The Fertile Unknown

Improvisation for Leaders

I am conducting a workshop on July 20, 2006 in the Washington, DC area called Improvisation for Leaders - using the practices and principles of improvisational theater for leadership effectiveness. (See "4 New Workshops" posted on this blog June 21). It blends improvisation with business skill building. Improvisational skills, once learned, stay with you for life. They form the foundation for improving a leader's ability to be a great mentor, coach, manager, and leader.

Today's business world requires leaders and entrepreneurs to be open to new ideas, flexible in thought and action, take risks, work within ambiguity and uncertainty and still boldly move forward -- just like improvisers. Effective leaders and good improvisers both have to make in-the-moment decisions, quickly integrate information, make others look good, see things form different perspectives, create and innovate, make relevant connections, and serve the good of the whole. Improvisation is an accelerated approach to breaking past old, limiting patterns and paving the way for new, more versatile ones, even through difficult terrain and with "difficult" people. And:

. The paradox of making it safe to take risks
. Thinking on your feet and responsiveness
. Adapting as new information and situations emerge
. Discovery - new and surprising solutions to old and new situations
. Resourcefulness - using the unexpected as opportunity
. Influence - getting buy-in and support for your initiatives

Details and Registration

Intelligence and Change

I am in an organizational storytelling group, Golden Fleece - an international community of practice devoted to storytelling in business and organizations. (To join the listserve, email  [email protected]). Recently, one of the founding members, organizational storytelling pioneer Steve Denning, wrote a post regarding social constructionism and the brain. I am including part of it here because what he wrote speaks to the necessity of using new and different approaches to get people to think and act in new ways.

...I was reading a book called On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins, the guy who created the PalmPilot and the Treo. He stresses the crucial importance of a well-known fact about the brain, namely, that it is saturated with feedback connections. For every fiber feeding information forward into the neocortex, there are ten fibers feeding information back toward the senses. Put crudely, this means that what we see is only one-tenth what is "out there" and nine-tenths what we expect to see. The image that we have of the eye as a video camera and the ear as an audio recorder is an illusion: the brain is continually prompting us to see what we are seeing and the eyes and ears make minor adjustments at the margin.

It does underlines the truth of the old Talmudic saying: we see things not as they are, but as we are. This means if you want to get people to see things differently, you basically have to change who they are -- change the whole set of values, beliefs and expectations, which they are using to frame what they see.

This helps show why conventional approaches to persuasion - giving people reasons - are unlikely to work. To persuade people to see things differently, you have to catalyze a process by which they themselves adopt new values, beliefs and expectations, and in effect become new people.

Left brain analysis, rationale, and logic alone does not work in change and innovation initiatives that require novel thinking, and news ways of acting and interacting. In order for people to adopt new thinking, values, beliefs, and ways of being, they have to be engaged in new ways - i.e., using more of their brain; establishing conditions that support new types of interactions; using story, improvisation, visual and kinesthetic processes - so new ways of thinking and being can emerge.

4 New Workshops

Happy Summer Solstice!  A time for new beginnings, I'm excited to share information about 4 new summer workshops and developmental programs we are doing here at The Center for Creative Emergence. It's called the Summer Sampler Series because each of these workshops is a full-day sample learning experience connected with a larger optional program to follow in the fall and winter. Each one is whole and complete on its own, and immediately applicable. Each comes with the option to sign up for one of the full-length Professional Development Public Programs that accompanies the workshop. And each one has a customizable corporate version to bring into business organizations.

This series is about pattern breaking - and creating new patterns that allow real change and new outcomes to occur. It's about going beyond conventional and habitual ways of leading, thinking and being to get in touch with deeper, richer aspects of yourself. It's for for those who genuinely are ready for something different - yet relevant, effective and practical - to use within your work. And it's about having a good time doing it!

Who should attend these workshops? Leaders, executives, directors, project managers, managers, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, innovators, consultants, facilitators, coaches, connectors, business people, creatives, and anyone who wants to new approaches to navigating the new world of leadership, influence and invention.

