The Capitol Creativity Network is one of the sponsors for this exciting creative event this evening:

The Art of Change is an inaugural event created by and for the nation's art communities. We intend to create a unique celebration to mark the beginning of President-elect Barack Obama's administration and the positive changes we believe it will bring to our nation.

To create this event, volunteers have come together from all over Washington, DC's creative communities to collaborate in an event that will meld together art, music, and performance to show the District of Columbia the most original and creative inaugural event ever held.

The Art of Change planning committee is an all-volunteer group of movers and shakers from the Washington, DC creative community. All planning committee members are affiliated with one or more of our sponsor or partner organizations and have put in countless hours of personal time creating this event.

> Artists devoted to exploring the world of human aesthetic to bring us closer to a greater understanding of the world around us, our fellow human beings, and the deepest recesses of the psyche
> Performers adept at coaxing the highest elation and depths of despair from our audiences with the power of word, body, sound, and movement
> Event planners tried and tested in our talents for bringing together group energies and art to move beyond the intentions of individuals to a powerful new collective potential
> A collaborative powerhouse of creative energy devoted to expressing our hopes for the future of America and the entire world in the wake of the most important presidential election in any of our lifetimes through our own unique celebration

Go to artists-ball.org for details.

One of the core principles of improvisational theater is "Yes And" - which means accepting (the YES) whatever is given (called "offers") and adding a new piece of information (the AND). It is the cornerstone of improv, and that which help improvisers keep the creativity going in the face of the unknown - with no plans, scripts or strategies.

When I bring Applied Improv principles and practices to organizations, inevitably someone says, "But what if you really DON'T agree with the idea that is offered? Some ideas are simply not good ideas." A valid case.

There are points I would like to address to that regard: first, the practice of "Yes-Anding" as a creativity technique is used more in the divergence (expanding and generating) part of the creative process. Among a host of other things, yes-anding helps open up the "playing field" for more possibilities and novel connections that otherwise would never have been engaged by the conventional approach of finding out all the reasons an idea will not work. Once you get into the convergence (discerning and focusing) part of the creative process, then you begin to use the "no's" as appropriate to discern what will and will not work based upon the objectives and the parameters of your focus.

The second point is more subtle. It is the difference between accepting the "offer" and agreeing with it. In improv, it does not matter what you personally think about the offer - or the person offering it - you accept it. You may disagree, but you still accept it and add to it. By doing so, you are not saying, "I love your idea!" Instead, you are engaging in the experiment of taking a seed idea and creating forth something new with it. In doing so, more often than not, an entirely unexpected direction will emerge that is better than anyone could have imagined. With clear intention of purpose, a "bad idea" that is accepted and "anded" can transform into a spot-on relevant innovation just a few "ands" later. To an improviser, all offers are gifts.
 
Perhaps more significantly, the art of acceptance is profound when practiced with groups and work teams. Accepting what someone is saying creates a feeling of safety. Once the ground of safety is established, members of the group will allow themselves to take more creative risks, to experiment more, to think more expansively...which leads to more novel and workable ideas. You don't have to agree with someone's point of view to honor that it is theirs. The payoff: you get more flow from the creative well. In a time when innovation is the big buzzword, the practice of accepting - regardless of agreeing - is one more tool for the creative toolbox.

Creative organizations and communities not only play by different rules,
they actually play a different game. One of my favorite books to illustrate this
difference is James P. Carse's book, Finite and Infinite games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. It speaks to the new games - those which cultivate play, improvisation and engaging the unknown...creating as you go. Here are a few nuggets from the book:

A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play...infinite games are unscripted and unpredictable...the rules of an infinite game have a different status than those of a finite game. They are like the grammar of a living language, where as those of a finite game are like the rules of a debate...when we are playful with each other we relate as free persons and the relationship is open to surprise; everything that happens is of consequence...

To be serious is to press for a specific conclusion....to be playful is to allow for possibility...because infinite players allow themselves to be surprised by the future, they play in complete openness. It is not an openness as in candor, but an openness as in vulnerability...

To be prepared against surprise is to be trained...to be prepared for surprise is to be educated...training repeats a complete past in the future...education continues an unfinished past in the future...

Culture is an infinite game...a culture understands its past not as destiny, but as history, a narrative that has begun but points toward the endlessly open...

Finite players play within boundaries...infinite players play with boundaries...the rules of a finite game may not change in the course of play...the rules of an infinite game must change in the course of play...

Infinite play is inherently paradoxical, just as finite play is inherently contradictory...the paradox of infinite play is that the players desire to continue the play in others...

