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 for Re-enchantment, Reconnection & Purposeful Direction in Tough Times

"In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person
complaining of  being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?" ~ Gabrielle Roth

Good wisdom in this time when so many in the world are disheartened, dispirited, or depressed. Getting back to our Creative Self - dancing, singing, artwork, theater, improv, storytelling, writing, journaling, meditating, movement, reflecting, imagining, writing, visioning, creating in any form - helps us navigate a world disrupted (and even a world not so disrupted). Just more urgent now. It is not about waiting until AFTER the fear, pain, and chaos ends, but rather using the creative practices to help us MOVE THROUGH it...within ourselves and with each other.

It is an often overlooked part of what the world needs to transform. Among other things, the lack of whole-brain, whole-person embodied creating - and the life-generating  "enchantment" it brings - in our everyday lives and workplaces leads to feeling disheartened and dis-empowered. This is not the time to contract away from our Creative Source energy in the face of a dispirited world...instead, it is an essential time to learn to CREATE from and with your Creative Self - in whatever ways you are uniquely called - to help change your experience AND the experience of the world.

There is no one right way to engage, create, or produce. There are multiple potentials and possibilities of what can be generated. And all types of creative expression can feel good and be generative. But there IS a way, or set of ways, for you that is uniquely yours - that is more alive and purposeful than others - that is embedded in your soul's purpose. I have seen this without exception in 20+ years of creative emergence coaching purpose-centered, heart-centered, soulful entrepreneurs.

In exploring the possibilities by trying out different forms of expression, without judgement or needing it to be perfect, you can access the uniqueness of your Creative Self. it is a discovery process. Your unique inner garden of creative delights does not look like anyone else's - and when authentically seeded and cultivated, will produce your one-of-a-kind juicy fruit that is also nourishing for the world. The more in trouble the world is, the more new healthy creative foundations are needed - seeded by each of us. It's so significant now to discover what is ours to do to contribute to a more humane, just, life-giving world.

It's not always easy, and takes some time, attention, focus, integrity, and self-awareness. But that's the sweet spot...where your unique creative aliveness meets the needs of the world...as it is, where it is, to naturally create a more generative, alive, healthy what's next. We all need that now. This sweet spot, once cultivated, serves ourselves, others, and the whole. That's embedded in its nature. Don't give up. Your Creative Self awaits your engagement, and it offers a possibility for re-enchantment, re-connection, and purposeful direction - especially now.

Michelle James ©2020

Thoughts on Creating What's Next while in the Unknown

I run a group on Facebook Applied Creativity Network (open to anyone if you'd like to join) where someone asked, "What's next? How is the world going to be with this coronavirus? How are the remaining people going to relate to each other...social life?"

Kay Ross, a member of that group wrote: "I don't know how it will be. The question is: How do we WANT it to be? What kind of world/life/society do we want to design and create?"

I really resonated with her answer, and "yes-anded" it with some thoughts of my own. Because they're directly related with the work I do with my clients, I thought I would share them here:

Also don't know how it will be. I don't think anyone can know at this time, but we can make choices about what's ours to do now, even in this big unknown. We can discover where what we are inspired to do meets what is needed now, even without knowing the whole picture.

We do have agency and, like Kay Ross said, can ask what we want, and what we can design and create. Our feeling of creative empowerment comes from looking at what we CAN do in any given situation...what calls to us, what inspires us, what we want to do, what needs we can meet, what can we create, and how we can serve the situation, etc.

As far as relating, while challenging now, I imagine people will adapt as they always have to find ways of connecting - or create them - even within these unprecedented constraints. I don't think we can know what the will look like...so that means being OK (or at least accepting) being in the unknown for a while - without knowing how it will look - and creating that as we go, like in an improv. And not needing or expecting it to look exactly like it was in the past. It won't be the same. If we can accept that, and not fight it, we're more empowered to create what's next.

I have faith in the creative life force in each of us, and the universal creative life force that animate all of life (why I created my business around that)...so I have faith in humans capacity to find or create ways of staying connected until we can gather again in person, and faith in those who feel called to create new ways of connecting we don't even know of yet. We're seeing that already. That doesn't mean it’s not hard to be these isolated now (or that there is not real suffering, fear, pain, and deep loss in the world right now - there is!), but it is just about switching our focus to what we CAN do within the constraints - looking beyond what is to what we imagine can be, and discovering what is ours to do in the process. That is an emergence process. If everyone did that, I think we’d see a modern creative renaissance during and after this situation.

Sometimes our deepest fears about what will be lost (as well as the reality of what IS being lost) can lead us to create something new to meet those needs. Historically, people have always used their creativity to move beyond even the most challenging situations. That's where I put my trust when in the unknown...in the creative alive spirit in each of us that is infinitely rich with alive potential for creating new ways of engaging. So, while we can’t know what’s next, we can meet the moment and ask what we are called to do or create, and help create what's next.

Michelle James ©2020

Creating Generative Work in a Chaotic World: Doing What's Ours to Do to Move from Helplessness to Helpfulness

Picture from last Sunday's hike at Bearfence Rock Scramble in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Trying to take on the healing of the world is a daunting task, which can leave people feeling hopeless. Focusing instead on on what’s ours to do, in our own life - with our own unique set of gifts, skills, talents, and experiences that no one else can possibly have - to serve the betterment of the world in the unique way we're destined to serve makes our soul’s work accessible, and empowering. And it will help the healing of the world, because embedded in every soul’s calling is always some way to serve that is for the greater good. It’s not limited to the small palette of choices that others put forth for us.

We can create life-giving work outside those lines that serve our hearts and souls and spirits as we serve others. We’re not limited to jumping on pre-existing bandwagons - though we can choose that if we’re called to it. Yes, and…we always have the ability to create our own ways of serving, and they doesn't have to fit neatly into the conventional norms of what it looks like to serve. Creativity is messy, but there can be order in the chaos if we care to delve into the unknown to find it:

1. The first step is to open to that there are options we don’t yet know…and that we can access them from within ourselves. Just opening to that possibility frees us of being beaten down by what is going on outside of ourselves.
2. Next begins the work of connecting with our inner selves, and engaging our Creative Source (the life-generating-life, love-generating-love creative energy within each of us), exploring and creating with it until we can move past limiting belief systems and outdated stories of what we can do, and into a deeper reservoir of potential and possibility. As unconscious stories of helplessness become conscious, we can change them to new stories of helpfulness.
   
