The PACE of Creativity

There is a wealth of research on creativity, creative thinking and innovation. Sometimes it can seem hard to keep PACE. But looking at indepth research from Theresa Amabile and her colleagues at the Harvard Business School much of it can be distilled down to 4 things. Here's a quick test you can give to projects and team members to assess whether they are at the peak of their creativity.



P is for Progress. Studies have revealed we are more inspired and motivated by projects and ideas that progress. If initiatives move forward, even slowly, we are far more likely to remain engaged and committed to that project.

A is for Autonomy. Endless studies tell us that if people can decide on HOW they go about a certain project, WHO they work with and WHERE or in what environments they work then they will be more creative, committed and able drive a project through than if they are being dictated to.

C is for Care. If we care and are passionate about a project or idea we will do everything we can to make it happen. If it 'means' something to us we will commit to it. This is the element that makes people go the extra mile.

E is for Eclectic. The more diverse our experiences and the more rich our interactions with the world, the more creative we will be. Eclectic, multi-cultural teams are able to come up with far more innovative solutions than non-diverse, non-eclectic teams. Teams with well travelled, multi lingual members immediately have a richer pool of creative resources than a local team from the same background.

With all the complexity surrounding research on creativity and innovation, it can be hard to keep pace. By giving yourself, your team and your projects the PACE test, you can worry a little less about keeping up with everyone else, and start to become a PACE setter yourself.

Philippa

A licence to print chocolate?

Forget bubble jet or laser. Introducing the Chocolate Printer. Never was printing 50 page reports so much fun! Who wouldn't stay late on a Friday night..?

Fly Me to The Moon

I was wondering today about how we might measure our daily, weekly or monthly creative output. What if creativity could be weighed? Or calculated? Or calorie counted? How much creativity are we consuming or expending throughout our lives?

And then I came across this interview with Richard Branson posted on Linkedin today.


"If there is a "right" way to develop your company's culture, our experience shows that it should evolve organically. In 1970, my friends and I weren't planning to do anything other than make some money and have a good time while doing something we loved. We loved listening to music, so we tried to sell records to other kids who wanted a fun place to hang out while deciding which ones to buy. We had no marketing plan or budget – our goals were simply to make enough money to pay the rent and our suppliers, and to have some cash left over at the end of the month. Our launch was really no different from that of most small companies, since few entrepreneurs start thinking about their business's culture until it is already well established.

If I think back to what we did right, it was in our planning process, when we made sure we were having fun working together and that everyone who had a good idea was included in our decision-making process.

We had accidentally stumbled on the core elements of a culture dedicated to delivering great customer service! It turned out that people who work in a friendly environment that is tolerant of mistakes, and who are empowered to make decisions about how they do their jobs, arrive at the best possible solutions for serving customers.

Remember that how you treat the customer will form the basis of your corporate culture. Put your staff first, listen to them, and follow up on their ideas and suggestions."


Even with no tangible plan in place, Virgin's culture of listening and idea sharing got them a very, very long way. It might even get them to the moon! Now that's what I call creative airmiles.

Strapped for Cash

Just came across this quote from designer Alejandro Aravena -

"It is obvious that many things have evolved since the beginning of time and that progress has accumulated in our lives in the form of sophisticated needs and desires. But it is also true that there are many things and needs that haven’t changed much since our origins and they can still be satisfied in an extremely simple way: sitting comfortably on the ground is one of them.“

He has designed a new product called 'Chairless' which is billed as a seating device for the modern nomad.

It's basically just a strap...but, it is to Chairs what the 'Bum Bag' (aka Fanny Pack) was to Duffle bags and it has the potential to capture the imagination of some key early adopters. So...Before you write this potentially commercial innovation off as a crazy designers, pie in the sky, faddish, emperor's new clothes, post, post modernist attack on rationality and convention, akin only to the Sinclair C5, remember -

The mind is like a parachute - it works best when it's fully open!

Tom

Smile And The World Smiles With You

Ron Gutman's fun TED talk pulls together some of the latest research on the power of the 'smile.'

According to the British Dental Foundation Research one smile releases the equivalent endorphins of 2000 chocolate bars or winning a jackpot of £16,000. Not only is it the ultimate in free personal feel-good but it's the most contagious body language a human can express - anywhere in the world.

So if things look grim...grin.

Characteristics of a Creative ' Flex & Flow' Leader.

Creativity seems to be a quality greatly in demand today. Many of us are looking for creative solutions to a plethora of problems of varying sizes, surfacing in life and work.

The socio-economic landscape is shifting and quaking under our feet and a tsunami of change threatens to engulf us in waves of confusion and uncertainty.

So it's no suprise that many people around the globe are rising up and asking serious questions of our leaders.

How can we creatively respond to the economic challenges we face?

How can we cope with rising crime and the threat of terrorism?

How will we manage if and when food, water and fuel become scarce?

How will we find money to survive in the future when our economy seems so unpredictable?

How can we make more from less? 
How can we live and work in ways that make us feel that we are doing more than just coping? 

How can we avoid feeling we are becoming less than we were in terms of our personal happiness and growth?
How can we ensure our children have a future?

How can we ensure our aging parents will have a good quality of life in their later years?


But people are quickly discovering that their leaders don't have the answers. And the reason is, the answers to these questions can't be found, because they don't exist. How can they when we live in such a unique time in history? Never before in all eternity has a world like this, at a time like this, with people like us doing what we do, in the way that we do it, existed.

The Internet has connected more of us to more knowledge than we've ever had access to before. People move around the world with relative freedom and at speeds never before possible. Science and technology has far exceeded our ancient biology's capacity to manage it responsibly and we are draining the planet's resources at an unsustainable rate. As this state of affairs has never occurred in history before, there are no ready-made answers hiding away to be discovered. The solutions will have to be created.

So, each of us has to become pioneers at this leading edge of a new global culture. But what we could really do with right now are some great leaders. Leaders of the kind we've never seen before. New leaders with a vision for a new future. Leaders that can inspire us to follow on and build that future.
Creative rather than destructive leaders. But what is a creative leader?

How will we recognize them? What are their characteristics?

Well, if we had to visualize what a creative leader might be like we might start by saying they are people who have deep insight, abundant personal energy, a flexible thinking style and great communication skills.

We might also say that they take a 'flex and flow' attitude to life and work.

'Flex and flow' describes the creative, energetic processes of natural systems. 
Energy and matter are two aspects of the same thing but in different states. Matter is simply condensed energy. When living, organic, objects emerge from the environment (molecules, bacteria, cells, complex organisms, plants and animals) their growth is the result of a process of contracted, complex, energy, forming into solid structures. In order to maintain it's form an object needs to burn energy to hold it's structure. The energy an object uses as fuel for growth and stability is then transformed, released and flows back into the system, allowing new forms to arise. Human consciousness is simply the process of creative flex and flow becoming aware of itself. Knowing when to flex your energy, contract and take action, and when to release energy into a flow state allowing new forms to arise is the process of creative ' flex and flow'.

A creative leader is energised by a flex and flow value set is able to see the whole range of human differences within an organization from a values perspective, and knows how to communicate with people at their respective levels.

Creative Leaders with a flex and flow mindset understand that it is the diversity of 'values and belief systems' that cause more challenges than issues of personality types, race, gender and age. People of the same culture can often hold differing values while others from different groups can share values which can transcend external boundaries. For example - A Christian and a Moslem, both expressing the same values around environmental issues, will more easily find common ground. White and black South Africans committed to the values of diversity and inclusions will have far less interpersonal challenges than two English football supporters of the same gender, religion and race, expressing a fundamentalist, tribal loyality to opposing teams.

