Just utter one of these very overused phrases and watch the energy get sucked out of the room.
What’s the leader’s role in creativity?
February 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment
One of our favourite workshops to facilitate is creativity and some leaders get nervous about the idea of holding back on critical analysis of their employees’ wild ideas. For some, the idea of defining the boundaries or playing field helps them empower their people while allowing them to sleep at night 😉
Hitting the wall
February 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I think this says it all. There are just some days when nothing seems to work, but after some yoga or meditation, a brisk walk, a good sleep, a good laugh, or even a short break, most problems become manageable. It just takes some perspective to get out of making a habit of downward spiral thinking.
One tip to lighten your day
February 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Is this you? It’s certainly been me at times and I have gone through phases of watching too much doom and gloom on TV (and this includes the daily news – sorry all you news junkies who think you can’t live without it – you can). It’s amazing what cutting back on this sort of stuff will do for your energy, optimism and creativity.
Of course, this doesn’t include those compelling evening soaps, too numerous to name at this point 😉
Making it safe to fail
February 3, 2013 By 2 Comments
The Etch A Sketch designer, Andre Cassagnes, died at the age of 86 this past month which got me thinking about creativity. A few things to note:
- People often create outside their discipline. Cassagnes was an electrical technician who was working with metal powders and noticed the potential for a toy.
- Etch a sketch itself, much like the ipad today, creates conditions to make it safe to fail. All you need to do is shake or erase and you can start over.
It’s too bad we find it so difficult to collaborate with others outside our discipline and shake and start over in organizations!
Learning as a way of being
January 31, 2013 By 3 Comments
So, how to sum up my learning over the last 30 days? It has been an interesting blend of looking over the wall to what’s possible and looking in the mirror to find my own sense of self, creativity, possibility. More specifically:
- There is a yin, yang to this challenge – discipline to do a blog every day, but staying open and receptive to whatever might show up that day.
- That while I gathered ideas from what was going on around me, I had to focus inwardly to capture that visually.
- That while I looked over the wall for feedback (sometimes obsessively), ultimately I was so energized by what I was doing that regardless of feedback, I wanted to continue.
- That my desire to explore whatever is next for me professionally and personally has been blown open by this challenge!
- That I may have finally put a few gremlins to rest about my artistic abilities (this after I’ve lost count of how many classes over the years have left me feeling like a complete twit … just ask Dave!)
- That I have a pretty interesting summary of January, 2013 🙂
Thanks Matt Cutts for your brilliant TED video and everyone who has been cheering me on.
Here’s to the next 30 days!
Eureka moments
January 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I have been thinking a lot about creativity lately and, in particular, the conditions that lead to great ideas. I have always intuitively believed in the eureka moment (not sure why, perhaps as it’s a romantic notion and I am a romantic 😉 Of course, as luck would have it, I stumbled across Steven Johnson’s animation of “where good ideas come from.” Alas, there it is … are your ideas a eureka moment or a collision of small hunches? I guess I will have to let go of my romantic notions as mine are the latter 🙂
Being curious
January 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday I blogged about an amazing group of people who are making great things happen in Victoria. The word that came up over and over throughout the day was curious, and I observed that this was a pretty curious group and that their curiosity led to some amazing results. The room also buzzed with excitement and energy. This doesn’t always happen when we work with groups. Sometimes we spend a lot of time trying to chip away at the brick walls in people’s minds. What’s your curiosity quotient and how does that impact the teams you work on?
Worlds colliding
January 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Today got away on me and I’m not entirely happy with my visual, but … it’s getting late and I am trying to get over perfectionism 😉 Today I had the happy honour of working with some pretty amazing Victorians from all walks of life as part of our once-a-quarter initiative. They are planning a most spectacular festival that has the potential to transform Victoria, Victorians, and anyone who happens to visit our fair city the week of September 9, 2013. Keep an eye on the VIATeC website for this exciting festival!
The values/creativity conundrum
January 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday I posed a values situation … well not entirely as it was also about creativity. I think we often fail to come up with creative solutions when we think values are at risk of being compromised. We also fail to come up with creative solutions because we are thinking in the “tyranny of the OR.” We need to embrace the “genius of the AND” (Collins and Porres), and bring forward our very best “integrative thinking” (Roger Martin).
So from that perspective, here is how to have everyone’s needs met!
(Oh and just to be fully transparent myself, I chose the little old lady as that seemed to align best with my values around compassion and service.)