3. Then is the ongoing the creative cultivation of the creative impulse and what we've discovered out into the world - turning it into a set of guiding principles, applicable ideas, life-giving stories and manifestos, approaches, services, and products - whether we work for ourselves or for others. We all have generative ways to contribute.

We can stay in a fight-flight-freeze reactive mode to the world’s harshness...or we can acknowledge it, and choose a proactive, procreative stance in the face of it…and choose to discover and uncover what's ours to do anyway, even in the external chaos, to serve and steward our own little corner of the world (humans, animals, the earth) in the ways we can - creating a healthier new operating system from new paradigm aspirational energy instead of reacting only from the outdated familiar one.

If enough of us do our part in cultivating and doing soul/heart/aliveness/creativity-centered work in our own corner of the world (whether it's locally, nationally, or globally; with individuals, group, organizations, or communities; with people, structures, or systems; high tech or low tech; for profit or not for profit), and level up into a new aspirational story, it can't help but impact the good of the whole.  #my2cents #newparadigmwork #creativeemergence

Michelle James ©2020

Emergence Focus

Emergence is a process found throughout the natural world where the new whole emerges as greater than the sum of its parts. In improv theory, there is the concept of "Yes And" which accepts and includes that which already is, and add then adds something new. Using an Emergence-centered approach in the workplace includes the acknowledgment of problems and the need to focus on desired outcomes...AND expands beyond that to include new ways of approaching the situation, generating new patterns of solution-finding, immersion in the discovery process, as well as engaging that which is not yet known as a source of new information. Our unique Creative Emergence Process™ includes various whole brain and creativity approaches to cultivate the new ideas, thought patterns, and states of being which lead to new (and often surprising) innovations and outcomes. Emergence accepts and uses what already is - and adds a new dimension.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Creating

When the going gets tough, the tough get resilient,
empowered, creative, and improvisational. History  shows us that. Times of great challenge, flux, and uncertainty can lead to into new, healthier ways of thinking, being, interacting, and creating. That’s where I am choosing put my energy...focusing on what I can influence, even if only in the smallest of ways; on what can be created; and on what options, ideas, choices, possibilities, systems, and structures can be cultivated that are more livable, thrivable, kind, and compassionate. Like in an improv scene, meeting the scene where it is and creating from there, in the unknown - which looks different for each scene, and for each person. It's a discovery process...messy, unclear, chaotic, unpolished...

We can’t control everything going on, but there are things we can control within the constraints - creativity within constraints. We can own what is going on within our selves, and within our choices. We can choose how we respond, what we do or do not do, and what we engage. We get to choose on what level and how we want to serve the situation. We get to choose how we show up, what we listen to within and outside of ourselves, what to take on, what to let go of, and what to resist, and what to create.

We can use our personal power to contribute in our unique way. Saying yes to what’s life-giving and generative, and saying no to what is not is part of the creative process. I don't have any answers for anyone, and I am not trying to simplify what is going on in the world, but I do have faith in: the power of creativity for positive personal and social change; the unknown for the new potential it contains; the questions we can ask ourselves, knowing that questions generate answers; and in the creativity and drive and hearts of human beings. Creative thinking at all levels is needed more now than ever! No one can take away our capacity to create...history - and nature - show us that.

I feel motivated to contribute at a new level. What that will look like for me at this time is still unfolding. There is something about supporting my coaching clients navigate the current terrain in their own lives and business that’s helping expand my perspective on what’s possible and the ways I can serve. I'll be sharing more as I get more clear.

Creative Destruction within the Creative Process

Image by Gem J Shimada

A friend recently asked on Facebook, "How do you motivate yourself and stay enthusiastic when surrounded by a collapsing civilization?" I thought I'd post my response here since it was, not surprisingly, all about applied creativity. Specifically, the creative destruction within a creative emergence process - being with both the destruction of the old and the emergence of the new. Here's my 2 cents:

In any detox process, it gets worse before it gets better as all the sickness, toxins, chaotic nasty stuff rises up to the surface before it is ready to be released, and a new healthier order emerges. In a healing process. the same thing happens….all the layers of wounding, pain, shadow, and nastiness emerge to our conscious minds to be healed, released and/or transformed. Some of us see what's happening as going through a giant collective detox and healing, and re-calibrating to a more life-giving, heart/soul-centered foundation.

Right now are faced with all the darkest, most shadowy aspects of human nature - and results of the actions that emerged from that - at the same time the most previously buried and empowering aspects of human nature are also emerging in order to heal the wounds, nurture the detox process, and create new foundations form the healthiness, not the sickest, parts of ourselves. The nastiness we see all around us is disheartening and devastating…and…is a great invitation to access the life-generating-new-life creative source within us to create new foundations. Things horrific have come up to the surface for us to see, be conscious of, and transform. That process is painful and joyful, hopeless-feeling at times and hope-filled, scary and empowering.

We are being invited to take our creativity to new, more inclusive levels - including and transcending personal expression to that which serves the greater unfolding. We can still fully feel the pain and frustration of what is happening, and the injustices to humans, animals, and the earth (which can feel overwhelming at times) AND stay connected to the life-giving source underneath that is calling to emerge new foundations. It's there that we have power to move beyond the current situation and create something new, one person/group/org/community/etc at a time….which means not using old paradigm approaches and change-structures to try to "control" the process of how we navigate this transition that like so many well meaning groups still do.

