First Love





CLICK HERE
to see the trailer for a new SkyArts series called 'First Love' featuring the lovely Lenny Henry being coached by our friend and colleague Jo Thompson of Charismalab.

Anxious to Create?


We humans are the product of 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution. As far as we know, we are the most intelligent and advanced species on the planet. We have more control over our environment and our subjective and objective experience than any other living creature and yet we seem to be one of the most anxious. However, unlike any other animal, we know that we’re anxious, but we are not always sure why.

We can think and believe we are anxious about many things but for many of us anxiety is a free floating feeling that can get attached and projected onto people, places and things that may not be the true cause of our anxiety.

Take for instance phobias. Most phobics suffer with an irrational fear of things that most of us wouldn’t even notice. Psychologists like Dr Jeffrey Shwartz have devised some interesting therapeutic solutions for people suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. They have discovered that, in some cases, anxiety can be re-routed using mental will power to rewire the neurological pathways in the brain. However, even though one’s anxiety can be released and redirected away from an object, it will often and eventually attach itself to something else.

For some of us anxiety is an ever-present sense that something is wrong, that we are in danger. Or the feeling that there is something missing; that we are somehow incomplete, something within us has not been fully realised or expressed. We can engage in behaviours to distract us or even numb the feelings with alcohol and drugs but anxious feelings are rarely relieved for very long.

I would like to propose that this is because anxiety is a primal drive and is present and persistent even before birth. More than this, it is possibly the first cause of anything existing at all.

In other words, I suggest that the original impulse that began creation was born out of a 'proto- anxiety' caused by the tension of an infinite energy trying to manifest itself but only able to bring itself into existence temporarily in finite forms. We could describe this tension as an anxiety of creativity.

Human creativity might then be described as an expression of anxiety. Driven by the desire of beings that innately know they are, at source, infinite but are only able to manifest and express themselves temporarily in finite forms. The infinite and finite self seeking union and full expression. The 'Primal Anxiety'.

So, if and when you feel anxious but you don't know why, try reframing the feeling and think of your anxiety as a potentially creative state of mind. Then use it as an opportunity to focus your thinking on solving a problem and bring something new into the world.

Whatever that might mean for you.

Dreamer...Nothing but a dreamer?




Last night I had the strangest dream. I was having a conversation with some Albanians in a coffee bar in London about their struggle settling in the UK and the culture they left behind. I can’t remember much about the details but it all felt very informative and fascinating. When I left the coffee bar I found myself on the corner of a street waiting for someone to pick me up.


While I waited I had a conversation with a man and a woman about the parking restrictions in the area and then I became aware of a small silver car coming towards that I identified as belonging to me. I looked inside at the driver and noticed, with some pleasure, that it was woman wearing a brightly coloured Hijab (head wear worn by Muslim women). I quickly realised the woman was my wife and got into the car.

Before we could drive away the car stalled and wouldn’t start again. I had to get out and push it in the hope that I would be able to bump start the engine back to life. It was proving highly challenging as the woman (apparently my wife) couldn’t seem to engage the gear stick and I eventually became exhausted by the strain of pushing the car.


Suddenly the scene and circumstances changed and I was in an office engaged in conversation with some ex colleagues talking about work and people we used to know. A whole new set of people and a whole new me.

Now, while I'm sure dream analysts would have some fun unpacking that lot, it all seems a bit randomn to me so I'll leave it to those who know more about the subject. But here’s the thing. I am not, nor ever have been married to a woman who wears a Hijab, however in my dream all this seemed perfectly normal. Now as I picture the faces of the ex-collegues I was talking to in the dream I realise they were people I’d never seen before in my life, and yet it all felt very familiar. I had encountered several individuals all of whom seemed to have thoughts of their own and said things that surprised me. Somethings were said that I’m sure I’d never heard before. On top of that my own identity had shifted and yet I always felt like myself.

Sleep researchers suggest that dreaming is about dealing with our unconscious desires and fears and rehearsing responses to situations we may face in waking life. Some even suggest that each character in a dream is an expression of our own personalities.

In other words everyone you dream about represents an aspect of your own feelings, thoughts and behaviours. Personally, I am not entirely convinced by that theory but it is certain that when we dream we are purely in the subjective realm of experience. There is no objective, physical dimension to engage with as everything is played out in the imagination. And yet , when we dream we meet separate entities seemingly feeling, thinking and acting independently of us, the dreamer.