Creative Leaders manage cultural barriers such as race, religion, gender, age and lifestyles that can divide and create conflict with a syngergistic, integral approach that serves the whole system.

Creative Leaders have reached a high level of understanding in terms of their own values and understand the drives and motivations of people at all levels of development. 
They have trod a path many have yet to walk and can act as guides, helping us lay stepping-stones across a slippery terrain. They have an ability to consider many perspectives at once seeing patterns and connections others do not notice because they are not hampered by unhealthy, egotistic concerns. The creative leader is aligned with the creative force of evolution and represents the flow of natural design becoming conscious of itself.
They are open.
They recognize that the only permanent thing in the universe is change. They accept that our individual lives are a journey that may not necessarily have a purpose, other than the one we alone give to ourselves.

Creative Leaders behave with patience, realizing that people will only act for change when they are ready and willing.

Creative leaders are prepared to walk away from a situation when the timing is wrong or when they recognize they are not the right person to lead.

Creative leaders acknowledge and recognize that to get what they need as individuals they have to keep the whole system and everyone in it as healthy as possible to ensure their own survival.

Creative Leaders are comfortable with a diversity of thoughts, concepts and ideas.

Creative Leaders respect that everyone is partially right but no-one person has the whole picture, not even the leader.

Creative Leaders have developed and integrated their four dimensions of being -physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

Creative Leaders can take on many roles and points of view when they need to fit.

Creative Leaders can quickly adapt and lead in a style that meets the need of the group they are leading.

Creative Leaders solve problems by thinking in terms of networks and connected systems.

Creative Leaders can handle high levels of complexity.

Creative Leaders can think with the four quadrants of their brains as an integrated whole.



Back Left - Organisation, process and routine. 

Back Right - Meaning making, intuition and empathy.

Front Left - Facts, logic and rationale.

Front Right - Spontaneity, improvisation and abstraction.

But surely this description is too perfect. This kind of leader can't possibly exist.


After all we've just created these characteristic in our imagination.

But wait...if we can imagine a leader like this then surely we can create one.

In fact, if you walk to a mirror right now you might just see a potential candidate..

Everybody Creates All the Time

I was just rereading a BBC News interview with REM’s Michael Stipe and was struck once again by the elements and process of creativity that led to the band’s success.

Michael Stipe was brought up in a family with no specific interest in music. He was never exposed to a broad range of sounds. In fact the music his parents played when he was young was limited and often repeated.

So there was no priming here in terms of Michael’s future career in music. He was a blank page if you will.

And then came the random input – the ‘Inspiration’ – when he heard tracks on the radio ranging from Tammy Wynette to the Soundtrack of Disney’s movie ‘The Parent Trap’. And above all Elton John’s ‘Benny and The Jets.’ This eclectic mix of music sparked a flame of musical creativity in Michael Stipe that started him on his journey into pop stardom. And it’s input like this that can spark anyone’s creativity – unexpected, eclectic and not deadline driven!

Michael Stipe wasn’t an expert either. Far from it. He didn’t know the difference between a bass and a lead guitar until REM’s second album. So there goes the need for any of us to be experts in the field we choose to create in!

So then we might say, but I don’t ‘feel’ like I’m creative? Just don’t believe it. Well Michael Stipe didn’t exactly feel it either – until he got up on stage and sang and realised the audience were not only buying it but enjoying it. And because they were enjoying it, he began to believe it and so began the Confidence Loop. It’s like any pitch or ‘Presentation’ - if you don’t feel it – ‘act as if’ until you do.

REM were also brilliant at understanding that different band members had different strengths. Michael Stipe would write songs and become too attached to them to be able to edit them down, but realised that Pete Buck had the talent to do that for him. The band used this team knowledge to constantly strive for the best they could do. A great example of team ‘Collaboration.’

And key to REM’s success was not only the ability to celebrate their successes but also to accept, embrace and learn from their failures. Something so many people and organisations find a challenge yet so fundamental to personal creativity and organisational innovation.

But above all in my opinion is Michael Stipe’s desire, will and ‘Motivation’ to create and perform music. This beyond anything else, I would argue, is the key ingredient for creativity. That fundamental, intrinsic desire to create. To innovate. And if you, your people, your organisation has that – you’re in a very exciting place in terms of creativity and innovation. With that energy to harness, the sky is the limit. And that’s why we at 4D work with values and drives based Integral Creativity.

You can have all the PowerPoints, Strategies and Tools in the world - just like Michael Stipe could in theory have had musical parents, guitar lessons and a career plan – but without energy and motivation a hundred tools, days of PowerPoint slides and reams of strategy won’t make it happen.

So Motivation, Inspiration, Collaboration and then the Presentation of getting up, (acting ‘as if’ if necessary) and sharing your creation with the world (or the board). The vital ingredients.

And even if you don’t have a clear plan….just start creating. See where it takes you…Madison Square Gardens, Wembley, you never know…REM never had any goals!



Philippa

The Yellow vMeme = The Spiral Leader

It can become extremely challenging when people holding differing belief systems, worldviews, and levels of complexity of thinking encounter each other in business. The main challenge being that people are often only able to understand thinking based on the world view of their own value and belief systems. This can make communication between a leader and her or his team difficult. Especially when dealing with non negotiables. Each Value System will look for a different mode of leadership.

Beige and Purple communities are close knit and fearful of others who are different. Leaders are nearly always part of a direct lineage of succession and are often the ‘elders’ of a group. Leadership is driven by appealing to tribal loyalities.

Red leadership is about the absolute ‘power’ and rule of the individual. Leading from the front the Red leader demands respect and always comes first, even if it’s at the expense of those being led. Leadership is dictatorial and ego-driven.

Blue leadership is driven to serve a higher authority and observe and obey absolute laws and rules. While offering a degree of order, authority, predictability and stability this form of leadership can sometime be inflexible and pedantic in todays shifting market place. Leadership is compliance driven.

Orange Leadership is entrepreneurial and innovative but can sometimes be Machiavellian. This energy is driven to succeed at all costs. Showing emotion is considered a waste of time and money. Similar to Red, this mode of leadership is primarily self-seeking. Leadership is achievement driven.

Green leadership seeks interpersonal relationships. Honesty, empathy, authenticity and trust is highly valued. However this mode of leadership on it’s own can lead to challenging levels of “political correctness”. Leadership is primarily people driven.

A leader energised by the Yellow value set is able to see the whole spiral of human differences within an organization from a values perspective, and knows how to communicate with people at their respective levels. Cultural barriers such as race, religion, gender, age and lifestyles that divide and create conflict are managed, transcended and included in a syngergistic approach that serves the whole system. A leader expressing Yellow asks who is best suited to do what and why? Leadership is flex and flow driven.

The British Psychological Society's blog features a post about some new research suggesting that "Employees who perceive their leaders as ethical put in more effort and are more prepared to speak up and report issues at work. Judgements of ethical leadership depend upon the level of cognitive moral development: not only in the leaders, but the employees as well.Their research recruited 28 executives and 129 of their direct reports, who all completed a standard test of moral development. The direct report also gave their opinion of the executive's ethical leadership. The data was then combined into all possible pairs, where each pair comprised an executive and one of their reports. How did those executives seen as ethical do on the moral reasoning test? They scored highly; specifically they scored higher than their direct reports. That is, when leaders thought with somewhat bigger moral horizons than their followers, they were seen as most ethical. Jordan's team had predicted just this, based on an observation from social learning theory that the best way to model behaviours to others is to stand out from the crowd: sophisticated, novel moral reasoning can grab attention in a way that dutiful consistency will not. How do the followers appreciate these perspectives if they don't make sense to them? Well, the leader has to find a way to make them sensible. Luckily, post-Kohlberg researchers agree that individuals at higher levels can choose to speak 'the same ethical language' as others when necessary, offering a bridge between the two ways of thinking."