I feel if enough of us do the real work to discover what's uniquely ours to do (no more, no less), then connect with others based on that resonance (not an externally imposed set of values), we will reach a tipping point for a new - an unstoppable energetic momentum - and life-giving way of being in the world. The old ways and power structures will not hold the power they have and currently hold, and new possibilities that we literally can't yet imagine unfold to guide the global healing, re-generating process. As you find what's yours to do, that meaning often becomes the motivator to go on in the scary space of the collapse of the familiar, and before the new has been formed. Destruction within creation is part of the creative emergence process.

© Michelle James 2015

Masterpiece Energy - An Exploration of Generative Creativity

Image from pbs.org

2 colleague friends and I were talking about what differentiates great works of creativity - what constitutes a true Masterpiece. We stated reflecting on what we called Masterpiece Energy. We then decided to explore it further by having a 3-way written dialogue in which we all shared out thoughts, and then after reflecting on what each other had written, evolved and expanded them more until we got into the essence. Below are the thoughts I had, in progression, in that dialogue:

 

 

It is Transformative...and Invites us into More than we Currently Know and Are

When I think of Masterpiece Energy, I think of it as the embodiment of the confluence of several  key elements, regardless of genre: it is alive, transformative, impeccably crafted, and has an element of surprise. It includes the ordinary…and goes beyond it. To use and improv term, it “yes-ands” what is, and takes it somewhere new. It takes both the creator and the experiencer of the creation to new places. It exudes energy, and creates an energy shift in the beholder. I even thinks it can go beyond that to elicit a co-creative quality in the experiencer. It invokes insights, awareness’ or an expanded framework or consciousness for how we hold the world. Masterpiece Energy invites us into more than we consciously know, more than we have allowed to be possible, and more of our own unique creativity.

It is "Living Art" - Fully Alive in the Beholder

Masterpiece Energy, for me, is among other things, “living art” - art that is fully alive in the beholder of the art – weather a painting, a piece of music, a performance, etc. It has a quality of aliveness, not just for the creator, but also for those who experience what’s been created. For an example, when I was in the National Gallery of Art several years ago, I found myself  totally immersed in Rembrant’s self portrait. I was captivated. I felt as though he were standing right next to me. I knew very little about his life beforehand, but after being with that painting for 20 minutes, felt as if I knew him.  I literally felt as he were alive and standing right there, sharing his world with me. It was fully alive for me, and the experience as profound as if we had just had a conversation….maybe even more so, in that words can often shroud the essence of someone. 

It Takes Us Somewhere New

I had a similar experience in a totally different venue. I went with a group of people to an artist’s home in Sedona, Arizona, who was married to a Medicine Man. She painted wolves, shamans, other-worldly landscapes. While there were so many wonderful and truly gifted artists in the area, her work had an additional quality that made the paintings come to life before my eyes. I felt like I was in desert where all these people and animals where there, alive and breathing all around me. I was transfixed. It was breathtaking. I was not just an observed, but an active participant in the experience of the art. That experience was transformative - I can still be transported to that feeling, and the feeling of an expanded awareness as it as I talk about it. It feels like it lives in me. I love most all art…experiencing it, creating it, and learning from it…but  when I come across Masterpiece Energy, it always takes me somewhere new, expansive and somewhat unique.

It Goes Beyond Skill and Talent

Masterpiece Energy is also about where a certain level of mastery – skill, accomplishment, refinement - in craft and form. The creator is expressing what is alive for him or her with a level of skill and nuance that is uncommon. There is a quote that says,  “To do what others cannot do is talent. To do what talent cannot do is genius.” Masterpiece Energy, for me, is the place where that place beyond talent meets up with that seasoned in craft.  And not just prescribed craft, but a level of craft that takes the art form itself to a new level. Two worlds unite to form a previously unimaginable third thing…and the new birth is a masterpiece.

It Transcends Time and Space

Masterpiece Energy transcends time. It is “out of time” in a way…at least out of time as we experience it in our left-brain dominant, linear-thinking world.  It brings to my mind the brain states. The conscious brain state, referred to as the Beta state, is considered our everyday waking experience of reality…and then there is the Alpha –Theta, and Delta states, which are considered the domain of the unconscious mind in ever-deepening levels – and where exists and infinite source of creativity. To me, Masterpiece Energy is the domain of the non-Beta states…the place that goes beyond our logical reasoning – although it may contain it – into a non-verbal state of pure experience. It is multi-dimensional – impacting experience at more than one dimension simultaneously.

It Generates a Shared Connection

With a Masterpiece Energy, the creator of the Masterpiece and the experiencer share a moment out of the space-time continuum.  There is a connection, a feeling, an understanding – it goes beyond age, culture, language, and time. It that moment, there is a relationship between the creator and the experiencer of the creation, often even a sense of kindredness.  The relationship to time and space temporarily changes. 

It Taps into the Collective Unconscious

If it has this power to unite people across space and time, it is there for all of us. It is something we can access and cultivate. We don’t all have the same gifts, skills and levels of talent in the same ways, but we all have access to the creative unconscious, where this energy exists and the power to create from what is most alive in us. And aliveness speaks. Not only can we access this energy as individuals, but as groups. Imagine the transformational power that can be unleashed in our lives, organizations, communities - both individually and collectively - by harnessing the Energy of the collective creative unconscious – the fertile, alive, generous unknown.

It is a Dynamic Communication across Dimensions

Masterpiece Energy is a dynamic communication across and between multiple dimensions including a communication between the unformed and the forming - the shaping of the unknown into something known, felt, and experienced; a communication between our essence and our senses; a communication between the creator - the giver - and the individual experiencer- the receiver; and the communication between that which has been created and the collective unfolding. Masterpiece Energy generates a greater understanding – that transcends, time, space, words and externally imposed constructs - about who we are and who we can be. Ever generous, it offers us that chance to open, expand, and evolve - both individually and collectively. It invites us to co-create with it so it - and we - can become actualized in the world. It provides the rhythm. It asks in return for our commitment, focus, attention, presence and openness of mind and heart as we engage the dance.

It Holds the Creative Rhythm of Life

Masterpiece Energy is the universal dance of creation. It is an invitation to the ever-evolving party where we can experience the creative rhythm of life, nature and what it means to be more deeply human. Through the embodied language of resonance, it lifts us out of our current context and into the greater engagement of life and the fullness of our human potential.