I was reminded of the movie ‘Inception’ where the Ariadne character explains to Di Caprio that during the dream state “ It’s like you are discovering a new world and yet you are creating it.” One mind, many perspectives.

It is possible that pondering on our ability to 'dream' up an experience of reality full of people, places and things during sleep may help our Western minds, more used to individualist thinking, to better understand the Eastern, spiritual perspective of everything and everyone being an expression of ‘One’ energy.

Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism offer the concept of ‘One’ awareness behind many minds. The central idea being that duality, separation and multiplicity is an illusion.

In other words there is only one dreamer dreaming us all.

And if that is true, that dreamer is YOU.

How do you feel?



Living life in 4 dimensions means being aware of your body and how you move in the environments you inhabit, how you feel moment to moment, your thought processes and having a clear understanding of why you do the things you do.


However, the way you feel often determines your ability to generate energy and rest, work and play efficiently.

The words Emotion, Move and Motivate share the same Latin root - Emovare, which means to move. Emotions are probably the most powerful source of our personal energy. This is because our emotions are connected to our desires, passions, needs, dreads and fears. All of which can activate our ancient Feed, Fight or Flight response, which has access to extraordinary levels of energy.

Psychology has revealed that we probably ‘feel’ emotions before we have thoughts about a person, place or thing. These emotion-fuelled thoughts will then dictate our behaviours and the actions we take. And it seems the sequence of events happen in that order: feelings, thoughts, behaviours and action. This is because the emotional part of the brain (limbic system-amygdala) responds before and independently of the cognitive rational brain (neocortex).

However this psychological sequence can lead to ‘emotional hijacking’ as the emotional centres in the brain can cut off access to our rational, logical functions. We might then fly into a rage or become very sad or scared. This is a function left over from primitive human’s instinctive response to danger, which would trigger fight or flight merely from various nonverbal or environmental signals. Early humans needed an instant warning and rescue system, as they had not yet developed the intellectual capacity to analyse and decide what sort of danger he/she was in. Unfortunately this warning and rescue system software is still running in our brains, therefore, we need strategies to implement before any emotional hijacking takes place. We need to learn to recognise our ‘trigger mechanisms and situations’ in order to do this.

Because so much of what we feel is to do with the biochemistry of our bodies and old patterns of thought we associate with feelings from childhood it is vital that we have an intellectual understanding of the psycho- somatic dynamics of emotion.
Understanding why and how we feel the way we do helps us to intelligently manage our feelings, thoughts and behaviours.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Self Awareness

Are you aware and in control of your emotions?
What strategies do you use to manage your emotions?
When is it hard for you to manage your emotions?
Why?
What could you do to help improve the situation?

Other Awareness

Can you easily recognise what others are feeling?
Are you easily able to empathise with others?
How do you behave?
When is it difficult for you to recognise the emotions of others?
What do you think might help to improve the situation?



The psychologist Antonio Damasio has revealed that our emotions are a product of an entanglement of both internal and external physical feelings and thoughts that might not necessarily be connected. For instance, if I am a naturally anxious person, because of the way my body produces cortisol and adrenalin, I might be particularly more anxious in the mornings. As a result if you engage me in the morning I will feel differently about our interaction (and you) than if you engage with me in the afternoons. If I know this, I can better manage my feelings thoughts and behaviours to compensate.

The key to working with emotional intelligence is in first understanding when, how and why we become emotional and then trying to understand the same in others.

The Big Blank Page


On our 5 day retreats we help our guests explore their personal creativity and potential for self evolution. Whilst facilitating creativity sessions we have discovered that some people can be nervous about being put on the spot to come up with ideas and will interpret their own reluctance as a sign to themselves that they are not creative.

So we make sure that we never put people on the spot during our coaching and training sessions.

However it’s a well-known cliché that the one-thing professional ‘artists’ fear most is the blank canvass (or if you’re a writer the blank page).

For artists this is really about the fear of the inability to think of anything to put on the canvass. In other words – painters’ or writers’ block.

When people expect you to come up with a solution or idea, the despair of not knowing if anything will inspire you can be debilitating. And a big part of that is to do with the fear of not meeting expectations, both those of other people and your own. In other words-the fear of getting it wrong.

During our eclectic careers we have both made a living at some point by writing, composing or creating performances and have faced this dilemma on several occasions. In our experience there are two situations that lead you to the blank page.

