Today, I am up bright and early on a Sunday morning, excited by the idea of spending 3 hours focussing on creativity. This was the second workshop that I had participated in from a leading edge masters degree from Concordia in Human Systems Intervention.
This is nothing I had heard of before my friend introduced me to the first one 5 years ago called Embracing Imperfection, based on the book by Brené Brown. Last time, my friend was a co-participant and we were able to gather in groups. This time, my friend was one of the leaders, and I was so proud! The other difference, that was marked, was that we are unable to gather in person, and so participated on a zoom call.
We were taken on a trip, which was probably supposed to be exciting, but was just frustrating in context. It was meant to be experiential, and intense. I was impressed with the amount of work, and honesty that both the leaders and the participants were bringing that morning, but I just didn't feel like I was getting much out of it. I may not have been as open to the opportunity as I should have been, but what I was missing was the preparation and link to the book that I didn't have access to. Fortunately, my friend realized that having gotten my ticket though a third party, whom I didn't trust with more information than I need to register, I wasn't privy to the ideas that the group had prepared in advance.
It was not the experience I had hoped for, in some ways, it did give space to the question:
Why is creativity important to you?
Our group talked about: exploration, adaptation, problem solving, innovation, following intuition, play, possibilities, job, magic, daring to take risks, control over our own experience, and hope.
The purpose was: to courageously explore and nurture your creative confidence as a force for change.
Some questions:
Can you think of a time where you or someone you know did something "unconventionally creative"?
What feels like a leap of faith/risk?
What conditions were present?
parachute: what works
gremlins: what works against
uncharted territory (crossing the chasm): what did it look like once here
What pearl of wisdom/lesson would you take from this act of creativity?
I thought of my friend Susanne, who is conventionally creative, but, in response to the pandemic, she took to a platform she was just becoming familiar with, and spent the month of April posting a work of art a day on instagram. She didn't know the outcome or how all of it would work, but she used her artistic talents, and it was brilliant to follow such beauty that inspired in a dark, anxious and isolating month. It made be want to start something without knowing the end result, which is every creative process, isn't it?
We had a group project using an interactive program that made a communal art piece. I learnt that there were a lot of people that did not see themselves as creative, even though everyone of them had things they clearly (to me at least) created. I learned that I wasn't seeking confidence in creativity, and that I had to manage a lot of transference and sarcasm, which the others didn't seem to suffer from.
At the end of the morning, the take home points were:
1. Make a commitment
2. Find an audience
3. Make it real
The reflection was to ask myself, "Who am I becoming?"
The book that the day was based on was called: Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom and David Kelley (brothers and founders of IDEO).
Homework that I did after the workshop that has started putting it all together for me.
Youtube videos that I had missed:
Upside Down, Inside Out Workshop
What if you have what it take?
TED Talk David Kelley How to Build Your Creative Confidence
TED Talk Tim Brown Serious Tales of Creativity and Play
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