The Fertile Unknown

2 FREE Juicy Creative Aspirational Online Events in September!

Creativity, Frameworks, and New Possibilities: Two FREE Online Aspirational Events this Month Exploring a Generative "What's Next"

I'm delighted to be one of the speakers in both these online events focused on a more hopeful, positive, creative future! With the world as it is, we can all use some inspiration, hope, support, and aspirational explorations and visions of what can be possible - along with applicable practices you can start right away. We all contain the seeds of creative change we've been looking for to birth healthier new foundations...and we all need each other.   The Magnificent New Normal Speaker Series September 14 - October 24   How do we want to respond to the calling of our collective future? This series is an exploration in making generative, impactful choices for yourself and others.   With one interview/day for 40 days, this series offers daily infusions of hope, wisdom & opportunity to inspire transformation and propel civilization forward in this new, emerging reality. Forced out of familiar patterns, we have the chance to make creative new choices for moving forward. This series engages creative visions, principles, and hand-on practices for a generative, creative, hopeful post-pandemic civilization.   A diverse array of other speakers include Dr. Bruce Lipton, Matthew Fox, Lynne McTaggert, the singer Jewel, Lynne Twist, Alberto Villodo and many others, each coming from a different lens and framework. Magnificent New Normal FREE Registration     Creativity and Culture Online Conference September 19   This conference is designed to provide a creative space for stimulating conversations between academics, educators and entrepreneurs with a deep interest in developing a creative economy, and more creative, generative, prosperous future. This year's themes are Presence, Emergence and Impact.   Following the conference, there will be an opportunity to remain in contact with the speakers and other conference attendees through monthly online follow up sessions to continue creative conversations which may lead to collaborative projects and creative business opportunities.   An international group of other speakers include Frijof Capra, Terry Tillman, Talmud Bah, Susan Sharp, Paul Z Jackson, Siddarth Agarwal, and Linda Naiman among many others. Creative Culture FREE Registration

Creativity in Business Conference Graphic Recordings

This is a follow-up to my last post, Creativity in Business Conference Re-cap.
It contains pictures of the graphic recordings of the 4 panels and the storytelling plenary session all in one place :-)


Creative Leadership Panel




Creative Work Cultures Panel




Social Media and Creativity Panel




Emergence and CoCreation Panel

Storytelling Plenary Session

Thanks to Diane Cline - @dayjobview - for these visual recordings!

Creativity in Business Conference Re-cap

It took me a few weeks to get to this post, after integrating what unfolded at and after our Creativity in Business Conference a few weeks ago. On October 23, we produced a (sold-out - yay!) conference in Washington, DC with the help of many amazing, generous souls. It was gratifying that people seemed to get a lot out of it - I think the feedback reflects a juicy and alive day. Everyone really stepped up, took risks, pushed their edges, had fun and engaged fully. Photographer, Alexander Morozov of Photography by Alexander, captured the energy of the day with these pictures.

It Started with Principles of Creative Engagement

The day kicked off with introducing the 160 participants to the Principles of Creative Engagement for the conference: Yes-And, Make everyone else look good (both from improv theater), Creativity in Messy and Have fun! Participants were invited to leave with more questions than answers, and use the day to intentionally explore their passion, aliveness and curiosity with the applicability of what they learn/think/create into their work and business.

Lots of Options

 

At any given time, participants had 4 options - a choice between 1 of 3 breakout sessions or a panel - for that time period of 75 minutes. The 12 breakout sessions were designed to be rich in both innovative content and creative experience. They each engaged different aspects of whole brain integration, including storytelling, improv, embodiment or visual thinking.

Engaged Immersion 

Tweeting was not encouraged during the breakout sessions, nor was having laptops, so participants could be immersed in the full-on experience of the session. The intention was that these were not sessions for sitting back, taking notes and reporting out. Each session was about discovery by undistracted engagement in real time, trying new things, engaging the whole brain - and the body in many cases. Low on observing and recording; high on awareness, presence, creating, engaging...then integrating.

Experiential Breakout Sessions

 

The morning began with breakout sessions from Corey
Michael Blake on Breathing Life into

Improvisational Storyteller session

Your Story, Kat Koppett on The Improvisational Storyteller and Bill Smith, PhD on Your Creative Power followed by Gregg Fraley on Holistic Innovation, James Jorasch on Hacking the Hippocampus and Cathy Salit on Performance of a Lifetime. The afternoon included sessions by Dr. Win Wenger on Creative Solution Finding, Carol Sanford on Whole Systems Creative Change and Jack Ricchiuto on The Power of Narrative followed by Sean Kelly on Visual Brainstorming, Leilani Henry on Movement Anthropology, and Michael Margolis on Reinventing Your Bio as a Story. (More on the presenters here and the sessions here).

