The Fertile Unknown

27 Elements of the New Work Paradigm

The following are just 27 of the many elements I see as part of the old work paradigm out of which we are shifting and the new work paradigm that is emerging - one that creativity-centered, life-giving, and holistically generative (creatively, financially, and in service of the greater good). I thought I would share it here, even without the benefit of the full context, as I continue to work on it (will be putting these - and other principles - into an e-book, with more detailed explanations).

I don't see these lists as as mutually exclusive, but rather as a shift in core values and foundational ways of being that are more expansive, generative and inclusive. I see the emerging paradigm as Yes Anding and containing the old one, and adding a new dimension - expanding the playing field, not denying what was there before. In the words of Ken Wilber, the new level "transcends and includes" what was there before. It is a developmental, emergent process.

For example, originating, adapting, and conforming all play a part in a thriving creative system. The organizing value (the core anchor), though, has been gradually shifting away from conformity - which used to be highly valued and rewarded - to that of originality, uniqueness, expression and having a voice. Within all originality exists some conformity - everything contains and needs its opposite to be in a dynamic balance. Within empassioned, inspired commitment exists obligation - filled with passion and aliveness as the drivers, not empty obligation. I think the real significance between the old and new is (1) in where the core "anchors" and drivers are and (2) that the new contains the old - and more...

 

Our Creativity in Business Conference ~ October 4 in DC

http://www.creativity-conference.com

Join applied-creativity thought leaders, pioneering entrepreneurs and business innovators from around the country - in the fields of creativity and innovation, organizational change, social media and transformational leadership - for a full-day event focused on:

* Harnessing and focusing individual, group & organizational creativity
* Organizational structures/business models conducive for creativity & innovation
* The integration of creativity, purpose, business & serving the greater good

New ideas, new innovations, new systems and new structures depend on accessing new levels of creativity. At this event, we will explore different facets of creativity as the key driver in navigating and thriving in the new work paradigm.

Conference: 9:00-5:30 Festival: 5:30-7:30

CONFERENCE:  - Lively, Content-rich, Experiential Break-out Sessions each with a different focus related to the theme of Applied Creativity in Business  - Engaging Thought Leader Panels explore the creativity-centered work paradigm through the lens' of leadership, social media and creative thinking

FESTIVAL:  Comedy, Live Music, Networking, Book Signings, Give-Aways and hors d'oeuvres from award-winning Mie N Yu restaurant

ALSO INCLUDED:  Arts and Business Services Silent Auction - all proceeds from the auction go to ProjectCreateDC. For more info on how to donate a work of art or a business service, email [email protected].

REGISTRATION:  Earlybird discount through August 21: $149 ~ Regular rate after August 21: $197 ~ Sponsorship: $500. Seating is limited - early registration is recommended. http://www.creativity-conference.com

SPONSORS: - The Center for Creative Emergence (Conference Producer) - Capitol Creativity Network - Center for Digital Imaging Arts - Teratech - Timothy Flatt Studios - Mie N Yu - Over The Horizon Consulting, LLC - Associated Producers - Brandwithin - Integral Company - Thoughtlead -Photograhy by Alexander

ALL THE DETAILS:  http://www.creativity-conference.com

Hope you can join us! :-)

Dynamic Tension and the Third Way

There is a dynamic tension between what is, and has been, and what is emerging - what is calling to be created into the world. Businesses are facing that as the old models are no longer working in this new culture. And the new ones have yet to be created. This is a fertile, rich time in the “in-between” because it means we get to be on the edge of conscious creativity. A space has opened up for exploration, experimentation, real-time feedback and modification. We get to create and "play with" what is next.

Emergence is a creative process of birthing something new into the world. Like with any new any new birth, there is a living, dynamic tension between expansion - the pushing forth - and contraction - maintaining the status quo. In understanding this tension, and working with it - not fighting it or denying it - the emergence process becomes much easier…because it is already how creativity naturally works.