This research seems to support our own thinking that anyone in a leadership position should aim to push their development towards activating Yellow and becoming a Spiral leader.

Spiral Dynamics and Creativity

Most people in business today understand that organisations must embrace change and creativity in order to stay competitive in this ever changing, global marketplace. The good news is every company that employs human beings has all the resources they need to help them innovate.

It's their people!

Creative thinking need not be confined to products and services alone, but rather, the organisation could adopt an integrated approach to innovation that encourages all their people to look at every aspect of their operation from profiling clients to looking at competitors and spotting potential, 'game changing' opportunities. For example:

Process innovation - implementing new or significantly improved production or delivery methods.

Business model innovation - changing the way business is done, for example - EasyJet, Dell computers and global outsourcing.

Organisational innovation - creating or changing business structures, practices and models.

Marketing innovation - developing alternative marketing techniques to deliver improvements in price, position, packaging, product design or promotion.

Supply chain innovation - improving the way that materials are sourced from suppliers or improving methods of product delivery to customers.

Financial innovation - bringing together basic financial concepts. This might
include credit, risk-sharing, ownership or liquidity to produce new financial
services, products or ways of managing business operations.

So why do many organisations fail to innovate?

A recent study by the 'Institute of Employment Studies' identified the following key findings:

• Unsupportive culture.

• Leaders and managers dismissing ideas too soon.

• Leaders in innovative organisations demonstrate that they are more interested in learning from failure than in punishing it.

• Leaders being too risk averse.

• Lack of concrete resources that signal that the organisation is not taking innovation seriously.

• Innovative thinking is stifled when leaders become prescriptive as to how it must be achieved.

• Lack of practical tools and processes for innovation and creative thinking to happen.

• Lack of a sense of common purpose to innovate.

For the purposes of this blog let's look at the last statement.

"Lack of a sense of common purpose to innovate."


Our experience has shown us that everyone has the ability to think creatively about common day-to-day challenges and a culture of creativity is about utilising diverse thinking styles and approaches to problem solving. It's also about allowing people, up and down the hierarchy, to suggest solutions and ideas for anything they see that could be useful for the business. And finally, it's about offering positive incentives and acknowledgment to people for sharing ideas.

However, knowing this is not enough. There also has to be an understanding of - What motivates Whom to be 'creative and innovative' and Why?

There is mounting evidence from creativity studies to suggest that the drive towards creativity is essentially intrinsic.

Harvard's creativity professor, Teresa Amabile posits that:

"People will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself, and not by external pressures or inducements."

Which means that each of us could be encouraged to be creative and share ideas if the personal, value systems that drive and motivate us are recognised and rewarded.

Spiralling towards innovation.

The theory of Spiral Dynamics Integral was developed by Dr Don Beck and utilises some ideas from the Integral philosopher Ken Wilber, included during their brief association. However the core of Dr Beck's theory was drawn from the research and work of Dr Clare W Graves. For around 10 years Don Beck worked very closely with Clare Graves exploring how an individual's value systems developed through life in a process of transcendence and inclusion.

This work eventually resulted in the 'bio psychosocial' theory of human emergence called Spiral Dynamics.


The central idea is that what we humans feel, think and believe evolves through time and is dictated by our neurophysiological development. Our environment and our intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences that become the basis of our changing values, which in turn become the drivers that shape our behaviour, shape this.

In other words, some, if not most of the people, places and things we valued as children cease to motivate us as adults.

The SDi model uses the metaphor of a spiral of energy spiralling upwards as it moves the individual towards satisfying various needs that result in physical, emotional and intellectual adaptions to given life conditions that trigger further stages of development.

The model is not a typology but a description of a flowing process of psychobiological energy that fuels human drives. The drives form nested systems and express the evolution of each individual's personality and the development of culture as a whole.

The evolution of our values begin with:

1st BEIGE - 'ME' orientated - Physical survival and biogenic needs that have to be met. Hunger, thirst, shelter and reproduction are the primary drives.

2nd PURPLE - 'WE' orientated - Safety and security in numbers. Tribal communities are formed with beliefs and rituals to explain and manage the life conditions of the world.

3rd RED - 'ME' orientated - Power Gods, ego and action. Leaving the safety of the tribe to assert the self.

4th BLUE - 'WE' orientated- Stability and order. Obedience to the rules of higher authority. Sacrifice self now to gain bigger and better rewards later.

5th ORANGE - 'ME' orientated- Opportunistic and success orientated. Competing to achieve results. Entrepreneurial, rational and independent. Sacrifice others for self gain.

6th GREEN - 'WE' orientated - Harmony, empathy and love. Joining together for mutual growth in a global family. Everyone is welcome and everyone's opinion is right.

These are considered to be the 1st tier values. After this a second tier emerges and the process of vMeme evolution starts again, only now with Yellow becoming the new beige.

7th Yellow - 'ME' orientated and Independent. Takes an objective perspective and is able to move up and down the first tier value stack, from Beige to Green. A person operating from the Yellow value system is interested in finding and creating a new way of being that acknowledges the interconnection between all life processes and systems. An understanding that all value systems represent a partial truth as they emerged in response to certain life conditions at certain times in the history of a person or culture. Yellow seeks to transcend but include previous values as it moves up the spiral.

Dr Beck went on to develop the theory even further by exploring how cultures that emerge in response to the challenges people face also move up and down the Spiral.

The values that create a cultural paradigm (rituals, symbols or practices) are transmitted from one person to another through writing, speech, gestures, or other contagious and imitable behaviours. The most contagious individuals expressing their ideas and behaviours will most likely dictate the prevailing culture.

Richard Dawkins coined the term Memes to describe how ideas are passed on from person to person creating structures of belief in the same way as genes create biological structures.

In Spiral Dynamics Integral these are referred to as value Memes or 'vMemes' for short.

Integral Idea Generating

We take an integral approach to creativity and Innovation that utilizes the diverse thinking styles, personality types and motivators of diverse groups of people. This is where Spiral Dynamics Integral becomes indispensible as a map for understanding an individual, a team and an organization in terms of the potential for creativity. The central idea to our approach is to acknowledge and utilise people's vMeme perspectives as a motivator for creative thinking.

Time and again research has suggested that 'creative' problem solving is best served when there is a diverse mix of perspectives around an issue. Therefore it is becoming increasingly apparent that there is a need to elicit creativity from each and every individual across all departments in an organization in order to maximize idea generation.

However, as people are more inclined to be creative if they are intrinsically motivated, an idea generating session may be less productive if there are individuals expressing conflicting vMemes because people will express vMemes that represent their adaption to a given situation.

For example some people will become more inclined to seek and impose order if the situation they are experiencing seems chaotic and out of control. Of course this will be a matter of degrees and personal preference. However, when bringing people together to share ideas it is important to both determine which value systems best represent the issue being discussed and which idea generating processes will appeal to the intrinsic drives of the individuals in the group.

The following descriptions outline the various value systems (signified as vMemes) that can provide creative energy from a Spiral Dynamics Integral perspective.

