ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES KEEP CREATIVITY ALIVE

Lists of traits of highly creative people mostly all contain

fluent
flexible
elaborative
original

school systems, cultures, families, religions, groups, perhaps systems in general tend to reduce the need for being

fluent
flexible
elaborative
original

so when we are born we are born with many capacities that support and cause us to be creative by nature

yet then we grow up and are educated not to be

fluent
flexible
elaborative
original

for those of us whose lives involved much change, variety, moving from place to place, town to town, state/province to state/province or country to country

we were exposed to high degrees of difference
we observed people being

fluent
flexible
elaborative
original

for me it was my parents' annual FAMILY VACATION,
only once did my two older brothers go
I went every year for 13 or 14 years and experienced all 48 mainland US states, 4 provinces and one Mexican state.

during the first 6 years after graduating from architectural school I worked in 9 different architectural firms and my own (10th)....and had to learn almost 9 completely systems and sets of working happens and approaches to doing the same work.

In total since I started working part-time as a freelance artist at 16 I have had 47 jobs in 8 professions.......a source of learning many different ways of doing things.

what about for you?

has there been much change in your environments: personal, professional, family?

physical, psychological, visual, social, emotional?

Alan

Working on Webinar about the significance and impact of PLACE upon creativity in our WORKPLACES.

It will be available for access in May.

Alan

Each of these 8 leaders continually worked at developing their strengths while surrounding themselves with others who had the strengths they were missing.

Begin your Development by reading articles about and by leaders you have respect for on a weekly basis.

We all can improve our abilities as PRODUCTIVE LEADERS by focusing on the TRAITS that are needed in our departments: Now and in the Future.

Which of these traits are your strongest now?

1. Commitment
2. Control
3. Consistency
4. Challenge(s)
5. Competence
6. Centered (focused)
7. Confidence
8. Compromise
9. Creativity
10. Caring
11. Communication
12. Credibility

Chose one Cornerstone/Trait per week to work on.

Start by thinking about the Cornerstone/Trait.

By spending 15 to 30 minutes each day thinking about how you might strengthen and use the C/T will begin to help you to concentrate on improving and developing it.


Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

All workplaces need leaders who champion creative thinking in all their employees.

Here are 7 who did just that for many years in their respective organizations:

Alex Osborn - BBDO who created Brainstorming and co-created the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process, the Creative Education Foundation and its annual Creative Problem Solving Institute

Charlie Clark who ran his own company Yankee Ingenuity and did much of the early research with BRAINSTORMING

Sid & Bea Parnes who championed the CEF, CPSI and many of their colleagues and creativity in general around the world for the past nearly 60 years.

E. Paul Torrance who created his Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and wrote extensively for over 50 years about the development of creativity and creative thinking in classrooms around the world plus with his wife Pansy Torrance created the global FUTURE PROBLEM SOLVING PROGRAM

Morris I. Stein, "Uncle Moe", researched and authored extensive studies into creativity and creative thinking.

Ruth Noller who co-founded the Buffalo State University, Creative Studies Program, co-leader CPSI and wrote extensive about the use of creative thinking and creative problem solving processes.

Look for the leaders within your organization who will
S.P.R.E.A.D. creative thinking

Support, Promote, Recognize/Reward, Encourage/Educate, Apply and Develop

from your front and back doors to your top floors.

Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

Transformative leadership

Here is a recent article in the Hickory Daily Record BUSINESS section on Sunday, January 25, 2009 by Danny Hearn

There are about six characteristics of a TRANSFORMATIVE LEADER that we would like to … understand and adopt…:

1. The ability to think systematically.
2. The ability to see connections among diverse and disparate factors and ideas
3. The ability to ask appropriate questions.
4. The ability to spot trends and weak signals
5. The ability to understand and utilize a diversity of parallel processes
6. The ability to buiild capacities for transformation in organizations and communities.

