The Fertile Unknown

Designing for Creativity: Finite and Infinite Design

James Carse’s book, Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility, speaks to   designing games which cultivate play, improvisation and engaging the unknown, creating as you go. I first read it about 18 years ago, and it is still one of my favorites. He writes:

"A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play...infinite games are unscripted and unpredictable...the rules of an infinite game are like the grammar of a living language, whereas those of a finite game are like the rules of a debate...Finite players play w in boundaries...infinite players play w boundaries...the rules of a finite game may not change in the course of play...the rules of an infinite game must change in the course of play..."

Finite and infinite games can both generate creativity. Finite games have tighter constraints. They are played w in structure. Infinite games play w structure. For example, in improv, when you’re first learning the games, you play them finitely, by the rules. There’s a beginning, middle, and end. The creativity emerges within these constraints. The seasoned improvisers play w the structure of the game itself. They discover the new structure, not just the content w in the structure, as they go. That makes it more of an infinite game.

As facilitators of creative process we can design for both. Any finite game can be adapted to become an infinite game. Try new, unplanned ideas, using whatever comes to u in the moment. Try a new variation in real time. Let them co-create rules of the game as you go, asking them to add or change a rule. It then becomes a living, co-creative game structure.

If approached w the spirit of play and discovery, it moves from binary, static “the game worked/didn't work” to a dynamic exploration of what was learned. Cultivating group creativity works best w both finite and infinite design.

Generative Questions to Inspire Your Design

• How do I design for participation and interaction?
• How do I make it safe for sharing diverse values and perspectives?
• How do I inspire contribution?
• How do I create shared understanding (even without agreement)?
• How do I make the design inclusive for all participants?
• How do I balance context w content?
• How do I create the conditions for participants to take risks?
• How do I incl. space for the unpredictable to emerge?
• How do I set conditions for a “we” space?
• How do I design for diff. learning/creating styles?
• How do I design to challenge assumptions?
• How will I partner w participants in co-creativity?
• How will I go beneath platitudes into meaningful conversation?
• How will I include check-ins & reflection time?
• How will I bounce back if the focus gets derailed?
• How will I record what emerges?
• How will I get feedback from the group?

From my book, Pattern Breaks: A Facilitator's Guide to Cultivating Creativity
Link to book 

Designing for Creativity: Design from Your Edges, Not Your Comfort Zone

We are most alert, alive and present when we are on our own creative edges, not when we are in our comfort zone. Designing to keep ourselves on our own creative edges can help bring fresh energy into the design.

It can be as simple as trying new variations of an activity (doing it non- verbally), a new type of activity (using a poetry-centered activity), or new ways of interacting (having people change levels physically). It can be anything that engages you in your own discovery. Talking with others who have different creating styles than you about what would keep them engaged, or bring out more of their creativity, is also helpful for ideas beyond your norm and comfort zone.

Designing for your own surprise—when you’re not exactly sure what might happen, but willing to be present to follow the emergence when it does—keeps you at your creative edge. While you are the one creating the container and holding the space, this role is balanced with your own openness to what emerges. Creative facilitation is a both/and open system.

Creativity thrives between disciplined and wildly undisciplined thinking.

Creative Edge Questions

• Where do I imagine my edges might be?
• Are there times I play it small, safe, or familiar in my facilitation because
  to play bigger means a change or commitment inside of myself?
• Are there places I only go if I feel certain the group would like it?
• Are there places I wish I could go, but hold back? Why do I hold back?
• In what ways might I add something new to what I do or how I do it?
• How might I use my knowledge or expertise, and still hold space
  for something beyond what I know to emerge?

From Chapter 5: Workshop Design in my book, Pattern Breaks: A Facilitator's guide to Cultivating Creativity. Link to book

12 Ways to Engage Your Creative Self

Engaging our creative selves is an ongoing

journeythat needs space and time for refection, exploration, and cultivation. Here are 12 reminders of  ways to engage with creative self this summer:

 

1. Cultivate a creative mindset. Stay open to new ideas and perspectives. Embrace ambiguity and uncertainty as a creative wellspring filled with creative opportunities.

 

2. Engage curiosity and wonder about the world around you in your daily living. Ask questions, seek out new experiences, and be willing to to be uncomfortable in the unknown.

