Creativity comes to life at intersections. It thrives on opposites. It engages paradox until something new emerges. This transfers to the design of projects, processes, workshops, teams, organizations, etc. If we design for space to accommodate opposites (just like nature does) we have a more creative system. This is part of a presentation I'm giving on the yin/yang of creative process:
There's no end to what could be added.
By now, most people have heard of the "Diffusion of Innovation" bell curve, first introduced by Everett Rogers in the 60s. I remember learning about in college, and it seems to still be a relevant model today. According to wikipedia:
"Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of rural sociology, popularized the theory in his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations. He said diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines...The book proposed 4 main elements that influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation, communication channels, time, and a social system. That is, diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system."
Here is an image of the bell curve that I got from blog.pcnsinc.com:
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For a recent client program, I wanted to use the model to illustrate some points about their own innovation culture. I went searching online and compiled a bunch of information that I read about the different groups, then created this little chart (below) based on what I had been reading on the different sites, the book, and my own experience of facilitating creativity in organizations. This shows characteristics of each of the 5 main segments of the population:
I'm bringing this up because I see so many groups/work teams still trying to reach consensus and get buy-in at the front-end from everyone as they attempt to change their work culture, introduce a new innovation, or co-create/co-develop a new product or process.
Form a facilitating co-creativity perspective (whether a day-long short workshop or a long-term culture change), I have found that it is much easier and quicker if you recognize the differences, and let people join into the creative process wherever along the bell curve they are. Not only will their resistance go down, their contribution will go up. The adoption bell curve is at work whether a leader or facilitator wants it to be or not. We can learn to use the natural trajectory of this adoption process in co-creative work teams, instead of fighting it.
In facilitating a creative process, instead of trying to get everyone in a group comfortable with the "blank canvas" thinking that innovators love, let the innovators play there. Then invite in others to join along the way. That takes the pressure of those who really can't go there, and they no longer feel the need to resist - with defenses up - because they are less threatened. The early adaptors are great bridges. They help make it accessible for the majority to buy in. The early majority needs to see something tangible or in action before they will buy in. Instead of force them to dive into the unknown with the innovators, let them enter into the process as they see something already starting to form and shape You get much more creativity and collaboration out of them that way. The laggards, too, will be less vocal in their resistance if they are not forced into change up front. They may ultimately self select out the team, group or company...or they may come around later.
The key is that it is a big waste of time to try to get everyone on the same page at the beginning. Resistance, which is going to happen anyway as is natural in the creative process, skyrockets when everyone is expected to be in the same place at the same time. A new idea emerges emerges and immediately gets shot down, mostly out of fear or discomfort.
Instead, we can acknowledge that each segment has much to offer in the creative process. Just like each has a role in nature. In nature there is always that dynamic tension in the birthing process between something new wanting to emerge (expansion) and the status quo wanting to maintain (contraction). Creative breakthroughs happen in the intersection of that dynamic tension. Healthy creative birth happens by learning to work with that tension.
The same is true in organizational systems. Each role plays a part in the creative process...and that tension between the segments is part of the natural creative process. They are all correct - just incomplete. The late majority likes to organize and maintain the system in a way the innovator or early adopter would not care to do. Everyone is, of course, infinitely creative (whether they know it yet or not). Everyone can activate and unleash more of their creativity through pattern breaking with a variety of approaches and awesome practices at any time. But not everyone creates the same way, and not everyone comes to life at the same point in a group creative process. By USING the differences, we get more creativity out of a group.
If we work with how nature unfolds and creates, and appreciate the differences in pace and timing for people to jump in the ways THEY know they can best contribute (allowing them to self organize along the creative in a way they are more alive to do so), I believe we will experience an easier transition into the blank canvas of the new paradigm 21st century workplace being co-created by all of us.
Steve Dorfman and Toby Marciante of We Mean Business TV recently interviewd me on creative (whole brain) thinking in the workplace. We talk about stories, improv, somatics, natural resistance, risk-friendly work cultures, generational creaitvity, discovery sessions, and more in this 30-minute interview.
This morning I heard someone being interviewed on the topic of conscious business (on Waking Up in the Workplace) and they were asked, "What is the question that drives your work.?" I love that. It's aligned with the concept that we are all living our questions (whether we are conscious of it or not) so we need to choose them carefully. In that, we become conscious participants in the creation of our work.
I was thinking about how I would answer, and it led me create the venn diagram below. My driving question is actually the intersection of 3 foundational questions. - not in any order, just holding all 3 questions on my consciousness - that I engage when I'm feeling the call to "what's next" in my work. My business tagline for over the past decade has been Consciously Creating What's Next and this intersection is at the heart of how I navigate that (and how I work with my coaching clients to structure their aliveness into income-generating work). Here is my attempt at mapping it:
I'm numbering the questions here, but there is really no order to them. It depends on which needs asking when - situationally adaptive.
1. What is most alive for me? That is what is alive for me to engage and create right now? Not all that I can imagine or that can ever be, but where is the juice right now at this space in time? For me that is the ripe fruit, and if you engage that, you remain in life-giving energy in your work. Most significantly, it is not about asking what makes complete sense first. Ask what brings you to life first...then find ways to make it work later. So often people approach it backwards and then wonder why work feels lifeless - it was not based on the foundation of aliveness.
2. What is calling to emerge? That is, what is calling to emerge at this time, in this particular situation? It assumes that we each have a unique purpose in the world, and that we are invited into serving this purpose through whatever is calling us the "loudest" at any given time. Discernment may take some time, but if given space, time and attention to the listening, we can learn to hear what is authentically calling us. We often do not know the complete answer to what wants to emerge until is has emerged, but by just engaging the question, we are in the emergence process.
3. What is mine to do to serve this unfolding? That is, what is mine to do - no more, no less - to serve the highest unfolding of this particular emergence? It assumes that we are working in harmony with the larger unfolding - something greater than ourselves that is generative and already happening. It is fractal in nature...our micro-unfolding is is connected to the macro-unfolding that is happening in the world. For more on the "no more, no less" part, see this blog post. No more: not over-controlling and taking over what is not ours. No less - stepping up and owning what is.
It is from engaging the intersection of these 3 questions over the past decade that I've created programs, products, service offerings, a creativity network and conferences that feel alive and engaging for me...and that are business offerings, not just creative expression. The foundational questions have not changed, but the aliveness and the call is ever-evolving so the structures do change.
Once the energy has run it's course, as happens in natural systems, then it's time to create something new...otherwise it feels like trying to revive life into a tree that already fell over in the forest - futile. It is important to be able to discern what you spend time reviving, what you let go, and what you create. There's no short cut - it's trail and error...why it's good to get comfortable with making mistakes. :-)
I have to keep reminding myself that certain questions are not as much about getting answers as they are about living into them - and it can be a messy process. Creativity is awesomely messy! That is what aliveness is - messy, nonlinear, and not having everything answered and resolved in neat and timely packages. For years my daily mantra has been, "What's mine to do to serve the larger unfolding?" and I still sometimes do not hear/feel it, or hear it loud and clear, but don't act on it. Like anything, it is an ongoing intentional practice to really live into the questions. The point is to make sure we are asking the right qustions - the ones that lead us to more aliveness in our work and lives, not less.
In a world of work that has been dominated by goal setting and getting from A to B in a sequential step-by-step (yang), this approach offers a way to first cultivate the meaning and aliveness of what you want to do (yin)...and then go about the business of setting adaptive goals around that. Both-and, not either-or. There are all kinds of other questions that emerge in the process - these are just the 3 driving questions, for me, that (along with some other key things) form a foundation for making a living by structuring aliveness in a way that serves others.
What is your question - or the inspired intersection of questions - that drives your work?
A few years ago, when leading a Creative Thinking Program for a corporate client, I developed the AIIM Solution Finding Process to make it accessible, and to help them move onto the nonlinear nature of the creative process (when it is solution-focused, like in work settings) and still have a sequence to follow for those who like to engage more sequentially. I had been studying different models and approaches at the time and narrowed in on the same main patterns I saw showing up in each one, in addition thinking about the patterns I was seeing in the real-life experiences me and my clients were having with applied creativity in the workplace. I think these elements speak to the way nature creates: linearly and non-linearly, expanding and contracting, adapting and refining...
"The Map is not the Territory" - Alfred Korsybski
The AIIM process is a map, but it is not the entire territory. You can use AIIM in a creative process like you would use a map. If you go want to a new place, you have several choices. Typically, when you are first getting to know the terrain, you get a map and follow directions.
Once you get comfortable with the terrain, however, then you start exploring more and may not need directions as much or at all. You may discover new ways of getting around by simply exploring and finding out what leads where and which routes are best for your purposes.
Therefore, like a map which involves whole brain thinking, the AIIM Model is more than a step-by-step process to be followed in a sequential order. Each of the of the stages of the AIIM process, and each step within each stage can be, and should be, used as called for by the particular situation. The map is a guide, but it is flexible - and not complete as no mapped process can be.
In a creative process you go back and forth between analysis and imagination and between big picture and detail thinking; and you check for relevance and modify in each stage also. Like traveling around in any city, there are many ways that work and not just one right answer. You begin the process and modify along the way as external conditions change. Therefore, any creativity map or process must have flexibility for modification built into it. New ideas, insights and connections emerge that requires nonlinear navigating in real time.
To use the AIIM process in a sequential manner, you would typically start with analysis then bring in the imagination, then go back and forth between those two until you are ready to implement the solution or vision. After the solution is implemented, you continue modify in real time as you get more information and observe what is working and what is not.