Navigating dynamic tension requires giving up old approaches to emerging new structures - like either/or, compromise, and sometimes even consensus. Either/Or means a choice between one or another - this or that, us or them. Something/one wins and something/one loses. Compromise reduces - each side reduces their original version until a compromise is reached - a "less than" is agreed upon. Consensus is often also a process of reduction - boiling it down to a common denominator upon which all can agree. Something is usually lost for all involved. The alive edge of chaos - the most creatively fertile place - gives way to the comfort of the most people.

Emergence, on the other hand, is a “yes-anding” with each other and with the unexpected. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It includes that which is most important to each side and space for the unexpected elements - and a Third Way emerges that is greater than both sides. In order for this to happen, all sides must be willing to release their original version (their status quo) to the more inclusive emergent vision (the expansion). Some parts might be let go, but the essence and the relevance remain.

 Improvisers are trained to do this all the time on order to create coherently in real-time in front of an audience. Abandoning the limitations of each person’s original agenda allows something more vital, alive, and coherent to emerge collectively. Just when you think you "see" where it is going, you have to surrender that vision to the larger unfolding of what is really happening in the moment. I believe it is now becoming increasingly important for everyone to do this to create the new business models that give way to more generative business structures.

This is both a scary time and an exciting time in the world. Destruction is all around…and with it, the promise of new creation. I think the more we become comfortable with dynamic tension and the unexpected, the more the fear can transform into pro-creative energy as we all navigate this new frontier together.

By Michelle James 2009

Peace Through Commerce Conference in DC ~ Nov 13-15

I am excited to be involved with the upcoming Peace Through Commerce conference!

"Representatives from academia, civil society, and public policy think tanks will convene with business and political leaders at George Washington University for this event, designed to illuminate and celebrate the powerful role ethical commerce plays in promoting peace, and to expand an emerging multi-sector alliance to advance the theory and practice of Peace Through Commerce. Increased economic freedom enhances the climate for business, leading to opportunities for local entrepreneurs, higher rates of job creation, and greater prosperity....Research has proven peace is good for business, thus promoting a virtuous cycle of investment and enterprise advancing peace, and peace advancing investment and enterprise."

Come connect with innovative thought leaders in various fields; learn more about the framework and pioneering practices and that are changing the business landscape to one that serves people, profit and planet; and stimulate creative ideas for your own work or business; and explore collaboration. Leave inspired and part of something larger than yourself - generative and gaining momentum!

For more information go to http://www.peacethroughcommerce.com
To register go to http://peacethroughcommerce.eventbrite.com

Hope to see you there!

Solutions are Power Blog - My Interview

This past summer, I was interviewed by Steve Fisher and Shashi Bellamkonda for their blog, Solutions are Power - part of Network Solutions social media outreach dedicated to small business owners. My interview, entitled The Power of Life Coaching was, as the title suggests, on the topic of life coaching. I consider myself more of a Creative Emergence coach than a life coach, since my coaching is specifically focused on multi-dimensional creative appraches to cultivating "next-level" emergent business structures. For the intro section and original interview on their blog, click here.

Here is the interview:

Steve: How did you get into doing life coaching?

Michelle: Actually, it was a confluence of several elements coming together at once: my passion to unite the worlds of business, purpose and creativity (after seeing people completely split off from their creativity on the job); my previous experience in marketing, organizational development and various dimensions of creative process; and business brainstorming/ideating sessions with colleagues that turned into what I started calling Emergence Sessions because outcomes would emerge where “the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.” Referrals started gaining momentum. I began noticing patterns in the sessions and observing certain universal principles at play when engaging creative process. I then started consciously shaping and structuring my work into an accessible format, and Creative Emergence coaching was born. My coaching practice itself was a creative emergence.

Steve: For those not familiar with this type of service, what is coaching?

Michelle: Coaching is a process that enables learning, creativity and development to occur. The coaching relationships creates the conditions for an entrepreneur to be successful. A good coach has tools and techniques to help his or her a client access the mindset and skill set to become successful in work and
life. Instead of advising a client, a good coach draws information and creative resources form the client. It is a collaborative partnership which involves a series of conversations, often with agreed-upon activities to do
in between sessions. It is different with each client as each client has different needs.

Steve: Why would someone use a coach?