Red vMeme

Egocentric, contrarian. Asserting self for dominance, conquest and power. The expression of an unhealthy set of Red values doesn't easily fit into society. This vMeme is "pre-law and order". It cannot control itself sufficiently enough alone to follow rules. It is expressed in raw displays of power with minimal regard for "right" and "wrong". However, Red's bright ideas can be revealed in the need to grab the limelight and be different and unique. A person expressing a healthy Red may be able to identify the opposite of any category and turn everything on its head to destroy (or invigorate) evolution. The Red vMeme can be useful if there is a need to break out and transform a situation, idea or process that is stuck in sameness.

Blue vMeme

Blue's core needs are for rules, knowledge, and competence. People expressing energy generated by a Blue set of values can be 'Fact Finders' who want to understand and learn and/or develop rules and theories for everything. They value expertise, logic and consistency. Their bright ideas can be revealed in an ability to analyze a situation through research, analysis - searching for laws and patterns as well as identifying and defining the available data to uncover the rules.

Orange vMeme

This vMeme is strategic, enterprising, rational and organizing. Driven by multiplicity and pragmatism to achieve results and get ahead. The energy generated by the orange vMeme is rational but can reject blue's authoritarianism. They value the individual and as such will put "rights" over "responsibilities". Their bright ideas are revealed in the ability to re-organize what already exists in order to move forward and innovate. They like to bend the rules to get ahead, but not too far. A person operating from the orange vMeme will adapt, substitute, modify and re-combine to collate the existing elements to form a new whole.

Green vMeme

This vMeme is relativistic, communal, sharing, affiliate and consensual. 'Everyone' is right. Green's core drivers are energized by working with others towards some greater, collective good. People expressing Green will value unity and authenticity, preferring cooperative interactions with diverse groups of people and helping individuals realize their potential in harmony with each other. No one is better than anyone else - just different. They build bridges between people through empathy and acceptance. The questions they ask are: How does it make you feel? What does it mean for you?

Yellow vMeme

Systemic, objective, improvisational, integrative, existential, flexible and questioning. The focus of people expressing the yellow vMeme is on flexibility, spontaneity and adaption. They like to find connections between conflicting views and value discovery and personal freedom without harm to others or excessive self-interest. They can stand outside a situation and quickly shift their subjective experience into an objective perspective. They see, hear and feel the big picture and their bright ideas are revealed in an ability to integrate disparate elements, blending and creating hybrids at the intersection of two or more positions. Everyone's ideas are considered partially valid and can be integrated in some way. They understand the value of all previous vMemes and seek a process of transcend and include when working creatively.


The drive to innovate exists within every single person in the world. Innovation is an indispensible capability for survival and is the process of an energetic and intelligent life force that is present and active within us all.

It's called 'Evolution'.

The sciences of the mind, body and the environment, both earthly and cosmological, are revealing that all living systems are either evolving themselves, or are part of a larger evolving system and evolution is another word for innovation.

Innovation is the result of an organisms creative adaptions to a given need.

Therefore 'WE' the people are innately creative, all of us, and all that needs to happen in order to encourage us to express our creativity, regardless of which vMemes are energising our behaviour, is to find the code that motivates each of us to innovate.

Spiral Dynamics Integral

We've just returned from spending a few days in Santa Barbara engaging in some continuing, personal and professional development looking at the most recent applications of Spiral Dynamics with Dr Don Beck.



It was great to hear, see and feel how different people are applying a 'biopsychosocial' model to their work during this seminar on the advanced applications of Spiral Dynamics Integral.

Dr Don led the programme, helping us to delve deeper into the theory and practice of this exciting, leading edge, yet surprisingly often, misunderstood technology for personal, professional, cultural and societal evolution.

Darrell Gooden shared some experiences of how he has been working with SD within the US Navy. Elza Maalouf outlined a case study from the work she is doing in Kuwait with the management structure of a well known restaurant and finally, a very interesting and inspiring analysis of the current financial situation from an SD perspective by Said E. Dawlabani.

We've been applying Spiral Dynamics Integral thinking for some time now as it fits perfectly with our four dimensional approach to energising the evolution of creativity, innovation and communication in organisations. Over the few days we spent together, the team of delegates worked on case studies, discussed our own projects and presented our experiences through the lenses of spiralling vMemes. It was great to share our thoughts and experiences with fellow SDi practitioners and refresh our understanding by talking things through. It was also fantastic to get up close and personal with Dr Don to explore how we will all be moving Spiral Dynamics Integral forward into the future.

Our Mojos have well and truly been re-energised by a combination of the seminar and the Californian sunshine, so we're looking forward to spiralling back to work this week.

Generation WE : The Movement Begins...

Hopefully...?

The Future Risk and Our Work

Looking through the World Economic Forum’s 2011 report on global risks has helped us focus on the future of the work we do from an engagement and innovation perspective.

We have been thinking for sometime about why we do what we do and what it means to us and those we work with. Since looking through a number of reports on megatrends, sustainability and the future of the global economy we are becoming very clear about which type organisations we want to work with and why, going forward into 2012 and beyond.

What seems clear about the current, global situation is that the Western world is not in a position to handle many more new shocks. The current financial crisis has taken it's toll as many people are pushing towards the edge of personal, economic disaster and some have already gone over the top. From a national and global perspective the disparity between rich and poor and potential social unrest seriously threaten our future wellbeing.

Recent research suggests this is due to four interconnected categories of risk.

Energy, food and water shortages and climate change.

Disease pandemics and geopolitical unrest.

Currency instability, fiscal crises and asset price collapse.

Growing criminality, corruption, terrorism and illegal trade.

Due to the interdependent, economic relationships between nations around the world we will need solid global governance and collaboration between businesses in the private and public sectors in all nations to tackle these issues.

Experts suggest that the key to facing the up and coming challenges in the four areas is in identifying risks quickly and implementing effective interventions as soon as possible.

The World Food Programme, The Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Risk Response Network are examples of organisations at the leading edge of helping to tackle the issue of risk assessment and intervention.

Global socio-economic reports suggest we need to strengthen global coordination in order to create stronger financial systems of control, and develop (and put in place) innovative fiscal models that tackle long term, and under or unfunded issues like pensions and health care for our aging populations.

Also a coordinated move is required globally to increase communication and transparency to prevent flows of illegal capital from fragile nations trading in arms, drugs, prostitution and corrupt business practices. Haromising global laws and increasing information exchange through businesses and social networks would help to identify the emerging hot spots.

Continued awareness raising around the human impact of illegal capital is also vital to try and discourage people from buying goods that may have an illicit trail.

Successful businesses rely on the wellbeing of the ordinary working people and nations they trade with for their own stability so it is becoming increasingly vital for companies to take some responsibility for economic disparity they may be helping to create within the societies they operate in.

In the next decade the global population is predicted to grow to 7.7 billion people all looking to live a meaningful and healthy life. Cooperation and investment between nations and businesses around the impact of their policies on populations, environments and creation, use and distribution of resource like food, water and energy is another vital step that needs to be taken. This could include market led pricing to reflect the value, fragility and scarcity of resources used.

Finally, and probably most importantly, investment in encouraging creativity and new ideas. Developing technological innovations and finding breakthrough, socio-economic solutions to enhance and protect the health of people and environments and prolong the availability and supply of key resources is absolutely necessary for human wellbeing.

We've been thinking long and hard about this state of affairs and asking ourselves what we can do.

How are we uniquely placed to help in some way?

Our work is about increasing organisational engagement through helping people understand their unique value stacks, from a Spiral Dynamics Integral perspective, as a resource for energy and motivation. We also help people to develop their communication skills, expand their capacity for creativity and thereby encourage and increase networks of communication and innovation in companies through idea sharing.

As we understand it, a considerable part of the solution lays in increasing an individual's, a team's and an organisation's capacity for effective communication, collaboration and creativity.