Also have a Creative Emergence Process I charted for the book I am working on that looks a bit different - will post another time.
Just found a 12-year-old file with this message that I wrote (after a meditation) from my "creative source" to my conscious self in the midst of a particularly challenging and fear-based time for me in my business:
1/23/99
Walk confidently toward the promised land of your higher dreams that you know is there. Walk confidently through the fog of fear, doubt and the unknown. Walk confidently through the mine fields of imaginary threats and see them for what they really are. Don't make boulders out of wads of paper. Know you won't die or be irreparably wounded. Most importantly, know you will receive support along the way. Movement is the key. Go for it. Go for it with the courage, the belief, and the action to get there.
That guidance was right - movement was the key...and there's been lots of support along the way. If I were to write this now, there would be more to add that I have learned over the years through living into this message (definitely not always confidently) and coaching creativity...like how support would not only show up, it would show up in the most magnificent, emergent and unexpected ways; how that voice is part of our fullest creative aliveness; how it is about life generating new creative life; how none fo us are alone in the journey of our creative calling (even though it fees like it at times); and how that inner voice needs space, time and attention to be heard and known.
That inner "aliveness voice" within us always carries a more expanded, life-giving knowing about what is true and possible for us than the limited viewpoints our conscious minds carry at any given time. The key is feeling the fear, doubt, etc...and moving forward anyway.
This is a follow-up to my last post, Creativity in Business Conference Re-cap.
It contains pictures of the graphic recordings of the 4 panels and the storytelling plenary session all in one place :-)
Creative Leadership Panel
Creative Work Cultures Panel
Social Media and Creativity Panel
Emergence and CoCreation Panel
Storytelling Plenary Session
Thanks to Diane Cline - @dayjobview - for these visual recordings!
It took me a few weeks to get to this post, after integrating what unfolded at and after our Creativity in Business Conference a few weeks ago. On October 23, we produced a (sold-out - yay!) conference in Washington, DC with the help of many amazing, generous souls. It was gratifying that people seemed to get a lot out of it - I think the feedback reflects a juicy and alive day. Everyone really stepped up, took risks, pushed their edges, had fun and engaged fully. Photographer, Alexander Morozov of Photography by Alexander, captured the energy of the day with these pictures.
It Started with Principles of Creative Engagement
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| Improvisational Storyteller session |
Interview # 31 in our Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with
Bill Smith, PhD, President of ODII. Bill is an innovative thinker and practitioner in the field of leadership, organization and social development. He's developed new, creative approaches to organization for multinational corporations, governments, and villages all over the world. At Wharton Graduate School of Business, Bill discovered a natural organizing process that links purpose, power and action at any level, from individual to global systems. He calls this AIC - Appreciation, Influence and Control for the three universal powers at its core, whihc he writes about in his latest book, The Creative Power: Transforming Ourselves, Our Organizations and our World. Bill's applied the AIC process to large-scale complex projects, village development, and to the design of national and global system for orgnaizations such as The World Bank, the Unted Nations, Plexus Institute, Monstato Pharmacutical, British Airways, and in the Organizational Sciences Program of George Washington University among others.
Q: How does your work relate to creativity?
Bill: I discovered that organizations are all about power relationships. Exceptional organizations have learned how to manage the three fundamental power relationships that are created by any purpose. a) Control: the resources necessary to achieve the purpose—ideas, people, things; b) Influence: the dynamic relationships between those you cannot control but who have an influence on the achievement of your purpose; c) Appreciation: everything that affects your purpose but which you cannot control or influence. It is this appreciative power—part of every purpose no matter how big or small—that is the source of all creativity. It opens us up to all possibilities beyond our arena of control or influence.
Q: What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?
Bill: In the post WWII period we stopped seeing command and control as the best way to organize. Open Systems Thinking brought in the consideration of the environment that we could not control but that we could influence. We have been so successful at building influence that it has become the key problem of our time. We are using influence for control, without consideration for everything else that affects our purpose. That is, we see influence as a way of gaining control without appreciating the consequences for the whole community or world. So the paradigm shift that I see is to add the appreciative level to every level of purpose—for individuals, for organization and for our global institutes.
Q: What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?
Bill: The appreciative field is the field of creativity. Its role is to use our intuitive and sensing powers to extend beyond the current boundaries of influence and control that limit our creativity. They help us reinterpret the realities of our past in new ways. By juxtaposing new future possibilities with new interpretations of our realty we are able to release the most creative of all powers—the power to transcend current models, thinking, feeling judgements and structures.
Q: What mindsets do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?
Bill: Our mindset is another way of naming our appreciative field. The key is to enlarge our mindset to use all the power available to us. In practice this means the pursuit of our ideals - our highest possible level of purpose. The behavior required is to be open to new possibilities for the future and to new interpretations of the past. The two are inseparable parts of our most creative power - appreciation. We can’t have one without the other the. The opposition between the two produces the power that moves us to the next level - influence.
Q: What is one approach that people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?
Bill: The AIC Organizing Process is applicable to any purpose, from 15-minute problem solving to a fifteen-year Global Development Program. It works by ensuring that we use all the power available to us. Take a typical meeting or problem-solving session of, say 90 minuntes:
1. Express the purpose at the highest possible level: We are here to solve problem A or B. We want to do so in a way that will produce the best possible, i.e., an ideal.
2. Divide the time available into three equal parts of 30 minutes. each:
a) Appreciative phase (30 mins): Take a few minutes, individually, to think ideally what you
would like to do.
i. Each person reports without comments.
ii. Ask everyone: If we moved out in the directions these ideals seem to indicate to you, what
realities do you believe we would have to face?
b) Influence Phase (30 mins): What do you believe are the key priorities that we would have
to address in taking account of the possibilities and realities expressed?
i. Who would support your priority?
ii. Who would oppose the direction?
c) Control Phase (30 mins): In your own area of responsibility, given everything you have heard:
i. What would you do?
ii. How would that contribute to the larger purpose?
Q: Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?
Bill: Creative Leadership is the relationship that you have to your world when you are using all three powers of appreciation, influence and control equally. You are being a leader in the sense that you are making the maximum possible contribution you can make to yourself, your colleagues and your world.
In practice it means coming up with creative ideas; creating new relationships and means of relating to test and spread and augment those ideas; and identifying new resources of ideas, people and things and finding ways to give form to those ideas that are more aesthetic, more harmonious and more economic.
Bill will be presenting an experiential breakout session on AIC at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com
I am in a Facebook group and someone posted the question asking what
capacities are needed for Global Citizenship and how might they be developed. I just wrote the following stream of consciousness as a wall post there and thought I would share it here as well since it's connected to my own purpose, work with creative process and vision of an ever-evolving, more generative world - one that is co-created by each of us from the inside-out.
Some of the capacities that come to mind are creativity and imagination; holding paradox and uncertainty; consciously engaging the unknown; yes-anding, improvisation, adaptiveness; getting into the body (many cultures are much more embodied than we are) - using our somatic intelligence as a resource; re-wakening the senses; using more right-brain ways of engaging and communicating integrated with the left-brain; weaving in more aspects of the Feminine archetypal qualities in with the Masculine; empathic communication, intuition, holistic (not binary) listening - with co-discovery in mind.
Also, cultivating the inherent exuberance, aliveness, and joy in our children and reclaiming it in ourselves; expanding our capacities by breaking old patterns and intentionallly engaging practices that invite us in to more of our hearts, bodies, and and whole brains; incorporating purpose and relevance in everything we engage, among other aspects of our potential; expanding upon our existing models, theories and approaches to allow for ongoing modification and constantly inventing new ones we creating conditions for new, liberating structures to emerge; creating conditions for those in their organization/culture/system to unfold their "what's next" from within; new ways of being in addition to thinking...
By developing these and all kinds of other capacities within ourselves, I believe we can begin to transcend the edginess of the differences and can meet more as global humans. That creates the space to hear, connect and co-create what's next as global citizens using the gifts of our unique cultural differences.
Interview #30 in our Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Cathy Rose Salit, CEO of Performance of a Lifetime, a training and consulting company that brings the tools and framework of theater and improvisation to corporate and organizational life. Cathy began her career as an upstart and risk-taker at the age of 13, when she dropped out of eighth grade and, along with some friends and their more open-minded parents, started an alternative school in an abandoned storefront in New York City. This innovative endeavor led to Random House's publication of their book, Starting Your Own High School. Since then, Cathy has spent her life as an onstage performer, educational pioneer and social entrepreneur, launching innovative businesses and organizations designed as centers for change, learning and growth. Her clients include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft, Mars, Credit Suisse, the US Olympic Committee, Barclays and John Hopkins Hospital, where her recent work includes a ground-breaking resiliency program for oncology nurses. An accomplished singer, actress, director, and improvisational comic, Cathy can be seen performing in improvised musical comedy with The Proverbial Loons at the Castillo Theatre in New York City.
Q: How does your work relate to creativity?
Cathy:
Person A: I'm so confused.
Person B: Me, too.
Person A: And scared. Things are changing so quickly.
Person B: I know. I feel like there’s no solid ground to stand on.
Person A: Can you make heads or tails out of the economy?
Person B: Nobody can. How can you know what to do with all this uncertainty?
I feel like everything I ever knew was true... ISN’T.
Person A: (Sees Person C walking by) What about you, C?