Michelle: For many reasons…

• New work directions and strategies
• Enhanced self-awareness and direction.
• Breakthrough Thinking and Enhanced Performance
• Developing a structured framework of what you have to offer
• Drawing forth the energy, passion, and commitment already within a client
• Generating more creative, immediately applicable options or choices
• Clarity, integration and direction
• Activate your imagination and transform creative blocks
• Overall improvement of your quality of life

Steve: For the uninitiated, could you explain the vision of your business?

Michelle: The short version is that the Center is a creativity consulting and coaching company. We offer consulting, workshops, retreats, coaching and special events on all aspects of personal, business and systems creativity. Our signature is our Emergence Focus, which uses what is relevant in both problem-focused and outcome-focused approaches, and includes navigating the unpredictability of emergence and the use of whole brain methods. The bigger picture vision for the Center is to support the new paradigm of creative, sustainable, conscious work that serves the quadruple bottom line: people, profit, planet and purpose; create experiences that set the stage for new levels of creativity to emerge and systems to evolve; and engage the whole person, not just the job title. I believe creativity is the most significant business resource and driver a business has, and the mission of CCE is to help people access it and focus it for a purpose. To bring this mission into the larger DC community, we sponsor the Capitol Creativity Network with monthly events accessible to anyone.

Steve: Your services seem psychological but also physical as well. Is this a mind-body balance sort of coaching?

Michelle: Good question. I see it as more of a mind-body integration – the convergence of the mental, psychological and physical. Not only does the body contain and influence emotional states, but when you engage the body in non-habitual ways, it’s easier to engage the mind non-habitually – a big plus for an innovative entrepreneur. In addition, a vision becomes stronger when you start feel it in your body – in other words, embodying it.  Research shows that feeling a vision in the body increases the likelihood of taking action toward it. When I started integrating body-centered practices into my client work, results were accelerated.

Steve: What do you see for the next five years of the Center? Will you mentor others on your approach? Will you publish more so people can learn about your approach?

Michelle: Part of emergent strategy is to hold a firm purpose with a flexible vision so I can’t foresee exactly what will emerge between now and then, but I do have a direction and several specific goals, some subject to change: (1) Finish and publish a book and workbook on Creative Emergence Principles and Processes – that’s a “yes” to your publishing question. Once published, the mentoring will follow. (2) Develop an industrial video series to use with organizations and communities, along with improv-based “Live Industrials.” (3) Put on Creativity-In-Business conference here in DC – the first one, in
fact, is in the works as we speak and will be held in 2009 – the announcements will be going out soon. First local, then international. (4) I envision the Center becoming a multi-sensory oriented physical structure with innovative experiential programs and CreaTanks (creativity-centered version of think tanks) working on larger issues – both on-site and on-line. Based in DC with a global reach, I’d like to eventually go into villages and communities of developing countries and use an emergence focus to help support them in creating what’s next for them.

I am also excited about the new directions social media provides – a new world of  possibilities opens up that I just beginning to explore.

Steve: Since you are a serial entrepreneur (your first venture was a marketing firm), what do you find are your greatest lessons learned from starting two businesses?

Michelle: Well, I learned to see mistakes as what I now call evolutionary invitations. They afford significant business learnings and invite opportunities for personal growth. I learned to hear, and then really value my intuition, as a business resource. And, having a quality support team is invaluable. Fear-based thinkers experience new ideas through the lens of fear. I’ve leaned how important it is to seek out and engage with diverse, generative thinkers on an ongoing basis no matter what type of business you have.

Steve: What is your philosophy on being an entrepreneur?

Michelle: It is front-row engaging in the real-time feedback loop with life…like being on the front end of a whitewater raft – you might have the most risk, but you get the most immediate experience. More than a job, it’s a way of being, living and creating.

Steve: Sometimes I like to close an interview with a “Do This List”. So for you, what are the top five things every entrepreneur should do to create a work-life balance?