With this in mind, we at 4DHuman being have made a pledge to try and only work with organisations that we feel understand the global issues outlined above and are willing to develop (or are currently developing) a policy and corporate strategy that includes addressing these global challenges in some way. However large or small the contribution.

Tom and Philippa

The A-maze-ing Brain

We were talking this morning about the human brain and more specifically the folds in the human brain.

These large grooves are called fissures - the smaller ones being called sulci, and the bigger outward folds being called gyri. This brain shape phenomena developed as the size and complexity of the human brain grew and evolved but the size of the human skull remained relatively unchanged.


The brain matter ‘sausaged’ itself into folds so that more of it could fit in the skull so we could have more and more complex thoughts without heads so large and heavy that our necks would break and human evolution cease altogether.

Much of our brain activity takes place on the outer layer of cells on the brain’s surface- so it makes sense to pack the brain into the skull in a way that allows for greater overall surface volume. On top of this our brains generate a vast amount of heat that a greater surface area allows us to release more efficiently - the science behind the winter wisdom of the bobble hat and the Victorian night cap.

So these are the benefits. Lots of short wave brain connections in the outer layers of brain cells and more efficient heat emissions. But there’s a way in which the very brilliance of the human brain’s design may indeed be limiting our own human brilliance.

The thing is – connections can’t jump across folds. So for all the connections we can and do make on a daily basis – there are some that remain separated, perhaps forever.

Think about the brain like Hampton Court maze. You go into the maze and try to find your way around it. You get lost down one of the many neural hedgeways when suddenly you bump into someone. You ask them if they know the way out but they don’t have anything to offer other than to join hands and continue a trial and error approach. That was the sum of possible connection in this branch of the brain maze. You have no idea who else is in the maze, if indeed anyone is. And if there is someone over the other side of the maze with additional information that might help you solve your dilemma, you’ll probably never find them.

Now imagine those folds and folds of hedge suddenly open up into a huge open perimeter and you can see everyone who was in the maze. Suddenly an open, loud, dialogue can take place between all of you on how to find the exit in the hedge in the best possible way. Or one of them might have a better idea like cracking open their champagne hamper and not bothering with an exit at all. Suddenly a whole range of possibilities open up in this smooth, open maze.

This condition of a fold-less brain in humans is known as Lessencephaly (or ‘Smooth Brain’) syndrome and often results in the sufferer developing an unusually small head. The gene-linked condition can lead to various physical and psycho-motor retardations. But even if the brain could somehow be stretched out in this way but retain its full volume and capacity, the size of such a fold-less, smooth brain on top of our current skeletal frame would kill us.

But what if we were even able to open up a small section of the maze. If just a bit of our brain didn’t have the standard fissures and barrier to brand new connections?
Could this small gift of cerebral open innovation turn us into some kind of Einstein?
Well, yes, that’s exactly what it could do. And indeed, what it did, for none other than Einstein himself.

Research published in the Canadian Lancet of Einstein’s preserved brain suggest that his intelligence may actually have been related in part to the absence of a fissure in a brain area involved in mathematical thinking, the inferior parietal lobe. So the connections he was able to make in order to come up with the theory of relativity, understand light and conceive of the idea that led to the creation of the atomic bomb – were due in part to the fact that no gyri or sulci brain fold barriers stood in the way of him making those connections in that part of his brain.

For now, however, our maze brains are the best evolution has to offer the human race.

But what if we applied our new Maze-Brain theory to organisations? What if all those folds and barriers broke down and suddenly every possible connection between every person, system and process in the organisation could be made? Look what Einstein came up with by the reduction of only one barrier. Imagine what ideas and innovations could arise with total open maze thinking within an organisation.

It could be…a-maze-ing.

Philippa

Contagion and Life in the Virtual Global Village

More research confirming the power of contagious feelings, thoughts and behaviours.

Your Brand

"It's difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. Everything beautiful in the world is within you. No-one really feels self-confident deep down because it's an artificial idea. Really, people aren't that worried about what you're doing or what you're saying, so you can drift around the world relatively anonymously: you must not feel persecuted and examined. Liberate yourself from that idea that people are watching you" - Russell Brand


I stumbled across this quote from Russell Brand this morning and thought it worthy of a blogette. Love him or hate him Russell Brand is walking the talk of self creation. So can we and should we look at this eccentric celeb for inspiration?

Well, from the quantum foam, to the big and continuing bang up through the evolution of the quark to the atom to the molecule to the cell to the human and – well to YOU – it’s all been and continues to be one big act of creation. So if underneath all the constructs of creation you are in fact quantum foam, the ground of being, or whatever you prefer to call it – that means you continue to create. To create yourself. So if as Russell says self confidence is merely an artificial idea, then so is lack of self confidence. If they're both artificial it makes no difference which one you choose. Other than - which one feels better?

Yes, we have our inherited biology, shared culture and environment to contend with. But can a committed shift in an individual’s subjective experience impact those other aspects? In Integral speak – can a big enough change in the upper left quadrant of subjective experience (the mind) impact the other three quadrants (objective self, shared culture and environment) enough to create permanent change? Could someone, for example imagine a life of fame and fortune and create that reality in their mind strongly enough to actually change their external and shared reality into the life of a courted celebrity. Er Russell…?

Philippa

Intelligence and Creativity?

Imagine you are walking alone, on your way home, late at night and you are suddenly surrounded by two, hefty muggers. Just as they are about to accost you, time freezes and out of nowhere Neo, the hero character from the Matrix Trilogy appears and grants you one wish.


He says: " It's your lucky day because you get to choose one of the following creative, intelligent and talented people to come and help you."

• Einstein


• Marie Curie


• Mariah Carey


• Arnie


• Bruce Lee


• Bill Gates

Which would you choose and why?

Take a moment to reflect before you read any further.

Okay who did you go for?

Well, unless we want someone to sing the attackers to death, Mariah is out of the picture. Bill Gates could offer them some cash, but I doubt if ever carries any, and Arnie is a big guy but also a bit slow.

I'd be staking my money, and my life, on Bruce Lee; If he were alive of course.

The fact is that Bruce Lee had a specific talent for fighting unlike any other martial arts expert. This is because he was both physically creative and intelligent.

He applied his creative ability to developing new and innovative moves to build his unique form of martial arts that he called Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist).

He applied his intelligence to identifying where to deliver devastating blows on the opponents body and when, with a clever and calculated precision.

When we look at highly successful individuals who are known for a specific talent we can see something more than mere virtuosity. We see a combination of intelligence and creativity.

Most people I've talked to don't immedeatly think of creativity and intelligence as a combo. Creativity is often seen as a 'special' gift or capability reserved for naturally talented individuals who work in the arts, while intelligence is usually associated with academics. But the more we explore this area we discover that creativity can be expressed in everyday behaviours, in any number of ways; from figuring out how to get yourself back into your home after having locked yourself out without a key, to putting together a list of dinner guests.

Now, you might be thinking these are simply examples of problems that need solving with some rational and logical thought. However, the novelty and effectiveness of the solution you come up with will determine whether your idea is creative, intelligent or a combination of both. Interestingly there seems to be a strong relationship between intelligence and creativity and there are many more than just one type of intelligence.This was explored in some detail by the developmental psychologist Howard Gardner and his theory of 'Multiple Intelligences' 1993.

Gardner believes that we do not have just one IQ but rather we potentially have multiple Intelligences. He also suggests that each intelligence has it's own IQ. This flies in the face of traditional thinking where a person is normally assumed to have just one, high, low or average intelligence. Added to this, research by various creativity experts suggests that people are often driven to think more creatively when they are motivated by something they personally value.