Person C: (Starts to sing, to the tune of “Hey Jude”)
Hey you, don’t be afraid
Just because you can’t know for sure
The sooner you let that really sink in
Then we can begin
To create some more
Person A: Wow.
Person C: (Keeps singing)
Hey you, let’s break the rules
And make up new ones for uncertainty
The limits of “knowing” get in our way
But this is a new day
Let’s improvise and you’ll see...
Person B: See what?
Person C: (Keeps singing)
That any time you feel confused
Don’t get the blues
Just walk up to someone and say “yes, and”
‘Cause don’t you know it’s not just you
Hey, you, it’s true
The people you need are all around you
Person A & B: (Can’t help themselves, and join in):
Na na na nana na na, nana na na
Hey you, (the) illusion’s gone
.
Things will never be the same
.
So hold on – we’re gonna go for a ride
.
We need you by our side
To create a new game
(A, B, and C link arms and slowly walk toward the cafeteria. As they do, others join them and the sound of their singing takes another six minutes or so to fade away)
Na na na nanananaaa, nanananaaa, Hey you!
Na na na nanananaaa, nanananaaa, Hey you!
Na na na nanananaaa, nanananaaa, Hey you!
Na na na nanananaaa, nanananaaa, Hey you!...
In my work, I help people in organizations to be creative in response to all kinds of challenges and situations in life and work. This little script and song is my (impromptu) response to your question, an invitation to share/practice/create in real time. I’m very committed to helping people engage in a creative process all the time, which means that it doesn't matter whether the "end product" is brilliant.
What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?
Cathy: We all need to get much better at handling uncertainty, dealing with the unknown (and perhaps unknowable), and embracing change and the unexpected. Organizations (and their leaders) who are interested in developing their people to be more open-minded and to take risks — and are willing to invest in it — are part of a new paradigm of work. They focus on creating a work environment and culture that supports shaking things up and nurtures new ideas and practices. And part of what makes that possible is helping people to grow and develop emotionally, socially and intellectually.
What do you see as the role of creativity in that paradigm?
Cathy: It’s essential. It takes creativity to break out of our habitual ways of working, conversing and interacting — with colleagues, customers, stakeholders, etc. We get stuck in our “scripts,” comfortable with our “stock characters.” I think that exercising the creativity needed to expand your professional and personal repertoire — to try out different “performances” — is crucial. In my work, theater and improvisation provide the creative venue.
For example: a colleague and friend of mine, the developmental psychologist Lenora Fulani, has created an amazing program in New York City called “Operation Conversation: Cops and Kids.” She recruits police officers and inner city young people (whose typical relationship is, to put it mildly, estranged), brings them into a room, and directs them in creating improvisational theater together. It’s awe-inspiring. It completely changes how they see each other, and what they can then say and hear. That’s the power of creativity!
Or Andy Lansing, the CEO from Chicago recently profiled in the New York Times “Corner Office” column, whose first question to potential hires is “Are you nice?” I love that! What a creative question! It conveys a message about what it takes to succeed at this company (which obviously places a premium on how people relate to each other), it challenges the interviewee to think and talk in a way that they don’t expect (personally), and it breaks the mold of what a CEO (or anyone for that matter) would ask a potential new hire.
What mindsets and behaviors do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?
Cathy: Improvise. Perform. Relate to every conversation, meeting, and interaction as an improvisational scene in which you are a performer, writer and director. Break rules and make up new ones — not just in coming up with ideas, but in how we organize what we do together and how we do it in the workplace. Become a creative artist whose medium is everyday life.
What is one approach that people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?
Cathy: Learn and use the golden rule of improvisers: “Yes, And.” Our natural tendency is to say “Yes, but,” which blocks the flow of conversation — and any chance of creativity. Saying “yes” means that you accept the person and what she or he has said. “And” lets you build on what your colleague has given you, adding your contribution.
Try this exercise: when you’re in a conversation with a colleague at work, listen extra carefully. Don’t plan what you’re going to say — just listen. When your colleague finishes, say “yes, and” and let that guide what you say next. Even if you don’t agree!
Start paying attention to all of the “Yes, buts’” that you say and hear. See if you can start to bring this “creative positivity” into the meetings and conversations that you’re part of.
Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?
Cathy: Creative leadership is being willing to fail. That school I started at 13? I can’t honestly say that it was an unqualified success. (To this day I still can’t identify a subjunctive clause or multiply past 6). But for me, “success” or no, it changed everything. It taught me the fundamental importance of creatively questioning and creatively building new ways of living and working in our world.
Creative leadership is doing things before we know how (and encouraging others to as well). Our culture, with its insistence on knowing how things are going to turn out (an illusion in any event), inhibits our appetite for and skill at bringing new things into existence.
Creative leadership means working and playing well with others. Creativity is not a solo act. Everyday creativity is an ensemble performance, in which people build on one another’s contributions to create new possibilities and new understandings of what they are doing together. Creative leaders model all this in what they do and how they do it, and don’t swerve from their commitment to helping other people take risks — which as often as not means taking the risk with them. You can’t control it! Let things emerge and then take on the creative challenge of figuring out what to do next.
Cathy will be presenting an improv-based breakout session at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com
Interview #29 in The Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with
Leilani Raashida Henry, M.A., a leader in the field of workplace creativity and work-life balance. A pioneer on bringing innovative whole brain strategies to personal, professional and organization transformation, Leilani is President of Being and Living® Enterprises, and is the creator of Brain Jewels®, a multi-sensory coaching process. She worked for 13 years as an internal productivity/creativity consultant with Honeywell, Lockheed Martin and Jones Intercable. Leilani’s lifetime experience in the performing and visual arts is integrated into her unique approach to leadership, creativity and performance. She is cited in books, national publications and organizations such as Centered on the Edge, Corporate Meetings & Incentives, Fast Company, Fetzer Institute, New Visions in Business and Thrivability. Her clients have included AT&T, Intuit, Time Warner, HBO, University of Colorado Boulder, HP, the EPA, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation and HSBC Bank among others.
How does your work relate to creativity?
Leilani: Individual and collective transformation requires engagement of the whole person at work. It brings the group as the "new art form" into being. We can do more as an inspired collective, than we can do alone. Rather than leaving our true thoughts and feelings unexpressed in service of getting the job done, my work makes the invisible more visible. I enable what's not seen, heard, or allowed to surface safely, as a catalyst for better relationships and organizational change. My work also encourages groups to think better collectively by challenging assumptions and uncovering possibilities. Creativity is the opposite of certainty - it allows us to co-create with others what is emerging, for the benefit of ourselves and the larger whole. I also focus on stress management to increase the flow of creativity.
What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?
Leilani: When you unleash the whole person (body, mind and spirit), you unleash creativity in the work place. Employees become partners and investors in the organization, and are valued for the multiple intelligences they can provide. This new way of working also includes patience with chaos, which is critical because the new paradigm in more non-linear than linear. A respect for the differences in pace and style of working is needed, as well as honoring differences, in general.
The new way of working requires the ability and willingness to hear and connect with all stakeholders, in order to increase the bottom line and contribution to society. Work-life balance keeps everything in check, so people can bring their best selves to their projects and take time for regeneration and what they value. It now takes our whole brains to deal with the complexity of the marketplace and the chaos in our lives. The organization is freer to produce extraordinary results when everyone is pulling together, understands their part in the whole and believes that their contribution is essential for the organization to thrive. Increased connection between all parts of the organization encourages the organization to become greater than the sum of it's parts.
What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?
Leilani: Creativity allows us to do things more elegantly, more coherently and have fun in the process because we engage our whole selves. Behind creativity is 'espirit de corp' - the morale -the exuberance needed to fully be present at work. It is the underpinnings of being able to do more with less. If we wish to keep up with accelerated growth of our companies, or with market turbulence, creativity can help us have a more 'possibilities' outlook on that which we have no control. Business can grow more organically. Tapping into the creativity of employees increases positive customer service (both internal and external customers). Each person can see more easily who they are, how they fit and what difference they make. It becomes easier to play a greater role in serving a greater good, partner with the community, and be more profitable.
What practices and mindsets do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?
Leilani: When organizations require unlimited hours and energy to be an employee, work-life balance is not maintained, effective communication is eroded and participation in the larger whole, can decrease. We put our heads down, do our work and don't come up for air until we complete OUR piece of the pie. It becomes more essential to get one's part completed than it is to connect with others around intention of what we are doing, what works best when trying to get things done under pressure and sharing what you/we are learning.
Self care is essential. Rather than ignore or put off until later, pay attention to the signals your body gives you regarding stress and rest. Keep in touch with what is emerging, so you are not blind-sighted by external change. Imagine "What if…" and look at alternatives, upside-down scenarios to keep things fresh and alive. A business can also pay attention to and openly acknowledge signs of stress and lack of productivity. This could prevent mistakes, accidents, waste and a climate of discouragement or unnecessary conflict.
What is one approach people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?
Leilani: "Pay Attention to Signals"
Divide into 4 teams or if alone, divide your paper into 4 squares.
1. Ask: What signals (unexpected events) have we seen in the outside world in the last month? Examples: hurricanes, stock market crash, consensus in the European Union.
2. What signals have we seen in our customers, clients, patrons? Examples: more people unsubscribing to our lists, customers downgrading, customers sharing information about how well they like our company.
3. What signals have we seen from internal relationships between depts./business units? Examples: less information sharing, stealing each others employees, collectively problem solving has gone up.