The difference between a TRADITIONAL LEADER and a TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER is that…

TRADITIONAL LEADERS focus on short-term needs and tangible outcomes that usually can be measured in quantified terms.

A TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERS focus on building longer-term “capacities for transformation” to prepare organizations and communities for a society and economy in constant change.

Why is TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP so important at this time in our history?

We are living in an age of historical transformation, not just a pendulum swing between conservative and liberal thinking.

Unless we develop capacities in our people, organizations and communities to see the world differently and to utilize new concepts, methods and techniques, we will continue to try to improve ideas and methods that are increasingly out of date.

When a society begins to change at an expotential rate (as today), only those leaders who are able to think and act as a higher level of complexity will be able to help prepare institutions and communities for the future.

The success of our economy and society will be based upon how well we see new patterns and develop innovations never before conceived. Imagination will be a key to the idea of continuous innovation.

(Perhaps we now need to) create a new system of values, concepts, capacities, strategies, attitudes and behaviors that will need to be understood and used for community transformation.”

Charlie Clark, long-time CPSI leader and mentor to manyin the Creativity Movement recently passed away at 88: A "Founding Father" in the Creativity Field, Author, President of Yankee Ingenuity Programs

Charles Hutchison Clark,88, passed away on January 21, 2009. Charlie was born in Philadelphia, PA on June 14, 1920, he was the son of Fred and Christine Gassner Clark. He was a world-class educational innovator, author of the classic book, Brainstorming, and past president of Yankee Ingenuity Programs, an organization dedicated to developing creativity and stopping brainpower waste in meetings, conferences and conventions. A creativity pioneer, he originated numerous educational methods to encourage creative thinking in a wide range of businesses, churches, associations, and government.

His book on brainstorming, a proven method to increase the free flow of good, usable ideas, was among the first on the subject. Brainstorming and other techniques that he pioneered such as "SLIP WRITING" and "MATRIX CHARTING" are now used worldwide. Brainstorming was first published in 1958 with a paperback edition in 1989. It has been translated into French, German, Japanese and Korean.

When the American Management Association distributed 107,000 copies of his management briefing brochure in 1980 entitled Idea Management: How to Motivate Creativity and Innovation, organizations throughout the US and seven foreign countries actively sought the benefits of his creativity workshops.

A leader at the Creative Education Foundation's Creative Problem-Solving Institute since its inception in 1954, he was honored with a number of distinctions throughout the years. In 1990, the Foundation bestowed its Distinguished Leader Award for his profound contributions to the creativity movement worldwide as a researcher, author and teacher and in 2003, he was inducted into the first Creative Problem Solving Institute Hall of Fame.

In 1985, The Odyssey of the Mind Organization gave him its Annual Lipper Award for his continuing contributions toward developing creativity in individuals in all disciplines.

Clark participated on numerous creativity panels and served as a contributing editor to the Journal of Creative Behavior, the authoritative professional publication on creativity, creative problem-solving and innovation. He also led many workshops on creativity for groups at Exxon, Shell, Chevron, Goodyear, General Motors, the National Association of Manufacturers and Department of Defense agencies, among others. His work to train Navy personnel in brainstorming techniques was featured in the New York Times and Life magazine in 1956. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946.

A Harvard graduate who earned his MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, Clark was also a graduate of the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. He served as senior education and training consultant for the BF Goodrich Institute for Personnel Development at Kent State University; was President of Idea Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA, and Vice President of the Center for Independent Action. While with that Center, he originated an "Idea Corps Plan" to help nonprofit organizations improve their programs and services.

Throughout his career, Clark demonstrated his strong unwavering commitment to the creativity movement by responding to what he declared were "new windows of opportunity as we face ever-increasing global demands for innovative ways to increase homeland security, create more jobs, and discover solutions to our crippling economy and health care system, among other challenges."

