Bill Parmelee, chief financial officer of National Gypsum, a leading manufacturer of
wallboard, is well aware of the stereotype of financial experts – bland, boring and not
particularly creative.

“I totally disagree with this stereotype because financial people must communicate
effectively with others, solve problems, collaborate with teams throughout the company and
sell our ideas,” Parmelee said. “All of these tasks require us to be creative and innovative.”
With this view in mind, Parmelee signed up for the Innovation Institute at McColl Center for
Visual Art in Charlotte, N.C., a six-session program that exposes corporate executives to the
creative process through the eyes of visual artists. By working through a series of exercises
under the close tutelage of professional artists and expert facilitators, corporate executives are
exposed to the artistic process and encouraged to explore their creative abilities.

“Attending the Institute improved my ability to communicate with colleagues because it
gave me the freedom to open up to them and share my train of thought so they can better
understand how I am coming at a problem,” Parmelee said. “Before, they only saw the outcome
and not the process that went before it.”

Parmelee was able to apply this new way of working with colleagues during the company’s
implementation of an enterprise-wide software system.

“We were able to reinvigorate the process by applying some of the principles that I learned
during the Institute,” he said. “By opening up communications and improving how members of
the implementation team related to each other we were able to reenergize the team.”

Phyllis Wingate-Jones
For Phyllis Wingate-Jones, a senior vice president with the 33,000-employee Carolinas
Medical Center, the Innovation Institute offered a rare opportunity to step outside of the
pressure-cooker environment of healthcare management, re-examine her decision making
process and connect on a personal level with other executives facing similar challenges.

“I had been learning a lot about innovation through business and trade journals and felt the
Innovation Institute would be a good way to jump-start my creative spirit so that I could bring
more to the table for my organization in this competitive market,” Wingate-Jones said.

“The Innovation Institute really changed me and the way I think about creativity and its
place in a business environment,” she continued. “It also changed the way I think about my
responsibility to foster creativity in my organization. Successful business leaders develop the
leadership capacity to be open to new things and foster an organizational culture that supports
exploration. The Innovation Institute gave me permission to do that on a very personal level. I
know it has made a difference for me at work.”

Blair Stanford
The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, a 5,000-member organization supporting Charlotte’s
meteoric economic growth, has tangible evidence of the Innovation Institute’s impact on its chief
operating officer, Blair Stanford. After attending the Institute, Stanford, a 13-year chamber
veteran, spearheaded the addition of a “Creativity Room” within the Chamber’s headquarters
building that has encouraged collaboration throughout the organization.

“Because of the Institute, I came to recognize that you can find creativity in any employee,
from the print shop to the executive office,” she said. “To tap into the creativity of your
employees, it is as simple as just asking them. You involve them in discussions about strategic
considerations and you seek out their ideas. As a result, we are much more open now and have
lively discussions on strategic direction for the Chamber. We are inviting all of our employees to
be part of the decision making process.”

The Chamber also encourages its employees to retreat to a newly designated “Creativity
Room” for a change of environment designed to encourage innovative thinking. Comfortable
chairs, soft lighting, a large mural of the Charlotte skyline, markers and sketch pads, M&M’s and
“thinking hats” encourage out-of-the-box problem solving.

“This room sends a message to our employees that we value creativity and that we value
their ideas,” she said.

Barbara Spradling
As a 23-year veteran of Bank of America, one the nation’s largest financial institutions,
Senior Vice President Barbara Spradling was well acquainted with the challenges of controlling
risks. With responsibilities that spanned the management of corporate real estate to disaster
recovery, she found attending the McColl Institute an exercise in confidence building.

“I leaned from the Institute’s artists that it’s okay to fail many times in trying to achieve
your goals,” she said. “This approach was radically different than the business world where you
are not allowed to make mistakes. It has to be right the first time.”

After attending the Institute, Spradling, a self-confessed “Type A” personality, said she found
herself more relaxed and better able to listen to her staff’s ideas.

“I was at a stage in my career when the intensity could not have been any higher,” she said.
“The Institute gave me the confidence to realize that I did not have to fix everything.”
Spradling’s new found confidence also helped to support an important personal decision. At
age 51, she decided to retire from the bank.

“I have the confidence now that I can do something different if I want to,” she said. “I will
take some time off, and I know I can figure out what I want to do next with my life.”

Bart Landess
Bart Landess, senior vice president for development and planned giving of the $668 million
asset Foundation for the Carolinas, found that the Institute was an opportunity to gain
perspective after a fast-paced 25 years as a law school student, attorney, corporate executive,
husband and father of four children.

“At the conclusion of the Institute, I told others in my program that, in a funny way, I had
just experienced a second adolescence, the good stuff,” Landess said. “The Institute allowed me
to contemplate who I am, how I interact with others, my approach and my style – things that I
had never really considered before.”

Landess’ primary duties at the Foundation are to interact with high-level donors, lead group
presentations and draft documents concerning complex tax issues. The Institute helped bring
greater creativity to all of those tasks, he said.

“My impression of an artist before attending the Institute was of someone who has an
inspiration and then things just spew forth,” he said. “I learned that artists actually use applied
knowledge to produce art and there is a lengthy process of learning before they create. It’s the
same process that everyone in business follows – similar processes, different results.”
Landess, as is true for many of the Institute’s graduates, left the program with an artistic
creation that serves as a reminder to take risks, have confidence, follow a creative vision and
appreciate the creativity innate in everyone.

“The Institute helped us look at deep down motivations – not just how we accomplish
tasks, but why we want to accomplish these tasks and how we can approach them more
creatively,” he said. “Innovation is all about thinking like an artist and thinking like a business
person all at the same time. It’s not an either-or proposition.”

Karl Behrens
Karl Behrens, chief operating officer of the Compass Group, one of the world’s largest
contract foodservices management companies, recalls a breakthrough moment while attending
the Innovation Institute.

“It was on the second day that I made the connection that creativity is something that runs
much deeper than art,” he said. “Creativity is not so much an art form as it is a way of life. At that
moment, I discovered that the way I approach things – unbeknownst to me – was already creative.”
The Innovation Institute has helped Behrens shift his perspective on creativity and problem
solving while also affecting the way he interacts with colleagues.

“Now I know a creative voice is inherent in every person. It is born inside you,” he said. “I
recognize that the creativity of my colleagues is different than mine, but it exists nonetheless.”
Because of this new perspective, Behrens and his team are approaching problem solving in
new ways, including a recent project in which he was asked to create a sustainable business
model for the company’s entire operation, from food acquisition through customer relations.
“Normally we would have had a lot of internal input from all the right people,” he said.

“This time we decided to go with input from outside information sources, which gave us a fresh
perspective. When we presented our report and recommendations, instead of the usual head
nodding of approval, we received a much more spirited response to our findings, which were
creative and innovative.”

Behrens, who is an engineer by training, graduated from the Innovation Institute with new
perspectives that help to keep him focused on innovative thinking.

“For me it was a complete transformation in how I articulate a problem,” he said. “I learned
that sometimes you have to look away from a problem to see the solution and that multitasking
is one of the greatest threats to creativity. I have come to realize that innovation is not
a one-day thing or a someday thing. It is an everyday thing.”