Seven Creative Ways to Improve the Way You Work

CreativityThe Art of Learning Leadership

Doug ShawWhat Goes Around

Learning Skills Group 2014

This is an annotated version of the slides I used to accompany my talk and workshop at Learning Skills Group 2014

about.me/doug.shaw

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We Are All Born Artists

We Make Creativity Hard1,500 kindergarten age kids surveyed for ‘genius’ levels of divergent thinking – the ability to come up with many solutions to a problem. At this young age, 98% have this ability.

By the time these kids are aged 8-10, the level drops to 32%.

By the time these kids are aged 13-15, the level drops to 10%

A similar study of people aged 25 and over returned a level of only 2%

We are routinely driving creativity and collaboration out of people.

Source: Breakpoint and Beyond

Vulnerability

‘Vulnerability is the path to belonging, to innovation, trust

and creativity.’

85% of interviewees for Brene Brown’s research can recall a

time in school that was so shaming it forever changed how

they thought of themselves as learners – 50% of those

recollections related to art and creativity.

Are You Creative?

I ask people:

‘Can you draw/paint/sketch?’

They say:

‘I am not an artist’

Our work is our art

We are all artists - Never be ashamed to admit it

Drawing For The BinWe get hung up on believing our work is not good enough.

We are not here to createMasterpieces – we are here tostretch our creative muscles.

Draw for the bin – not theRoyal Academy

Relax – and sketch yourselfInto existence.

Ebb and Flow – Tuning up the Environment for Creativity

A BeginningI’d been using basic artistic methods in client work for several years, but without practicing them myself.

In August 2011 I encouraged my daughter to make a birthday card for her Grandpa, by making one too. This picture is the card I made.

I decided to keep the artistic practice going and set up the artsensorium website so I could publish what I drew, painted and learnt.

The artsensorium has become a great way to show my work, in all its untrained clunkiness. An essential part of adopting creative ways to work needs to be about working out loud – showing emerging ideas so that others can give you feedback. www.artsensorium.com

What Are We Learning

The next few slides are examples of how this creative practice is being applied to work.

Memory Trigger

These sketches are powerful links to experiences and trigger

important memories for me.

A picture paints a thousand words.

DoodlingHand sketching is an aid to many essential skills including:

ConcentrationIdea RegenerationProblem SolvingMemory Enhancement

Sketching and doodling often takes a different path than words on a page, opening up more possibilities.

Iteration

Creative work is iterative. Once this landscape idea had formed in my head,it developed over a period of time. Each attempt, each mistake I made informed my learninguntil I realised the final tweaks I needed to make, to get somewhere close to what I wasseeing in my mind’s eye.

Sketch Notes

Going socialDevolved power = more agility

Going social – what’s the hardest part?

Going social – what does it mean to you?

Mark Making

Using symbols and shapes to help represent your business is an interesting way of helping get clarity around your brand and strategy.

Coaching Questions

http://stopdoingdumbthingstocustomers.com/inspiring/leap-day-learning/

In the workshop we experimented with using sketching and non judgmental questioning to help create a coaching culture and improve your work.

Sketching the Future of WorkEveryone in the workshop was invited to cocreate a ‘big picture’ future for

learning and development. In a short space of time we cocreated 13 pieces of work. Here’s one, follow the link to see more. Had we more time, we would have refined and developed our work further – the point was simply to get

people familiar with the concept on the day.

http://stopdoingdumbthingstocustomers.com/learning/visualising-your-work/

Further Reading

Photo CreditsPhotos © Doug Shaw – except:Vulnerable http://www.flickr.com/photos/home_of_dreams/3581920427/ Sunflowers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflowers_(painting)