It is the Driving Energy of Creation and Connection

Masterpiece Energy is a driving energy of creation and connection. It’s the life trajectory that compels us to manifest and evolve our deepest creative natures out into the world...and meet each other there.

~~~~~~~

There are many other terms that could be substituted for Masterpiece Energy, especially in the second half of the post. The exercise brought up my more general thoughts about the creative process, emergence space, creation from the core, and the life-generating creative source. But for now, just leaving it as I had originally written it in our dialogue.

~ Michelle James ©2013

Co-creative Global Citizens

I am in a Facebook group and someone posted the question asking what
capacities are needed for Global Citizenship and how might they be developed. I just wrote the following stream of consciousness as a wall post there and thought I would share it here as well since it's connected to my own purpose, work with creative process and vision of an ever-evolving, more generative world - one that is co-created by each of us from the inside-out.

Some of the capacities that come to mind are creativity and imagination; holding paradox and uncertainty; consciously engaging the unknown; yes-anding, improvisation, adaptiveness; getting into the body (many cultures are much more embodied than we are) - using our somatic intelligence as a resource; re-wakening the senses; using more right-brain ways of engaging and communicating integrated with the left-brain; weaving in more aspects of the Feminine archetypal qualities in with the Masculine; empathic communication, intuition, holistic (not binary) listening - with co-discovery in mind.

Also, cultivating the inherent exuberance, aliveness, and joy in our children and reclaiming it in ourselves; expanding our capacities by breaking old patterns and intentionallly engaging practices that invite us in to more of our hearts, bodies, and and whole brains; incorporating purpose and relevance in everything we engage, among other aspects of our potential; expanding upon our existing models, theories and approaches to allow for ongoing modification and constantly inventing new ones we creating conditions for new, liberating structures to emerge; creating conditions for those in their organization/culture/system to unfold their "what's next" from within; new ways of being in addition to thinking...

By developing these and all kinds of other capacities within ourselves, I believe we can begin to transcend the edginess of the differences and can meet more as global humans. That creates the space to hear, connect and co-create what's next as global citizens using the gifts of our unique cultural differences.

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! :-)

Presented at TEDxCreativeCoast

I had the great pleasure of presenting at TEDxCreativeCoast in Savannah on Friday. The theme was "Designing Creativity." I did my presentation on what I called the Improvidigm - a paradigm of sustainable creativity informed by the generative principles and practices of improvisational theater. Some of the patterns that emerged throughout all of the presentations included convergence, hybrids/integration, trans- and meta-, the human touch, passion, using creativity for social good/serving a larger mission, working with nature/living systems, connection, presence/mindfulness, new structure creating, transforming challenges into opportunities, and the unwavering commitment to making a positive change in the world.

TedxCreativeCoast - Savannah, GA - June 18, 2010

Improv Theater and Complex Adaptive Systems

I am in an improvisational theater performing group. We improvise full-length plays with nothing planned in advance. No structure. No outline. No character or plot development. Nothing, except for 2 locations we get from the audience at the beginning of the play. The play is then titled, "The Space Station and the Bathroom" or whatever locations we get from the audience. Two of us then run on stage and start interacting, and thus the play begins.

When the play goes well, the audience says, "That HAD to be scripted. At least some part of it had to be scripted. It looked too easy." It was easy. When the performance does not go so well, the audience says, "That looked hard." It was hard.

I became fascinated by what makes it work. What creates peak level creativity in our group? What allows a complex, coherent, sense-making structure to emerge from nothing but a simple location? What is the "magic formula" that allows a fully formed, organized play - with believable characters and plot - to emerge before the audience’s (and our own) eyes? And what gets in the way? Why does it work seamlessly sometimes and not so well other times? I became a serious student of improv theory - reading the seminal books in the field and observing the patterns in my group and other groups.

I soon recognized the connections between adhering to the principles of improvisational theater in a performance and being able to adapt, create and improvise effectively in the work place – and in any social system. The same principles that allow a performing group to improvise a 90-minute play out of nothing but a location are the same principles that allow groups, teams, and organizations to solve problems in new ways and reach peak levels of creativity and innovative thinking. The principles form the “container” that allows the group to self-organize to emerge what’s next.

Around that same time, I began exploring complexity sciences theory in creativity and couldn't help but recognize the stark similarities between improvisation and complex adaptive systems such as emergence, self-organization, interdependence, pattern making, increasing complexity, dense local connectivity, coherence emerging out of disorder. Both are open, inclusive, non-linear, dynamic systems that use interactive agents, feedback loops and multiple variables. Both require resilience, collaboration, structure and flow, spontaneity, and engaging the unknown. Both result in a surprising emergence.

In our troupe, we don’t go on stage with a pre-formed notion of our characters, plot, conflict, challenge or situation. We just let them emerge based on our interactions, actions and reactions. The "magic formula" is the adherence to the basic improv principles. When we adhere to the principles of improvisation, something emerges that is more intelligent and creative - and intelligently organized - than any one of us could have planned. As with any good emergence, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. By adhering to the principles, a play unfolds that is so original and unpredictable, that you have a sense of being entirely in flow - getting to fully experience the adventure as you create it.

The principles that allow this to happen are simple, yet profound. They seem easy, but in practice, they are almost the exactly opposite of the ways in which we navigate our everyday work lives. They take re-learning. I say that because we were born natural improvisers and then got "educated" and "civilized" out of the playful aspects of our own improvisational creativity.

The following are 7 basic improv principles – all of which I believe tie in to complexity theory. There are others, but I have found these to be essential:

1. Yes and. Fully accepting the reality that is presenting, and the adding a NEW piece of information - that is what allows it to be adaptive, move forward and stay generative. Each performer (agent) interacts with what is offered and offers a unique contribution.

2. Make everyone else look good. That means you do not have to be defending or justifying yourself or your position - others who will do that for you and you do that for others. Without the burden of defensiveness or competition, everyone is free to create. Complex characters can form that enable unpredictable complex actions and directions to emerge.