4. What signals have you seen within yourselves? Examples: more feelings of frustrations, 80 hours a week feels normal, I keep stubbing my same toe on the desk, I meditated every day this week.
Let your mind wander as you see what messages come up, as you reflect on these signals. What's might be behind the signals? Brainstorm potential meanings for the signals. Find at least one positive outcome from the signals, as well as, one action to start, stop or continue doing. Ask: What might be the meaning of these events, signs or signals for me/us?
Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?
Leilani: Authenticity, boldness, transparency, engagement, appreciation of the uniqueness each person and each part of the system brings. When a leader tunes his/her instrument first and ensures that each instrument in the orchestra is tuned, harmony is created and people are drawn to see and hear what the organization has to offer. The least amount of effort for the most reward and gain is present.
Leilani will be presenting a whole-brain breakout session at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com
http://www.creativity-conference.com
Come learn, think, create and engage with applied-creativity thought leaders, pioneering entrepreneurs and business innovators from around the country - in the fields of creativity and innovation, organizational change, social media, and transformational leadership - for a full-day event focused on:
* Harnessing and focusing individual, group and organizational creativity
* Organizational structures/business models conducive for creativity & innovation
* The integration of creativity, purpose, business and serving the greater good
* Bringing your whole brain - and whole self - to work
This new breed of business conference conference is about going beyond talk-only into exeperiential immersion - immersing you into the experience of creative process and your own creativity. The content is is designed to be informative, intelligent and practical. It will expand your knowledge and understanding. The experiences are designed to be rich and revelatory. They will expand your self.
New ideas, new innovations, new systems and new structures depend on accessing new levels of creativity. At this event, we will explore different facets of creativity as the key driver in navigating and thriving in the new work paradigm.
Come engage your whole brain with practices such as applied storytelling, improvisation, visual thinking, creative inquiry and dialogue, movement and embodiment along with innovative business models and approaches you can apply right away to your work or business.
Conference: 9:00-5:30 Festival: 5:30-7:30
CONFERENCE: - Lively, Content-rich, Experiential Break-out Sessions each with a different focus related to the theme of Applied Creativity in Business - Engaging Thought Leader Panels explore the creativity-centered work paradigm through the lens' of leadership, social media and creative thinking. There are no keynoters - just thinkers, leaders and facilitators in service of YOUR creativity and your business.
IMAGINATION FESTIVAL: Improvisation, Live Music, Connectworking, Book Signings, Give-Aways and tasty hors d'oeuvres.
REGISTRATION: Earlybird discount through Friday, September 16, 2011. Seating is limited - early registration is recommended. http://www.creativity-conference.com
Hope you can join us! :-)
Interview #28 in the Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is
with Kat Kopett, founder of Koppett + Company, (www.koppett.com) a training and consulting company specializing in the use of theatre and storytelling techniques for individual and organizational performance, and the Co-Director of The Mop & Bucket Company, an improvisational theatre company and school.
Her book on how to use improvisational theatre techniques for organizational development, Training to Imagine: Practical Improvisational Theatre Techniques to Enhance Creativity, Teamwork, Leadership and Learning, is used by trainers, teachers and organizational leaders around the world, and will be released in a revised edition by Stylus Publishing this Fall. Kat has designed and delivered training for Chanel, Pepsi, Kaiser-Permanente, NYSID, Glens Falls Hospital, JPMorgan Chase, Eli Lilly, and The Farm Bureau among others in places such as India, Brazil, Paris and Oklahoma. TheatreWeek Magazine named Kat one of the year’s “Unsung Heroes” for her creation of the completely improvised musical format, “Spontaneous Broadway” which is now performed from New York to California to Australia. She will also be chairing the 2nd Annual TEDxAbany conference in November.
How does your work relate to creativity?
Kat: Improvisers make stuff up, collaboratively, on-the-spot, with no script or pre-planning, in front of paying audiences demanding to be entertained, often based on that audience's suggestions. We must take our ideas and passions and intentions and marry them with whatever is happening in the moment to produce work that delights our customers and ourselves. In order to accomplish this rather daunting task, improvisers have developed principles and techniques to guide them. And those approaches seem to apply in helpful ways to any situation in which people are working collaboratively (or individually, actually) to build something.
What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?
Kat: There is no longer such a thing as job "security". Whereas there may have been a time when a person could reasonably think to choose between the chaos and risk of life as an entrepreneur (or in the arts) and the steady safety of a job in a "solid" profession, now everyone lives the life of an entrepreneur. Most people will have many jobs. We must all manage our own career paths and financial well-being with less obvious, traditional trajectories to follow. And work is not just an at-the-office, 9-5 endeavor for most of us any more. The marketplace is global, the work-cycle a 24-hour one, personal and professional lives merge, and your colleagues and friends are as likely to live on the next continent as the next block. Work is much more individual, much more intertwined, and much more unpredictable than in the past.
What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?
Kat: The rules are changing all the time. Although planning remains imperative, most plans are useless, and all of us must be flexible and creative and autonomous and skilled at surfing change. Although there remain unprecedented opportunities and comforts for many of us, times are scary in all sorts of ways. Economically, environmentally, socially. It will take our best selves to develop new ways of interacting with each other to transcend the violence and mistrusts and that continue to plague us. It will take our most creative approaches to develop sustainable practices and keep the global community (and the globe) healthy and thriving. The old ways are failing us, and the stakes are as high as they have ever been. To paraphrase Daniel Pink, the future will belong to those who can flex, adapt, empathize, tell stories, and create.
What mindsets and behaviors do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?
Kat: The most fundamental improv principle is the "yes, and" rule which says, an improviser must accept and build with what her partner offers. (An offer, in improv parlance, is a technical term that means ANYTHING - an idea, an emotion, a gesture, an attribution - that is created in the scene.) Significantly, "accept" does not mean "agree". We do not have to like the offers. They may not be at all what we are expecting or want. But we are obligated to use them, simply because they exist. On stage that means we accept the co-created reality. For example, if my partner says, "Hi, Honey, I'm home!" then I accept that he has a honey and this is his home.
In real life, accepting offers may mean that I accept that my partner has a different experience of an interaction, or that there is an imposed deadline for a project, or that climate change is happening, or that there is an increasing disparity between the rich and poor in the U.S. I may not like it, but it exists, so I must deal with it. Once I accept the offers that are, then I can move on to the "and" part, which says, I will seek to create with what is already there. Too often we waste time and energy "yes, but-ing" - arguing with or blocking the offers that we don't like, or don't see. When we "yes, and" we are able to build with whatever has come before. Want to get better at "yes, anding"? Start by shifting your internal question when faced with something unexpected or unattractive from "Will I accept and build with this?" to "HOW can I use or build with this?"
What is one practice people can start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?
Kat: Most people respond to the "yes, and" principle above when it is presented. And yet most people also acknowledge that they and those around them tend to "yes, but" more than they "yes, and". There are a number of reasons for this ranging from acquired habits to cultural norms and reward structures. Of course, sometimes "no" is appropriate, courageous, creative and useful. But often we block in ways that are habitual or fear-based rather than productive.
Keith Johnstone, improv guru and author of "Impro", sums it up this way, “There are people who prefer to say ‘Yes’, and there are people who prefer to say ‘No’. Those who say ‘Yes’ are rewarded by the adventures they have. Those who say ‘No’ are rewarded by the safety they attain.” In order to encourage positive risk-taking and developmental culture in which "yes, and" is practiced, we and our clients use the "Circus Bow".
The Circus Bow:
Step 1: Put your hands over your head.
Step 2: Say, "I failed!" or "I made a mistake" or "I feel silly!"
Step 3: Take a big celebratory bow and accept wild applause from your colleagues.
The circus bow is, of course, borrowed from the circus. When the start arielist misses the quadruple back-flip, he does not slink off muttering that he should have stuck to the triple that he was certain to succeed at. He celebrates the courage and achievement mindset necessary to have stretched himself and tried something new and adventurous. It is only in environments where failure is not only tolerated, but celebrated in this way, that creativity and innovation can truly thrive. (This, by the way, is an idea which is being rediscovered and heralded in business publications right now. Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, TED and others have had great articles and discussions on just this topic in the last few months.)
Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?
Kat: The Artistic Director of Freestyle Repertory Theatre, Laura Livingston, once told me that she felt her job was to create the jungle gym so that her improvisers could swing on in. By providing solid structure - clear objectives, rules of engagement, resources, time, functional and delightful spaces - leaders can provide environments in which creativity can grow and thrive. Often that means doing the boring, inside-the-box, behind-the-scenes scut work that gets very little recognition or conscious appreciation. Kinda like being a good parent, I suppose. In short, creative leaders model what they want to encourage, provide stimulating environments in which it is safe to experiment and grow, and get out of the way.
Kat will be presenting an improv and story-based breakout session at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com
Today I was thinking about how my relationship with marketing has transformed completely over the past few years, and have noticed a similar shift in many passion-centered clients, colleagues and collaborators. It used to be the dreaded "necessary evil" of running a business...and now it is an enthusiastic sharing (in moderation, and with conscious respect for others). The shift had to do with learning to engage, trust and truly value my calling, and letting go of the old baggage I had associated with marketing.
As an entrepreneur, when your deepest aliveness - your soul's call combined with your unique creativity in the world - informs your business and you believe in and value it with your whole heart, marketing shifts from being the excrutiating "have-to" into sharing something really alive and valuable. You feel and know you are in service of something meaningful and greater than yourself. Financial energy integrates with creative energy and service energy. Aliveness, meaning, creativity and income-generation come together.