2008 Happy Holidays

2008 has been an interesting year of travel, fun, friends (past, present and pfuture) and food. Here is my 2008 Holidays Card depicting many of the places I have been and the friends I had time to play with in England from London to Greenwich to Syde in the Cotswolds to Singapore to Sarasota, Florida to Silver Bay Lake in New York to western Tennessee to a Y camp outside Toronto to Myrtle Beach, SC, to South Africa.

May your Holidays be filled with wonder and fun with family and friends.

Alan

Happy Holidays

2008HappyHolidays

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Connections in Your Workplace Develop Leader Relations

Through working for 48 years, studying workplace dynamics, writing, and helping people develop their workplace skills in leading, communicating, teaming and creative thinking and problem solving I have discovered one of the areas or skills we all need to continually develop is

CONNECTING

We need to get to know the people we work with.

1. fellow employees
2. supervisors
3. managers
4. leaderz

from the front door to the top floor when possible.

5. vendors
6. customers/clients/patients
7. suppliers

Looking back over my career I can recall hundreds of examples of the most liked and most successful people from sales to design to research to manufacturing to shipping to management and the one common trait that the more successful ones had was

CONNECTING

they met and got to know people in an open and honest way.

So my tip is....

a. begin by introducing yourself to 1 to 5 new people each day
b. then keep in touch weekly or monthly depending upon how you are connected.
c. ask how you can help them
d. when you need help ask them

Best wishes for a continually more successful career day by day.

Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

Communicating, whether by email, letter, memo, meeting, face to face in the
hallway or on the phone is another opportunity to connect with the people we
work with and to develop stronger relationships.

When you communicate, no matter what way you choose, think about the
receiver, listener or reader.

Do they want facts and figures?
Do they have a tendency to have a vivid imagination?
Do they prefer people to be friendly and personable?
Do they prefer messages to be grammatically and systematically correct, even
correct spelling?

If so, then write in that way. Honor their way of communicating. It is like
speaking their language as you would with someone from another country.

Each day we all make small to medium size mistakes through communication
that can cost our organizations a few dollars and many thousands of dollars.

Re-read at list twice to three or even four times to be sure what you are writing
or sending is what you truly want to be read and understood.

Before you speak, practice and think about it in your head. You might even
write down notes so that you can check your thoughts.

Have a great day and week.

Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

I just accidentally discoverd SHELL OIL's newest creativity website.

http://www.shell.com/home/PlainPageServlet?FC=/aboutshell-en/html/iwgen/shell_real/shell_solutions/films/app_view_film.html

Go to that URL and watch the EUREKA! video about the discovery of the concept behind the

SNAKE DRILL

It was invented by a Dutchman.

Back in the 1980s SHELL OIL had internal creativity development workshops. I worked with one of the trainers a couple years later.

Now they seem to be doing it again.

Go to the SHELL OIL website and look at the May 2nd issue of BUSINESS WEEK for more info about the drill.


Alan

Aunt Polly's Fence


Over 100 years ago Mark Twain created a wonderful story about how Tom Sawyer creatively tricked several friends into doing his work: painting Aunt Polly's fence. Now you too can gain from Tom's creativity. This time you will let the white paint do the work for you.

Two people were the inspiration for this Cre8 Thinking Tool: Tom Sawyer and John Ostrowski (research manager at Pittsburgh Paint). John has often demonstrated the power of using a thesaurus and "forced relationships"

Years ago when his company was looking for a new paint, one that did not use titanium, John and his researchers created the cre8v thinking tool I call Aunt Polly's Fence or White Paint.

In John and his fellow researcher's case they wrote the two key words on individual flip charts: white and paint. They they began to brainstorm for words or things that were like these words, i.e.:

Then they examined the words within the lists asking questions: why, what, when, where, how. Until one of them saw the connections between snow, ice, clouds, water and "white" and "reflections".

They began to ask why can something look white when it is not white? The answer...reflection. How did the reflections occur? They all are crystal forms. Then they asked is there a solution that is clear yet when it dries it crystalizes causing reflections and the apprearance of whiteness. They answer....acryllic.

