In October, I set out to transform my room to create an inviting atmosphere. I couldn’t paint my walls, so instead I painted sheets of A3 and tacked them to my wall. As my walls are filling up, the change to the room is incredible.
Things I have learned from this project:
- Side benefit #7: Painting is a great way to relax, and at the same time exercise the creative side of the brain.
- Bigger Picture #2: I wanted to learn how to paint. Having a bigger purpose of “transforming my room” gave me the motivation I needed.
- Insight #1: It would have been easy to say, “I don’t like my room, but there is nothing I can do about it”. Instead, being open to possibility allowed for a creative, fun way around my constraints.
What can you do to cultivate your intuition and creativity?
Try meditation. It is not just a spiritual practice. Meditation serves to calm the rampant mind-chatter that runs through your head. When your thoughts quiet down, truth and insight arise from within. It is from this place where creativity flows naturally.
There are many techniques: pick one, try it for 15 minutes each day for the period of a month, and record the changes you experience.
The world we live in treasures the intellectual mind. From a young age we go to school - a structured environment where we are taught to follow instructions, process information and return expected answers in order to succeed. We are not encouraged to fail, nor are we given the freedom to define our own path.
This is the same in the workplace. We are expected to show up on time and follow the process we need to get the job done.
But the dark secret is that true value, both in our lives and in business, comes from creativity and new ideas. Creativity doesn’t come from intellect but from intuition - a skill few have taken the time to cultivate.
Either you can see possibility in the world, or you can see the threats, problems and dangers. If you’re really talented, you will see possibility where others see a threat. This is called turning a problem into a challenge.
The magic secret is to understand that what you see is your choice. Do you notice yourself feeling defensive or mulling over issues? Then ask yourself:
- What is the opportunity in this situation?
- What is the challenge that lies in this problem?
- How could I transform this into something good?
Life is a funny set of challenges, pushing us to grow and discover.
It seems a mysterious playground at times, but at others it seems anything but in a work environment that is filled with pessimism and irritation, and surrounded with negative world news. I find myself living in a world which seems driven by a strange obsession with money as measure success, which does not appear to be as fulfilling as society likes to portray.
Stuck in a mess of conflicting belief systems, it is not always easy to stand up to this confusion, face your fears and forge your own, true path.
But at the end of the road, on your deathbed, don’t you want to at least be able to look back and say you had the guts to give it your best shot?
Edward de Bono has contributed much to business with his research into creative thinking and teaching thinking as a skill. One of his books, “Six Thinking Hats” is about effective communication.
De Bono created these 6 thinking hats as a means to shift from your standard argumentative style to parallel thinking - taking all sides of an argument one at a time, and looking at them together in the same direction.
With the six thinking hats, there is a hat for each direction. And everyone is expected to contribute for each direction. It’s not about wining an argument, but designed to increase the power of decision making, save time, remove the ego, and to achieve clarity by focusing on one thing at a time.
The six thinking hats are:
- White Hat: neutral & objective - facts & figures
- Red Hat: rage & emotions - the emotional view
- Black Hat: cautious & careful - the weakness in an idea
- Yellow Hat: optimistic & hopeful - positive thinking
- Green Hat: creativity & new ideas
- Blue Hat: control & organization of other hats
I just discovered a site called Jiibe which offers a free assessment of the type of culture you would like to work in. It also allows you to rate the company you work for…
As a bonus, it shows you the closest matching companies, constantly refining the mix as you answer more questions. Apparently I should be checking out companies like Nitobi Software and Digital Opinion. Interesting.
I stumbled upon an improv workshop this evening, run by Just Add Water. The company’s focus is to use theater, improve and role-play to improve understanding of human dynamics and solve organizational issues in the workplace.
The 4 C’s of Improvisation:
- Consistency: Accepting the reality your partner creates.
- Context: Building on the reality in the context of the scene.
- Cooperation: Act as if you’re part of the scene.
- Character: Become the character, be active in defining and using imaginary objects in the world.
The best way to learn something is by doing it… a lot of it. The more I paint, the more my pictures start to look better than a 3-year old with finger-paint. A large stumbling block in learning new skills is the belief that we need perfect results, and we’re not good enough. Only, skills don’t magically appear… you’ve got to start somewhere. Personally, I find it quite fun to chuck this useless belief aside.
Today I am in celebration over my sister (and her husband)’s new bouncing baby boy, Alexander Oscar Bamberg. And, in this ultimate act of creation, I have become an uncle without so much as lifting a finger - even though I am some 4,867 miles away. Now, that’s a miracle. Congratulations and best wishes to the Bamberg family.