For instance if you love food, you may look for innovative ways to prepare vegetables. If you enjoy socializing, you may come up with creative ideas for themed parties. If you are a mathematician, you may enjoy the creativity inherent in the theory of quantum physics and if you are a passionate sports person you may express creativity in the way you play your sport. For example, David Beckham is a very stylish and creative soccer player.

Creativity at it's most dramatic is a behaviour driven by two impulses.

• The impulse to express an idea.

• The impulse to bring into being a new reality.

And we will often have more talent for subjects and tasks that are in alignment with our natural preferences.

But before we explore further let's look at how some experts describe creativity?

"Creativity is the forming of associative elements into new combinations which either meet specified requirements or are in some way useful." S.A.Mednick 1962

" Creativity is defined as a process of becoming sensitive to problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missing elements and disharmonies. E.P Torrence 1966

"Creativity can be regarded as the quality of products of responses judged to be creative by appropriate observers, and it can also be regarded as the process by which something so judged is produced."
T.M. Amabile 1983

"Creativity is a combination of a high level of intelligence combined with a novel or eccentric approach to life and it's challenges. However, some of the most highly creative people, from any walk of life will be able to express themselves in 4 dimensions- Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally and Spiritually." 
4D Human being-Cheeky!

Intelligence is usually associated with the ability to effectively think both logically and abstractly, and process, store and articulate large amounts of knowledge and information. But it is proving to be much broader than we think.

We now know for instance there is something called EQ, also known as 'Emotional' intelligence, as outlined in the works of Daniel Goleman 1999, Howard Gardner -Harvard, Peter Salovey -Yale and John 'Jack' Mayer - New Hampshire.

There is also an intelligence called SQ - 'Spiritual'intelligence, a subject on which Dan Zohar has written extensively. SQ could be described as your inner drives and motivations energised by your values and beliefs.

Then there is 'Physical' intelligence. Science has long revealed that the body has it's own communication systems carried along the nerves by 'intelligent' chemicals and hormones. For example performers, singers, actors, and athletes rely on this type of intelligence of the body.

Lets have a deeper look at Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence types and see how and where they fit into the categories of the four dimensions of human expression.

The following three types of intelligences as identified by Gardner could be categorised under 'Physical' intelligence and each can be applied creatively.

Visual Spatial intelligence - Thinking that is primarily in pictures. People expressing this type of intelligence have a high level of physical awareness and understand how they relate to and occupy space. This would include artists, engineers, and architects.

Kinaesthetic intelligence - This type of intelligence includes a high level of control of bodily movement with an ability to handle objects skillfully. This would be a capability possessed by successful athletes, dancers, actors, surgeons, comedians, builders and artisans. People like Vanessa Williams, Michael Jordan, Jim Carrie, Dr Christian Bernard, Fred Astaire and Beyoncé Knowles.

Musical intelligence - The person who expresses this intelligence has a high level of sensitivity to rhythm, melody, and sound. It would include instrumentalists, singers, conductors, and composers. Even though Beethoven lost his hearing, his creative intelligence was so high in this area he was still able to continue composing right up to the end of his life, when he was completely deaf.

The next two types of intelligence would fit into the standard measures for Intellect.

Logical intelligence - People with this capacity include scientists, mathematicians, engineers, doctors and economists. Albert Einstein is the most famous scientist expressing a 'creative intelligence' for logical thought. He once imagined himself riding on a sunbeam and zooming out into the universe and came up with the 'General Theory of Relativity'. This eventually led to modern day physics (quantum physics) which is very creative theory indeed.

Linguistic intelligence - This group includes writers, lawyers, philosophers, politicians and teachers. Anyone that can work creatively with language will be expressing linguistic intelligence. James Joyce and William Shakespeare are the obvious contenders that most of us will have heard of.

The third type of intelligence can be described as Spiritual/motivational and Gardner has identified what he calls:

Existential intelligence - This includes Philosophers and mystics. Many of whom are very creative in terms of articulating and expressing their experiences. We might think of the great ancient Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus who were the first to create ideas about atoms and the interconnection of the universe. This was way before anyone ever knew about the big bang or quantum physics. And just before Galileo pointed his telescope out into the night sky a mystic monk called Giordano Bruno (1548 -1600) used his imagination to visualise our universe as a place where there are many other suns with earth like planets around them; and also that the universe was infinite with no centre. Unfortunately his creative intelligence cost him his life. However we are now discovering that what he imagined is probably true.

Finally we have the 'Emotional' dimension, which would include:

Interpersonal intelligence - Important for politicians, managers, teachers, social workers and diplomats. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were masters of creatively applying their emotional intelligence to connect with people. Sadly for both, some might say their creativity caused them to finish up painting way 'off the emotional canvas'.

Intra-personal intelligence - This is the ability to explore, understand and create our own internal world through thoughts and imagination. Expressed by psychologists, theologians, writers and scientists. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, arguably the godfathers of psychoanalysis, were incredibly intelligent and creative in this dimension. In fact much of Carl Jung's writings and drawings appear to be more like works of art and poetry than psychological theory.

Referring to Gardner's ideas we can begin to create a model that actually helps to offer us a definition for the word creativity as an experience of an individual using and expressing specific and diverse intelligences in creative ways. Therefore we might now be more specific in saying that talent might be described as the expression of different types of 'Creative Intelligence'.

How do you express yours?

Tom

Are We Evolving Happily?

We've been thinking about happiness and the recent stats bandied about by people who have read Sonja Lyubomirsky's research and began wondering about the evolution of happiness.

Sonja's findings reveal that happiness is determined by the following factors:


50% - Your genes
40% - What you think about the world and your attitude to what happens to you
10% - Your physical environment and social and personal circumstances

Apparently you can tip the balance on the happiness scale favourably against the genetic dimension by focussing your attention on positively re-framing your thinking around what you believe and value and then acting (where and when possible) to change your situation.

The biologist Bruce Lipton suggests that thinking energised positive thoughts and maintaining a positive attitude actually impacts on our genes by turning off 'bad' genes and turning on 'good' genes. Dr Ernest Rossi tells us that his research is revealing that novelty, life-enriching experiences and physical exercise can turn on positive gene expression within minutes throughout the body and brain so we can actually reconstruct ourselves from a genetic level. And Dr Jeffrey Schwarz has a body of research on brain plasticity that shows thinking really does alters the structures in our brains to help us overcome phobias.

If these eminent individuals are to be believed then we can evolve into 'happy' beings with a bit of concentrated thought. However, as the brain is the most energy hungry organ in the human body using up to 20% of our energy reserves we might want to consider some genetic engineering type surgery to help us along. This might seem like the equivalent of genetic liposuction but this snippet from an article by Olly Bootle in the 'Independent' highlights more on this:

"When it comes to changes in our future, it's hard to think of anything that will have as much of an impact on our evolution as our ability to tamper directly with our genes.

Dr Jeff Steinberg runs The Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles, a fertility clinic that helps couples to conceive using IVF. Using a technique called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), embryos are screened to try to ensure they're free of genetic diseases.

During the screening process, it's obvious whether an embryo is male or female, and couples can choose the sex of the embryo to be implanted in the womb. This is illegal in the UK, but in the US, "anyone can choose. They can choose a boy, or a girl, and we've done this close to 9,000 times now," Dr Steinberg says.

But genetic diseases and the sex of the embryo aren't the only traits that Dr Steinberg's technicians can see. The clinic attracted controversy recently when it announced that it would allow parents to choose the eye and hair colour of their offspring. "We heard from a lot of people, including the Catholic Church, that had some big problems with it," says Dr Steinberg. "So we retracted it, even though we can do it, we're not doing it."