From that they began their research that led to a new "white paint" that does not use titanium.

In that case the "white paint" did they work. The problem or goal provided the solution.

Now it is your turn.


* Look at one of your challenges that has you blocked, stymied, stopped.

* Look for the key words.

* Write them down on separate sheets of paper, flip charts, chalkboards.

* Then begin to list every word you can. Do this over several settings, perhaps even days apart until you have lists of 50 words of more.

* Then look for patterns. Look for leads within your lists.

* Develop lists of questions asking how items from one column, A, can effect or change or produce column B or column C.

Better yet. Take Tom Sawyer's approach get other people to do it for you.

Good luck let your challenges provide you answers, leads, solutions.

Curiosity is the Great Gift of ALL Children

Have you watched children play (work) recently?

One of their greatest skills, traits, abilities is their ever present curiosity about EVERYTHING.

How about you? How often today have you been curious about anything in your job, profession, life, environment, world?

For 30 years I have been working on expanding and enriching my creativity and my creative thinking and problem solving skills and helping others do the same.

Today to expand your curiosity again try some of the following.

a. look for everything that is of one color around you (red, blue, green, orange) one color at a time.
b. look for everything that is of one shape (square, triangle, circle, etc.)
c. watch life: insects, animals, people...simply watch what happens

For more ways to expand and enrich your creativity go to...

http://www.cre8ng.com/CC/index.shtml

Have a great creative day.

Alan
http://www.cre8ng.com
alan@cre8ng.com

Little Things Can Stop Creativity
By Robert Alan Black, Ph.D.

"Being creative requires that we venture into unknown territory and chance failure."
“No money can stop a creative project.”
“No resources can stop a creative project.”
“No support can stop a creative project.”

Yes major things or forces can stop creativity. Yet when we look at the history of invention or in general the history of new ideas we can discover that these major forces truly do not stop the devoted, committed, dedicated creation person.

No money, resources, support did not stop:

0. Ghandi
0. Mother Teresa
0. Charles Goodyear
0. Harriet Tubman (underground railroad during the Civil War)
0. Henry Ford
0. Chester Carlson (inventor of the Xerox process)
0. nor many others from the distant or recent past.

One key difference for them was their determination. Yes eventually money, resources and support came or was acquired.

They enabled the creative person to take their idea and turn it into a larger and larger solution.

Yet the little things are what stop most of us from utilizing our creativeness long before we get to tapping the big resources for future giant success or breakthrough.

To read the rest of the article go to...

http://www.cre8ng.com/newsletter.shtml

and scan down to the article with the same title.

Have a great creative day, week, month, life

Alan
http://www.cre8ng.com
alan@cre8ng.com

12 Cornerstones of Productive Leading

The primary foundation of the 12 Cornerstones of Productive Leading is

COMMUNICATION.

The most effective, efficient and productive leaders are excellent communicators, learn to be superb communicators or surround themselves with people who communicate for them.

Here are some times to help you further develop your communication skills.

Alan
http://www.cre8ng.com


12 Cornerstones of Productive Leading

1. Communication
2. Consistent
3. Centered
4. Compromise
5. Confidence
6. Caring
7. Creditability
8. Control
9. Commitment
10. Creative
11. Challenges
12. Competence

1. Communication

How are your communication skills developing: one on one, in teams, in front of large groups?

Are you practicing some of the skills and tips we covered in Command College daily, weekly, monthly?

How would you rate your communication skills now compared to a month ago? …a year ago?

Some tips to remember…

1. S.T.I.R.

Show, Tell, Involve, Reach each person. Don’t just do only one of these.

2. Remember the people you are communicating with.

M Be logical with those who prefer that.
I Be creative and encourage others who are to be creative and ask for lots of feedback until you both agree on what was said.
N Be personal with those who prefer people to be.
D Be systematic and provide concrete examples and proofs for those who prefer that from other people.

