Lynne C. Levesque, Ed. D.

For the past several years, Lynne Levesque has been studying, writing and consulting about leadership, strategy, creativity and innovation in business. A particular focus for her work has been the role that cognitive processes play in defining an individual's creativity. This focus uses Carl Jung's personality theory to explain how the eight different ways you make sense of the world shape your creative results and contributions.

In her book, Breakthrough Creativity: Achieving Top Performance with the Eight Creative Talents, Lynne examines how these eight different ways, she calls them talents, of taking in and processing data are reflected in your creativity and how they can both inhibit and enhance your strategic and creative results at work. She describes steps to take to further build your creative talents. She also provides details on practices for teams to follow to maximize their creativity and productivity, through building the right environment and using structured processes to channel and focus creative efforts. Working with the publishing, consulting and training organization HRDQ, Lynne has produced the Breakthrough Creativity Profile Participant's Workbook and the Breakthrough Creativity Profile Facilitator's Guide to assist leaders and trainers in facilitating workshops based on the Eight Creative Talents.

Lynne brings over 25 years of experience in business and training to her consulting and research practice. Prior to starting her practice, she spent 15 years in management, first with Bank of America in San Francisco, CA, and then with Shawmut Bank (now Bank of America) in Hartford, CT. Her areas of responsibility have included strategic planning, information technology management and administration, organizational development and training, as well as policy development and implementation.

Lynne has extensively researched and written about creativity and innovation, since receiving a doctorate for her studies of creativity in top business leaders. Currently her consulting practice is based on a combination of her extensive business experience and several years of academic research in leadership, strategy, change management and new business creation at Harvard Business School. Lynne has co-authored several articles and cases on these topics.

Lynne now works with a variety of for-profit and not-for-profit clients to help them become more productive, effective, and creative. Her services include facilitation, consulting and training workshops in the areas of strategic leadership development, senior team design and development, and creativity and innovation. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Lynne holds an MA in Modern European History from Rutgers, The State University, an MBA in Finance from the University of California at Berkeley (Haas School of Business), and an Ed.D. in Creativity from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has also studied at the Creative Problem Solving Institute in Buffalo, New York (www.cef-cpsi.org). Certified to administer the Hogan Personality Inventories, the Leadership Versatility Index®, and the Center for Creative Leadership's KEYS Assessment of the Climate for Creativity, she is also qualified to provide Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® programs. Lynne is a member of the Academy of Management and the Charlestown Business Association.