Heart-Centered Service at the Core

While each of the presenters and panelists has been a keynoter at events, there were no keynoters or "speakers" at this event. There were experiential facilitated sessions and participatory panels, a storytelling plenary and an audience-interactive Imagination Festival. This event was designed to have the central focus be the creativity of who was in the room, not on one of the many luminaries who were there. While each presenter and panelist is a clear creative leader in their own right - a credible expert and pioneering creator - they also are deeply heart-centered in service of that creativity for the greater good. The balance of head (knowledge, experience and ingenuity) and heart (service, kindness), is what I believe makes them so awesome...and made the conference work. Low on ego; high on meaning and service.

Interactive Panels captured by Graphic Recording

The 4 panels were thought-provoking (thanks to the wisdom and kindness of the amazing panelists) and audience-interactive. There was no distancing 4th wall between expert and participants - anyone could contribute. Graphic Recorder, Diane Cline of Over the Horizon Consulting, captured the juicy content from the 4 panels.

Click on the panel links for the graphic of that panel. The Creative Leadership Panel included John Hagel, Robert Richman, Annalie Killian and Rita King. The Creative Work Cultures Panel included Carol Sanford, Steve Dahlberg, Kristi Faulkner and John Hagel. The Social Media & Creativity Panel included DC-based 'tech titans' Jesse Thomas, Peter LaMotte, Shashi Bellamkonda, Maxine Teller and Jen Consalvo. And the Emergence & CoCreation Panel - which I had fun moderating - included Peggy Holman, George Por, Bill Smith and Jack Ricchiuto.

Pioneers who Lead by Example

One thing that I loved that each presenter and each panelist had in common is that they were pioneers in some way...each had created their own approach, structure, services or products. Each had something original they have developed as part of their business offering. It was significant to the design of the event that every one of the presenters and panelists was offering something new and original to participants - thereby modeling applied creativity in business. This "ownership of personal experience" also gave them the real-time flexibility in thinking that allowed them to be present to addressing what was really showing up, without having to rely solely on third party knowledge. And it allowed for the real-time discovery that comes from being in the moment.

Themes Extracted from Stories

The Storytelling Plenary Session had compelling stories from leaders who are bringing creativity in business into the corporate world - with transformative results: John Hagel, James Jorasch, Rita King and Annalie Killian, each of whom shared their personal creativity in business journeys - which made them meaningful and accessible. The themes that emerged from their stories captured in Diane's graphic recording are here.

Nonverbal Creativity to Deepen the Learning

In keeping with the whole-brain engagement and pattern breaking themes of the day, I facilitated the Nonverbal Creativity Closing Session accompanied by musician extraordinaire, Anthony Hyatt of Moving Beauty, who masterfully put to music participants non-verbal expressions of the day. Each group of 8 produced a moving sculpture that was captivating to behold - both visually and energetically. The music fed off of them and they fed off the music in a feedback loop.

Improvisation-Imagination Festival

The day ended with an incredibly fun and frolicky Improvisation-Imagination Festival led by Kat Koppett and Cathy Salit, premiere improvisers from New York. Imagination, Play, and Improvisation were the main themes of the Festival. Not just watching from the sidelines, participants were the creative action. It was a great time!


Thankfulfor and More

The Thankfulfor display - created and curated by Jen Consalvo (pictured right) of Tech Cocktail - invited participants to post what they were thankful for at any given moment throughout the day. With 160 people in "gratitude energy" a palpable appreciative field was created. I think every event needs a gratitude wall. :-)

After the Festival, there was time for connect-working over hors d'oeuvres, catered by Leigh DuWolf, followed by dinner at a local Georgetown restaurant. DJ Rasul Sha'ir, President of Cnvrgnc, kept the music flowing throughout the day to add to the creative atmosphere, and the Conference Team, led by the amazing Tya Bolton, kept the flow going and the contianer strong.

Post-Conference Presenter Retreat
 
After the conference, several of the presenters enjoyed some down time at Kayser Ridge, located on 20 acres of wilderness in the stunningly beautiful Shenandoah Mountains in West Virginia. We were fortunate to be there during the breathtaking peak foliage week. It also so happened that were there to behold the fluke occurence of the Northern Lights in the night sky - which "never" happens this far south - a perfect way to cap off a time full of pattern breaking, good juju and emergent surprises.

Conference Links

•  Conference Pictures
•  Blog Posts by Corey Blake, Melanie Sklarz, Patrick Ross, Shashi Bellamkonda and Annalie Killian
•  Conference Facebook Page

I really feel grateful for the co-creation at every level of this event, the learnings I had, and new and/or deepened connections I made. Putting on this second conference was passion-in-action for me - in service of the emerging creativity-centered work paradigm. I look forward to whatever unfolds next.

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Cathy Rose Salit

Interview #30 in our Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Cathy Rose Salit, CEO of Performance of a Lifetime, a training and consulting company that brings the tools and framework of theater and improvisation to corporate and organizational life. Cathy began her career as an upstart and risk-taker at the age of 13, when she dropped out of eighth grade and, along with some friends and their more open-minded parents, started an alternative school in an abandoned storefront in New York City. This innovative endeavor led to Random House's publication of their book, Starting Your Own High School. Since then, Cathy has spent her life as an onstage performer, educational pioneer and social entrepreneur, launching innovative businesses and organizations designed as centers for change, learning and growth. Her clients include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft, Mars, Credit Suisse, the US Olympic Committee, Barclays and John Hopkins Hospital, where her recent work includes a ground-breaking resiliency program for oncology nurses. An accomplished singer, actress, director, and improvisational comic, Cathy can be seen performing in improvised musical comedy with The Proverbial Loons at the Castillo Theatre in New York City.