3. Watch for body language, facial expressions, actions, eye movements to verify what people are saying and hearing.

4. Put the emphasis on them…Whats In It For Me!

5. Watch for body language, facial expressions, actions, eye movements to verify what people are saying and hearing.

6. Put the emphasis on them…Whats In It For Me!

Alan
Robert Alan Black, Ph.D., CSP
http://www.cre8ng.com
for more information...
http://www.cre8ng.com/cre8ngcommunities.htm

Developing Cre8ng Communities
Throughout Your Entire Workplace,
June 13, 2006

Contents

1. Choosing to Be Creative
2. Creative Thinking Igniter
3. Creative Thinking Point
4. Creative Thinking Tool of the Week
5. Creative Books to Explore
6. Creativity Websites to Explore
7. Article to Expand Your Creativity


1. Choosing to Be Creative

After 30 years of working in the field of creative thinking development I am convinced the first necessary step is …

Choose to Be Creative as Often as You can be each day


2. Creative Thinking Igniter:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
Charles Darwin, scientist

3. Creative Thinking Point:

Accept that ALL people in ALL cultures around the entire globe are born with the capacity to be creative. Yet, as research by E, Paul Torrance showed, most children have put away their creative thinking abilties/traits/skills by the 4th grade and other by the 10th. Only a small minority continue to capitalize on their creativity. Some of them become highly successful. Others simply lead creative lives throughout their lives.

Yes being creative is a GIFT, a gift that is given to everyone. Unfortunately too many people forget where they left the GIFTS.


4. Creative Thinking Tool of the Week:

When you need to ignite your creative thinking simply play with the word
C - R - E - A - T - E

Combine ideas, facts, pieces of the puzzle
Rearrange ideas, facts, pieces of the puzzle
Erase parts
Alter parts or perspectives
Try different ways to do it
Enlarge, expand, energize, explode some of your ideas


5. Creative Books to Explore:

HOW TO HAVE KICK-ASS IDEAS
By Chris Barez-Brown
Principal of ?WhatIf! of London, England

The book helps you get curious, get adventurous, get creative!!!


6. Creativity Websites to Explore:

Visit the Odyssey of the Mind website
http://www.odyssey.org/

“How We’re Changing Transportation

Emphasize benefits of diverse transit, walking and biking choices.
Promote both policy reform and service improvements and look for links between the two.

Build powerful coalitions and find win-win solutions.
Conduct trainings, outreach and education to diverse stakeholders.
Organize communities to get more involved in transportation decisions.
Provide technical assistance to transit agencies and community groups.
Create positive, substantive, lasting changes in California's transportation system and quality of life.”


7. Article to Expand Your Creativity:

Being Serious
Won't Make You Silly,
Yet Being Silly
Can Help You Be More Serious

Number 6 Cartoon Drawing of Robert ALAN Black

Over 35 years of working in creative fields and working with people striving to be more creative or use more creativity I have discovered that silly has its place in the serious workplace.

Since first attending CPSI in 1978 I have met hundreds of consultants, business leaders, managers, trainers and educators that have shared how they use silly as a serious creativity tool.

To read the entire article go to….

http://www.cre8ng.com/newsletter/news06.shtml


Best wishes to you for a creative week this week.

Remember it is always your choice to be creative.


Alan
http://www.cre8ng.com

This Week's Guest Article:

This was written by a professional speaker friend in Hawaii Loren Ekroth.


HOW TO BECOME A PEOPLE MAGNET


What makes a person so attractive that people are
magnetically drawn to them? Think of people
you are drawn to, that you like to be around.
What makes them such people magnets?

Of course, physical attractiveness helps, as
does celebrity. But for most of us who are
neither physical "10s" or famous, we can still
become highly attractive to others. Here's how:

SHOW GENUINE INTEREST IN OTHERS

This behavior is in relatively short supply because
so many people are self-centered or self-absorbed,
more interested in how they are being seen than
in others. Because most humans get great
satisfaction from others' interest in them, when
you bestow your interest on others, they like
being around you. Everyone has a story to tell.
Be curious and listen to their story.