Michelle: Only five? OK, well then…first, discover what bring you to life and build a business around that so when you do have to work it feels more like play. Second, capitalize and focus on your strengths for a more efficient use of your energy and therefore time…and know what is relevant about anything you do. If it is not relevant to your purpose, let it go. Third, build a vision that includes both personal and professional goals and revisit – and revise – it frequently when it starts to get out of balance. Pay attention to the off-balance signs as they begin. Fourth, commit to a daily practice that feels good (not arduous) to you that helps you to get centered and present in the morning. It will help you stay focused and true to your commitments – both professional and personal – throughout the day. Finally, establish a network of genuine supporters…maybe even a life coach with a focus on emergence…

The Holacracy Experience

The Center for Creative Emergence and Thoughtlead are co-sponsoring a 2-day workshop on a new paradigm approach to organizational development, creativity and change - Holacracy. The approach integrates both the inner dimensions of self and the outer dimensions of behavioral and systems change. It's coming to DC on October 4th and 5th, 9-5 both days. The workshop will be led by the founder of Holacracy, Brian Robertson.

What is Holacracy?

Holacracy is a complete system for organizational governance and management that honors conventional business fundamentals while integrating cutting-edge transformative practices. With its unique structure and processes, Holacracy integrates the collective wisdom of people throughout the organization, while highlighting the needs of the organization distinct from those of the individuals within. The result is greater agility, innovation, transparency, and health; liberating the organization to live up to its full potential.

About the Workshop

This workshop dives into the core principles, structure, and practices of Holacracy through interactive lecture and immersive simulations. Attendees will witness Holacracy in action and actively participate in Holacracy's key meetings and decision-making processes, and leave with a first-hand experience of Holacracy's leading-edge organizational design and practice.

To register click here.

For more on Holacracy, click here.

For more on founder, Brian Robertson, click here.

Zen of Business Administration

With self-knowledge comes clarity of your mission. With a clear mission comes purposeful creativity - creativity that is aligned with the your mission and purpose in the world - and the good of the whole.

Marc Lesser, the founder and president of ZBA Associates, wrote a book called the Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration: How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work And Your Life. It's for the business person who seeks self-knowledge, and comes highly recommended. I have not read it yet so I can't speak for the book itself from direct experience, but I did peruse his website can came across his manifesto with which I resonate. I have copied here:

The ZBA Manifesto

1. It’s okay not to know. It’s okay to be vulnerable. No one has all the answers. We value and learn from the questions and the asking. We are learning to appreciate the mystery and sacredness of our lives and the mystery and sacredness of life.

2. Life is short. There is no escape from old age, sickness, and death. Death is a great teacher. Recognizing the shortness of our lives provides motivation to live fully in each day and in each moment.

3. We understand the importance of taking regular quiet time for ourselves. Through reflection and by slowing down we develop an appreciation for life and we increase our capacity for understanding.
4. We are learning to trust our inner wisdom. Our bodies and minds are amazing, unexplainable, and unfathomable.
5. It’s okay to be uneasy, to be uncomfortable, to grieve, to feel pain. Recognizing when something is off, feeling the depth of loss, experiencing pain, is the first step toward change and growth.
6. Practice active listening — listening deeply to yourself and to others. Listen to others without formulating your own ideas. Listen to yourself before speaking.
7. We all seek balance in our lives — balancing work and family, balancing our inner and outer lives, balancing what we want to do and what we must do.
8. We are learning that we can be fully ourselves in all situations — at work, as parents, as children, as friends, as lovers.
9. Being ourselves at work is vital to our health and happiness. Our time is too valuable to sell, at any price.
10. Each moment is precious. In every moment we have an opportunity to discover, to grow, to speak the truth.
11. Each moment is ordinary. In every moment we can realize we are fine, just as we are. Nothing else is needed.
12. We appreciate what is paradoxical. What may at first seem contradictory or beyond our understanding may be true. After all, who is it that is breathing? Who is it that dreams? How is it that these hands effortlessly glide along this keyboard?
13. Age is a state of mind. We have the opportunity to grow to be more like ourselves every day.
14. Developing intimate relationships is a vital part of our lives and our development. Intimacy requires openness, honesty, and vulnerability.
15. Real, honest open communication is highly valued — and takes real skill and effort.
16. When we slow down and learn to trust ourselves, joy arises naturally.
17. When we slow down and learn to trust ourselves, creativity arises naturally.
18. Self-knowledge and understanding require persistence and perseverance. Developing awareness and balance is an ongoing, unending process.
19. Self-knowledge and understanding require discipline. Whatever path we take requires structure, guidelines, and feedback.
20. Self-knowledge and understanding require courage.
21. Diversity is essential. Our differences enrich our lives. There is no “other,” just as our right hand is not a stranger to our left hand.
22. A simple rule to follow is do good, avoid harm. Of course, this is not simple or easy.
23. There are many paths and many practices toward developing awareness and personal growth.
24. Our everyday lives and activities provide fertile ground for developing growth and understanding.
25. We can learn to appreciate the gifts we’ve received from our parents and to forgive them. We understand on a deep level all we have received from the generations that have come before us.
26. We feel a deep responsibility for our children and for the generations that will come after us.
27. We can all act as change agents. We can choose to take action in improving and healing our environment and our society. There is no shortage of issues to address, of healing to take place.
28. We are all change agents on a personal level — we either create healing amongst those we live and work with or we create stress.
29. We can choose to act as change agents in relation to our communities.
30. We can choose to act as change agents in relation to our society or on a global level.
31. Everything we hold as dear will one day change and disappear. Every business that now exists will one day cease. Every person now alive will one day die.
32. At a deep level, we realize that we are neither in control nor not in control. Our task is to paddle the boat, with awareness and integrity. The flow of the river is outside our doing.
33. We all have the power to find peace and happiness in the midst of change and impermanence.
34. We have the power to heal ourselves, our communities, and our planet.

