We exist to weave artistry and scientific discovery into a BRAIN CAPITAL triple play for business: Creativity, Culture Analytics, and Purpose-rich Human Experiences. A unique opportunity exists right now for up-skilling people in creative industries as brain capital builders. Imagine the transformation possible with artists on every innovation team, in every company, everywhere!
Think like a researcher. Create like an artist. Innovate through culture.
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Innovating Through Culture
Only 7 percent of companies benefit from the growth triple play of unified creativity, analytics, and purpose. Companies using just one of the capabilities—either creativity, analytics, or purpose—saw an average growth rate of more than 6 percent. Adding a second component saw growth rates climb to more than 7 percent. For those that employed the full triple play, growth rates climbed to more than 12 percent.
McKinsey & Company, 2021
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Creativity
Talent development influencers like Deloitte are dramatically increasing investment and focus toward advanced intelligence of how imagination and creativity function as critical growth drivers across all economic sectors.
Deloitte Insights, 2023 Global Trends & New Fundamentals for a Boundaryless World
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Social Brain
Employee experiences shape the cumulative “social brain” of a company’s innovation approach. Brain skills like creativity, curiosity, flexibility in thinking, emotional/social intelligence, self-control, awe, confidence, hope, trust, belonging, compassion, and a sense of purpose and meaning define what’s possible.
Brain Capital Alliance, 2023.
To unlock transformational creativity – focus on the people who make it happen.
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Culture Analytics
Our data-supported approach uses scientific methods to visualize where there are hidden opportunities to improve workforce wellbeing and emerging opportunities to foster inclusive innovation.
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Creativity Science
We get it. Creativity can feel threatening to some. But, creativity is only dangerous if you don’t know how to use it. We are experts at quantifying and visualizing workforce creativity. We then use “what works” from research to transform it into new commercial and social value.
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Purpose-rich Human Experiences
While nobody can predict the future, our work is evidence-based and defensible. We translate a broad range of research and creative work into customized coaching to equip diverse leaders with the skills they need to transform their innovation process into a future-focused experience of Courageous Imagination.
We use science to measure WONDER – the head-heart-hands of creativity in a company’s “social brain” that drives innovation.
DID YOU KNOW?
Imaginator Academy development partners, Brain Capital Alliance and the University of Colorado Denver, host regular working conferences on Brain Capital with the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA). One example was the The Power of Imagination and Creativity at Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Culture shapes business. People shape culture. Creativity shapes change.
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Navigation
In today’s world, movements spring up around ideas that are simultaneously social, economic, and tech-enabled. We help leaders and learners navigate these shifting cultural landscapes through actionable, evidence-based insights.
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Agility
Imaginator Academy meets people where they are. Validated through rigorous analysis, our unique data set of culture signals supports dynamic planning for responsibility, profitability, and sustainability.
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Culturally Responsive
Imaginator Academy is being co-created with cultural leadership from business, arts, media, economics, science, humanities, technology, public health, law, and even international diplomacy — an approach that’s as inclusive as the future we seek.
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Storytelling
Stories change the world. Data makes those stories investable and scalable. Our CU Denver base camp in the Rocky Mountains connects a global network of hi-tech/hi-touch professionals from human-centered design, experience economy, creative industries, media, and communications. All focused on working together to craft and spread narratives that humanize the future of work.
Don’s miss our session at Cities Summit of the Americas
Building a Creativity Infrastructure for the Future of Work in a Brain Economy – The Imaginator Academy will be presenting this main track plenary session on Friday, April 28, 2023. Hosted by the U.S. Department of State and the City of Denver, the Cities Summit will promote regional cooperation, convening subnational leaders from across the entire Western Hemisphere with diverse and inclusive representatives of government, civil society, business, academia, youth, culture and the arts, and indigenous and underrepresented groups.
BIG THINGS ON THE HORIZON. We have a lot of new content coming in April 2023. Our goal is to make this site a place you want to visit often. A new YouTube Channel, Research Section, Events Page and more! Sign up for our monthly eNews to get notified.
The imaginators behind the movement
Our team at Imaginator Academy is made up of experienced educators, researchers, artists, business professionals, and culture futurists. Together, we are on a mission to create an inclusive community for the future of work in a brain economy. Join us as we explore the power of creative intelligence at work.
Theo Edmonds, (he/they) – Culture Futurist & IA Director / CU Denver Co-Founder
Julia Mahfouz (she/hers) – Prosocial Leadership Scholar/ CU Denver Co-Founder
Katherine Goodman, (she/hers) – Engineering & Human-centered Design / CU Denver Co-Founder
Sarah Engel (she/hers) – Entrepreneurship & Mission-Driven Mindsets / CU Denver Co-Founder
Cameron Lister, (he/his) – Data Science & Visualization
Rym Ayadi, Economics & IA Brain Capital Co-Lead
Hannah M. Merseal, (she/hers) – Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity
Harris Eyre, Neuroscience & Brain Capital C0-Lead
Kristina Newman-Scott, Media Culture & Creative Economy
Hannah L. Drake, Arts & Activism
Josh Miller, Arts & Activism
Wendy Lea, Entrepreneur Ecosystems
Roger Beaty, Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity
Yoed Kenett, Cognitive Neuroscience
Amy Guttmann, Marketing Strategy
Carla Rodriguez, Social Media Coordinator
Raymond H. Gonzales, Economic Development (Thought Partner)
Salvador Simó Algado, Inclusive Education (Thought Partner)
Seda Röder, (Thought Partner)
Tamara Turner, Cultural Anthropology (Thought Partner)
Imaginator Academy Lead Organizations
University of Colorado Denver
CU Denver is redefining the model of tomorrow’s public urban research university to lead to a more equitable and innovative society.
We know that, for the last 300 years, higher education was designed to meet the needs of the privileged few.
We see it differently: We strive to make education work for all. Education has the power to transform lives, expand economies, and uplift communities, and everyone must have access to these opportunities. That is why we seek to become the nation’s first equity-serving institution—an inclusive, supportive university where all can excel.
Brain Capital Alliance
Following on from the success of the OECD Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative, the Alliance launched an expanded, multi-national, and multi-organisational programme. The programme focuses on neuroscience-inspired investment and public policy innovation as the two most powerful levers for change. It brings together radically diverse stakeholders spanning fields from brain science to policy, economics and finance.
Brain Capital is a new asset class which recognises brain skills and brain health as indispensable drivers of the brain economy. The Alliance brings together world-class contributors from various backgrounds to explore approaches to building Brain Capital at societal scale.
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OUR VALUES
INCLUSIVE INNOVATION
HUMAN FLOURISHING
COURAGEOUS IMAGINATION
“Courage is the sum of those small, hard choices a person or organization makes each day in striving to live the best story they can tell. A story that may even be a little scary because it liberates the greatness within. Through the wilds of untouched life, courage calls our hearts into freedom.
All human knowledge begins as Imagination. It is a precursor to creativity and the operating system of humanity. Imagination makes possible all our thinking about the past, present, and future. Imagination is critical for expanding our human experience.”
Theo Edmonds,
Definitions inspired by many artists from Raghava KK and Maya Angelou to Walt Whitman and Dolly Parton; and researchers ranging from Margaret Ann Boden to Teresa M. Amabile.