 

3. Make time for reflective thinking. Journal about your experiences, thoughts, feelings, dreams, hopes, aspirations and intuitive knowings. Look for patterns that emerge over time to gain more insights about yourself of whatever you are reflecting on.

 

4. Follow your aliveness. Make choices and engage in activities that resonate with your passions and interests. Try different things out until you discover what is. Authenticity fuels creativity and aliveness.

 

5. Embrace playfulness. Engage in activities that are fun and joyful to unfold new ways of thinking, being, and interacting. This also changes our brain's chemicals and keeps the energy high - opening us up to new levels of creativity.

 

6. Tap into something meaningful for you. Align your creative pursuits with your values and sense of purpose to create something meaningful for you. It can be anything - meaning generates creativity.

 

7. Integrate left and right brain activities. Use both analytical and intuitive thinking to get clarity and generate ideas. Balance planning and structure with allowing emergent space for spontaneity.

 

8. Use your body. There's a connection between your physical body, your passions and your creative mind. Practices like movement, dance and somatic exercises enhance creativity. Move differently to think and embody differently.

 

9. Get present. Stay present and engaged in the moment. Improv theater, mediation, and mindfulness can help you tap into deeper levels of presence for creativity.

 

10. Engage with diverse perspectives. Co-create and collaborate with others who bring different perspectives, skills, and talents. Explore different cultures, art forms, values and disciplines to broaden your world view and inspire new directions.

 

11. Follow creativity's natural rhythms and cycles. Allow for periods of activity/generating (yang) followed by rest and integration (yin). Sometimes the most creative thing you can do is focus, while other times is it to release focus. Follow your feeling and energy (where it generates, and when it wains) in this, not a prescription.

 

12. Cultivate resilience and adaptability to navigate challenges and setbacks. Know that resistances happen in every creative process, and find ways to recognize and move through them. Let yourself embrace mistakes as iterations toward what actually does eventually work. Creativity is messy.

 

 

Michelle James © 2024

Moving Beyond Binary Thinking into Creative Thinking

Based on my facilitation experiences w strong polarities present, I have come to see holding paradox, integrating opposites, and transcending polarities as core to cultivating creativity.

Understanding the tensions that emerge when different polarities are in the room allows us to use the tensions to inform—and to form—a large enough creative playing field for participants to move beyond only two perspectives or choices. Binary choices can limit creativity if not diverged on (exploring while suspending judgement) first - like trying to fit an essay question into a 2-option or true-false question. Expanding our mindsets to hold the possibility of both/and allows us to move beyond two reductive choices into multiple generative ones.

Binary thinking leaves out nuance, and it’s in nuances that novelty emerges. Nuance leads to more possibilities. When faced with opposing ideas, opening the creative filed means going beyond initial reactive judgments of "good/bad" or "accept/reject" about what's familiar, and into new territory. Not liking x doesn't necessarily mean y is the best solution. Sometimes it’s neither. Sometimes it's both, and often the most generative ideas offer a third way that contains a bit of both, along with something new.

Navigating dynamic tension expands creativity thru various ways of yes-anding with each other—and w the unexpected. An unpredictable third way can emerge that is greater than both sides, but includes something of significance for participants on both sides of a polarity.

This can happen by breaking our patterns and releasing attachment to the original (status quo) version to the more inclusive emergent vision. A specific action plan may be let go, but the essence (values, purpose, aspiration, goal) is kept as the foundation from which to co-create a new action plan. Many ORs are ANDs-in-waiting at the next level - if we give them breathing room.

Abandoning the limitations of any one original agenda allows something more innovative to emerge collectively—a true co-creation. It's about letting go of preconceived ideas into what's actually emerging. The more comfortable we are w the dynamic tension in the room, the more space there is for resistance to transform into productive creative energy.

This takes setting up the right conditions - a safe "container" where diverse and messy ideas can be engaged. It needs time and openness to be with the exploration. As facilitator's, getting to know our own mental landscapes and biases leads to more consciously holding the space for the diverse views and values of our participants. When binary static thinking gives way to dimensional dynamic thinking, more innovative, inclusive options can emerge that come closer to serving the good of the participants, team, and organization.

More in Chapter 2 of my book, Pattern Breaks: A Facilitator's Guide to Cultivating Creativity

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