- From Marc Lesser's website: www.zbaassociates.com

Truths About Creativity in Business

• Everyone is creative and simply need the right conditions to access that infinite well.

• Focused creativity is not separate from the bottom line, but a major factor in contributing to it.

• Next-level innovative solutions require new levels of being as well as thinking.

• Comfort with change increases with consistent practice entering unfamiliar territory in non-habitual ways.

• People can transform their experience of uncertainty from one of fear to one of discovery.

• Creative thinking skyrockets motivation and breeds more relevant and successful contribution.

• With safe co-creating, a group collective intelligence takes over and the “whole exceeds the sum of its parts.”

Games for Change: Video Games with a Larger Purpose

Social Innovation on the web: Game for Change is a social learning network and community of practice that supports individuals, groups and organizations focused on social change initiatives. It's another example of the intersection of creativity, purpose, passion, and planet. They make video games that have a positive social impact in the world. Check it out at http://www.gamesforchange.org

Zentrepreneurism

Zentrepreneurism is part of the emerging paradigm of work: purpose, passion, profit, planet, creative expression and positive social impact...Yes-And to all of it!  I just received this description in my e-mailbox today on the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs listserve from INSE founder, Christophe Poizat:

Zentrepreneurism is surfacing across a wide spectrum of successful, purposeful businesses. Many individuals have tried different things and are looking for meaning in their work: work that has integrity and purpose. Social entrepreneurs are exploding across North America and are looking to solve social problems on a larger scale, giving birth to zentrepreneurs who are aligning their personal values with their professional goals. Allan Holender's new book, Zentrepreneurism: A 21st Century Guide to The New World Of Business provides just that.

Zentrepreneurism aims to be instrumental in shifting the capitalist model to a more mature and viable economic model where profits are no longer the only benchmark for measuring success but also where the impact a business venture can have on society is taken into consideration.

Zentrepreneurism is about making a fundamental shift in the way the world does business, as well as a swing towards a new era of 'enlightened capitalism', where the chief "embezzlement" officer is being replaced by the chief "enlightenment" officer.

Zentrepreneurism, the book, was written, by Allen Holendar, can be found at http://wwaz.collectivex.com/link/go/17753814. The International Network of Social Entrepreneurs can be found at http://wwaz.collectivex.com/link/go/12241406.

What's Mine to Do - No More, No Less?

In improv theater, there is a concept called "Serve the good of the scene." I have expanded it in my work to what I call, "Serve the good of the whole." In order to do that, you neither impose your own agenda on a scene, nor do you shy away from being a collaborative contributor to the scene. You seek to serve what is best to keep the scene supported, creative and moving forward. Sometimes that means standing back in a support role. Sometime that means taking the lead. It is about what is yours to do - no more (by not taking over) and no less (by adding something new) - that will help contribute to the good of the scene.