I will be providing full write-ups in subsequent posts, but for now you can link to them on the web:

1. Improvisation for Leaders: Using the Practices of Improvisational Theater for Leadership Effectiveness. Presented by Michelle James, CEO of The Center for Creative Emergence and Quantum Leap Business Improv.
2. Practical Brilliance: Creative Problem Solving and Breakthrough Thinking in Everyday Work and Life. Co-created by Michelle James and Win Wenger, PhD, one of the world's most prolific thinkers and published authors in the field of creativity and creative problem solving, and founder of Project Renaissance.
3. Resonance: A New Power Tool for Navigating Leadership and Life. Co-created by Michelle James and Anita Pahtik Law, President of Dare-Dreamers, and founder of the Conscious Dialogue™ events.
4. Integral Leadership in an Emergent World: The Applications and Experience of Integral Theory with Creative Emergence. Co-created by Michelle James and Tom Goddard, JD, PhD, President of The Integral Company, and founding member of the Integral Institute.

Stephen Colbert and Yes-And

The following is from a transcript of Stephen Colbert's June 3, 2006, Commencement Address at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. It's s another look at becoming a Yes-Anding world - in organizations, in communities, and globally. I've noticed that people I have met who have spent some time in improv theater tend to integrate the concept of Yes-and into their way of navigating life naturally. I work with organizational cultures to do that because I have observed the immediate transformative power of yes-anding in action. To see the full transcript, click here.

...So, say "yes." In fact, say "yes" as often as you can. When I was starting out in Chicago, doing improvisational theatre with Second City and other places, there was really only one rule I was taught about improv. That was, "yes-and." In this case, "yes-and" is a verb. To "yes-and." I yes-and, you yes-and, he, she or it yes-ands. And yes-anding means that when you go onstage to improvise a scene with no script, you have no idea what's going to happen, maybe with someone you've never met before.

To build a scene, you have to accept. To build anything onstage, you have to accept what the other improviser initiates on stage. They say you're doctors -- you're doctors. And then, you add to that: We're doctors and we're trapped in an ice cave. That's the "-and." And then hopefully they "yes-and" you back. You have to keep your eyes open when you do this. You have to be aware of what the other performer is offering you, so that you can agree and add to it. And through these agreements, you can improvise a scene or a one-act play. And because, by following each other's lead, neither of you are really in control. It's more of a mutual discovery than a solo adventure. What happens in a scene is often as much a surprise to you as it is to the audience.

Well, you are about to start the greatest improvisation of all. With no script. No idea what's going to happen, often with people and places you have never seen before. And you are not in control. So say "yes." And if you're lucky, you'll find people who will say "yes" back.

Now will saying "yes" get you in trouble at times? Will saying "yes" lead you to doing some foolish things? Yes it will. But don't be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying "yes" begins things. Saying "yes" is how things grow. Saying "yes" leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say "yes."

And that's The Word.

The Evolution of Dance

This video speaks for itself...

http://www.evolutionofdance.com/index.html

Fun, creative, a visual story.

Navigating the Unknown: 7 Reflection Tools

1. Change the lens you use for seeing the unknown. Do you see the unknown something to be feared, challenged, dealt with, managed or overcome? Or is it something to be navigated, explored, embraced, cultivated, or expressed? If you think of facing the unknown in your work what thoughts and emotions come to mind? What metaphor? A beast to be tamed, a wave to be surfed, a game to be played? How we perceive the concept of this unfolding future we call the unknown determines how easily we navigate it.

2. Consciously engage uncertainty. Whether we like it or not the unknown has now become our working partner. By actively engaging the unknown in small ways at first - such as with a low-risk/high-ambiguity project - you develop the essential skills to work with it in larger high-risk/high-ambiguity arenas. What would it take for you to go deeper into situations, pushing past what you currently know, before going forward? It feels counterproductive in our fast-paced culture, but by taking the up front time to go deep and explore multiple dimensions, next-level solutions begin to reveal themselves.