Q: How does your work relate to creativity?

Cathy:

Person A:    I'm so confused.

Person B:    Me, too.

Person A:     And scared. Things are changing so quickly.

Person B:     I know. I feel like there’s no solid ground to stand on.

Person A:     Can you make heads or tails out of the economy?

Person B:     Nobody can. How can you know what to do with all this uncertainty?
                     I feel like everything I ever knew was true... ISN’T.

Person A:    (Sees Person C walking by) What about you, C?

Person C:    (Starts to sing, to the tune of “Hey Jude”)
                    Hey you, don’t be afraid

                    Just because you can’t know for sure
                    
The sooner you let that really sink in

                    Then we can begin

                    To create some more

Person A:     Wow.

Person C:    (Keeps singing)
                    Hey you, let’s break the rules
                    
And make up new ones for uncertainty

                    The limits of “knowing” get in our way
                    
But this is a new day
                    
Let’s improvise and you’ll see...

Person B:    See what?

Person C:    (Keeps singing)
                    That any time you feel confused

                    Don’t get the blues
                    Just walk up to someone and say “yes, and”
                    ‘Cause don’t you know it’s not just you 

                    Hey, you, it’s true

                    The people you need are all around you

Person A & B: (Can’t help themselves, and join in):
                    Na na na nana na na, nana na na
                    Hey you, (the) illusion’s gone
.
                    Things will never be the same
.
                    So hold on – we’re gonna go for a ride
.
                    We need you by our side
                    To create a new game

(A, B, and C link arms and slowly walk toward the cafeteria. As they do, others join them and the sound of their singing takes another six minutes or so to fade away)

                    Na na na nanananaaa, nanananaaa, Hey you!
                    Na na na nanananaaa, nanananaaa, Hey you!
                    Na na na nanananaaa, nanananaaa, Hey you!
                    Na na na nanananaaa, nanananaaa, Hey you!...

In my work, I help people in organizations to be creative in response to all kinds of challenges and situations in life and work. This little script and song is my (impromptu) response to your question, an invitation to share/practice/create in real time. I’m very committed to helping people engage in a creative process all the time, which means that it doesn't matter whether the "end product" is brilliant.

What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?

Cathy: We all need to get much better at handling uncertainty, dealing with the unknown (and perhaps unknowable), and embracing change and the unexpected. Organizations (and their leaders) who are interested in developing their people to be more open-minded and to take risks — and are willing to invest in it — are part of a new paradigm of work. They focus on creating a work environment and culture that supports shaking things up and nurtures new ideas and practices. And part of what makes that possible is helping people to grow and develop emotionally, socially and intellectually.

What do you see as the role of creativity in that paradigm?

Cathy: It’s essential. It takes creativity to break out of our habitual ways of working, conversing and interacting — with colleagues, customers, stakeholders, etc. We get stuck in our “scripts,” comfortable with our “stock characters.” I think that exercising the creativity needed to expand your professional and personal repertoire — to try out different “performances” — is crucial. In my work, theater and improvisation provide the creative venue.

For example: a colleague and friend of mine, the developmental psychologist Lenora Fulani, has created an amazing program in New York City called “Operation Conversation: Cops and Kids.” She recruits police officers and inner city young people (whose typical relationship is, to put it mildly, estranged), brings them into a room, and directs them in creating improvisational theater together. It’s awe-inspiring. It completely changes how they see each other, and what they can then say and hear. That’s the power of creativity!

Or Andy Lansing, the CEO from Chicago recently profiled in the New York Times “Corner Office” column, whose first question to potential hires is “Are you nice?” I love that! What a creative question! It conveys a message about what it takes to succeed at this company (which obviously places a premium on how people relate to each other), it challenges the interviewee to think and talk in a way that they don’t expect (personally), and it breaks the mold of what a CEO (or anyone for that matter) would ask a potential new hire.

What mindsets and behaviors do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

Cathy: Improvise. Perform. Relate to every conversation, meeting, and interaction as an improvisational scene in which you are a performer, writer and director. Break rules and make up new ones — not just in coming up with ideas, but in how we organize what we do together and how we do it in the workplace. Become a creative artist whose medium is everyday life.

What is one approach that people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?

Cathy: Learn and use the golden rule of improvisers: “Yes, And.”  Our natural tendency is to say “Yes, but,” which blocks the flow of conversation — and any chance of creativity. Saying “yes” means that you accept the person and what she or he has said. “And” lets you build on what your colleague has given you, adding your contribution.

Try this exercise: when you’re in a conversation with a colleague at work, listen extra carefully. Don’t plan what you’re going to say — just listen. When your colleague finishes, say “yes, and” and let that guide what you say next. Even if you don’t agree!