Marketing, then - within the context awareness and honoring - becomes an enthusiastic sharing of this aliveness so that others can join in, participate, and add their creativity, passion and meaning to the mix. It becomes part of a larger evolving process - simultaneously generative for self, others and the whole. The old static "What's in it for me?" becomes a dynamic "What's in it for we?!" It is not a means to an end, but an ongoing process of serving something larger than oneself.
Interview #27 in our Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Corey Michael Blake. Corey has been communicating creatively for over 15 years, first as the face and voice behind a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 brands as a commercial and voiceover actor, then as a film producer and director, as an author and publisher, and now as the founder and President of Round Table Companies, packaging and publishing business and memoir titles by new and bestselling authors, such as Chris Anderson (Wired Editor), Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO) and Marshall Goldsmith, among others, to deliver their best-selling books as graphic novels.
Corey’s work has won Addy, Belding, Bronze Lion and London International Advertising awards and has been covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Wired Magazine, Barron’s, Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Fox News, Bloomberg TV, and Investor’s Business Daily and my writing has been published in Writer Magazine, Script Magazine and on StartUp Nation.
How does your work relate to creativity?
Corey: My company and my staff share people's stories for a living. We do so with the written word and also with the graphic novel format. We're actually the first company to publish an entire series of illustrated business books based on the work of best-selling authors, so we're steeped in creativity both in the actualization of our material and also in the process we use to bring our client's visions to life. As a past actor and filmmaker in Hollywood, I brought over the collaborative filmmaking process to book writing and publishing. So instead of forcing authors to hole up in a cave for 6 months writing their book, we surround them with an entire team of creatives that bring their message or mission to life in an experiential product. Creativity is easily one of the most emphasized core values of our team.
What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?
Corey: I'm seeing a massive shift in how intellectual property is monetized. Book sales have been greatly impacted by the information revolution taking place and everyone is struggling to figure out how to drive enough revenue to continue to exist. So smart business people are focusing on using intellectual property, such as books, to grow their platform, to build a real community and then they leverage their exposure to drive sales of services, merchandise, workshops, etc. The power of community is becoming so explosive that folks who get in the game thinking that book sales are the end result are completely missing the boat and often disappointed with the results.
What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?
Corey: Creativity and innovation are the keys to standing out for a brand and growing platform. You can have great information to deliver, but if you're not being creative with your delivery mechanism, it's too easy to get lost. Creativity generates a legitimate emotional response, which is the catalyst for the word of mouth marketing that supports a growing platform and expands community. In the book world, publishers are actually being forced to be less creative due to budget constraints. That means less time for authors, less time for relationships, less time for the breath that is necessary to create the kind of products that stand out and demand attention. The IP industry as a whole has an opportunity to release the old paradigm and start thinking differently about the end goals and the impact creativity can have on reaching those goals.
What do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?
Corey: Certainly, doing great work is still the greatest piece of word of mouth marketing anyone can do for their brand. But you also have to understand how to share the story behind your business, your motivation, your passion and your ability to generate results. Storytelling reaches people emotionally and in this Twitter and Facebook society, you have to reach people at the gut level if you expect them to pay attention.
What is one approach people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or business organization?
Corey: You attract what you're intentional about and what you put out into the world. If you want to attract more creativity, make it a core value and infuse it into your culture. A great way to start the conversation would be to use the following simple survey to generate conversation within your company around the topic of creativity and more specifically the conversation around sharing the real story behind your business:
1. Describe how our customers "experience" our business. How do they feel each step of the way? What inspires them? Where in our process do they tend to get more aggravated? Where in our process or the buying experience do they feel the most joy?
2. When we sell our company, what is the experience we're selling (not the product or service)?
3. How does our business change lives or make life easier or better for people?
4. What gets people most excited about talking about our company?
5. What gets you out of bed to serve our clients?
6. What change within our business would inspire you?
7. What about our existing business impresses you most?
Once you've completed this survey and an internal dialogue about the responses, see where you can use elements from this exercise within your marketing and sales language as well as your internal documents (company handbook, HR docs, etc).
Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?
Corey: Creative leadership is culture based. It focuses on serving employees so they can serve customers. It focuses on collaboration and communication. If focuses on trailblazing new pathways and not being limited by conventional thought. Creative leadership focuses on growth as a result of transparency, connection, service, and joy.
Corey will be presenting a lively breakout session at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com
Interview #26 in our Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is
with Seattle based author and consultant, Peggy Holman, who works with social technologies that engage "whole systems" of people from organizations and communities in creating their own future. She consults on strategies for enabling diverse groups to face complex issues by turning presentation into conversation and passivity into participation. In the second edition of The Change Handbook, she joins with her co-authors to profile sixty-one change processes.
Winner of the 2011 gold Nautilus Award for conscious business/leadership, her latest book, Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity dives beneath these change methods to share stories that make visible deeper patterns, principles, and practices for change that can guide us through turbulent times. Since 1996, she has worked with a range of organizations, including Microsoft, Biogen Idec, Novartis, Boeing, and the Gates Foundation. You can find her at www.peggyholman.com.
How does your work relate to creativity?
PH: Much of my work is reminding people of their innate ability to engage with disruption and difference to achieve great outcomes. At the heart of their success is creative engagement - connecting
with ideas, each other, the whole system, even themselves.
When disturbed, most of us would rather hunker down someplace safe. This attitude kills creativity. Negativity and despair are all around. When you hear them, it’s a great opportunity to creatively engage. Ask a question of possibility. Take a stand for connection in a time of separation.
What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?
PH: I see a shift underway from hierarchies to networks. The implications for what leadership looks like are profound. Not only can it come from anywhere, but if you consider the dynamics of networks, what constitutes leadership varies more.
Think about the difference between pack animals, with alpha leaders keeping others in line versus birds, ants, bees, or other animals that seem to function with no one in charge. In hierarchies, a few people make strategic decisions for everyone else. Increasing complexity – a more diverse public, greater access to a broader range of perspectives, technological innovations affecting scale and scope of just about everything – makes this strategy less effective. No longer can a few people with relatively similar backgrounds and perspectives make the best choices for the rest of us
In contrast, leadership in networks is collective and relational, as people form hubs and link with others. From the outside, hubs in a network look a lot like hierarchical organizations: groups of people organized to accomplish something together. That makes it easy to confuse leadership of a hub with hierarchical leadership, thinking the same rules apply. Not! Giving orders, chain of command, top-down decision making doesn’t function when people can choose whether to participate.
Hubs form because people are attracted to them. Hubs grow when people are drawn to the purpose and/or the people and believe that they can both give and/or receive something of value. The remarkable communities that maintain the Wikipedia or fill the Open Source software movement are examples of networks producing real-world benefit.
More elusive is “link leadership”— connecting people, organizations, and ideas. Why is connecting people or organizations a form of leadership? If you want breakthroughs, interactions among those who don’t usually meet is an essential ingredient. And when hubs connect to hubs, ideas can spread like wildfire.
What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?
PH: I think networked organizations are inherently creative, not to mention more responsive, resilient, and fun. Since leadership can come from anywhere, the possibilities are endless.
What skills, mindsets and behaviors do you see as most essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?
PH: A core skill that makes networks powerful is taking responsibility for what you love as an act of service. That’s a mouthful, so let me unpack it a bit.
This game-changing way of operating liberates hearts, minds, and spirits. It calls us to pay attention to what matters most, putting our unique gifts to use. You see, many of us live with an unspoken belief that to belong, we must conform. If we each pursued what we love, it sounds like a recipe for chaos. What a loss! Not only is more of the same the outcome, but by keeping our feelings and ideas bottled up, we become more isolated and the group’s creative potential is diminished.
In contrast, networks thrive when we contribute our unique gifts. Since what binds a network together is shared purpose, by pursuing what I love, my distinctiveness rubs up against other’s differences and suddenly we’re playing jazz. Everyone’s part is different and it matters. Not only do I belong, but I do it by being the best me I can be.
What is one practice that people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business
organization?
If I were to pick on practice that is simple to apply and powerful in its affect, I’d say: welcome disturbance by asking questions of possibility. Creativity often shows up in a cloak of disruption. It makes sense when you stop and think about it. If there were no disruption, there’d be no reason for change. And change opens the door to creativity.
Great questions help us to find possibilities in any situation, no matter how challenging. Here are some of their characteristics:
• They open us to possibilities.
• They are bold yet focused.
• They are attractive: diverse people can find themselves in them.
• They appeal to our head and our heart.
• They serve the individual and the collective.
Some examples:
• What question, if answered, would make a difference in this situation?
• What can we do together that none of us could do alone?
• What could this team also be?
• What is most important in this moment?
• Given what has happened, what is possible now?
Some tips for asking possibility-oriented questions:
1. ASK QUESTIONS THAT INCREASE CLARITY. Positive images move us toward positive actions. Questions that help us to envision what we want help us to realize it.
2. PRACTICE TURNING DEFICIT INTO POSSIBILITY. In most ordinary conversations, people focus on what they can’t do, what the problems are, what isn’t possible. Such conversations provide an endless source for practicing the art of the question. When someone says, “The problem is x,” ask, “What would it look like if it were working?” If someone says, “I can’t do that,” ask, “What would you like to do?”
3. RECRUIT OTHERS TO PRACTICE WITH YOU. You can have more fun and help each other grow into the habit of asking possibility-oriented questions. But watch out: it can be contagious. You might attract a crowd.
Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?
PH: Creative leadership is engaged, curious, open, focused, and bold. Boldness inspires us to rise to the occasion. Focus points the way. Curiosity sparks exploration and pioneering. And engagement brings the diversity of others.
Asking possibility-oriented questions as one means of exercising creative leadership. So the next time you face a complex issue or disruptive situation, ask a great question. Then jump in with others to discover a creative response.
Peggy will be a panelist at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on Ocotber 23, 2011. Come engage emergence with Peggy in person!
I'm looking forward to leading a sesison on Nonverbal Creativity for Sensing and Sense-Making at the Project Renaissnace Learning & Creativity Doublefest today (my 13th year in a row presenting there). If you are in the DC area, it's not too late to join this small conference for a day. I love this unconventional event - every year Win Wenger (founder of P.R. and author of The Einstein Factor and 39 other prolific creative thinking/mnd/brain/intelligence books) attracts a fascinating, diverse mix of participants and presenters from around the world to his event. It is so different each time, and I always come back feeling expanded. I know it's late notice (just thought about it), but if you are around today, come join me for:
Nonverbal Creativity for Sensing and Sense-Making
Where the wisdom of the "silent retreat" meets whole-brain creativity in a collective group field
This lively and fun session is about actively engaging whole-brain, sensory creative process in real time, going beyond what you consciously "know" and stepping into more of your Creative Self. It is about expanding the playing field beyond habitual ways of thinking and being into energized presence and deepened embodiment and bringing back new insights and discoveries for sense-making.
Creativity flourishes by engaging the non-habitual. By not using words, you access different parts of your brain and present-moment awareness. Your other senses becomes heightened. By doing this with a group, a collective co-creative field is developed. You have access to the creativity not only in your self, but also that in the "group field" where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The results are the emergence of new perspectives, perceptions and experiences; easier access to the "creative flow" state; and an increased number of "ahas" and novel connections.
In this session, we will use the silence as a creative resource, along with a variety of focused creative practices from the worlds of story, improv, movement and creative thinking. Leave with an expanded concept of Self; practices you can use at home for increased awareness and sense-making; ability to see situations from a novel perspective; increased presence and in-the-moment awareness. And have fun doing it!
Day's full schedule is here and registration is here
Business cliches - words used often, habitually, and often
unconsiously - inhibit the creative process. Getting under the word into meaning and story liberates it. Just ask any work team that says they want to be more "innovative" what that actually means, and you find so many different perspectives. When you get under the word "innovation" and into what really matters, and the context and stories behind it, that is when you can start getting creative.
I find that if you say, "What if you are not allowed to say the word Innovation, then what are you saying?" it opens up a whole different level of dialogue about what really matters - what is real, not the cliche word. And sometimes it is not really anything to do with innovation at all. Then you then have a solid foundation, not a cliche, from which to really create something new.
A recent client had been saying "innovation" becuase that was in their mission statement. When we went underneath the word, a new story emerged...what they really wanted/needed first was a culture where everyone felt like they had something to contribute. Out of that came a new way of interacting a new story, and co-creating together as a team...and then "innovation" had a solid foundation from which to be engaged. Their newly agreed-upon definition of what innovation looked like for their group fit who THEY were within the larger mission, not some abstract random concept each had initially carried into the process.
The following are some of the books (both the classics
and some newer ones) that have informed, inspired and/or resonated with me along my journey over the years. I've chosen each based on philosophy, context, concepts, principles, practices, or applicability. Some are more reflective and other more active. Since most would fit into more than one catagory it felt too reductive to break them down that way. I'm just listing them in no particular order for you to explore whichever calls to you.
I am stopping at 77 becuase I like that number, and...have to put a cap on this post. There are lots of other really fantastic ones to add another time. Next time I'll specifcially focus on some of the awesome Creativity in Business books I've read (there are a few on this list).
Invocation, evocation, and provocation share the suffix voke, which means "to call."
Evoke - to call out, call forth, elicit, awaken, call forth, excite, bring to conscious mind, bring into being, brainstorm, bring about, generate, give rise to, originate, sow the seeds, dream up, make, produce
Provoke - stir up, arouse, incite, cause, make waves, stimulate, start, fire up, enthuse, lead to, motivate, instigate, pique, thrill, promote, challenge, kindle, electrify, bring on, induce, inspire
Invoke - to call upon, appeal to, conjure, call from within, call on inspiration/something larger, entreat, implore, summon, pray, solicit, urge, implement, bring forward, appeal to, quest for.
(Definitions are compiled from several online dictionaries and thesaurus's)
While the distinctions are subtle and not clear cut, I see each as an essential part of cultivating your unique calling - the place where your creativity and aliveness meet the needs of the world:
I was going through a Creative Thinking workbook I created a few years ago and I found this chart I had developed as part of a corporate Team Creativity and Organizational Development program I led in 2006. It integrates the MBTI (http://bit.ly/hU5lqY) and Keirsey Temperaments (http://bit.ly/eeGXW5) with creative process. The definitions are generalized, intended to acknowledge, value and use creative style diversity in group creative process (not to limit it by labeling). I thought I would share it here since I hadn't posted it then, and it still has relevance.
By valuing and using the different creative styles, a co-creative team expands their creativity field. The whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts when we wlecome in and "yes-and" the creative-style gifts of other team members. If we reject them, we maintain. If we accept them, allow space for them, and consciously use them, we create.
Creators, Explorers, Adventurers, Meaning Makers, Innovators, Leaders, Visionaries, Entrpreneurs and all around Good People:
In 2009 we put on a sold-out Creativity in Business Conference here in Washington, DC. It was an awesome event and we are thrilled to be producing a second conference this coming October 23! Mark your calendars! This conference promises to again be content-rich and highly experiential.
We will be posting an RFP (Request for Proposals) for those of you who want to present on the conference website by March 11 - all presenters must complete an RFP. Be sure to check the website on or after March 11.
In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you about what would make THIS years conference especially alive, relevant, meaningful and worthwhile for you - related to the theme of creativity in business/in the workplace and navigating the new paradigm of work (one where creativity, inspiration, the business bottom line and serving the greater good converge).
We've created a short survey to help us better serve you. Your thoughts will play a role in informing choices of experiential presentations and panel discussions, helping us address reoccurring themes and patterns that are important to you. The sooner the better as your ideas may also inform the questions on our RFP - big thanks! :-)
Survey Questions
Directions: Please cut and paste the questions into your email message box and send to conference administrator Tya Bolton at tya@exceptionalbizsolutions.com
1. This conference would be most valuable and worthwhile if _____________________
2. I would like to leave the conference with____________________________________
3. I am most interested in: Check up to 10, and feel free to add anything.
creative thinking/whole-brain techniques___ applied improvisation___
applied storytelling___ facilitating creativity___ embodiment/movement___
visual thinking/imagery___ innovation___ emergence___
activating my imagination___ brainstorming and ideation___ play___
passion and inspiration___ creative aliveness___ breakthroughs___
creative process models/approaches___ theories/philosophies___
research___ case studies___ stories___ tools I can use in my business/at work___
co-creation___ personal creativity___ creative leadership___
creativity and entrepreneurship___ creative work cultures/environments___
creativity in work teams___ creativity in organizations___
creativity and social media___ new paradigm of work___
creating services or products___ creativity for marketing___
creativity for branding___ for business development___
discovering/telling my story___ nonverbal creativity___
creativity mindsets___ creativity and awareness/consciousness___
creative futures thinking/scenario planning___ creativity across cultures___
developing creativity competencies (ie, resilience, flexibility, etc) such as ___________
having fun___ practical applications___ making generative connections___
other(s)___ do tell: ______________________________________________________
Conference website: www.creativity-conference.com
Thank you so much for your time. I hope to to see you in October, if not sooner!
I have create a new summer program - a week-long immersion into the Creative Self:
Creativity for your Calling: Engaging Your Aliveness
Do you feel you have a calling - a purpose - but are not quite sure what it is? Do you yearn to connect with and express that juicy creative wellspring you know is in you? Do you desire to move beyond the voices of fear, resistance and judgment into the voices of aliveness, meaning and passion? And do you want to have fun doing it? Then come play with us as you become more of YOU!
Your calling is unique to you and you are the only one who can bring it out into the world. A purpose, a path, an invitation, vocation, contribution, passion and/or a business, it’s your most significant "mission" in life - the call you know is deep inside of yourself just waiting to be expressed out into the world. It can be challenging to clearly hear that inner voice in the midst of everyday distractions. The good news is that your Creative Self knows how to carry it out
In this fun, soulful and wildly creative program, you will use your whole-brain and your body to answer the call. You will immerse yourself in arts-based activities, improvisation, body-centered practices, storytelling, intuitive reflection tools and other forms of creative process to hear your calling, draw it forth, and discover ways of making it real in the world. You already have your unique “signature” set of gifts, skills, experiences, and talents. This retreat will give you the chance to indulge and cultivate them. This program contains a balance reflection and action, receptivity and generativity, heart and mind; body and soul; and lighthearted play and diving deep.