A. You are going to reproduce something you have already expressed and you know how it will look, sound, taste or feel. You have a pre-designed piece of work so to speak.

B. You have something you want to express but this will be the first time you’ve tried to express it.

If it’s option A there should be little fear, as you know what to do having done it before.

Option B however is a grope into the unknown and that comes with the risk of a psychological block.

This led me to think of the ultimate creation on the first blank page and what would have happened, or not, if the originator of the ‘Great Work’ had had writers block. I’m talking about the moment before Genesis. Not the ‘prog rock’ band responsible for the career of Phil Collins but rather the nothingness from which time and space emerged at the moment of the big bang.

My understanding is that the entire universe is a creative and more over self-creating affair. My reasoning, I believe, is both philosophically sound and easily comprehendible.

It goes like this.

When time, space and creation began, science tells us that everything was contained in the potential of a singularity. A point no bigger than a tennis ball. But what was happening before the universe began to expand and what is it now expanding into?

I guess we might say that before time and space there was spaceless and timeless...ness. And the potential universe was contained in that.

A big blank page!

Some might say that the original spacelessness and timelessness was a sort of perfect bliss state. Heaven or Nirvana if you will.

But if the universe was originally in some perfect state of heavenly bliss why did it change and become a chaotic process of creativity. Why did anything else need to happen at all?

Just for fun? For a laugh...ha ha ha ha? Some might say that, yes!.

However, weren't we having enough fun in our perfect state of bliss?

Clearly not.

Others might say we're here to learn. But what could a being in a perfect state of bliss need to learn? Wasn't everything already perfect as it was?

Once again, clearly not.

If there were such a thing as a creator god who is perfect and all knowing, what need would it have to create something so imperfect as the known universe and mankind in particular? The devout will surely say that humans do not have the capacity to know the mind of the creator and that I am arrogant to even think that I can understand what god is let alone imagine what’s on its mind.

But that doesn’t explain why a perfect being in a state of perfect peace has any need to do anything at all and if what it is doing has produced us then I think we can all agree it’s intentions are probably neither perfect nor permanent.

Following this we might also assume that if there was ever a condition in the universe that was both perfect and permanent then we would be in that condition right now. As we are involved in, and the result of, an ever changing and evolving process, I think it would be fair to say that there is nothing permanent or perfect about the universe - other than its impermanence.

As far as we know, for the last 14 billion years the universe appears to have been, paradoxically, randomly creating order out of chaos. So we can deduce that there has not yet been a stable, permanent state of being in the Cosmos to date.

Therefore there can be no blue print or plan.

It hasn’t happened yet so whatever process or intelligence is currently behind creation clearly has no idea what it’s doing. It’s simply creating, trying things out.

The starting point of creation was no bigger than a tennis ball and yet it contained the potential for everything we see, hear, touch, taste and smell around us today. Every possibility was present in that moment as an impulse to become. And that impulse continues to evolve the world around us. We human beings are a product of this process and our self-consciousness has afforded us the ability to consciously create the world in our own image.

You might say that we are the random process of creation become conscious of itself.

Therefore, next time someone asks you for an idea, don’t be afraid of the blank page, because you are an expression of the original creative impulse. You have the creative power of the whole Cosmos within you.

So…what do you think?

Tom

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The Paradox Principle


In our work developing the 4D programme we continuously look for solutions to increase employee engagement. Currently we are introducing our clients to some interesting idea sharing tools and exploring various ways that a culture of creativity and innovation can engage people.

One of the ideation processes we use is the ‘Paradox Principle’. This is thinking about an issue in terms of opposites and contradictions.


There are three types of paradoxical thinking:

Contrary thinkingCompletely replacing something with it’s opposite.

Janusian thinkingUsing two opposing features to create an effect through contrast e.g.white laces on black shoes or sweet and sour sauce.

and

Hegelian thinking- Bringing two opposites together to create a third thing e.g. blending black and white paint to make grey, combining a work and play activity to create a career (Golf caddy) or a pencil and an eraser to make a rubber pencil.

So we thought we might apply this to the term engagement itself and see what happened.

We asked the question: “When might the opposite of engagement be a good thing?”

If we take as a starting point the definition of engagement as an experience of being subjectively emersed in and involved with, an idea, person, place or thing, then disengagement may be thought of as being disconnected, objective and uninvolved.