Being curious is within your control. Remember
the interpersonal style of the TV detective Columbo
played by Peter Falk? Express genuine interest.
He showed a non-intrusive curiosity that even
suspects were willing to respond to. When you
ask questions sincerely and gently, you'll learn a
lot, and others will be honored that you want to
know about them and their ideas.

BE EASY TO BE WITH

Have a light touch, and don't take yourself too
seriously. Avoid being touchy - cactussy -
with lots of judgments and stern opinions.
Don't be argumentative trying to be right.
Be generous with compliments and open
to others' points of view.

(These behaviors are also within your control.)

HAVE A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR

Humor doesn't require you to have a stash of jokes
to tell. (Joke-telling makes YOU, not them, the center
of attention). Instead, humor involves being able to
see the lighter side of life, to laugh at the foibles
of humanity, and to acknowledge the silly side
of yourself. Overly-serious people can be a drag,
as you know. Don't be one of them.

BE AN ARTESIAN WELL OF INFORMATION

Be a person "in the know." Be aware of practical
stuff ("Where can I get a good deal on a bedroom
set?") as well as people ("Talk to George about
that tech problem; he's a real maven about
computing.") You can become a "hub" among
people who will value you as one who knows
many others in some depth.

If we remain narrowly interested in only a few subjects
and not widely knowledgeable, it's more difficult to talk
about the many interests of people we meet. Being
a narrow specialist can make us a bore. Be a generalist.

DON'T BE A KNOW-IT-ALL

Even if you know a lot, don't be a smart-ass.
Being knowledgeable helps you relate to others,
but not if you use your knowledge to show off,
one-up others, and try to have the last word.
Hold your knowledge lightly and don't feel com-
pelled to always share what you know. Social
wisdom requires discernment of when to speak
and when to remain silent. (This is especially true
when we're with children or young people.)
Carry your knowledge with some humility.


Dr. Loren Ekroth is a speaker and international expert on conversation who publishes his "Better Conversations" ezine each Tuesday. Rich resources and f*ree subscription
available at his site, http://www.conversation-matters.com" (Highly recommended.)

Stop or Start to Advance






What are 5 things we would gain from stopping in order to advance our organizations?

My suggestion is that people focus on STARTING to do 5 things to
advance their organizations.

START:

1- Leading people when necessary and teach them to manage themselves and
their work.

2- Communicating more by listening 3 to 6 times more than you talk.

3- Developing teamwork skills in all employees so those skills will be used
when needed.

4- S.P.R.E.A.D.ng Creative Thinking throughout your entire workplace
(Supporting, Promoting, Recognizing, Encouraging, Applying, Developing).

5- Focusing on adding more meaningful FUN into your daily work. To quote
Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's, "If We Ain't Havin' Fun, Why the Hell
Are We Doing IT?"

And a bonus- Accept that Conflict is part of life and have your people trained
in a minimum of 5 strategies of dealing with conflict from the small to the
major things in your workplace.


alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

LEADERS APPEAR WHEN NECESSARY

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5327/1312/1600/200mecoloplastfair.0.jpg

My 46 years of working have shown me that when LEADERS are needed they APPEAR. They are not always the same people and they are not always people who hold a rank, title, or a position. They generally are the people with the skills needed and the respect of the people that need to be led at that moment.

For years I have given workshops and speeches titled:

AMERICANS HATE TO BE MANAGED AND WILL FOLLOW LEADERS THEY BELIEVE IN, AT LEAST FOR A SHORT WHILE.

We do not jump out of bed in the morning shouting and pounding our chests saying...

I WANT TO BE MANAGED

or

PLEASE LED ME

All human beings when treated with respect who are appreciated and trusted can get their jobs done best.

When all HELL breaks lose some times leaders need to appear to guide us until things settle down.

Leaders of companies, teams, volunteer groups can be helpful if their mission is trusted and believed in by the people who need to be led at the time.