By combining your unique creativity with focused intention you can:
• access and use your rich inner guidance
• awaken deep layers of your creative potential
• understand your big picture patterns and archetypal drives
• discover delicious new possibilities and directions
• connect with your "creative source" to move toward inspired expressions
and outcomes
• channel anxiety and overwhelm into productive creativity
• feel more engaged and alive in your every day life
You are vaster and more creative than you can imagine. This program is designed to have you experience the full-on aliveness of your Creative Self as you unfold, shape and form your distinctive “Calling Card” - an Action and Reflection Plan to continue the journey beyond the retreat setting. You’ll also leave with approaches you can practice at home, and ways of navigating the resistances that can show up. Creativity materials provided - just bring an open mind and heart!
Check my the Workshop page on my website for the next one
A day of one's, 1-11-11 seemed like an appropriate time to talk about new beginnings! In the spirit of new beginnings and creating what's next, I thought I would share a few (of many) ways to engage creative aliveness as we shift into 2011.
9 Practices for Cultivating Creative Aliveness
The following practices are not necessarily in a linear order, and you might go back and forth between them. It's not as much about a sequence as it is about engaging and responding in the moment: sometimes listening receptively; others times creating it out actively. By intentionally and consciously setting the "container" with the first three practices, you can be more present to adapting to the rest. Our right brain, by its non-linear nature, isn't one to follow our pre-set linear path...that's the domain of left brain. Any whole-brain creative process includes both linear and non-linear engagement. The right brain also loves to imagine and create new practices as we follow any existing method or approach. If you have an impulse along those lines, go for it. I experience all the time with my clients - as we get deeper into an emergence process, not only do new ideas and directions emerge, but new approaches for cultivating and discovering them emerge in the moment. There is an improvisational quality to each creative emergence - what keeps it so juicy and alive!
1. Clearing. Give yourself space, time and attention. Consciously set aside some non-distracted time and attention. Like any healthy relationship you have, or creative project you engage, your Creative Self needs quality time to thrive. Make your creative self your most important client - even if that means setting official "creative self time" on your calendar. Just like (hopefully) you wouldn't answer an email or tweet when with a client, give your creative self the same focused attention - it needs that to be seen, heard and known to be more active and reveal its riches.
2. Centering. Get centered. During your designated emergence time, getting centered allows you to be more present to what is calling to emerge within you. It is about having an intentionality, a clarity of focus and a presence, to be able to begin to hear and connect with deeper aspects of your creative self. Do this is whatever way feels comfortable...whether you do this via visualization, meditation, affirmation, embodiment, or however else you get centered. It can be any small ritual that serves as a pattern break out of your normal everyday consciousness and centers you. I do this with my clients at the onset every coaching session, and the rituals we use vary based on who they are. Find what works for you. This is your "sacred" time.
3. Asking. Ask yourself what is most alive for you NOW. It's not about the entirety of your vision and all that you can imagine - just what feels most alive within you now. Listening to what's alive now is like picking the lowest-hanging, ripest fruit from your tree of potential - it does 
have to be the complete vision. I often ask, "What's calling to emerge for me now?" which helps take it out of future potential (all that can be) and into the realm of the immediately actionable (what is now and next).
"Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~ Howard Thurman
4. Holding. Release the need for an immediate answer...or a familiar one. Hold the question before rushing to an answer or "the" answer. Instead of writing down a list with the same thoughts that you always carry in your left-brain, try engaging your whole brain first. The right brain processes much more quickly than the left brain - and is not inhibited by habitual thinking. Let your left-brain take a mini-vacay. Emergence needs so breathing room before being analyzed, evlauted and figured out. It is not about rushing into sense making. Indulge non-sense-making for a while.
5. Listening. Listen with your whole self, and whole brain. not just the left brain language. Pay attention to images, feelings, thoughts, ideas, surprises, seeming disconnects that come out of nowhere, impulses that emerge. Pay attention to how it feels in your body. What feels most alive? What energizes you? Do not wait for it to make complete sense before you validate it (more passions are not realized because they are judged as ridiculous before they have a chance to evolve. A new emergence, like any new birth, can be messy when being born. Listen for incomplete and partial directions, not entirely clear and sensible answers. In a creative process they usually unfold through cultivation.
6. Cultivating. Use whole-brain creative processes - draw it, paint it, move with it, embody it, act it out, etc - to break habitual thinking patterns, open up the creative aliveness wellspring, and draw forth its insights and wisdom. It's not about the entirety of your vision and all that you can imagine - it is about what is calling to emerge from within you now. By creatively cultivating it out, you access far deeper levels of information and insights about it than just by thinking about it alone. Use both left-brain linear practices with right-brain practices and whole-brain storytelling. Every emergence is a multi-dimensional story that fits into the context of who you are and expresses what's unfolding.
"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." ~ Thomas Merton
7. Tending. Also pay attention to images, feelings, thoughts, ideas, impulses that emerge as you go about your days, outside of your "sacred" time. Record them. Ask the question to your creati
ve source a lot, not just once. Let it marinate. As Rainer Maria Rilke said, "Live the question." Deepen into it over time. Notice the patterns that emerge, the key themes. As we engage the process of cultivating what's most alive for us now and in the near future, then the next level of the vision will emerge - like a rose which unfolds in layers, revealing one layer at a time. That's how an emergence works. Many dreams remain idle because there's too big of a gap between all that can be in that vision, and what is simply next - and we can feel overwhelmed, or judge ourselves if not "on track" - and then we can shut down. By working with what is next day by day, the bigger vision becomes more and more clear over time...and accessible. Instead of a target to be hit, creative aliveness is more of a garden to be cultivated...and shaped into something tangible.
8. Creating. Once you have more clarity - you have diverged out and expanded the creative "playing field" of new, emergent gifts - then look at how to structure that aliveness into you work and life. The key, though, is to not skip over the cultivating and go right to the creating-it part as so many strategic plans have us do. With that approach you can get an action plan, strategy, or goal that is attainable...but may not give you the passion-infused life energy to see it through. The conventional way to stay motivated is through will and perseverance. This is still valuable for those times you do not feel like doing it. To YES-AND that...I believe, and have seen this consistantly over the past 14 years of coaching passion-centered entrepreneurs, that once you have connected to your purposeful aliveness, it is the greatest motivator there is. Motivation is then embedded in the goal itself, and not just something we need to use to achieve it. It's there within us to carry us forth even when we do not feel the energy of it.
9. Adapting. Let the vision be mutable and change over time. Balance planning with emergence. Have goals and hold them focused enough to guide the process AND loosely enough for new information, insights, and awareness' in the moment can shift them into something more alive (and often unexpected) - something that you would not have known until you are in the midst of your process. Some goals shift. Some are released entirely. And some new ones show up along the way. By keeping the long term directed and flexible both, and focusing on what's next, you have room to move, respond, adapt within the goals, making them more accessible...and energized. I heard a great term by Holacracy founder Brian Robertson that resonated with me for this concept: dynamic steering.
There is an improv principle: "Be changed by what is said or what happens" that I find also applies to cultivating passion-infused creativity. In engaging your creative self at deeper levels, you tend to grow and change as a person and meet up with the parts of ourselves that held back our creative flow. As we engage our creative aliveness, this often shifts our original goals into something else - often a more expansive version with some unexpected, emergent surprises. The key is not to get stuck when best-laid plans do not look as planned. They are often "evolutionary invitations" in disguise. Creators and pioneers throughout history have made some of their most profound discoveries and contributions via what was not planned en route to what was. Like John Lennon said: "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."
Like an improv scene (which is more what life is like than a formulaic, unwavering, static direction), know that that your visions will probably not play out exactly as planned. It can be influenced by a variety of factors and conditions you can't know ahead of time. It is a living, apdaptive story that will morph and change over time with real-time feedback...and being present to your alive-feeling, creative impulses.
Unseen resources that we do not know when we begin our journey show up along the way as we are engaging the journey. In emergence, the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts, and it often leads us to happenings far more alive, fun and meaningful than what our original vision can possibly give us. Life shows up most vividly in the cracks. Aliveness rewards letting go of over-controls. It's important not to need to know the whole HOW before you begin, just a direction and what is most alive...and an entry point. Be kind to yourself in your not-knowings and have fun!
~ 2011 Michelle James ~ www.creativeemergence.com
Todd Hoskins of Thrivable.net interviewed me
on the dynamic balance of the yin and yang of creativity and emergence in the workplace. You can see this interview and many others on thrivability on their blog: http://bit.ly/fI2mRF
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Todd Hoskins: Michelle, you lead conferences, workshops, and do coaching around facilitating creativity in business. How do those in business organizations, beyond the design team, work towards fostering creativity?
Michelle James: The most effective and meaningful changes I’ve observed have come from both embracing creative practices and also establishing new foundations: generative principles of engagement, expanded mind sets, new frameworks, and entering into a “co-creative partnering” type of relationship with each other, and with the unknown.
For example, weaving improv-based principles as the rules of engagement in meetings can transform both the energy and outcomes. One client transformed their meetings – which were either boring or contained continual battles for whose idea was best – into Discovery Sessions just by setting three of the improv principles as the foundational container for each meeting: yes-and, make everyone look good, and serve the good of the whole. Their once dreaded meetings, where little got done and all felt drained, became lively, co-creative sessions where new and different ideas and applications emerged in the meeting itself by just adhering to new principles of engagement. People began building on each other’s ideas instead of only defending their own.
Another example: an aspiring entrepreneur may have three different passions or business ideas and believes he or she has to choose one. By engaging emergence by conscious pattern breaking, whole-brain and somatic creative techniques, and deep immersion into the question, a new and completely unexpected pattern can emerge that reveals a coherent structure that could not have been predicted before that exploratory deep dive. A new coherent business structure can emerge that contains what is most alive and relevant of the three previous ideas, along with surprising new qualities.