Start paying attention to all of the “Yes, buts’” that you say and hear. See if you can start to bring this “creative positivity” into the meetings and conversations that you’re part of.

Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?

Cathy: Creative leadership is being willing to fail. That school I started at 13? I can’t honestly say that it was an unqualified success. (To this day I still can’t identify a subjunctive clause or multiply past 6). But for me, “success” or no, it changed everything. It taught me the fundamental importance of creatively questioning and creatively building new ways of living and working in our world.

Creative leadership is doing things before we know how (and encouraging others to as well). Our culture, with its insistence on knowing how things are going to turn out (an illusion in any event), inhibits our appetite for and skill at bringing new things into existence.

Creative leadership means working and playing well with others. Creativity is not a solo act. Everyday creativity is an ensemble performance, in which people build on one another’s contributions to create new possibilities and new understandings of what they are doing together. Creative leaders model all this in what they do and how they do it, and don’t swerve from their commitment to helping other people take risks — which as often as not means taking the risk with them. You can’t control it! Let things emerge and then take on the creative challenge of figuring out what to do next.
 
Cathy will be presenting an improv-based breakout session at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Leilani Henry

Interview #29 in The Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with
Leilani Raashida Henry, M.A., a leader in the field of workplace creativity and work-life balance. A pioneer on bringing innovative whole brain strategies to personal, professional and organization transformation, Leilani is President of Being and Living® Enterprises, and is the creator of Brain Jewels®, a multi-sensory coaching process. She worked for 13 years as an internal productivity/creativity consultant with Honeywell, Lockheed Martin and Jones Intercable. Leilani’s lifetime experience in the performing and visual arts is integrated into her unique approach to leadership, creativity and performance. She is cited in books, national publications and organizations such as Centered on the Edge, Corporate Meetings & Incentives, Fast Company, Fetzer Institute, New Visions in Business and Thrivability. Her clients have included AT&T, Intuit, Time Warner, HBO, University of Colorado Boulder, HP, the EPA, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation and HSBC Bank among others.

How does your work relate to creativity?

Leilani: Individual and collective transformation requires engagement of the whole person at work. It brings the group as the "new art form" into being. We can do more as an inspired collective, than we can do alone. Rather than leaving our true thoughts and feelings unexpressed in service of getting the job done, my work makes the invisible more visible. I enable what's not seen, heard, or allowed to surface safely, as a catalyst for better relationships and organizational change. My work also encourages groups to think better collectively by challenging assumptions and uncovering possibilities. Creativity is the opposite of certainty - it allows us to co-create with others what is emerging, for the benefit of ourselves and the larger whole. I also focus on stress management to increase the flow of creativity.
 
What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?

Leilani: When you unleash the whole person (body, mind and spirit), you unleash creativity in the work place. Employees become partners and investors in the organization, and are valued for the multiple intelligences they can provide. This new way of working also includes patience with chaos, which is critical because the new paradigm in more non-linear than linear. A respect for the differences in pace and style of working is needed, as well as honoring differences, in general.

The new way of working requires the ability and willingness to hear and connect with all stakeholders, in order to increase the bottom line and contribution to society. Work-life balance keeps everything in check, so people can bring their best selves to their projects and take time for regeneration and what they value. It now takes our whole brains to deal with the complexity of the marketplace and the chaos in our lives. The organization is freer to produce extraordinary results when everyone is pulling together, understands their part in the whole and believes that their contribution is essential for the organization to thrive. Increased connection between all parts of the organization encourages the organization to become greater than the sum of it's parts.
 
What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?

Leilani: Creativity allows us to do things more elegantly, more coherently and have fun in the process because we engage our whole selves. Behind creativity is 'espirit de corp' - the morale -the exuberance needed to fully be present at work. It is the underpinnings of being able to do more with less. If we wish to keep up with accelerated growth of our companies, or with market turbulence, creativity can help us have a more 'possibilities' outlook on that which we have no control. Business can grow more organically. Tapping into the creativity of employees increases positive customer service (both internal and external customers). Each person can see more easily who they are, how they fit and what difference they make. It becomes easier to play a greater role in serving a greater good, partner with the community, and be more profitable.

What practices and mindsets do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

Leilani: When organizations require unlimited hours and energy to be an employee, work-life balance is not maintained, effective communication is eroded and participation in the larger whole, can decrease. We put our heads down, do our work and don't come up for air until we complete OUR piece of the pie.  It becomes more essential to get one's part completed than it is to connect with others around intention of what we are doing, what works best when trying to get things done under pressure and sharing what you/we are learning.

Self care is essential. Rather than ignore or put off until later, pay attention to the signals your body gives you regarding stress and rest. Keep in touch with what is emerging, so you are not blind-sighted by external change. Imagine "What if…" and look at alternatives, upside-down scenarios to keep things fresh and alive. A business can also pay attention to and openly acknowledge signs of stress and lack of productivity. This could prevent mistakes, accidents, waste and a climate of discouragement or unnecessary conflict.

What is one approach people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?

