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Courses/Leadership/Strategic Thinking

Outside The Box Creative Thinking Skills

Learn creative, outside-the-box thinking techniques to help you in work and in life, and practice them with numerous scenarios.

Created byStephen Priddle
4.6
(262 reviews)
AdvancedUpdated Jan 14, 2025
Outside The Box Creative Thinking Skills

What You'll Learn

check_circleLearn creative, outside the box, creative thinking techniques to help you.
check_circleDevelop the ability to challenge assumptions and approach problems from different angles.
check_circleImprove your lateral thinking.
check_circleMake use of the obvious, when others don’t.
check_circleTest your thinking with all kinds of scenarios.

About This Course

Do you like being at the work meeting and coming up with a creative solution to the problem at hand that no one else has come up with? In this course, veteran CFO and course presenter, Stephen Priddle, CPA, CA, CMA, will teach creative thinking approaches to get you outside the box to solve all kinds of problems. Most people are largely inside-the-box thinkers, which limits their ability to find solutions that are different and counter-intuitive.

  • Some of the examples are designed to stay with you for the rest of your life!
  • You will also get a crazy, fun party game idea, which is an outside-the-box thinking test…

This course is for all accountants, as well as non-accountants who want to think more creatively to solve problems of all kinds.

AGENDA

Creative thinking techniques

  • Work through dozens of mind-stretching personal and business examples, not just theory
  • Coming at problems from different angles
  • Challenging your assumptions and lateral thinking
  • Sometimes the obvious is the best solution, but everybody misses it
  • All kinds of scenarios and mini-cases to work through
  • Historic examples with lessons· When do you brainstorm best?

What past participants have said:

  • I loved the creative thinking teaching - one of the most powerful "soft skills" a CFO or Controller could possess.
  • I really appreciated you sharing all your experiences and challenging CPAs to think outside the box
  • The hardest learning is thinking outside the box, getting away from training, education, and experience
  • I loved the various tips, creative ideas & examples you discussed. I will definitely use some of them in my day-to-day life, both personal and in business!
  • It was interesting to have examples from experiences you had for different subjects and ways to think outside the box.
  • I found the "thinking outside the box" training very thought-provoking and definitely challenged me in this area. It will require some work, but it's a great skill to have.
  • The material was very helpful, especially about thinking outside the box. I lack those skills and practices.
  • I found thinking outside the box very useful. I personally believe it is critical to develop creative thinking in order to add value to our clients/employers.
  • I enjoyed the humor and jokes, making this class different from other CPA courses.
  • I really appreciated you challenging CPAs to think outside the box.
  • I assure you, I've learned and taken note of some tips I would like to apply.

Your Instructor

Stephen Priddle
Stephen Priddle
menu_book31 courses
star6,576 reviews

Stephen Priddle, CPA, CA, CMA is the President and Founder of Practical PD, Courses for Accountants. Stephen is also the Vice-President, Finance & CFO of Fidus Analytics Inc.  In addition, he is a Board member, co-owner and Corporate Secretary of the SureWx group of companies, a global aviation business, which he was the CFO for 12 years previously. An engaging and experienced instructor, Stephen Priddle weaves practical tips together with stories from his business experience and input from participants. Seasoning the mix with a dose of accounting humour, he serves up useful and dynamic courses which have been attended by over 36,000. When speaking, he is candid about errors he has made in his career and the lessons that can be learned from them. Someone said: “humans are hard-wired to learn from stories” – Stephen is in part a business/accounting storyteller, who draws out the lessons from the stories. Stephen’s teaching experience includes presenting courses for over 70 accounting bodies and organizations in Canada and abroad. He has been a Session Leader in the CPA Professional Education Program, and has taught at the University of Toronto and Carleton University. He has moderated in the legacy CA, CMA and CGA program. Stephen is a prolific author. His published business, accounting and finance cases are used by many organizations. Stephen has nearly 40 years of varied business experience. After working with KPMG for five years, he moved into industry, where he has worked for public and private companies. He has gained a wide range of experience in financial reporting, treasury management, merger & acquisition and other business matters. Through his courses, he interacts with hundreds of financial leaders a year and thus stays on the leading edge in terms of best practices and hot topics. Stephen obtained his CPA, CA and CMA designations following graduation from Carleton University with an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree, accounting major.

Credit Information

Do these courses count toward my professional development requirements?

This portal is provided as a training and development resource for City of Markham employees. Every course is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, is quantifiable in hours, and is verifiable — you receive a documented certificate of completion for every course you finish, stored on LearnFormula indefinitely.

If you hold a professional designation (for example in engineering, accounting, human resources, or law), courses may be counted as professionally relevant, verifiable learning activities toward your continuing professional development. Individual practitioners are responsible for confirming that an activity meets the requirements of their professional body. For questions about the City of Markham's training and development policies, please speak with your people leader or Human Resources.

What Students Are Saying

4.6
Student's Choice
262 reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.