I have seen this so many times with entrepreneurs who are creating a business that doesn’t fit neatly into a current business model, my own business included. One level of thinking’s either/or question becomes the next level of thinking’s both/and solution. It often requires hanging out in “not knowing” for part of the process.
Todd: How is emergence related to creativity? What does it look like when it happens?
Michelle: I’m not sure how to do that question justice in a few sentences without it either being vague or too reductive, and there can be many different answers. After years of working with it, It’s still hard for me to define because I see it as a universal process linked in to how life itself works – and myself as a life-long student of that process. Creativity, for me, is both means to cultivate the emergence – using creativity practices to engage emergence – and the outcome of an emergence. That’s why “creative emergence” resonates with me – the terms are so intimately linked. Creativity generates emergence, and emergence produces creativity – the whole process is an ongoing creative, emergent feedback loop.
A creative, emergent process requires navigating the dynamic balance of listening and choosing; knowledge and discovery; stepping up to create, and letting go to receive – in other words, doing what is yours to do, and letting the self-organization of emergent creativity do its part. Like midwifing any new birth, there is a natural trajectory already happening…and…there are things you can do to help facilitate a healthy birth, and then clean it up and make it accessible to the world.
In groups, you can see this emergence in action in highly functioning improv theater groups, jazz ensembles, sports teams, etc…and in co-creative work teams that have trust at their core. Often the emergence happens after the “efforting” is released. Something takes over that is greater than any individual’s agenda that has an intelligence of its own. The group “field” produces something unexpected that emerges from the interaction of its members – whether it’s comedy line, a piece of music, a new strategy or business, a world changing idea or the next iteration of solution. In a group, emergence has the after-effect of “Look what WE did!” Something new was created that no one could expect, and each person sees how they needed the others in order to become something beyond any single person’s vision or agenda.
Facilitating emergence in an organization is partly about creating the conditions that allow people to contribute more of themselves than just their job description…to bring their unique creativity out in service of the vision, the team and the organization. People buy into what they help create. To bring out the creativity requires leaving the “control” mindset, and trusting in the natural self-organization of the creative process, while also creating boundaries for that creativity to emerge. One paradox of emergence is that flow needs boundaries.
For both individuals and groups, one activity to practice engaging the unknown is to ask the question, hold it without rushing to answer, then get the right brain involved and start drawing it – with NO recognizable pictures or symbols. Just draw the “energy” as you feel it moment by moment – colors, lines and shapes. This can be uncomfortable at first for some people because all the inner voices of judgment and the fear of the unknown can show up – and it is unfamiliar. Allow yourself to not know what it is. Get in the practice of not knowing…and just keep drawing.
With practice, it actually becomes liberating. Research has shown the right brain processes more quickly than the left. And it expresses differently, so working this way can be like learning a new language at first. If you rely only on images you already know, you’re still letting the left-brain dictate the process. After allowing the right brain’s expression, THEN go back and bring in the left brain to try to find meaning through inquiry into the abstract drawing. It’s amazing what patterns and practical, concrete insights emerge just from diverging into the abstract unfamiliar first before converging back into the familiar.
Resistance often show up in the creative process, and it’s temping to turn back to what’s familiar. The act of moving through the discomfort of the contraction of resistance gives more power to the expansion of the new emergence – like the chick’s beak, which gains its strength by having to peck through the resistance of the shell as part of its hatching. The status quo wants to maintain itself; the new birth wants to come forth…and both are essential parts of the dynamic tension within the creative impulse.
Todd: What other tensions and paradoxes are in the process of emergence? How can an organization move from either/or to yes/and, allowing for these tensions?
Michelle: Included would be the dynamic tensions/interaction between divergence and convergence, the yin and yang archetypes, planning and improvising, stillness and activity, reflection and action, logic and intuition, using both what is seen and unseen, directing and unfolding, incubating and birthing. There are many more. The creative emergence process itself is paradoxical – what seems opposed or disconnected at one level emerges into something new at another level. It is learning how to not see these aspects in conflict and to welcome the dynamic tension as a gift of creative process. And, of course, it can still be challenging – and messy – like any new birth while it’s happening. It can feel exciting and energizing at times, and painful and doubt-ridden at others.
Creativity contains both “yes-and,” which is expansion and divergence, as well as “either/or,” which is contraction and convergence. The key is to expand the playing field by diverging (yes-anding) first, before starting to organize and focus on convergence (discerning). I believe organizations need to create space, time, a value system, and set of practices that more explicitly embrace divergence. We need to infuse that into the company culture at every level. The need for exploration without judgment is significant before going into strategizing – it informs new structures. Discernment is necessary in the creative process – we just need to give more time to divergent practices to generate more novelty first before going there.
Todd: With the yin and yang, what have we been missing within culture and organizations?
Michelle: Culturally, we have been out of balance. We have focused mainly on the creative yang archetype: outward-focused, production, efficiency, results; forging ahead, focused, driven, goal oriented. When in balance with the creative yin archetype these can be healthy parts of a larger co-creative whole. But we have left out the yin as “too soft” or even “woo woo” so we have experienced a predominant work culture of the yang out of balance. Without the yin for balance, we experience the shadow side of an out-of-balance work culture: cut throat, uncaring, stressful, back stabbing, lack of work/life balance, fear-based, driven to excess or striving to keep up, trying to impress, lack of feeling safe to explore or take creative risks, binary thinking (success/fail, right/wrong), disconnected, etc. I believe many of our challenges in the workplace stem from our over-emphasis on the creative yang and our de-emphasis, or sometimes complete rejection, of the creative yin instead of integrating them.
Creative organizations need both. The yin is relational and includes incubating, being with, integrating, supporting, and yes-anding. More than just left-brain linear thinking, the yin is about engaging embodiment and somatic wisdom, intuition, right brain, non-linear practices. It is experiential and whole-person. It more than just talk, and more than just action – it is a connection to what is most alive in ourselves; a connection to our stories, our inner voice, our senses, our bodies and our hearts. Actions and interactions that emerge from an integrated connection to the yin archetype look different than the actions we’ve seen come form its absence. The yin and yang archetypal energies need each other for generative, whole-systems, meaning-filled creativity.
This integration is something I have been deeply committed to in my work for a long time. Some years ago I created a program on “Creativity and the Yin/Yang Archetypes” about the integration of both for a more engaged, alive, creative workplace. I found – and still do – it’s easier to facilitate and apply it than to talk about it because it needs our whole brain, not just left brain, to engage it. We’re in a time where more whole-brain practices (improvisation, visual communication and thinking, ritual, storytelling, embodiment, movement, etc.) are being brought into the business world all the time.
We are also seeing more focus on meaning, calling, passion, aliveness, empathy, finding your voice, deep listening and internal motivation. Our metaphorical landscape is expanding to include more yin-centered metaphors. By infusing more yin practices, language and foundational ways of interacting into the yang workplace, it becomes holistically generative. The creative yin and creative yang are deep, archetypal patterns which, working together, allow exponential levels of creativity to emerge.
Todd: You’re producing your second Creativity in Business Conference in October. How does the mode of your conferences, retreats, and workshops reflect the purpose? How does the form follow function?
Michelle: I believe the most dynamic, alive, creative organizations and individuals are those most in dynamic balance with yin and yang creativity. The intention of my work is to have my all my workshops, events, and coaching session reflect that balance of rich content and whole-brain/whole-being experience; mind and heart integration. They all use multiple dimensions of creative process and they are based in life-giving principles of engagement.
At our conferences, we use improv principles as our guidelines of interaction for the day. At our creativity network, presenters commit to doing something new to be on their creative edges. I also constantly create new activities, offerings or programs to keep and me on my own creative and evolving edges. My passion, among other things, is to create structures and conditions to support the balance of learning, wisdom, real-time creativity and emergence that supports aliveness, generative connections and serving the greater good. Part of living that mission is to imagine it, try it, get feedback, and modify. They do not all play out as hoped – some better, some worse – but they all contain seeds of learning and new growth.
The following are just 27 of the many elements I see as part of the old work paradigm out of which we are shifting and the new work paradigm that is emerging - one that creativity-centered, life-giving, and holistically generative (creatively, financially, and in service of the greater good). I thought I would share it here, even without the benefit of the full context, as I continue to work on it (will be putting these - and other principles - into an e-book, with more detailed explanations).
I don't see these lists as as mutually exclusive, but rather as a shift in core values and foundational ways of being that are more expansive, generative and inclusive. I see the emerging paradigm as Yes Anding and containing the old one, and adding a new dimension - expanding the playing field, not denying what was there before. In the words of Ken Wilber, the new level "transcends and includes" what was there before. It is a developmental, emergent process.
For example, originating, adapting, and conforming all play a part in a thriving creative system. The organizing value (the core anchor), though, has been gradually shifting away from conformity - which used to be highly valued and rewarded - to that of originality, uniqueness, expression and having a voice. Within all originality exists some conformity - everything contains and needs its opposite to be in a dynamic balance. Within empassioned, inspired commitment exists obligation - filled with passion and aliveness as the drivers, not empty obligation. I think the real significance between the old and new is (1) in where the core "anchors" and drivers are and (2) that the new contains the old - and more...
There is a difference between
resourced thinking and
sourced thinking:
The former comes from others.
The latter emerges from within.
Creative Thinking engages both.
~ Michelle James 2010
~ Michelle James 2010