Dr Steinberg is in little doubt that PGD, and genetic engineering more broadly, will play a major role in humanity's future. "I think it will play a huge part in our evolution and I think rightfully so. We need to be cautious about it because it can go right and it can go wrong, but I think trying to remove it as part of our future evolution is just a task that's not going to be accomplished."

It turns out that our culture and technology, like genetic engineering, can change our world so much that rather than sheltering us from natural selection, it can actually drive our evolution.

As Stearns says: "We see rapid evolution when there's rapid environmental change, and the biggest part of our environment is culture, and culture is exploding. We are continuing to evolve, our biology is going to change with culture and it's just a matter of not being able to see it because we're stuck in the middle of the process right now."

It seems that the direction of our future evolution may be driven not by nature, but by us."

Hmmmmmm.....Happy co-creating!

Tom

Think on Top Of The Box

We've been talking, as ever, about creativity being an innate and universal capacity expressed in behaviour and how we believe any being can consciously create. It's simply a matter of combining learned behaviours in new configurations to solve a problem or introduce a new way of doing something. Absolutely everyone has this capacity. Even pigeons are at it.



So next time you're stuck for an idea don't just think outside the box actually stand on one.

How To Channel More Creative Energy

Do you sometimes feel anxious for no apparent reason?

Great!… You could be on your way to tapping into some extra creative energy.

The eminent, existential psychologist Rollo May suggests that:
"Anxiety is associated with creativity. Anxiety means the world is knocking at your door, and you need to create, you need to make something, you need to do something. It is a stimulus toward creativity."


Easy to say until you start feeling anxious. So before we look at creativity let's reflect on some of the causes of anxiety?

Anxiety can be a reaction to certain unwanted life conditions. A person, place or thing may upset us and the first reaction to something we don't want is to run away from it.

Therefore anxiety generates energy within us.

But some of us use this energy to try to avoid anxious feelings and thoughts by numbing them with alcohol or drugs. Others sublimate their anxious energy by 'doing' things like making or spending money, seeking thrills and physical pleasures. The problem is that often these things do not lead to any real or permanent satisfaction.

However creating or making something can give us a deeper sense of achievement, purpose and satisfaction. Those who have successfully built a cupboard or a piece of furniture, cooked a fabulous meal, painted or drawn a picture, created and tended a garden landscape or decorated a home will have experienced this.

We can think of anxiety as having 4 dimensions and 3 levels.

The 4 dimensions begin with the physical aspects of human being.

Physical anxiety is triggered by threats to our physique and physical well being. For example a violent attack, the experience of dangerous environments, diseases, hunger and thirst.

Emotional anxiety is closely connected to the physical in that we translate physical experiences into emotions such as fear, pain, pleasure, happiness and love.

Intellectual anxiety is triggered by the thoughts we construct in our minds based on our stored information, knowledge, ideas and beliefs about life and the world in which we live.

And finally Spiritual anxiety can be triggered by an infringement of our personal boundaries. These are set by what we value, the ethics and morals we hold dear and the personal meaning we give to life.

Of course these four dimensions are interconnected and inseparable in a healthy functioning human being. However when our four dimensions are integrated we have access to tremendous amounts of personal energy to apply creatively.

The three levels can be thought of as:

Conscious
Subconscious and
Unconscious

The first level is the anxiety that we are Conscious of and are consciously dealing with directly in the tasks, challenges and problems we face day to day. These are situations, people, places and things we recognise as the obvious causes of our anxious feelings.

The next level of anxiety is Subconscious and connected to real concerns and worries we have about certain situations in life; health, relationships and money for instance. However in order to get on with life we tend to put these worries to the back of our minds. But the energy and feeling of 'background' anxious thoughts is always present and can leave us feeling a tightness in the chest or with a queasy tummy.

Feelings of hunger, dehydration, hormone imbalance or even uncomfortable clothing are often first experienced and registered Unconsciously but they can surface as bad feelings that get attached to environments or people we interact with. It is an interesting fact to note that most daily anxiety we experience is unconscious and free floating that starts life as a physical symptom. For instance - we might suddenly experience the normal actions of a colleague or friend as annoying when in fact we are just feeling hungry or thirsty. We can then unconsciously translate these physical feelings into emotions and thoughts that we then express and turn into actions which create an event with a negative outcome.

So how can anxiety become a source of creative energy?

There is much research to suggest that doing something creative is a good cure for anxiety and some very creative people draw on anxious feelings for inspiration and energy.

For example - the celebrated poet and writer T.S. Eliot believed - "Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity" and the philosopher Charles Frankl thought that - "Anxiety is the essential condition of intellectual and artistic creation."

I think we can trust that these people had something of value to say on the subject.

How do we reconcile anxiety with creativity?

The first thing is to recognise that anxiety is fundamentally about the fear of the unknown and directly related to the fear of death. Creativity can be thought of as a response to the fear of death and destruction. A good example of creativity in action is the interplay between high and low entropic states in the universe which scientists are beginning to believe caused the most creative moment ever ‘The Big Bang’. Or rather the ‘big expansion’ as it’s fast becoming known.

The most fundamental act of creativity expressed by human beings is the act of procreation and it is well document that during war time and disaster birth rates increase.


The psychologist Stephen Diamond Ph.D. offers that: "Anxiety stems from conflict and creativity is an attempt to constructively resolve that conflict."

So the trick is learning to use feelings of anxiety to generate the energy to face life's challenges head on and respond rather than escape from them. Creativity can then begin to be about facing our fear and finding the courage to create.

To do that we must be willing to take a risk.

I often start a day on creativity by inviting delegates to pair up and draw each other on small PostIt's. After two minutes of drawing I then ask them to show their partner the drawing they have made. At this point many people express anxiety at showing their drawing to the other person for fear of being judged as a terrible artist or offending the person with the likeness (or lack of) they have produced. This is the point at which we openly discuss the relationship between the energy of anxiety and it's impact on creativity. The key is to harness the energy of our anxiety and turn it outwards towards creative action rather than allowing that energy to turn inwards and inhibit us.

Art therapy is an interesting example of how anxiety can be sublimated, relieved and understood through creativity.

We need energy to take action so by utilising forms of creative expression to generate energy like drama, writing, drawing, painting, dance and music therapists can work with the nonverbal symbols and metaphors that people produce within the creative process. In this context anxiety is translated into artwork and depression and anxiety can be more easily communicated and understood by the person who is experiencing them.

So next time you feel anxious, first celebrate that you now have the extra energy for some creativity.

Secondly check where it's coming from and get strategic.

Is the root cause physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual?

Once you've identified the source see if you can harness that energy and reframe your thinking to redirect the anxious energy towards creating something.

If you’re hungry or thirsty use that energy to create something interesting to eat or drink by combining some tasty or unusual ingredients.

If it’s emotional, intellectual or spiritual produce a symbol or representation of your feelings, thoughts and beliefs. It could be a number, an equation or a poem, a sentence, a word or a doodle. Maybe just make a sound; hum or whistle a tune or write a short lyric. Anything that releases your emotional anxiety into the world as an object so you can look at it and maybe share it with others.

Once you get used to making the connection between anxious feelings and creativity you will gradually develop the habit and a new capacity to go directly towards creatively responding to life's challenges.

Finally Carl Jung suggests: "If you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you can just create yourself."

After all the more we learn about the universe and our place in it through modern science, quantum physics and evolutionary biology and psychology the more the meaning of life seems to be less about finding yourself and more about creating yourself.