3. Allow the process to be messy. When we start consciously exploring unknown, there is a period of time where logic, order, and organization are put on hold as we get into the unearthing of new information. It can seem illogical, nonsensical, and even foreign-sounding as it emerges. Like all births, new directions are not necessarily tidied up and pretty as they enter the world. Similar to a baby being born, the ideas, structures and systems that emerge from the unknown space can look unrecognizable at first. The task it to continue to draw whatever shows up forth, amidst it messiness, until the new order emerges. There is a natural, self-organizing system at play in every emergent situation. How much time and space do you give to ideas to go formulate?

4. Actively leave the familiar. Just because something worked for one group in one situation doesn't mean it is necessarily repeatable. Look back to the past for what is relevant to the new situation and bring it with you. Leave the rest behind. It is in our nature to seek the shelter of the familiar even if we know it is no longer serving us. Leaving what is comfortable and not working to dip into the "empty space" to draw forth the new is challenging. Do you have compassion for yourself (or others) when you are frustrated, overwhelmed and feel like you hit a wall?

5. Use multidimensional creative approaches. By using a variety of creativity tools, techniques and approaches you can engage more of your brain and more of your senses. The human habit is to approach uncertain situations with the same set of analytical tools each time. No matter how focused and capable your thought process, unless you do something different to activate new parts of the brain, the information will still travel down your same neural pathways in the same way and you will come up with the same types of solutions. If you purposefully integrate alternative methods, whole brain thinking and multi-sensory stimulation, awareness is heightened and you become more responsive and resilient. What are some ways you can intentionally do this?

6. Be the Beginner. Probably the most significant, yet challenging aspect of navigating the unknown is the willingness to enter the beginner mind. We live in a knowledge based society. We are educated to have the right answers. The more we know, the more intelligent, capable, and competent we are considered. We are rewarded and recognized for that which we know, not for that which we don't know. Yet, in a world where the word innovation is showing up in exponentially more mission and vision statements, this is often exactly what is needed to move forward. It's not about abandoning what you know, but bringing it to the table to sit side by side with what you do not know.

7. Accept the human paradox. Within the paradox of human nature, being what it is, the unknown is both dangerous and exciting, a threat to be feared and a mystery to be revealed. We are mystery seekers. There is a multi-billion dollar mystery industry--books, movies, adventure tours, Internet games, and haunted houses. There is something about walking around the corner and not knowing what will pop out that is inherently exciting and alive to us. Uncovering and discovering are in our nature--just look at a child exploring the environment, looking behind every crack and crevice for what's next.

While a part of us may love the mystery, we have another part of us, in our reptilian primal brain, that has been hard wired to fear what is around the corner. Our ancestors knew well knowledge of our surroundings gave us control of a dangerous world. There was a real danger in leaving the safety of the cave. This is still true today. When we perceive threats to survival, we like to know what is next. Ironically, the same world that makes people want to retreat to their caves to hide from the "predators" is this same world that is requiring new levels of innovation to adapt and thrive. When is change exciting and when is it threatening to you?

The more you work with the unknown as a co-creative partner, the easier it is to stay grounded in the winds of change. It takes more than just deciding to embrace uncertainty to be able to do it. It takes understanding where you are in relationship to the unknown now, and then consciously choosing to be with the discomfort, and perhaps excitement, of exploring new territory. Underneath business buzz words, mission statements and strategic goals, there is an unsure human facing a new world. It takes practice. As with mastering any new skill, navigating the unknown is an ongoing process.

Are you a Cultural Creative?

Cultural Creatives are a rapidly growing subculture in our society. A term coined by sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson to describe a large segment in Western society that is co-creating a new work and life paradigm, it's estimated that there are 50 million adults in the United States and about 80+ million in Europe who have the worldview, values and lifestyle of the Cultural Creatives.

