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Theme Evening

Heikki Slåen: Managing Creative Performance

Managing Creative Performance - How Ideas Turn into Collective Action—Even Under Pressure

Creativity doesn’t happen by chance. In high-performing organizations, creativity is built into everyday life as a visible part of the culture: shared thinking, clear operating models, and decisions that withstand uncertainty and change. In this presentation, filmmaker, actor, and therapist Heikki Slåen explores how creativity and disciplined processes can be combined in a way that strengthens an organization’s performance, collaboration, and ability to innovate. 

Event information

Date

08.09.2026

Time

17:00-18:30

Location

Zoom-webinaari

Themes

Management / supervisory work

Language

Finnish; English

The recording is available to members only. If you’re not a member yet, join via the link at the top of the page!

Heikki’s presentation offers insights into, among other things:

  • why ideas often remain isolated and do not lead to action
  • how to translate strategy into day-to-day decisions
  • how to build a shared sense of context when there are many projects
  • what trust means in high-pressure work environments
  • how creativity can be managed systematically without losing agility

Heikki’s approach combines his own experiences in creative fields, the operating models of top-performing organizations, and high-performance teamwork. Examples range from international creative organizations (from Pixar and Cirque du Soleil to the U.S. Special Operations Command, JSOC) to phenomena in Finnish popular culture—including how Käärijä’s visual world became part of an international breakthrough.

Themes of the evening

  • building and practicing creative performance in everyday life
  • trust, psychological safety, and collective thinking
  • disciplined processes as enablers of creativity
  • leadership amid uncertainty and pressure
  • how to transform individual expertise into collective performance
“Outrageous ideas, disciplined processes.”
Slåen Heikki

Heikki Slåen

Heikki Slåen is a filmmaker, therapist, and creative work developer whose work combines creative thinking, people-centered leadership, and high-performance models. His experience ranges from film and TV production to organizational development, as well as demanding environments involving group dynamics and collaboration. In his work, he focuses particularly on how to build trust, a shared sense of context, and creative performance in situations where pressure, uncertainty, and complexity are ever-present. Heikki’s work emphasizes building a trusting, creative culture; combining empathy with clear structures; practical models for leading collaborative thinking; and the ability to turn ideas into concrete action.

Keywords:
event, theme evening