I have found this concept universal and applicalbe in most, if not all, situations. One of the questions that has guided my life's work over the years since first emerging my Creative Emergence focus is, "What's mine to do - no more, no less?" in any situation - from working with a client, to designing a program to navigating my personal life. 

That question - if seriously asked and truthfully answered - narrows the fertile field of all things possible into to that which is most relevant and resonant at the given time for the particular circumstance. It simultaneously prevents one from over-controlling a situation or not taking enough initiative. I use this question with my Emergence coaching clients and my role in supporting them, as well as in my own life to help guide me to creating/unfolding what's next. I find it ignites and focuses creativity, and it keeps us in a co-creative – not controlling – role with those we serve.

Two of the (seemingly opposed) prevailing thought camps are (1) the Just-Do-It thinking - set a goal and go for it and (2) the What’s-Meant-to-Be-Will-Be thinking - let go of control, get out of the way and let it happen. I see both as true and neither as complete. By asking, "What is mine to do - no more, no less" we can discover know what is ours to actively create, and what is ours to release and let unfold - an any situation, and with any person or group. The both/and (or in improv terms - the Yes And) is the interdependent dance of the emergent creative process – the "yin/yang" of both stepping up and letting go based on what is calling to emerge in the situation.

Michelle James©2008

Evolutionary Marketing

Evolutionary Marketing - developed by Sam Rosen, CEO of the Verticality Group - is an emerging marketing system that includes the best practices that came before and it takes it a step further. It enables you to expand your perspective on who you are and why you're here - and how your marketing can serve multiple bottom lines: profit, people, planet, process, and purpose. It:

~ Integrates what's working with what's possible
~ Creates better, more meaningful relationships with customers and prospects
~ Increases Lifetime Relational Value with partners, stakeholders and customers
~ Allows you to see your marketing in a larger strategic and philosophical context
~ Helps you write copy that builds immediate, positive emotional rapport with readers

You can see Sam in action - and work on your marketing issues in real time - at the next Capitol Creativity Network event in Washignton, DC on November 14. Go to www.capitolcreativitynetwork.com for details.

Dan Pink at the Capitol Creativity Network

On December 11, I will be having a dialogue with Dan Pink, author of the best-selling books,  A Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation at the Capitol Creativity Network Holiday Gathering. If you are in the DC area, come join the party. We'll discuss Dan's book, A Whole New Mind, and how we are moving from the information age into the conceptual age and the emergence of the "right-brain" approaches as essential for creating what's next. This session will be audience interactive, so come ready to muse, question and engage in story. After the dialogue, there will be food, drink, live music and other festivities as Dan signs books. For location and other details go to the CNN website: capitolcreativitynetwork.com. (FYI, there will only be a limited number of the book on hand at the event. You can purchase copies by clicking here beforehand and bring them in to be autographed).

Reinventing Capitalism

Thanks to Michael Strong's post on the FLOWidealism listserve for the link to Howard Bloom's new book, Reinventing Capitalism: Putting Soul In The Machine. Even of you do not have time to read the book, I recommend checking out the web site (www.howardbloom.net/reinventing_capitalism) for the description. It beautifully articulates the inexorable link between invention, innovation, passion and prosperity - not in a mechanistic, limited way of seeing capitalism, but through a soul-centered, integrative, fully human lens. Here are a few excerpts from the review on the web page:

Reinventing Capitalism lets you in on a secret Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and today’s mainstream economists, eco-critics, and business pundits never dreamed—forget greed and dedicate yourself to your own passions, to your ideals, and to others’ needs and you’ll unleash the power hidden in our civilization, a power that can make you a shaper of meaning, a maker of warmth, a creator of new wonders and abilities, and can offer you a new way to succeed.