Psychology Today featured an excerpt of an article written by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (who popularized the term "Flow" in is books which include Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention among others). To build on Flow Theory, Csikszentmihalyi  interviewed 91 people, eminent in their respective fields, each of whom engaged in "flow" in an ongoing basis while contributing to the betterment of society. He found certain traits common to all that he called the Creative Personality. The following article summarizes his finding. I have copied only parts of it below - for the complete article, click here.

The Creative Personality
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living...Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity...When we're creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life...what makes their personalities different from others...complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."

Here are the 10 antithetical traits often present in creative people that are integrated with each other in a dialectical tension.

1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest. They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm...This does not mean that creative people are always "on"...When necessary, they can focus it like a laser beam; when not, creative types immediately recharge their batteries. They consider the rhythm of activity followed by idleness or reflection very important for the success of their work.

2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time...Another way of expressing this dialectic is the contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness...a certain immaturity, both emotional and mental, can go hand in hand with deepest insights...Furthermore, people who bring about an acceptable novelty in a domain seem able to use well two opposite ways of thinking: the convergent and the divergent.

3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. There is no question that a playfully light attitude is typical of creative individuals. But this playfulness doesn't go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, perseverance...Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not.

4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality. Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that is different from the present...the whole point of art and science is to go beyond what we now consider real and create a new reality...this "escape" is not into a never-never land. What makes a novel idea creative is that once we see it, sooner or later we recognize that, strange as it is, it is true.

5. Creative people tend to be both extroverted and introverted...in the thick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines and observing the passing show. In fact, in psychological research, extroversion and introversion are considered the most stable personality traits that differentiate people from each other and that can be reliably measured. Creative individuals, on the other hand, seem to exhibit both traits simultaneously.

6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time...Their respect for the area in which they work makes them aware of the long line of previous contributions to it, putting their own in perspective. They're also aware of the role that luck played in their own achievements. And they're usually so focused on future projects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding, are no longer very interesting to them. At the same time, they know they have accomplished a great deal. And this knowledge provides a sense of security, even pride.

7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping...ability to be at the same time aggressive and nurturant, sensitive and rigid, dominant and submissive, regardless of gender. A psychologically androgynous person in effect doubles his or her repertoire of responses. Creative individuals are more likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other one, too.

8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative. It is impossible to be creative without having first internalized an area of culture...But the willingness to take risks, to break with the safety of tradition, is also necessary. The economist George Stigler is very emphatic: "In innovation, you have to play a less safe game, if it's going to be interesting. It's not predictable that it'll go well."

9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lacks credibility. Here is how the historian Natalie Davis puts it:  "...you can't be so identified with your work that you can't accept criticism and response."

10. Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment...Being alone at the forefront of a discipline also leaves you exposed and vulnerable...invites criticism and often vicious attacks...Divergent thinking is often perceived as deviant by the majority, and so the creative person may feel isolated and misunderstood...Yet when a person is working in the area of his of her expertise, worries and cares fall away, replaced by a sense of bliss.

Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake.

That was from Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

My two cents: the Creative Personality can hold paradox without feeling conflicted - both paradoxical traits within oneself, as well as the ability to hold the world (and world view) as containing seemingly opposing realities without having to adopt one in particular. It is not reductionist, reducing a philosophy, creation or way of being down to one common denominator. It is expansive and yes-anding - accepting that contradictory ideas, situations and traits can be operating simultaneously or within the same individual or system - and that adds to the creative complexity, aliveness and richness of output.

1.  balance planning with improvising
2.  use the unknown as a resource (do not avoid it)
3.  creativity is a core value
4.  creativity is a organizational discipline; an ongoing process; a mindset
5.  time and attention are dedicated to “practicing” creative process until it 
     becomes embedded in the system
6.  flexible, limited organizational structures
     combined with intensive interaction
7.  room for exploration and discovery without judgment
8.  act upon intuition and “resonance” as well as logic
9.  employ real-time feedback loops and adapt accordingly
10.  mistakes and failures are seen as invitations to improve, grow or create
11.  hold organizational tension, cognitive dissonance and natural resistance
12.  engage paradox – engages opposing or differing “truths” and view points to without
       needing to boil them down to the lowest common denominator
13.  use diversity productively – uses differences to contribute to the creation of something new
14.  creativity can come from anywhere in the system in any direction
15.  use both linear and non-linear ways of thinking
16.  believe in their people; draws forth what is positive
17.  encourage the questioning of all assumptions
18.  informed by, but not limited to, what worked in the past
19.  not reliant on business buzz words; uses more authentic language
20.  excitement is not squelched – it is used to fuel creativity
21.  tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty
22.  use both divergent and convergent thinking; whole-brain approaches
23.  balance structure and “being organized” with flow and emergence
24.  value fun as part of the creative process

Michelle James©2008