3. Be changed by what is said and what happens. At each moment, new information in an invitation for you to have a new reaction, or for your character to experience a new aspect of them. Change inspires new ideas, and that naturally unfolds what's next. You adapt as one structure dissipates and re-organizes into a new structure that expands, yet includes, what was before.

4. Co-create a shared "agenda." This principle involves the recognition that even the best-laid plans are abandoned in the moment, and to serve the reality of what is right there in front of you. You are co-creating the agenda in real-time. In order to keep the play going, you respond to the moment and an "agenda" co-emerges that is more inclusive than anything that could have been planned. It is not consensus, which reduces. It is co-creation, which expands.

5. Mistakes are invitations. In improv, mistakes are embraced – they are the stimulating anomalies that invite the performers into a new level of creativity. By using improv techniques such as justifying any mistake can be transformed into surprising plot point or dialogue that never would have happened in following a conventional pattern. In improv, justifying creates order out of chaos. Mistakes break patterns and allow new ones to emerge.

6. Keep the energy going. No matter what is given, or what happens, you accept it and keep the energy gong. Unlike in everyday life, where people stop to analyze, criticize or negate, in improv you keep moving. A mistake happens - let it go move on. The unexpected emerges - use it to move on. Someone forgot something important - justify it and move on. You’re lost or confused – make something up and trust the process. Just keep moving. The system is not static – it is alive and dynamic.

7. Serve the good of the whole. Always carry the question, "How can I best serve this situation?" and then you have a better sense of when to run in and when to stay back, when to take focus and when to give it, how to best support your fellow performers and how to best support the scene. By focusing away from how you will look into serving the larger good – the aliveness of the system - you have more creative impulses and resources available to you at any moment. And the choices you make are more in alignment with the higher levels of creative integration that form a coherent play.

So, what make it "look hard" when it is not working so well? Simple: any violation of the principles. If one of us tries to orchestrate, or worse impose, our own agenda or plot on the piece. If one of us tries to be the "star" and take too much focus. If even one of us is not present to what is unfolding, moment-by-moment. If one of us worries about the plot, and starts to figure out how to "save" it. If we expect that someone should respond in a certain way. In short, anything that gets us out of the moment and what is emerging - and into our controlling heads.

The rules are simple – the application can be challenging, requiring conscious effort. One of the paradoxes of improv is that you practice being spontaneous until it comes naturally. By staying present to each moment, getting out of thinking and planning and into being, you have a wellspring options and choices in each moment that you otherwise would miss. With positive intention, active engagement, presence and yes-anding, you can't do anything but be co-generative!

The truth is, in each performance we have some magic moments and some more effortful ones - some that work and others that fall flat. But by adhering to the improv principles we significantly increase the magic and decrease the efforting. A creative - and surprisingly logical - play can then emerge through that fresh and alive energy. We, and the audience, then get to experience the real-time excitement of riding the flow of a creative emergence. 



I first put my Improvisation and Complexity Matrix into action at the Plexus Institute DC Fractal a few years ago. Participants were led through a series of improv activities that we then tied in to complexity science principles and discussed how they played out in organizations and other complex adaptive systems. Everyone agreed that, although framed differently, the small number of laws that can generate complex systems are embedded in the small number of laws that can generate full-length improvised plays.

Improv takes you to the edge of chaos – the inflection point – filled with fertile creative potential. We are natural meaning makers, and left to our own devices, our brains naturally seek to evolve order, coherence and meaning. Once you allow yourself the freedom to explore and play; set the initial conditions; and then get out of the way, creativity can develop and unify all kinds of things that otherwise would seem impossible.

The principles of improvisation serve a much larger purpose than performance - they have the ability to create the life-giving container for cognitive, personal, organizational, social, political, and spiritual transformation. I see them as rules of engagement for a more peaceful, co-generative, co-creative, sustainable world. ~ By Michelle James

Michelle James, CEO of The Center for Creative Emergence, founded Quantum Leap Business Theater 10 years ago where she has lead improv-based programs for organizations such as Microsoft, The World Bank and Kaiser Permanente among others. She also offers public workshops such as Improv for Leaders, Creative Facilitation using Improv and Improvisational Thinking to name a few.

Pictures are from one of our performances - Precipice Improv

 

 

Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators

Innovative organizations live by new rules. The Obama campaign played by the new rules. Harvard Business Publishing's Edge Economy, featured an article by Umair Haque, Director of Havas Media Lab entitled Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators. Here are some excerpts:

Barack Obama is one of the most radical management innovators in the world today. Obama's team built something truly world-changing: a new kind  of political organization for the 21st century...Obama's presidential bid succeeded...through the power of new DNA: new rules for new kinds of institutions...

Seven rules for tomorrow's radical innovators:

1. Have a self-organization design. Obama's organization...was able to combine the virtues of both tall and flat organizations. How? By tapping the game-changing power of self-organization. Obama's organization was less tall or flat than spherical—a tightly controlled core, surrounded by self-organizing cells of volunteers, donors, contributors, and other participants at the fuzzy edges....McCain's organization was left trapped by a stifling command-and-control paradigm.

2. Seek elasticity of resilience. Obama's 21st century organization was built for a 21st century goal—not to maximize outputs, or minimize inputs, but to, as Gary Hamel has discussed, remain resilient to turbulence. When McCain attacked Obama with negative ads...Obama's organization responded with record-breaking fundraising. That's resilience: reflexively bouncing back to an existential threat by growing, augmenting, or strengthening resources.

3. Minimize strategy. Obama's campaign dispensed almost entirely with strategy in its most naïve sense: strategy as gamesmanship or positioning.  They didn't waste resources trying to dominate the news cycle, game the system, strong-arm the party, or out-triangulate competitors' positions. Rather, Obama's campaign took a scalpel to strategy—because they realized that strategy, too often, kills a deeply-lived sense of purpose, destroys credibility, and corrupts meaning.