This group reflects the growing trend toward the living a creative - and eco-friendly - life: using more of our creative resources and expression in our every day lives, appreciating creativity and the arts, invention and innovation, interrelatonships, peace and valuing what is good for the whole beyond just "what's in it for me." This list can give you an idea if you are a Cultural Creative. It is from the CC questionnaire.  Choose the statements that you agree with.

You are likely to be a  Cultural Creative if you...

1.  ...love Nature and are deeply concerned about its destruction

2. ...are strongly aware of the problems of the whole planet (global warming, destruction of rainforests, overpopulation, lack of ecological sustainability, exploitation of people in poorer countries) and want to see more action on them, such as limiting economic growth

3.  ...would pay more taxes or pay more for consumer goods if you could know the money would go to clean up the environment and to stop global warming

4.  ...place a great deal of importance on developing and maintaining your relationships

5.  ...place a lot of value on helping other people and bringing out their unique gifts

6.  ...do volunteering for one or more good causes

7.  ...care intensely about both psychological and spiritual development

8.  ...see spirituality or religion as important in your life, but are concerned about the role of the Religious Right in politics

9.  ...want more equality for women at work, and more women leaders in business and politics

10.  ...are concerned about violence and abuse of women and children around the world

11.  ...want our politics and government spending to put more emphasis on children's education and well-being, on rebuilding our neighborhoods and communities, and on creating an ecologically sustainable future

12.  ...are unhappy with both the Left and the Right in politics, and want a to find a new way that is not in the mushy middle

13.  ...tend to be somewhat optimistic about our future, and distrust the cynical and pessimistic view that is given by the media

14.  ...want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life in our country

15.  ...are concerned about what the big corporations are doing in the name of making more profits: downsizing, creating environmental problems, and exploiting poorer countries

16.  ...have your finances and spending under control, and are not concerned about overspending

17.  ...dislike all the emphasis in modern culture on success and "making it," on getting and spending, on wealth and luxury goods

18.  ...like people and places that are exotic and foreign, and like experiencing and learning about other ways of life.

Positive Proverbs

A post on a complexity sciences listserve I read today ended with paraphrasing this proverb:

"At home, me against my brother. In the house, me and my brother against our cousins. In the village, me, my brother, my cousins against our neighbors. Outside, me, my brother, my cousins and our neighbors against the whole world."

It got me thinking about the assumptions from which that quote was created...and what it would take to change the word against to with throughout that proverb…and what if that was the basis of the paradigm we lived in the world? Instead of the assumption of fending for ourselves, or fending together against a larger reality, what if we enter the world from an internal construct of being with the larger reality at each level - self, brother, cousin, village, whole world. My thoughts immediately went to improvisational theater - the ultimate with-centered practice - and to yes-and.

Yes-and is the most famous improv guiding principle (and, for all of its simplicity, one of the most misunderstood principles). No matter where on the planet you take improv theater workshops, you will learn this concept. It means you accept a reality that is given to you and then you add something new to it. Not just any piece of random information. You add on specific information that builds upon that first piece of information. It is not just accepting (which is the "Yes" part) and it is not just adding something random new to it - it is adding something that acknowledges what was given, and furthers that story along.

In thinking about yes-anding (which I do quite frequently as I believe we live in an ultimately yes-anding universe, but have gotten a bit muddled up in a no-butting state of consciousness - a story for another time), I think we should develop a new series of proverbs and sayings that reflect a yes-anding, generative approach to life instead of the fear-based "me/us-against-the-world" developmental paradigm upon which so many of our old proverbs and expressions are based. In other words, proverbs that even reflect the positive side of human nature. After all, studies in creativity and the brain have shown you get more of what you reinforce and Positive Psychology seeks to find and expand what works - to "understand and build the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive."

Activity

Positive proverb development makes a good team building and improvisation group activity . Get groups into 3-5 people and have them come up with a positive proverb. Option: Have them do it with each person saying one word at a time. Another option: Have them do it specifically around words of wisdom for their team or organization.