Leilani: "Pay Attention to Signals"


Divide into 4 teams or if alone, divide your paper into 4 squares.

1. Ask: What signals (unexpected events) have we seen in the outside world in the last month? Examples: hurricanes, stock market crash, consensus in the European Union.

2. What signals have we seen in our customers, clients, patrons? Examples: more people unsubscribing to our lists, customers downgrading, customers sharing information about how well they like our company.

3. What signals have we seen from internal relationships between depts./business units?  Examples: less information sharing, stealing each others employees, collectively problem solving has gone up.

4. What signals have you seen within yourselves? Examples: more feelings of frustrations, 80 hours a week feels normal, I keep stubbing my same toe on the desk, I meditated every day this week.

Let your mind wander as you see what messages come up, as you reflect on these signals. What's might be behind the signals? Brainstorm potential meanings for the signals. Find at least one positive outcome from the signals, as well as, one action to start, stop or continue doing. Ask: What might be the meaning of these events, signs or signals for me/us?

Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?

Leilani: Authenticity, boldness, transparency, engagement, appreciation of the uniqueness each person and each part of the system brings. When a leader tunes his/her instrument first and ensures that each instrument in the orchestra is tuned, harmony is created and people are drawn to see and hear what the organization has to offer. The least amount of effort for the most reward and gain is present.

Leilani will be presenting a whole-brain breakout session at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com

Our 2011 Creativity in Business Conference - October 23 in DC!

http://www.creativity-conference.com 

Come learn, think, create and engage with 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 and organizational creativity
* Organizational structures/business models conducive for creativity & innovation
* The integration of creativity, purpose, business and serving the greater good
* Bringing your whole brain - and whole self - to work

This new breed of business conference conference is about going beyond talk-only into exeperiential immersion - immersing you into the experience of creative process and your own creativity. The content is is designed to be informative, intelligent and practical. It will expand your knowledge and understanding. The experiences are designed to be rich and revelatory. They will expand your self.

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.

Come engage your whole brain with practices such as applied storytelling, improvisation, visual thinking, creative inquiry and dialogue, movement and embodiment along with innovative business models and approaches you can apply right away to your work or business.

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. There are no keynoters - just thinkers, leaders and facilitators in service of YOUR creativity and your business.

IMAGINATION FESTIVAL:  Improvisation, Live Music, Connectworking, Book Signings, Give-Aways and tasty hors d'oeuvres.

REGISTRATION:  Earlybird discount through Friday, September 16, 2011. Seating is limited - early registration is recommended. http://www.creativity-conference.com

Hope you can join us! :-)

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Kat Koppett

Interview #28 in the Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is
with Kat Kopett, founder of Koppett  + Company, (www.koppett.com) a training and consulting company specializing in the use of theatre and storytelling techniques for individual and organizational performance, and the Co-Director of The Mop & Bucket Company, an improvisational theatre company and school.

Her book on how to use improvisational theatre techniques for organizational development, Training to Imagine: Practical Improvisational Theatre Techniques to Enhance Creativity, Teamwork, Leadership and Learning, is used by trainers, teachers and organizational leaders around the world, and will be released in a revised edition by Stylus Publishing this Fall. Kat has designed and delivered training for Chanel, Pepsi, Kaiser-Permanente, NYSID, Glens Falls Hospital, JPMorgan Chase, Eli Lilly, and The Farm Bureau among others in places such as India, Brazil, Paris and Oklahoma. TheatreWeek Magazine named Kat one of the year’s “Unsung Heroes” for her creation of the completely improvised musical format, “Spontaneous Broadway” which is now performed from New York to California to Australia. She will also be chairing the 2nd Annual TEDxAbany conference in November.

How does your work relate to creativity?

Kat: Improvisers make stuff up, collaboratively, on-the-spot, with no script or pre-planning, in front of paying audiences demanding to be entertained, often based on that audience's suggestions. We must take our ideas and passions and intentions and marry them with whatever is happening in the moment to produce work that delights our customers and ourselves. In order to accomplish this rather daunting task, improvisers have developed principles and techniques to guide them. And those approaches seem to apply in helpful ways to any situation in which people are working collaboratively (or individually, actually) to build something.

What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?

Kat: There is no longer such a thing as job "security". Whereas there may have been a time when a person could reasonably think to choose between the chaos and risk of life as an entrepreneur (or in the arts) and the steady safety of a job in a "solid" profession, now everyone lives the life of an entrepreneur. Most people will have many jobs. We must all manage our own career paths and financial well-being with less obvious, traditional trajectories to follow. And work is not just an at-the-office, 9-5 endeavor for most of us any more. The marketplace is global, the work-cycle a 24-hour one, personal and professional lives merge, and your colleagues and friends are as likely to live on the next continent as the next block. Work is much more individual, much more intertwined, and much more unpredictable than in the past.

What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?

