Creative Emergence Newsletter
  December 2008
In This Issue
C-in-W Program
Creative Facilitation
Creative Personality
Creative Thinking
Creative Culture
Improv Article
Radical Innovation
Hi everyone!

What stands out to me most as I reflect back on 2008 are the amazing new connections that emerged, both personally and professionally. I am so thankful to do the work I do, and to get to do it with life-giving people seeking to create a better world.

For upcoming workshops and programs, news and articles, read on. And remember to save Oct. 8th and 9th for our Creativity in Business Conference! Details to come in the new year.

Enjoy happy, vibrant holidays!

Warmly,
Michelle

PS. Feel free to connect with me on Facebook and join our Capitol Creativity Network group online.
Next Creativity-in-Work Program starts January 30th!  
4 full-day workshops over 7 weeks + individual coaching sessions. Limited to 6 people.
Early registration recommended. This one sells out every time!
 

Kick off 2009 with a new start! A Professional and Personal Development Program using your creativity for your business bottom line and new work directions, strategies, innovations, projects, products or services. Develop a solid, structured framework of what you offer and your unique "signature". You'll use the Creative Emergence Process with a rich integration of improv, the arts, intuitive techniques, reflection tools, whole-brain methods, creative thinking, story and analytical and evaluative approaches to help you create what's next in your work. Leave with a self-designed framework, set of strategic goals and an action and marketing plan; and the initial implementation of the plans. And have FUN doing it! For complete details and registration go to http://www.creativeemergence.com/id22.html
This Friday: Creative Facilitation Using Improv ~ Part 3
By request, I will facilitating a completely new version of my popular train-the-trainer workshop at the Mid-Atlantic Facilitators Network on Friday. Learn and experience the core improv principles,  improv interaction skills, improv training design guidelines, and practical applications of using improv to design and facilitate dynamic learning environments. Leave with exciting improv activities for icebreakers, energizers, creativity, and team building. Sign up here.
The Creative Personality
Psychology Today featured an excerpt of an article written by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (who popularized the term "Flow" in is books which include Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention among others). To build on Flow Theory, Csikszentmihalyi interviewed 91 people, eminent in their respective fields, each of whom engaged in "flow" in an ongoing basis while contributing to the betterment of society. He found certain traits common to all that he called the Creative Personality.

For the article on the list of traits, click here.
50 Ways to Think Creatively
The following are 50 of the infinite ways to think creatively or about creativity. I included the first ones that come to me this morning as they emerged:

1. Give your Creative Self space, time and attention
2. Be curious - wonder about things
3. Have more questions than answers
4. Challenge assumptions and norms - your own, others, societies
5. Get clarity about exactly what you are trying to solve or envision and why
6. Turn problem statements into vision statements
7. Record your thoughts and ideas
8. Have brainstorming buddies and a creativity support team
9. Break patterns and habits - consciously do something different
10. Use the body - walk, dance, move in non-habitual ways

For the rest of the list, click here 

Creative Culture: From Finite to Infinite Games
Creative organizations and communities not only play by different rules, they actually play a different game. One of my favorite books to illustrate this difference is James P. Carse's book, Finite and Infinite games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. It speaks to the new games - those which cultivate play, improvisation and engaging the unknown...creating as you go. Some of his points include:

> A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play
> To be serious is to press for a specific conclusion....to be playful is to allow for possibility 
> To be prepared against surprise is to be trained...to be prepared for surprise is to be educated
> Finite players play within boundaries...infinite players play with boundaries
> Culture is an infinite game
> Infinite play is inherently paradoxical

For some more nuggets from the book. click here.

My Article at Innovation Tools
Innovation Tools, an online resource site for creativity and innovation in business, is featuring an article I wrote, Creative Collaboration: Lessons from Improv Theater, on Applied Improv, based on my experience performing with Precipice Improv and applying improv principles and practices in organizations.

Click here for the article.

Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators
Innovative organizations live by new rules, and 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, on Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators. His seven lessons are:
1. Have a self-organization design
2. Seek elasticity of resilience
3. Minimize strategy
4. Maximize purpose
5. Broaden unity
6. Thicken power
7. Remember that there is nothing more asymmetrical than an ideal

For the complete article click here.
Capitol Creativity Network Update
We sponsor CCN, a special interest group that meets monthly in Washington, DC, to explore all facets of creativity - from business to the arts to the scientific. Our next meeting is Wednesday, January 14. Award-winning Master Coach, leadership consultant and author, Suzi Pomerantz, will be leading a fun, interactive session on Innovative Leadership Approaches to Grow Your Business.  Go to www.capitolcreativitynetwork.com to get our monthly announcements.

Best-selling author, Dan Pink, and the Social Media Innovation Panel informed, entertained and inspired a packed house at our Holiday Festival last Wednesday! Great food, live music, chocolate, and great people rounded out the event. Dan gave a compelling presentation on the six principles in his book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need:

1.  There is no plan 
2.  Think strengths, not weaknesses 
3.  It's not about you 
4.  Persistence trump talent 
5.  Make excellent mistakes
6.  Leave an imprint
Our Services
The Center for Creative Emergence is a creativity consulting, training and coaching company dedicated to integrating inspired creativity, meaning, organizational culture and business for a happier and more productive work life and a richer bottom line. We cultivate breakthroughs and emergence with entrepreneurs, teams, corporations and non-profits. CEO Michelle James has a mission to "mainstream" creativity and engage people into their full humanness for innovative work, positive social change and consciously creating a life-giving future.

Our Services include emergent strategy consulting, corporate and public workshops, creativity training, Creative Emergence coaching, ideation facilitation, professional development and somatic (body-centered) programs, conference presentations, creativity events and Quantum Leap Business Improv.

Coaching Clients include Entrepreneurs who want to develop their signature approach, products and services, or future story; Leaders who want to draw out and focus the creativity of their work force; Pioneers who are forging new territory and breaking new ground in their field; Partners and Teams who want to optimize their collective intelligence for new solutions and directions.

Organizational Clients have included GEICO, Kaiser Permanente, Inova Health System, Cable & Wireless, National Institutes of Health, World Bank, Invest Northern Ireland, Service Employee International Union, Search for Common Ground, Center for Nonprofit Advancement, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Telos Corporation and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters among others.

Our Blog is The Fertile Unknown at www.creativeemergence.typepad.com.
Web:   www.creativeemergence.com
Email:  [email protected]
Phone: 703-760-9009

Quotes for the road...
"Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour, springs and germinates no more."
- Henri Frederic Amiel.

"As soon as you have made a thought, Laugh at it." - Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher

"In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed." - Charles Darwin.

"What I love about creativity is that we can never "get" it completely - it has a mysterious quality that lures us in to discover more." - Me :-)
Save 10% 
New Client Holiday Coaching Special
Just 5 days left at the special rate!
If you have never tried Creative Emergence coaching, and have wanted to, now a great time to start. We are offering 5-week holiday special. If you schedule your appointment between November 15th and December 22nd, you will receive 10% off our new client rates on all packages. Get a jump start on the new year! Call 703-760-9009 for a free 30-minute consultation to see if the emergence approach is right for you.
Offer Expires: December 22nd, 2008