4. Maximize purpose...Obama's goal wasn't simply to win an election...It was larger and more urgent: to change the world...yesterday, we built huge corporations to do tiny, incremental things—tomorrow, we must build  small organizations that can do tremendously massive things. And to do that, you must strive to change the world radically for the better—and always  believe that yes, you can. You must maximize, stretch, and utterly explode your sense of purpose.

5. Broaden unity. What do marketers traditionally do? Segment and target, slice and dice...Yet Obama succeeded not through division, but through unification...Obama intuitively understands a larger truth of next-generation economics. Unified markets are what a world driven to collapse by hyperconsumption is desperately going to need.

6. Thicken power. The power many corporations wield is thin power: the power to instill fear and inculcate greed. True power is what Obama has learned wield: the power to inspire, lead, and engender belief. You can beat people into subjugation—but you can never command their loyalty,
creativity, or passion. Thick power is true power: it's radically more durable, less costly, and more intense.

7. Remember that there is nothing more asymmetrical than an ideal. Obama ended his last speech before the election by saying: "let's go change the world." Why are those words important? Because the world needs changing...In the 21st century, there is nothing more asymmetrical—more disruptive, more revolutionary, or more innovative—than the world-changing power of an ideal...

The seventh lesson is the starting point for tomorrow's radical innovators—because it's the thread that knits the others together. And it's where you should start if you want to use these seven rules to start building 21st century institutions—whether businesses, non-profits, social enterprises, or political campaigns.

For the full article go to http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/

I've recently become a big fan of Umair's. He write on juicy topics such as strategic imagination, radical management innovation, the new DNA, corporate revolutionaries and overinnovation.

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!

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

WebCanvas - The World's Largest Collaborative Painting

Talk about co-creating...I just stumbled upon WebCanvas - a world-wide co-creative painting project. At this site you can move around an "infinite canvas" and add your own creativity to the mix. Check it out at http://webcanvas.com. It's like a visual arts wiki...sort of.

Top 10 Most Important Questions?

Our brains are always self-organizing to help us answer the questions we ask. The more compelling  the question, the more the with which the brain has to work. Throughout history, what often distinguished the great inventors, creators and discoverers were the types of questions they asked. Novel questions have a better chance of producing novel solutions.

Conversation Cafe is gearing up for Conversation Week, a week when everyone around the globe is invited to convene in small groups to consider together the most important questions in the world today. They have narrowed it down to the 50 they think are most important, and are asking for votes of the top 10 at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=vZIiOzEV1pL0LV_2f17vLcLQ_3d_3d.

Our life choices reflect the questions we are asking, often unconsciously. If we, and the state of our world, are walking expressions of the questions we hold both individually and collectively, what questions would produce the most life-giving, generative solutions and expressions?  What questions would unfold the most positive changes?

What would your Top 10 questions be?

Co-creation Emerging out of Destruction

We are all immersed in the unknown for an indefinite amount time. There is no guarantee. There is no real security. These times that were already in the midst of great technological changes are now facing unprecedented levels of whole systems changes. Transformation is happening. Organizations are being called upon to work collaboratively from within, to create in a way aligned with the good of the whole organization - and in a way that is aligned with the good of consumers, society, and the planet. We are all one humanity. It's time for us to learn how to live and work in the moment; within uncertainty; and supportively, collaboratively, and co-creatively.

War is destruction, and the opposite of destruction is creation - and we have a pristine opportunity create anew in the midst of destruction. It is time for individuals, organizations and communities to use their creative resources in the true meaning of community - where each person is supported, and collaboration and co-creation subsume cooperation. There are no quick nor easy answers. Instead, organizations are being called upon to unleash the collective creative power of their employees to create new, emergent systems and processes that are aligned with the organization and the larger community as a whole. Business-as-usual has becomes business-in-transformation.

Times of change, uncertainty, ambiguity, and unknown outcomes create a new set of challenges that call for a new ways of working, thinking, being, learning, creating and innovating. We have entered an Age of Creativity - and the call to transform our belief systems, habits, attitudes, and behaviors, in order to thrive in the years ahead. That which was impossible in the old work paradigm can be born and animated in the new one.

How exciting not to know how it will all unfold - where we have to discover and use more of our Selves  and our creative-centered humanness than ever - to create what's next! What a challenging,  adventurous, improvisational, CREATIVITY INDUCING time to be alive on this planet...together!

 

Nassim Haramein: "The Vacuum is not Empty"

I had the pleasure of being in scientist-philosopher-mystic Nassim Haramein's session at the Institute of Noetic Sciences conference a while back. His was one of the most interesting presentations. A multi-dimensional pioneer, he is working on a unified field theory he calls the “Holofractographic Universe.” I deeply resonated with what he was saying - not through the lens of a scientist, but through my lens of the living, fertile, fractaled, integrative, shape-forming, creative universe. He has mathematically and scientifically discovered what creators and mystics have always known - that we create by feedback and change and that we are all beings of infinite creative potential - in a very literal sense: the vacuum is not empty - it is not nothing. It is actually highly organizing and always communicating - an "unknown" that is actually fertile with creative potential. He founded The Resonance Project Foundation. You can see him speak on the Crossing the Event Horizon video on YouTube.

I found this write-up of him at The Laughing Coach Newsletter:

Nassim Haramein, a world traveler, was born in Geneva, Switzerland. As early as 9 years old, Nassim was already developing the basis for a holographic hyper-dimensional theory of everything he calls the “Holofractographic Universe.”

The Holofractographic Universe theory is a unified field theory resulting from over two decades of investigation into the geometry of hyper-dimensional systems and their relation to the creation of three-dimensional reality and all of its forces—including consciousness.

The premise of The Holofractographic Unified Field Theory research is that space is not empty, it is full. It is full of an energy that, through a specific set of fractal geometry, creates atomic structures that are themselves made of 99.999% space. It is a sea of electromagnetic flux we call the zero point energy, which has been demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt, since its mechanical effects have now been measured in laboratories.

This is nothing new, most ancient civilizations believed in a primordial soup of energy embedded within the fabric of space and in a primary geometric pattern coordinating creation. Later many of the world's great thinkers, including such scientists as Albert Einstein, Nicolas Tesla, Buckminster Fuller, and Walter Russell, believed in an all prevailing energy at the base of the fabric of space.