Either way your anxiety can be a way of re-energising your creativity.

Tom

Creativity out of Nothing!

Just been reading about the most creative moment ever...'The Big Bang.'
Apparently cosmologists have determined that creation began from perturbations in a field of nothingness.


In other words the condition from which the big bang emerged was a timeless, spaceless emptiness containing absolutely no-thing but the potential to become 'something'. So before the most creative act in the universe there was no information, no feelings, no thoughts, no plans and no ideas. Simply an urge to do and be something. However, one tiny twitch in emptiness and 13.7 billion years later I am able to sit here typing this blog on my Mac - an innovative extension of my brain.

So next time you're anxious about not having any creative ideas, empty your mind and wait.

A 'big bang' might just occur!

And What Do You Do?

I'm not a great lover of typologies, labels and pidgeonholes as a rule. So for most of my adult life I have struggled with trying to answer the question "What do you do?"
This has been a challenging question for me as I am aware of the amount of projection and assumption that can be loaded on to any answer I give in response. Particularly as, in my youth, I spent some time dressing ladies hair.

Though I have 'done' many other things to earn a living in my life time from working in a Tax office to cooking and selling cheese burgers on Eastbourne's seafront, graphic designing, singing, acting, writing, and even a spell performing a hypnotic, mind reading act. But I have rarely if ever identified with any of those things in a way that made me feel confident that a description of what I do would be representative of me.

As a result when people ask me what I do I often end up sounding confused and evasive. I then get embarrassed and lose the ability to speak in coherent sentences for about two minutes. You could say i have developed a phobic response to that question. In fact it could be even worse today as the work I do now transcends and includes elements of everything I have ever done before.

Yes, I know there's a miriad of stock techniques to use. Define your brand...blah di blah...and what it is you do...blah blah... then work out how your customer or client benefits and gets value as a result of your product or service and start with that.

For example: If you sell 'alarm clock tea makers' your answer to the question "And what do you do?" could be: "I ensure that people get to enjoy their first hot drink of the day whenever, wherever and however they like it"....sort of thing. Done well, this technique is a great conversation starter.

But still, I have always been reluctant to define myself by what I do. I'd rather tell someone who I am.

And that can take some time.

But I recently had an encounter that may offer a cure for my phobic response to the 'What do you do?" question.

I was attending an event and was introduced to someone who almost immediately asked me the dreaded question... So I stumbled a bit, made a couple of funnies as I'm prone to do to hide by discomfort and then delivered something similar to the monologue above. They then said: "Okay, so who are you then?"

And that's when the trouble started.

Fortunately for me this person was intelligent, articulate and kind and was able to deftly move me towards a conversation about work, life and the universe.

After about 20 minutes of chat they'd had enough and we exchanged cards. Just as the person turned to leave they said " By the way, I think you might be a Cultural Creative....Look it up."

So I did.

If you've clicked on the link above you'll know most of what you need to know by now but I'll post the following just for completeness.

Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson seem to have originated the term and created the following questionnaire to identify people who might fit the category. Apparently if you agree with more than 10 of the statements below, you could be described as a cultural creative.

Love of nature and deep caring about its preservation, and its natural balance.

Strong awareness of the planet-wide issues (i.e. climate change, poverty, overpopulation, etc.) and a desire to see more action taken on them.

Willingness to pay higher taxes or spend more money for goods if that money went to improving the environment.

Heavy emphasis on the importance of developing and maintaining relationships

Heavy emphasis on the importance of helping others and developing their unique gifts.

Volunteer with one or more good causes.

Intense interest in spiritual and psychological development.

See spirituality as an important aspect of life, but concerned about religious fundamentalism.

Desire equity for women/men in business, life and politics.

Concern and support of the wellbeing (oa. freedom) of all women and children.

Want politics and government to spend more money on education, community programs and the support of a more ecologically sustainable future.

Are unhappy with the left and right in politics.

Optimism towards the future.

Want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life.

Are concerned with big business and the means they use to generate profits, including destroying the environment and exploiting poorer countries.

Unlikely to overspend or be in heavy debt.

Dislike the emphasis of modern cultures on "making it" and "success", on consuming and making money.

Like people, places and things that are different or exotic.

Value authenticity, actions must be consistent with words and beliefs.

Value whole process learning; seeing the world as interwoven and connected.

Value Globalism and ecology.

Value self-actualization, and spirituality.

While I don't identify with all the statements above I did score more than 10, so I guess that puts me in a pidgeonhole- should I choose to stay in it.

However, the more I think about the term, I'm not sure I can actually bring myself to say to someone " Oh yes, I'm a Cultural Creative." But the term does seem to both describe some of what I do and some of who I am.

Let's just say I'm road testing it for now!

Tom

'Think Big' in The FT

Here is what the FT had to say about innovation initiatives in the UK. We were delighted to read that 'TaTa Global Beverages' stood out from the crowd. Management consultancy Just Add Water invited Philippa to head up and facilitate the UK and European idea generating programme and she was delighted to see one of her teams go on to win the Global finals in New York with the best idea for an innovation. Which is currently in development.

Here is a snippet from an article Tim Smedley wrote for The FT January 13 2011

Employee ideas thrown to the dragons

The boardroom is buzzing with a mix of excitement and nerves. A team of employees optimistically watches as the executive directors assess their prototype: a dainty black box crafted from recycled paper for a proposed postal gift scheme.
The future of their idea sits in the hand of the director of talent. “What happens to this in the post?” she asks. Without waiting for an answer, she crushes both the box and the team’s hopes.

If that sounds like a scene out of Dragons’ Den, well, it is. Just not the television version. Rather, this was at Addiction Worldwide, a London-based communications agency. The team are employees participating in a team-building and training event that has been styled on the programme.

“The blueprint is already there,” says James Lizars, finance director at the company. “You only need to start to describe it, and employees say: ‘Ah, like Dragons’ Den?’”

Similar scenes are happening in boardrooms and breakout areas across the UK. Typically, employees are asked to come up with product ideas or process innovations based on certain criteria. Once the ideas have been filtered, shortlisted teams pitch their ideas to a panel of dragons – typically, members of the executive team – who offer their views.

Asda, the supermarket chain owned by Walmart, and Boots, the UK pharmacy chain, run similar schemes, and commit to integrating the winning idea into the business.At Asda, Sarah Cullen, head of reward and recognition, believes the buzz around the TV programme is key to getting staff engaged with the process. “If we had said ‘this is the Asda ideas scheme’, people would be less likely to get involved.”

The company takes this one step further by enlisting the judging talents of Peter Jones, a real-life TV dragon. Boots also boasts Mr Jones among its dragons, as well as Karren Brady from The Apprentice and Adrian Moorhouse, the former Olympic swimmer turned management consultant.

Both of their efforts, however, pale in comparison to Tata Global Beverages’ Think BIG! scheme.

The process covers 26 locations in 10 countries, including brands such as Tetley Tea in the UK, 8 O’Clock Coffee in the US and Tata tea and coffee in India.

The competition first ran in 2010 with regional finals in London, New Jersey and Bangalore. Participants were voted on at each event by an X Factor-style panel of judges and audience made up of employees, while others watched and voted on their laptops. The regional winners were whisked off to the finals at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Tata was coy about revealing the winning idea, citing commercial sensitivity – a sign of how seriously such competitions are taken – but the runners-up included a pitch for a protein tea, presented by a team dressed in sumo suits.





Think Big! Really did generate a buzz around the world and Tata Global Beverages are already looking forward to Think Big 2011.

And so are we!