressed in my career I encountered a problem. Great marketing depends on high-quality ideas, and effective collaboration to bring those ideas to fruition. But sometimes those ideas were difficult to come by when I and my teams were consumed by client meetings, reports, emails – perhaps you know what this feels like.
When I sought out training and advice on running better brainstorms, enjoyable meetings and productive strategy sessions, I found it difficult to know where to start. Lists of 100+ brainstorming techniques, expensive innovation consultancies, research suggesting that brainstorms don’t work, and dense books on problem solving and decision making. At the time I just wanted to get ahead, not to have to sift through hundreds of websites, books and consultants.
However – luckily for you – I did end up doing just that, and I have the creaking bookcase to prove it. I set out on a journey to help teams and organisations think creatively, together. As a result I’ve facilitated hundreds of Creative Huddles for generating ideas, solving problems, exploring opportunities and making decisions – helping clients by driving better teamwork and improved results.
If you’re planning a large event, requiring multiple facilitators, I can call on a network of trusted and experienced associates and manage their involvement too.
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I work mostly in and around London, but regularly travel all over the UK and internationally for client work. I look forward to meeting you!
I’m a member of the International Association of Facilitators, and affirm and apply the IAF’s Statement of Values and Code of Ethics, the only global professional standard for facilitation practice.
What is a Creative Huddle?
I called my company Creative Huddle because that’s my vision of a really successful facilitated session: team-based, high energy events that help people collaborate effectively by generating ideas, solving problems, sharing opinions and making decisions. People seem to like the name – a Creative Huddle implies togetherness, trust and of course creativity.
A Creative Huddle can be whatever you want it to be. They’re all about helping you think and work better, together.
Team-based
Get your team together to harness their collective strengths and perform at their best. Creative Huddles build team trust, cohesion and communication and get everyone working together to deliver high-calibre results.
High-energy
Creative Huddles are nothing like the boring brainstorms and maddening meetings many people are subjected to every day. We keep the energy high to build motivation, momentum and dynamic ideas and solutions.
Results-focused
A facilitated Creative Huddle keeps everyone’s thinking on track, laser-focused on the objective at hand. No more unproductive brainstorms, no more meetings that fail to get through the whole agenda.
How do they work?
Contact me to tell me about your objectives. I’ll listen to your brief and ask you some clarifying questions, then design a suitable session (or series of sessions).
Tailored to you
I’ll work closely with you to understand your team dynamics and the nuances of your project. I’ll talk you through my recommendations as a result, and you’ll have the chance to ask as many questions as you like and guide me through your vision of what you want to achieve. No two Creative Huddles are the same.
On your terms
If you have a suitable space, we can hold the Creative Huddle wherever you like. Or, ask me to suggest a creative venue from my extensive database. Whilst I might make some recommendations, Creative Huddles can be held at any time of day, for any number of people, and for any length of time.
A collective effort
One of the best things about Creative Huddles is that they enable the team leader to get involved as a participant rather than as an organiser. By inviting me in to design the session and facilitate it, everyone can contribute equally and harness the collective creativity and brainpower of the entire team.
Creative Huddle (noun)
A brilliantly facilitated group session to help teams generate ideas, solve problems, explore opportunities or make decisions.
Synonyms: workshop, brainstorm, meeting, offsite, conference.
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