Tag Archives: creativity

On Curt’s Post: Create a Sangha

by on December 13, 2004 in Career, Creative, Life

Curt Rosengren’s latest post is a brilliant reminder that we don’t have to take the journey toward more purposeful and soulful work alone. It’s sometimes easy to forget, though, particularly when we blaze a path where few have gone before.

Consciously creating your Sangha, both by identifying the people currently in your life that will support your journey and by reaching out and creating new connections, can have an amazing impact on what you are able to achieve.

If it’s a matter of just getting started in creating your support network, find a couple of people who will be your biggest fans. For instance, my wife is my rock. She’s both my most vocal supporter, but also my source for reality-checks. I can be a very "blue sky" dreamer-type and she offers the kind of "green grass" practicality that helps me assess my decisions. Yet, most importantly, as my rock I can hold on to her when everything else in my life seems to be caught up in the maelstrom. I have a spouse, but it could easily be a good friend, sibling, mentor, or parent.

Probably the harder part of creating your support network is developing new connections. Putting yourself, your ideas, your dreams out there to new contacts can be frightening. One place to start is with the folks you already know and trust. Ask them to suggest other individuals they know with whom you might connect. You’ll continue to build your network steadily outward from your core of biggest fans above.

And if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can take more dynamic action and create more networks outside of your familiar contacts. This is going to those places where other people who share your passion hang out. You might find these as networking events (a word on ‘networking’ below) or professional society meetings or a local coffee shop. The point is that creating a bold life of passionate work means getting out of your comfort zone and taking a risk. Consider the words of Andre Gide, French critic, essayist, & novelist:

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

And that word on networking…the concept has developed a kind of nasty connotation which is unfortunate. Rather, consider networking to be an act of relationship building, one that may not exactly bear fruit immediately. Purposeful networking is an act of cultivation, of nourishing the relationships with your contacts. It means that you give as well as receive, which is where we circle back around to Curt’s posting on creating your own sangha. As others support your dreams and work, it’s up to you to do the very same for them.

Reclaiming our Creativity

by on December 11, 2004 in Creative, Life

Odd how themes emerge when you’re conscious of them. I came across this old article in Fast Company on Dee Hock and his management principles. Dee Hock was the Founder and CEO of VISA International and more recently founded Terra Civitas. Among the ideas that caught my eye was this one on creativity:

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a room packed with archaic furniture. You must get the old furniture of what you know, think, and believe out before anything new can get in. Make an empty space in any corner of your mind, and creativity will instantly fill it.

I’m also thinking about how many of us tend to “lose” our creativity as we mature into adults. I have two daughters (ages 2 and almost 6) and they amaze me with some of the things that they conjure up. They tell the most interesting stories. They draw these fabulous pictures. They dress up and pretend to be fascinating creatures. And fortunately, they pull me into their world. They are my links to the creative reservoir within me. However, I’m considering the very real possibility that its going to be me who will need to return the favor in the not too distant future. They may need me to inspire their own sense of wonder and creativity. Sadly, there’s something about our schools that can help children forget they are creative, imaginative people. Or it could just be a natural struggle of growing up.

So, to all the creative and imaginative dreamers out there…here’s a heart-felt desire to more fully reconnect with you.

Finding Your Voice

by on December 6, 2004 in Career, Creative, Media, Work

I seem to be very conscious of this notion of voice lately (see: What’s Your Voice from a few days ago).

I continue to be influenced by Stephen Covey’s work, but have yet to pick up his latest book, The 8th Habit. Based on this interview, I think maybe Santa could bring me a copy when he comes to visit later in the month (granted that he reads blogs and needs some additional ideas). Covey equates having a voice with a deeper connection to one’s work:

People have basically lost their voice. They’re alienated from their work. We’re in a knowledge age, yet our management principles are from the industrial age. They’re the authoritarian, command-and-control models. Just take the accounting system: It calls people an expense. Performance-appraisal systems are just repugnant to the dignity of people. You give them some nice words, slip in the knife and call that “areas for improvement” and then a few nice words at the end.

By the way, his 8th habit is: Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

Another article that caught my eye was one from Alaska about a sculptor named Sylvester Ayek who is trying to return to his Inupiaq roots.

Ayek says, he’s leaving Anchorage in pursuit of balance, something he can find only in the Bush. That’s where he finds solace, center and sustenance, a solitude in whose heart he regains equilibrium as he tries to maintain his footing in two worlds — worlds that continually pitch and roll beneath his feet. “If I’m in the city, I’m just an artist,” Ayek says. “But out there, I can be a hunter, fisher, gatherer and an artist. I get some sense of good order when I’m in nature, in the middle of nowhere, by myself.”

What struck me about this was the reminder that we are so much more than the labels that we attach to ourselves or those that we allow to be attached from others. In our work, we can be more than what a job description says. Once we have an idea of what our voice is, then its time to add another element to it.

What’s Your Voice?

by on November 28, 2004 in Creative, Media

I went on a rare date with my wife last night (those with kids understand the rarity) and saw the movie Ray with Jamie Foxx. I didn’t know much about the life of Ray Charles and found among the film’s themes someone pursuing his own voice. There’s an interesting scene where Ray is beginning to record for Atlantic Record execs and starts to imitate leading artists like Nat King Cole. For Ray, this is what he thinks the record company wants. But what the record execs want is Ray…they want HIS voice and what he brings.

It was a reminder of something that can elude me at times in my own work. It’s easy to imitate the work of already established voices. I mean, they’re established because the world knows and likes what they are saying, right? But the world doesn’t need one more person saying the same thing; the world wants a new voice. Continuing the thought of the last post, it may take time, patience, and courage for the world to understand that it needs this new voice. So, thanks for hanging out with me as I explore my voice and figure out what uniqueness I’m intended to bring to the discussion of careers, leadership, and organizations.

It’s All Invented…So Have Fun with It

by on September 16, 2004 in Creative

One of my favorite books is The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. It speaks to me both as a creative individual and as an impactful leader. One of the things that I prefer in books of this type is a mix of insight and suggestions for taking action. The best leadership and personal development books help you use what you’ve learned in new and dynamic ways. In this respect, it is a coaching-centered resource.

The first chapter forms the foundation for the rest of the book and centers on the notion that we perceive all that happens around us in very individual ways and then interpret them accordingly. Reality and truth are then very subjective. Once you understand and accept this notion, you have an incredible capacity to act in fresh and powerful ways. They call it “It’s All Invented” and go on to suggest since we have the ability to create new stories, we might as well create ones that enhance the quality of our lives and the lives of those around us.

So, what stories are you creating right now? Do they involve you as the lead character who lives a life of drudgery, misfortune, bitterness? Hopefully not, but perhaps its just a blah life in which you yearn for more. What if you decided to create a new story today, one that involves passion, excitement, laughter, [go ahead, fill in the blank]?

Remember, it’s all invented so have some fun with it. What do you think?