Kat: The rules are changing all the time. Although planning remains imperative, most plans are useless, and all of us must be flexible and creative and autonomous and skilled at surfing change. Although there remain unprecedented opportunities and comforts for many of us, times are scary in all sorts of ways. Economically, environmentally, socially. It will take our best selves to develop new ways of interacting with each other to transcend the violence and mistrusts and that continue to plague us. It will take our most creative approaches to develop sustainable practices and keep the global community (and the globe) healthy and thriving. The old ways are failing us, and the stakes are as high as they have ever been. To paraphrase Daniel Pink, the future will belong to those who can flex, adapt, empathize,  tell stories, and create.

What mindsets and behaviors do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

Kat: The most fundamental improv principle is the "yes, and" rule which says, an improviser must accept and build with what her partner offers. (An offer, in improv parlance, is a technical term that means ANYTHING - an idea, an emotion, a gesture, an attribution - that is created in the scene.) Significantly, "accept" does not mean "agree". We do not have to like the offers. They may not be at all what we are expecting or want. But we are obligated to use them, simply because they exist. On stage that means we accept the co-created reality. For example, if my partner says, "Hi, Honey, I'm home!" then I accept that he has a honey and this is his home.

In real life, accepting offers may mean that I accept that my partner has a different experience of an interaction, or that there is an imposed deadline for a project, or that climate change is happening, or that there is an increasing disparity between the rich and poor in the U.S. I may not like it, but it exists, so I must deal with it. Once I accept the offers that are, then I can move on to the "and" part, which says, I will seek to create with what is already there. Too often we waste time and energy "yes, but-ing" - arguing with or blocking the offers that we don't like, or don't see. When we "yes, and" we are able to build with whatever has come before. Want to get better at "yes, anding"? Start by shifting your internal question when faced with something unexpected or unattractive from "Will I accept and build with this?" to "HOW can I use or build with this?"

What is one practice people can start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization?

Kat: Most people respond to the "yes, and" principle above when it is presented. And yet most people also acknowledge that they and those around them tend to "yes, but" more than they "yes, and". There are a number of reasons for this ranging from acquired habits to cultural norms and reward structures. Of course, sometimes "no" is appropriate, courageous, creative and useful. But often we block in ways that are habitual or fear-based rather than productive.

Keith Johnstone, improv guru and author of "Impro", sums it up this way, “There are people who prefer to say ‘Yes’, and there are people who prefer to say ‘No’. Those who say ‘Yes’ are rewarded by the adventures they have. Those who say ‘No’ are rewarded by the safety they attain.”  In order to encourage positive risk-taking and developmental culture in which "yes, and" is practiced, we and our clients use the "Circus Bow".

The Circus Bow:

Step 1: Put your hands over your head.

Step 2: Say, "I failed!" or "I made a mistake" or "I feel silly!"

Step 3: Take a big celebratory bow and accept wild applause from your colleagues.

The circus bow is, of course, borrowed from the circus. When the start arielist misses the quadruple back-flip, he does not slink off muttering that he should have stuck to the triple that he was certain to succeed at. He celebrates the courage and achievement mindset necessary to have stretched himself and tried something new and adventurous. It is only in environments where failure is not only tolerated, but celebrated in this way, that creativity and innovation can truly thrive. (This, by the way, is an idea which is being rediscovered and heralded in business publications right now. Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, TED and others have had great articles and discussions on just this topic in the last few months.)

Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?

Kat: The Artistic Director of Freestyle Repertory Theatre, Laura Livingston, once told me that she felt her job was to create the jungle gym so that her improvisers could swing on in. By providing solid structure - clear objectives, rules of engagement, resources, time, functional and delightful spaces - leaders can provide environments in which creativity can grow and thrive. Often that means doing the boring, inside-the-box, behind-the-scenes scut work that gets very little recognition or conscious appreciation. Kinda like being a good parent, I suppose. In short, creative leaders model what they want to encourage, provide stimulating environments in which it is safe to experiment and grow, and get out of the way.

Kat will be presenting an improv and story-based breakout session at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Corey Michael Blake

Interview #27 in our Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is with Corey Michael Blake. Corey has been communicating creatively for over 15 years, first as the face and voice behind a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 brands as a commercial and voiceover actor, then as a film producer and director, as an author and publisher, and now as the founder and President of Round Table Companies, packaging and publishing business and memoir titles by new and bestselling authors, such as Chris Anderson (Wired Editor), Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO) and Marshall Goldsmith, among others, to deliver their best-selling books as graphic novels.

Corey’s work has won Addy, Belding, Bronze Lion and London International Advertising awards and has been covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Wired Magazine, Barron’s, Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Fox News, Bloomberg TV, and Investor’s Business Daily and my writing has been published in Writer Magazine, Script Magazine and on StartUp Nation.

How does your work relate to creativity?

Corey: My company and my staff share people's stories for a living. We do so with the written word and also with the graphic novel format. We're actually the first company to publish an entire series of illustrated business books based on the work of best-selling authors, so we're steeped in creativity both in the actualization of our material and also in the process we use to bring our client's visions to life. As a past actor and filmmaker in Hollywood, I brought over the collaborative filmmaking process to book writing and publishing. So instead of forcing authors to hole up in a cave for 6 months writing their book, we surround them with an entire team of creatives that bring their message or mission to life in an experiential product. Creativity is easily one of the most emphasized core values of our team.