Haramein's findings have resulted in theoretical and practical developments based on a specific geometric array fundamental to creation. This theory has now been presented to the standard scientific community with great success, and his papers on the Holofractographic Universe will soon be followed by a book for the layman entitled "Crossing the Event Horizon."

Nassim's investigation of the geometry of hyperspace has combined quantum physics and cosmological understandings of universal forces with other sciences such as biology and philosophy, resulting in advanced unification computations that, astonishingly, relates to ancient codes left in monuments and documents around the world—including the Bible, the I Ching, the Mayan Sacred Calendar, Pyramids, and Egyptian temples. The results of his research may bring our planet to a new dimension of understanding and existence, one which was predicted by the ancients to arrive at this time in history.

Nassim is fluent in both French and English. He conducts workshops and seminars on his theories to help bring an awareness that is greatly needed in these times. His lectures are designed around his life experiences beginning with childhood illuminations and culminating in the discovery of a technology and united view that seems to have been left encoded by ancient civilizations for us to rediscover. His work may lead to some of the most important scientific, philosophic and technological discoveries in written history.

©Copyright 2000 by Nassim Haramein
All rights reserved

Creativity and Innovation Conferences

For a listing  2007 Creatvity and Innovation conferences and worldwide events go the International Forum of Creativity Organizations (IFCO) website. You will find details on the following list of events at www.ifoco.org/Events2007.html.

Cultures of Creativity, Jan. 1-24
Creativity or Conformity, Jan. 8-10
Great Ideas Conference 2007, Jan. 27-30
Creative Engagements, Feb. 9-11
Florida Creativity Weekend, Mar. 2-4
TED2007, Mar. 7-10
Caribbean Creativity, Mar. 12-16
American Creativity Association. Mar. 19-24
ETech: Emerging Technology, Mar. 26-29
Creativity in Advertising, Mar. 29
HCI Educators 2007, Mar. 29-30
New Frontiers in Arts Sociology, Mar. 28- Apr. 1
Ideas2007, Apr. 7-9
Creativity and Innovation Day, Apr. 21
Applied Creativity & Entrepreneurship Encounter, Apr. 18-21
CREA Conference, Apr. 18-22
Future Problem Solving Program International, May 31-Jun. 3
Creativity & Cognition, Jun. 13-15
IANIS+ Annual Conference, Jun. 13-15
World Children's Festival, Jun. 23-25
IASP World Conference, Jul. 2-4
Alden B. Dow Creativity Conference, Jul.

Ideas2007: Creativity without Borders

Ideas 2007: Creativity without Borders is the first Middle East and North African Creativity Congress - recognizing the values and relevance of creativity-centered practices to engage change, reshape the economy and bridge connection. Next spring, global innovators, changemakers, creative leaders, thinkers and practitioners will convene at the Ideas 2007 Conference:

The Ideas 2007 Conference is a unique event, a means to connect ideas and people in the world of creativity. Breaking the mould, Ideas 2007 has brought together an unprecedented group of under one roof to spur change in the creative economy...This 'change imperative' is relevant to all modern societies, whatever the degree of economic progress or social development...If we are to stand a chance in keeping abreast of advances in the realms of education, technology, design, communications, business, finance, public and private sector governance, we must embrace the creative culture more fully.

A creative work-force: a nation needs a critical mass of creative individuals from which a cohort of creative entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors will emerge.

An infrastructure for creativity: there are elements of both soft and hard infrastructure that make up the enabling environment for creative businesses, and which business cannot provide on its own.

Culture of creativity: the creative economy will only develop in places where risks can be taken and discoveries made; where there is a ‘can-do’ atmosphere, a hunger for the new, where difference is celebrated and failure is tolerated.

Cultures of Creativity Exhibit

The National University of Singapore is featuring Cultures of Creativity – the Centennial Exhibition of the Nobel Prize. Singapore is the 12th destination in the 15-city world tour, a traveling showcase of the creative process. Not just a compilation of facts and information, this exhibition specifically focuses on the internal drives and the external environments that shaped the creative achievements of the Nobel Laureates: 

The “Cultures of Creativity” exhibition was launched in 2001 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize. There are two versions of this exhibition: a permanent exhibition at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden and an international traveling exhibition. The contents of this Centennial exhibition reflect the history of the Nobel Prize, while focusing on the concept of creativity. The exhibition consists of four sections:

Alfred Nobel and His Times - Learn more about how Alfred Nobel's will led to establishment of the Nobel Prizes and why he was a man ahead of his time.
The Nobel System - See how Alfred Nobel's wishes were realised through the establishment of the Nobel Foundation and the six Nobel Prizes - Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economics.
Individual Creativity - Discover the driving forces behind the work of Nobel Laureates, their creative processes and their groundbreaking achievements.
Creative Milieus - Learn more about the creative milieus that have been significant in shaping Nobel Laureates and environments that stimulate creative thinking.

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.

Internet: the Emergent Government?

Through the lens of creative emergence, the following speaks to structures that enable creativity, in all of its messiness, to flourish.  It is creativity begetting more creativity - and its ability to transform even our most monolithic current structures or create new ones aligned with the self-organizing creativity of natural systems...and reflect, engage, and create what is really important in the "global room." Posted by Ramla, in her post, Internet: true human government, and how!, on the blog NEXT:

The Internet is truly the government of the people, by the people, for the people. It does not exist to rule. It does not exist to create absurd laws. It is a collaborative space. It is inclusive, responsive, self-organizing, and evolving. It is a powerful source towards which the modern human is turning to share and to listen.

With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, everyone is invited. Those who manage or control collaborative spaces – say collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia – are people from all over the world themselves The Wikipeda administrators chosen by the people on a set of criteria of the people for the benefit of the people.

In fact, never before in the history of humankind has the democratic, the human-centric definition of government been seen in practice. Internet is not just any people’s government; Internet is the first truly human government.

The Creative Imperative at the World Economic Forum

The annual World Economic Forum attracts global business and political leaders to examine global trends in economics and development, identify emerging issues, and engagein dialogue and positive action. The theme of the 2006 meeting in Davos, Switzerland was "The Creative Imperative."  Recognizing creativity and innovation as critical components of sustainable development, this year's meeting called for business, political and civil society leaders to harness creativity to provide new answers to the world’s problems.