Too often books on Leaders, Leading, Leadership are about mythical characters who too often only existed in name only.

The best "leaders" i have met or read about surrounded themselves with excellent people and focused on helping people accomplish joint goals of the group.

What do you think?

alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

LEADER MANAGER BOSS OR COORDINATOR

For the past 21+ years many books have been written about leadership.

Some have compared leader to manager.

Some have compared leader to boss.

Some have talked about leader styles.

Many have talked about traits, skills, characteristics of successful leaders.

All are valuable in one aspect or another.

My major challenge with most of them based upon reading and reviewing about 200 of them since 1984 has been most are focused on LEADERS AS HEROS, GIANTS, BIGGER THAN LIFE, MYTHS.

My 46 years of working plus studying leaders, leadership and leading over the past 25+ years has shown me more that what we need are people who can coordinate the work of other people either together in teams, groups or individually or in pairs whether long - range or short - range.

Leaders are nice.

It is nice to have a hero or heroine to relish, to follow, to believe in.

Please take 2 minutes to make a list of leaders you truly have followed, relished and believed who you directly worked with. Please do not include giants who you only read about in newspapers, magazines, hear about on television or read about in organization publications.

In most cases we don't have many to list.

Independent people (most Americans and many other people in other countries) hate to be MANAGED, they want their freedom. They will follow, at least in principle, leaders they believe in. Unfortunately the length of time that independent people believe in leaders is generally very short.

Too many cultures on this earth talk about how this leader or that leader saved their company, organization, country, state, city, town, church, synagoge.

My questions...

1. Was it the leader actually?
2. Was it what the leader stood for?
3. Was it because the past leader was so bad and the latest was new?
4. Was it that some things actually did change in the organization and allowed the people do actually do their jobs better and more correctly?

Too often leaders that are written about in newspapers, magazines, trade journals, books hold their positions for less than 3 years.

My experiences with over 50,000 supervisors and employees working in many companies, organizations, government agencies, military bases and universities and colleges has shown me that it typically takes 18 months to 3 or more years for new ideas that LEADERS try to get started. Then by the time the ideas, methods, processes, etc. get into practice the leader who promoted them is gone and there is a new leader to try their new ideas, methods, processes, etc.

Look at your job.

Do you need a leader?
a Manager?
a Boss?

or might you prefer to work WITH not FOR a coordinator whose responsibility to coordinate the work of several people.

Leaders are nice in chaos or catastrophe but 8 to 5 daily work seldom needs a leader.

What do you think?

Alan
alan@cre8ng.com
http://www.cre8ng.com

Are you SUPPORTING the SPREAD of Creative Thinking in your Organization?

Every day we can SUPPORT creative thinking in every employee from the front or back door to the executive floor of our organizations whether we are a small consulting firm or a giant manufacturing firm with offices and locations around the world.

The question today for you is....

ARE YOU SUPPORTING CREATIVE THINKING?

Hopefully you are.

HOW ARE YOUR SUPPORTING CREATIVE THINKING?

Are you sharing feedback, saying supportive things to people in the hallways, in meetings, in their work spaces?

Are you sending out messages that show your ongoing support?

Are you refraining from using KILLER PHRASES or as I call them TOMBSTONES of CREATIVITY...

it won't work
it won't fit the budget
the top won't accept it
it's too far out

Are you instead sharing supportive feedback...

looks interesting
keep working on it and let me know your progress
fit some time in with your other work and keep working at it
it seems far out yet may very well have great potential keep working on it

Your facial expressions
your body language
tone of voice
tone of your emails
ongoing encouraging comments

All these can play important parts in your ongoing efforts to truly SUPPORT CREATIVE THINKING in your organization from top down and back up again.

What else are you doing that SUPPORTS CREATIVE THINKING?

Please share your ideas, anecdotes, stories, examples.

Alan
http://www.cre8ng.com

alan@cre8ng.com