...what lessons can we learn, what can we invent, what can we upgrade and create? What new twists of culture, of technology, of insight and technique will help us leapfrog over our assailants and carry us forward toward new ways of being? How can we take the values of our Founding Fathers to even higher peaks? How can we loft the best that’s in us into the next two centuries?
The answer lies in giving capitalism a heart and a soul. More specifically it lies in giving all of us something only saints have previously been required to possess—something Bloom calls “tuned empathy.”

...There’s a new form of capitalism struggling to be born among us. In reality it’s been here all along, but we’ve failed to see it. It’s Emotional Capitalism, a capitalism vibrant with the power of something that has to seize the heart of every boardroom meeting—the power to care, the power to feel the emotions of the people you serve, and the power to feel your own emotions in new ways

...The true businessman is a seer and servant. He is not trafficking in inanimate goods sold to anonymous “consumers.” He nourishes human souls. When he helps those souls catch fire, money flows. Those who look deep into their passions can anticipate the needs of others. A bone-deep love for others’ needs is the secret to personal growth, to profits, and to prosperity.

...It’s time for all of us—for those in our offices and our homes, and for culture-leaders in boardrooms, universities, and editorial headquarters--to wake up and see that humans are nourished by perception, nourished by passion, nourished by feeling. It’s time for us to see the emotional substance in what we’ve mistakenly labeled with a dehumanized vocabulary, the language of clods, lumps, stones, and numbers—the language of “materialism,” “commodification,” “consumerism,” “derivatives,” “transfer agents,” “utility maximization,” “quarterly profits,” “products,” “markets,” and “supply and demand.”

...We desperately need a reinvention and a re-perception of the system that has given Western Civilization its long-term strength and its recent weaknesses. We need the Capitalism of Passion.

...Capital is stored imagination. Capital is stored stress, stored vision, stored diligence to persist, and stored ability to inspire others to complete a task that seems impossible or frivolous. Capital is stored passion!

...There is a soul, a passion, inside of the economic machine. Our most personal desires and schemes sometimes scare us with their strangeness, with their lunacy. But some dare make them public—just as the first stone-chipper, the first stone-wall builder, the first brick-maker, and the first brick-city-planner did....Some risk looking foolish with the tales, the songs, and the fantasies they share. Others stare with wonder—they see their own unspoken feelings, their chaotic longings, echoed in a mirror there. Then we and our allies recruit, we proselytize. We make the masses see what we have seen. We organize believers to throw themselves with idealism, passion, commitment, and deep faith, into creating something that this cosmos has never previously seen. We organize others so they can make a reality of what is now shared fantasy, shared lunacy, acommunal and a corporate dream.

Peace through Commerce

Last night I helped facilitate the Peace through Commerce event here in Washington, DC at Paul Falcon's Bella Faccia Studios. Over the past few months I've had the privilege of being on the core design team with an impassioned, pioneering group of social entrepreneurs including Jeff Klein, Chief Activation officer of FLOW; Charlie Frohman, founder of DC's Conscious Entrepreneurs and Creatives group, Kirstin Myers, CEO of Globond; Alex Rollin and Sam Rosen, founders of Peer Producers LLC; Sarah Endine, President of Sweet Riot, Josh Warchol of Zaadz, John Hecklinger of Global Giving, Michael Strong, co-founder of FLOW , volunteer cooridnator Erin Brandt and many others.

What initially started out as a 4-person conversation about getting 15 or so people together here in DC and having FLOW co-founder Micheal Strong speak about the PTC initiative took on an conscious life of its own, acting a beacon of resonance and creativity - attracting more and more contributers, organizers, and supporters. It quickly blossomed into an emerging global initiative. In DC, it culminated as an engaging dynamic 100+ person celebration with participatory performance, dancing, drumming with Michelle AVA's intenational dance troupe, delicious food from Middle Eastern Cuisine of Takoma Park, co-creative group process, storytelling, speed networking, informative multi-media presentations, an interactive mural, charitable donations and inspired commitments to action. Next are events in Austin and San Fransisco. And the energy continues...

Amazing how inspired collective creative energy becomes an emergent force with its own directive - greater than the sum of its parts.