What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?

Corey: I'm seeing a massive shift in how intellectual property is monetized. Book sales have been greatly impacted by the information revolution taking place and everyone is struggling to figure out how to drive enough revenue to continue to exist. So smart business people are focusing on using intellectual property, such as books, to grow their platform, to build a real community and then they leverage their exposure to drive sales of services, merchandise, workshops, etc. The power of community is becoming so explosive that folks who get in the game thinking that book sales are the end result are completely missing the boat and often disappointed with the results.

What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?

Corey: Creativity and innovation are the keys to standing out for a brand and growing platform. You can have great information to deliver, but if you're not being creative with your delivery mechanism, it's too easy to get lost. Creativity generates a legitimate emotional response, which is the catalyst for the word of mouth marketing that supports a growing platform and expands community. In the book world, publishers are actually being forced to be less creative due to budget constraints. That means less time for authors, less time for relationships, less time for the breath that is necessary to create the kind of products that stand out and demand attention. The IP industry as a whole has an opportunity to release the old paradigm and start thinking differently about the end goals and the impact creativity can have on reaching those goals.

What do you see as essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

Corey: Certainly, doing great work is still the greatest piece of word of mouth marketing anyone can do for their brand. But you also have to understand how to share the story behind your business, your motivation, your passion and your ability to generate results. Storytelling reaches people emotionally and in this Twitter and Facebook society, you have to reach people at the gut level if you expect them to pay attention.

What is one approach people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or business organization?

Corey: You attract what you're intentional about and what you put out into the world. If you want to attract more creativity, make it a core value and infuse it into your culture. A great way to start the conversation would be to use the following simple survey to generate conversation within your company around the topic of creativity and more specifically the conversation around sharing the real story behind your business:

1. Describe how our customers "experience" our business. How do they feel each step of the way? What inspires them? Where in our process do they tend to get more aggravated? Where in our process or the buying experience do they feel the most joy?

2. When we sell our company, what is the experience we're selling (not the product or service)?

3. How does our business change lives or make life easier or better for people?

4. What gets people most excited about talking about our company?

5. What gets you out of bed to serve our clients?

6. What change within our business would inspire you?

7. What about our existing business impresses you most?

Once you've completed this survey and an internal dialogue about the responses, see where you can use elements from this exercise within your marketing and sales language as well as your internal documents (company handbook, HR docs, etc).

Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?

Corey: Creative leadership is culture based. It focuses on serving employees so they can serve customers. It focuses on collaboration and communication. If focuses on trailblazing new pathways and not being limited by conventional thought. Creative leadership focuses on growth as a result of transparency, connection, service, and joy.


Corey will be presenting a lively breakout session at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on October 23, 2011. Register at http://creativity-conf-2011.eventbrite.com

Creativity in Business: My Interview with Peggy Holman

Interview #26 in our Creativity in Business Thought Leader Series is
with Seattle based author and  consultant, Peggy Holman, who works with social technologies that engage "whole systems" of people from organizations and communities in creating their own future. She consults on strategies for enabling diverse groups to face complex issues by turning presentation into conversation and passivity into participation. In the second edition of The Change Handbook, she joins with her co-authors to profile sixty-one change processes. 

Winner of the 2011 gold Nautilus Award for conscious business/leadership, her latest book, Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity dives beneath these change methods to share stories that make visible deeper patterns, principles, and practices for change that can guide us through turbulent times.  Since 1996, she has worked with a range of organizations, including Microsoft, Biogen Idec, Novartis, Boeing, and the Gates Foundation. You can find her at www.peggyholman.com.

How does your work relate to creativity?

PH: Much of my work is reminding people of their innate ability to engage with disruption and difference to achieve great outcomes. At the heart of their success is creative engagement - connecting
with ideas, each other, the whole system, even themselves.

When disturbed, most of us would rather hunker down someplace safe. This attitude kills creativity. Negativity and despair are all around. When you hear them, it’s a great opportunity to creatively engage. Ask a question of possibility. Take a stand for connection in a time of separation.

What do you see as the New Paradigm of Work?

PH: I see a shift underway from hierarchies to networks.  The implications for what leadership looks like are profound.  Not only can it come from anywhere, but if you consider the dynamics of networks, what constitutes leadership varies more.

Think about the difference between pack animals, with alpha leaders keeping others in line versus birds, ants, bees, or other animals that seem to function with no one in charge. In hierarchies, a few people make strategic decisions for everyone else. Increasing complexity – a more diverse public, greater access to a broader range of perspectives, technological innovations affecting scale and scope of just about everything – makes this strategy less effective.  No longer can a few people with relatively similar backgrounds and perspectives make the best choices for the rest of us

In contrast, leadership in networks is collective and relational, as people form hubs and link with others. From the outside, hubs in a network look a lot like hierarchical organizations: groups of people organized to accomplish something together. That makes it easy to confuse leadership of a hub with hierarchical leadership, thinking the same rules apply. Not! Giving orders, chain of command, top-down decision making doesn’t function when people can choose whether to participate.