Combining these opposites could mean taking a ‘witnessing’ position on a situation that you are experiencing. In other words becoming engaged in being disengaged!

Sometimes it is very difficult to see the bigger picture when all our 4 dimensions (physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual) are fully involved in an experience. To be able to step back and witness what’s going on can be both a relief and a place from which a creative solution may emerge. Particularly when emotions are surfaced as emotional arousal can produce tunnel vision thinking and be less helpful.

An example might be when some one crosses one of our personal boundaries and offends us. We might leave a conversation feeling angry sad or humiliated. In this scenario we might find a space to be alone and take a moment to think and ask ourselves- who is it that feels upset and why? In other words try and take an objective view of our situation.

The idea is to conjure up and hold in our minds an objective representation of who and what we are so we can momentarily see ourselves from the outside. This may be a picture, a sound or a feeling.
.
We can then ask ourselves-

Who is it that is now taking this objective perspective?

This may seem strange at first but stick with it.

We might then ask-

Who is it that is witnessing the person taking the objective perspective?

With a little bit of practice you will notice that each time you ask the question you objectify the previous questioner (yourself).

In a gradual process of stepping further and further away from your subjective experience into the realm of objectivity you will soon come to a place of disengagement.

This could now be a good thing as from here you can view the 4 perspectives of human being much more clearly.

What was I really feeling and thinking and why?
What was I doing. How was I behaving?
Where was I and how was the environment impacting on me?
And who was I interacting with and how did their presence affect my experience?

From here we might get more insights into what was actually going on and which factors were most effecting and impacting us.

Give it a try and experience the power of the paradox of engaging in disengagement!

The Integral Position


An Integral position is accepting that everyone has a valid perspective to offer. However in terms of a philosophy of life Integral proposes that everyone has a partial knowledge of the truth of reality. In other words, no 'one' person or group can claim the 'whole' and exclusive truth and expect or insist that it apply to everyone else.

This poem by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) called 'THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT' creatively illustrates the point.

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:

"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk
Cried, "Ho! what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ‘tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand, And felt about the knee:

"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"’Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
added: "E’en the blindest man can tell what this
resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope.
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

The central principle of 'Integral Innovation' is that the development of a person, place or object that leads to effective and sustainable change is often a process of transcending yet including previous perspectives, states and stages. An evolution that integrates most if not all previous experience. However unlike pluralism or relativism, Integral looks for a perspective that is not just different but better for all, based on an integration of what is collectively agreed as being good, true and beautiful from all other perspectives.

In the context of idea sharing, for this to happen it is vital to acknowledge that everyone has a right to their creative perspective. I like the sentiment behind this thought from Chris Albrecht - President of HBO programming

"The idea that we're all connected in the collective unconscious is an extremely important part of what makes entertainment successful. You can't translate that literally, but you can be aware of the ideas behind it: that the psyche has a structure, that the unconscious is a very powerful force, that we're all on a journey, striving for individuation and wholeness. If you understand that, you have a better grip on what's relevant, resonant, and rich about human experience."


Tom

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We Can Measure The Power of Charisma

That is the latest claim by Alex Pentland who directs the MIT Human Dynamics Lab. In fact he claimed 87% accuracy in one experiment where he predicted which individuals would win a business plan pitch without hearing their content!

He has developed an instrument called the sociometer. A badge that is worn by people and measures the dynamics of non verbal communication: gestures, expressions, tone as they interact with others in various environments. Apparently it records how much face to face interaction takes place, how close to each other people position themselves and how much each person just listens. The sensors also record stress levels when people were presenting as reflected by the variations of speed, tone, rhythm and pitch of the voice.

The theory is that certain non verbal behaviours are ‘signals’ that cause changes in the receiver of the signal. Much like the 'dancing' behaviour of Bees. This is essentially about the contagious nature of certain behaviours. Pentland’s research suggests that successful people are simply more energetic in all behaviours. Not just as transmitters of information but also as receivers. They are also great listeners.

Not rocket science! You may be thinking. However, it seems that it is the 'energy' with which these behaviours are performed that becomes the defining factor.

In an interview with Harvard Business Review Pentland says:

“The more of these energetic, positive people you put on a team, the better the team’s performance. We are learning how face-to-face communications affects productivity. We think face time with colleagues is as much as 2.5 times as important to success as additional access to information. Results aren’t final, but we think we can increase productivity by 10% at no cost just by rearranging the environment to promote more employee interaction. Positive, energetic people have higher performance.”