“The assumptions, tools and frameworks that leaders have used to make decisions over the past decade appear inadequate. It is imperative for leaders of all walks of life to develop new capabilities if they expect to be successful and to maintain relevance,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

“...In a context where uncertainty, risk and doubt are on the rise. Despite (or because of) these changes in the global environment there's great opportunity for those who innovate and create. In other words, Creativity is an Imperative.”

Creativity is needed to find new tools and solutions to tackle dark clouds like global imbalances, according to Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, India, also a Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting 2006. “The world has a real chance if we form global partnerships to banish poverty and we need creative solutions...” he said.

“Business is in a unique position to play a leading role in helping to shape the global agenda, and can provide government and civil society with the tools and capabilities to better adapt,” said Jonathan Schmidt, Director, Global Agenda, World Economic Forum. “The Annual Meeting aims to bring this message to participants, in order to stimulate creative capabilities and the courage to embrace change, which is at times disruptive and painful, but can ultimately be uplifting and rewarding,” he said.

The Great Story

The Great Story, articulated by Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd, is a universal story of creative emergence - it's a creative, generative, inclusive, unfolding, scientific, purposeful, sacred, synergistic, conscious, compassionate, integrative, emergent, multi-dimensional discovery process still in the process of being told. It is an encompassing "Yes-Anding" story that weaves multiple realities simultaneously, and adds new levels as more of the story is discovered and cultivated. An excerpt from the website:

THE GREAT STORY (also known as the Universe Story or Evolutionary Epic) is humanity's common creation story. It is the 14 billion year science-based sacred story of cosmic genesis, from the formation of the galaxies and the origin of Earth life, to the development of self-reflective consciousness and human technology...the sacred narrative of an evolving Universe of emergent complexity and breathtaking creativity and cooperation — a story that offers each of us the opportunity to find meaning and purpose in our lives and our time in history.

Five Unique Characteristics of The Great Story

1. The Great Story is the story of the changing story. Whenever a new discovery is made in the sciences, this creation story changes. Change is to be welcomed — not feared.

2. The Great Story is a creation story that is not yet over. Evolutionary change at all levels (cosmos, planetary, life, culture) will continue into the future, and we humans bear a responsibility for how the story will continue on Earth.

3. The Great Story is a new creation story shaped with a planetary perspective to which all cultures contribute. Because the scientific enterprise is now global in scope, this story necessarily has its origins and ongoing influences centered at the scale of the whole Earth — influenced by peoples of all ethnicities, all religious traditions, and hailing from all bioregions.

4. The Great Story is radically open to multiple interpretations. Because the empirical and theoretical sciences search entirely for material explanations of the world, whenever one ventures into the realm of meaning or into the realm of spirit, the interpretations necessarily go beyond the science. And yet, make meaning we must! Humans are intrinsically meaning-makers, whether we construe that meaning to be innate in the cosmos or created by the human mind.

5. The Great Story manifests synergistic coherence between science, religion, and the needs of today's world. Because the creation stories of classical religions and primary peoples were birthed well prior to the discoveries of an evolutionary universe, these stories can at best be reconciled with scientific awareness. In contrast, The Great Story grounds its celebratory creation story on the contributions of the scientific endeavor, and the interpretations are nuanced to be empowering for today's concerns.

For more on The Great Story go to http://www.thegreatstory.org/what_is.html or the Wiki version at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Story.

Are you a Cultural Creative?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Positive Proverbs

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

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

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

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

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

Activity

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

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 michelle@creativeemergence.com, go to the CCN website or join the listserve.

The Creative Economy

More than a passing trend, there is a global pattern emerging focused on mainstreaming creativity, connecting that which was previously divided, and generating creativity-informed structures and systems. Infusing creative process and imagination into business, politics, and culture is transforming our world at an accelerated pace as people establish groups, networks and organizations dedicated to consciously developing a life-giving future.

Creative Clusters is an international network and conference based in the UK, taking positive global action in the emerging collective effort to integrate creativity into mainstream culture and generate a creative economy. The following are excerpts from their web site and March newsletter:

Creative Clusters is the international conference, network and events programme for people working in the development of the creative economy. We are interested in development and regeneration projects that deliver outcomes in both cultural and economic terms. Our goal is to help people engaged in the development of the creative economy to communicate and share resources with one another.

Creative Clusters explores and advocates the idea that strategies for growth...should address the whole creative ecology, challenging traditional boundaries between art, business, education and science, between for- and non-profit enterprise, between economic, social and cultural policy.

The theme for Creative Clusters 2006 is Mainstreaming Creativity. After only a few short years in the policy spotlight, the creative industries are no longer considered a marginal or specialist sector, but are seen to impact on all areas of the economy. Around the world...creative industries appear as key components in both cultural and economic development plans. There are countless creative development projects in progress, there are rich currents of academic discourse, and there is a huge market of consultants and organisations with creative services and expertise on offer.

Increasingly, the concept 'creativity' is replacing 'knowledge' as the pundit's defining characteristic for the modern economy.

In short, the creative industries are here to stay, and they are a major force in global economic and cultural development...What is more, 'creativity' is increasingly being seen as the strategy that all businesses must adopt to take on the challenges of globalisation.

And if creativity is a driving force in economic development, are the values hitherto championed by culture, or by commerce, driving change? Or is there another future, a third way, in which people, places and profit reach a new accommodation?

Go to www.creativeclusters.com for more information on their conferences and mission.