Hubs form because people are attracted to them. Hubs grow when people are drawn to the purpose and/or the people and believe that they can both give and/or receive something of value. The remarkable communities that maintain the Wikipedia or fill the Open Source software movement are examples of networks producing real-world benefit.

More elusive is “link leadership”— connecting people, organizations, and ideas. Why is connecting people or organizations a form of leadership? If you want breakthroughs, interactions among those who don’t usually meet is an essential ingredient. And when hubs connect to hubs, ideas can spread like wildfire.

What do you see the role of creativity in that paradigm?

PH: I think networked organizations are inherently creative, not to mention more responsive, resilient, and fun. Since leadership can come from anywhere, the possibilities are endless.

What skills, mindsets and behaviors do you see as most essential for effectively navigating the new work paradigm?

PH: A core skill that makes networks powerful is taking responsibility for what you love as an act of service. That’s a mouthful, so let me unpack it a bit.

This game-changing way of operating liberates hearts, minds, and spirits.  It calls us to pay attention to what matters most, putting our unique gifts to use.  You see, many of us live with an unspoken belief that to belong, we must conform.  If we each pursued what we love, it sounds like a recipe for chaos. What a loss!  Not only is more of the same the outcome, but by keeping our feelings and ideas bottled up, we become more isolated and the group’s creative potential is diminished.

In contrast, networks thrive when we contribute our unique gifts. Since what binds a network together is shared purpose, by pursuing what I love, my distinctiveness rubs up against other’s differences and suddenly we’re playing jazz. Everyone’s part is different and it matters. Not only do I belong, but I do it by being the best me I can be.

What is one practice that people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business
organization?

If I were to pick on practice that is simple to apply and powerful in its affect, I’d say: welcome disturbance by asking questions of possibility. Creativity often shows up in a cloak of disruption. It makes sense when you stop and think about it.  If there were no disruption, there’d be no reason for change. And change opens the door to creativity.

Great questions help us to find possibilities in any situation, no matter how challenging.  Here are some of their characteristics:

•    They open us to possibilities.
•    They are bold yet focused.
•    They are attractive: diverse people can find themselves in them.
•    They appeal to our head and our heart.
•    They serve the individual and the collective.

Some examples:

•    What question, if answered, would make a difference in this situation?
•    What can we do together that none of us could do alone?
•    What could this team also be?
•    What is most important in this moment?
•    Given what has happened, what is possible now?

Some tips for asking possibility-oriented questions:

1. ASK QUESTIONS THAT INCREASE CLARITY.  Positive images move us toward positive actions. Questions that help us to envision what we want help us to realize it.

2. PRACTICE TURNING DEFICIT INTO POSSIBILITY.  In most ordinary conversations, people focus on what they can’t do, what the problems are, what isn’t possible. Such conversations provide an endless source for practicing the art of the question. When someone says, “The problem is x,” ask, “What would it look like if it were working?” If someone says, “I can’t do that,” ask, “What would you like to do?”

3. RECRUIT OTHERS TO PRACTICE WITH YOU.  You can have more fun and help each other grow into the habit of asking possibility-oriented questions. But watch out: it can be contagious. You might attract a crowd.

Finally, what is Creative Leadership to you?
 
PH: Creative leadership is engaged, curious, open, focused, and bold. Boldness inspires us to rise to the occasion. Focus points the way. Curiosity sparks exploration and pioneering. And engagement brings the diversity of others. 

Asking possibility-oriented questions as one means of exercising creative leadership. So the next time you face a complex issue or disruptive situation, ask a great question. Then jump in with others to discover a creative response.

Peggy will be a panelist at our upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC on Ocotber 23, 2011. Come engage emergence with Peggy in person!

The Time is Ripe for Creativity in Business!

Creativity is no longer on the sidelines of the workplace or for the select few - it's front and center,  increasingly acknowledged as the key business factor for economic growth in the new economy. It is not just for the creatives - each of us has to "step up our creative game" to thrive in the emerging paradigm of work.

With challenging social, economic and environmental conditions, we are also being called to look beyond business as usual into what really matters and how can we serve - and still make a profitable living. It's time to focus on integrating for-profit business, purpose, creativity and serving a greater good. Passion alone is not enough to break old thinking and working patterns that fracture and segment, and move into creating new "whole-systems" patterns. NEW and different ways of thinking and being - consciously applied - are needed to create a sustainable, alive and thriving future. Creativity is the driving force to navigate this shift.

Just google "Creativity in Business" and you will see an ever-expanding lists of courses, books, articles, and programs on the topic. It has hit the mainstream which is gratifying for those of us who have been passionate about this integration! Many MBA programs now include creativity and/or social responsibility as part of the curriculum. The new paradigm is about converging worlds: commerce and service, left and right brain, thinking and being, creativity and practicality, mind and heart...and what is simultaneously good for self, others and the whole.

I am very excited to explore - and experience - these concepts further at our Creativity in Business Conference in DC October 4th!