In this video from Google Talks Pentalnd reveals more about his research:




The question always remains how do you turn this research into identifiable behaviours?

When Jo Thompson and I developed the ‘Charismalab’ programme we mainly focussed on translating what we understood about the dynamics of charismatic behaviour from working as (and with) performers on the stage and screen. We were interested in what made successful performers successful. We discovered that it is their ability to communicate their values, ideas, beliefs and experiences using energised and engaging behaviours.

Pentland's research takes this discovery into more territories. Including brainstorming and productivity in teams.

In an interview with Psychology Today he states: “We found very similar results in a separate study focused on brainstorming: the more of these energetic, focused listeners that were on a team, the better the quality of their brainstorming. In brainstorming sessions with teams whose social style was similar to these ‘charismatic connectors,’ the resulting quality of the talking was characterized by high levels of listening, more even-handed turn-taking, and high levels of engagement, trust, and cooperation. These 'charismatic connectors' are the ultimate team players - and the key to making a team successful.”

This research certainly adds to other studies we draw on from the field of human energy and contagion and definitely supports our experience of working in the area of engagement and communication.

Contagiously yours

Tom

4Dhumanbeing.com

Creatively Engaging CEO's


We are still excited about the recent study conducted by IBM that revealed over 1,500 CEOs citing creativity as a top leadership quality for leading in the new economic environment. This transcends, yet includes – personal communication, openness , global mindset, energy and drive.

It seems that many CEO’s are now realising that creativity is as important, if not more than other leadership characteristics as they realise continuous change is becoming the norm in the current economic climate.

The study also showed that high performing creative leaders are comfortable with ambiguity and experimentation and leading creatively requires the shedding of some old beliefs about management and leadership.

It is becoming clear to all of us, at some level, that things ain’t what they used to be and many of the old rules will soon no longer apply.

Many CEO’s interviewed for the study also agree that it’s not enough just to be prepared personally. They understood that their entire organisation has to be equipped and prepared to be a catalyst for creativity - Recognising the need to encourage creativity across their organisations rather than just recruiting ‘creative types’ and positioning them in siloed departments.

However they understood that in order to benefit from the diversity of ideas that each and every employee can contribute an entirely new set of capabilities will be required.

Beginning with coaching individuals (leaders and managers) in raising awareness and understanding on how their unique values, drives and thinking styles can be utilised and applied creatively. This is followed by training to provide teams with insights and tools to facilitate creative and innovative thinking. And finally, by initiating a programme of idea sharing involving everyone, in a re-think about how the infrastructure, systems and processes of the organisation can support creativity.

Happy days!

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The Creativity Confidence Loop


As the research on what makes people more or less creative continues I’m interested in a seemingly simple aspect of how or if we feel we’re creative....confidence. The confidence to allow yourself to imagine new possibilities and the confidence to share your ideas with others, however crazy they may seem. And what is the connection between self-confidence and creativity?

A number of studies have been carried out over recent years into the link between self-concept & self-confidence and creativity. One of them was performed on children of around 5-6 years old by Clemente Franco Justo at the University of Almeria in Spain. The ‘creative relaxation programme’ produced the following results:

1) Children who have greater self-confidence will be able to express their creative potential more readily than those whose confidence is lower.

2) Children who manage to express their creative capacity to a higher degree will tend to acquire greater self-confidence and feel more secure.

And here we have the Creativity Confidence Loop. When self-confidence is high, anxiety is decreased and children are able to be more open, spontaneous, communicative and curious. When self-concept is poor and self-confidence low, children are far more likely to under-estimate their potential or be able to share ideas.

Many authors and studies have looked at the characteristics of creative children and found them to be: self-confidence, imagination and perseverance in the face of obstacles, whereas fear and weakness can drive creativity away or make it more difficult to find.

Translating this into the adult world – when our ideas are heard and acknowledged, we’re far more likely to come up with more. If we dare to share one small initial idea and feel it is heard, our capacity to broaden our imaginations begins to grow. As our confidence grows, so does our ability to come up with and share increasingly creative ideas. The key is to start the process. However small. However perhaps unusable that first idea is – if it is crushed, so is the possibility of a person’s imaginative growth and creative development. If it is heard – so begins the Creativity Confidence Loop that is potentially the beginning of a whole new and dynamic culture of innovation.


Philippa
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