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Our Mission
At Beard Avenue we help people get unstuck, find a clear purpose, and
achieve their goals through unique creativity workshops and products.
We act on 5 basic principles about creativity.
1. Creativity can be taught and developed.
Creativity gurus and teachers from around the world, most notably Edward
De Bono, have shown for years that creativity is not something just left to
the artists or geniuses. It can be taught. More specifically, ways of
thinking, principles of action and techniques for success have been (and
are continuing to be) developed that help people tap into the many ways
we can learn and act. At Beard Avenue, we are always exploring the
cutting edge for new and better ways to help people be creative.
2. Creativity is multifaceted, requiring new ways to use
our bodies, minds, spirits.
Bodies, minds, spirits, hearts-at Beard Avenue, they're not just
buzzwords. We may use swing dancing, drawing, object building, word
games, movement, or anything else that will wake up our often dormant
abilities. We do team creativity techniques and individual ones. We show
people how to reframe quickly and effectively to get a new perspective.
We teach how to use questions, how to use music, how to use their minds
the way geniuses such as Albert Einstein or Alexander Calder did.
3. Creativity is about delight and engagement.
If we are being creative, we are engaging our whole selves, so
automatically we are fascinated, in the zone, in a state of delight, no
matter how "hard" we are thinking or working. In our courses, we don't
deny the effort and difficulties but help people find that state of
engagement by tapping into their own desires and vision and goals.
4. Creativity is best learned when applied to our
immediate and practical concerns, desires, and goals.
Our programs are customized around the issues you are struggling with.
We don't have to be experts in your field. You provide that. You provide
the issues. We provide the thinking and acting tools to help you use your
expertise (and naivety when that helps) on the issues you are most
engaged with, solving the problems you most want to solve.
5. Creativity is most powerful when we are centered and
feel connected to our values and to whatever we
understand our inner/spiritual source to be.
Our programs recognize we are most effective, most productive, most
healthy and most fulfilled when we are aligned with our values and our
inner source. Otherwise there is a disconnect, a misalignment that will
diminish our abilities to think freely and to fully apply ourselves.
Productivity is weakened and a climate of anger and disappointment can
grow. All of our products and programs have been developed with this
understanding in mind, and some programs directly address how to better
work with our values in a public setting and how to act out of a spiritual center.
 ABOUT LEONARD LANG. Ph.D. Presenting activities ranging from mind mapping to swing dancing, Leonard Lang, Ph.D., principal trainer for Beard Avenue, teaches ways to bring creativity, innovation, and spirituality into people's lives, workplaces, and organizations.
As a motivational speaker, coach, and trainer, Leonard has led programs for career coaches, facilitators, managers, ministers, nurses, physicians, teachers, writers, and teens.
He has presented at the annual International Association of Facilitators conference and taught lifework programs at the Minnesota Career Development Association's annual conferences in 2002, 2003, and 2004, and at such educational institutions as the University of St. Thomas, University of Wisconsin, Macalester College, and Normandale Community College.
He has edited Home Words, a book of writing by homeless people. His poetry has appeared in such literary journals as Cimarron Review, The Journal, and Visions-International as well as a national best-of-year poetry anthology, and for five years his book reviews were heard twice monthly on Minnesota Public Radio.
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