The Living Language of Talking Your Business

A discussion on a leadership conference call earlier this evening, where a business leader/entrepreneur feared that by using her authentic langauge with her cleints she would not be taken as seriously in the business community, inspired me to write the following:

For inspired entrepreneurs: In being true to yourself, finding your passion, and structuring it into a business, how do you market yourself - and be authentic to the language you think, live and engage - without sounding "woo-woo" in a business world that thinks and speaks mainly in jargon, buzz words, and often empty mechanistic terms?

Be fully present to what you genuinely have to offer and speak from that place. Those who are best suited for your message will hear your message. They will resonate, even if the words are less familiar - because you are speaking to the human underneath the buzz words. If you confine your message too heavily into everyday business speak , it is like freezing the substance of what you have to offer...it can't move and grow and generate.  It ceases to contain the life energy of inspiration, passion, and newness. People are drawn more to the energy and enthusiasm underneath the words than the words themselves. In other words, believing in and embodying what your are saying and doing will naturally engage others.

Engage in living language - that which is alive with natural exuberance, creativity, and new possibilities. Impassioned language is larger and more encompassing than professional buzz words. It may contain them at times, but it goes beyond them. Buzz words are inadequate to express the aliveness, potential and capacity of what you have to give. There is so much advice out there on how to communicate what you have to offer, and while that is valuable, it is seriously incomplete. There is also a place within our selves - where our dreams, creative ingenuity, and enthusiasm exist - that can only be cultivated and expressed from within us, and has its power in our own words...the place where external advice gives way for inner authority to emerge.

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.

Capitol Creativity Network

The Capitol Creativity Network is a developmental community of catalysts, explorers, leaders, entrepreneurs and creative people - in business, the arts, science, healing, community development - in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. We are a professional network interested in creativity for personal and professional growth; applications in all areas of business and organizational development; creative projects and events; serving the community; and offering accessible and affordable top quality events.

We founded CCN in 2003 as part of a larger mission to mainstream the transformative power of creativity - infusing it into into all aspects of work and life to awaken and enliven the fabric of organizational and societal culture. By integrating various creative processes into mainstream organizational environments, new ideas and solutions to old and new challenges emerge at an accelerated pace, unforeseen connections and interrelationships are born, and the work experience becomes more engaging, enjoyable and meaningful.

CCN meets on the second Wednesday of each month to explore and experience different facets of creativity - from corporate to expressive to scientific and beyond. Each meeting is both content-rich and interactive, designed to have the participants experience their creativity in real time. If you live in the DC area, or are just visiting, please feel free to join us.

For more information, email me at [email protected], go to the CCN website or join the listserve.

Conscious Entrepreneurs and Creatives

Last Saturday I facilitated a portion of the Conscious Entrepreneurs and Creatives reception in Washington, DC. CEC was recently founded by Charlie Frohman. There was much energy in the room as people engaged in an accelerated networking process, talked about their passions as it relates to their work in the world, developed resonant connections, and generated future-focused seed ideas for this emerging community. Everyone was excited to move forward into this fertile unknown we are all creating together.

What does it mean to be a Conscious Entrepreneur? There are different definitions out there, but the one I like most (found on the social network zaadz) is “Getting paid to do what you love while serving the world.” The sustainable business model talks about the triple bottom line: people, profit and planet. From experience with my CE clients, conscious entrepreneurship adds passion, purpose and voice (or creative expression) to the mix. Conscious entrepreneurship is not limited to business owners – it is a way of thinking, acting and being that can be cultivated by anyone in any organizational system.

What about the "Creatives" part?  Cultural Creatives, a term coined by the authors of the book, Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World refers to a rapidly growing group of people who are reshaping the fabric of culture, work, business, service, community, expression, education, politics, ecology, etc. - collectively engaging the process of co-creating a new, integral, life-giving world. There is a Cultural Creatives Business Network for “passionate, conscientious business owners and corporate employees who are using their work to create a more healthy, more just world.”

I am so excited about CEC and the innovative directions we all are intuitively going together that the The Center for Creative Emergence is now one of the CEC sponsors, along with Globond, FLOW, Global Integral Solutions and others. If you’re interested in being part of a dynamic, lively, co-creative approach to business and service that integrates profit and passion, go to Charlie's website to sign up for the listserve.