Keep the Creative Juices Flowing - Issue #11: Creativity at the Workplace
Ciao! Mauro here again!
This is November 2022 issue nr 11, wow! It’s almost 1 year and it is the right time to address the elephant in the room:
Creativity at the Workplace
Thank you so much for following along in this Creative Journey.
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LAST MINUTE EDIT
You probably are informed about the "problems" around Twitter and that Revue, the heart of this newsletter will probably stop beating by the end of the year.
If it'll happen, when a tool is free you can only say thank you for the service you had so far.
I'll probably migrate everything on Substack.
I'm so sorry for this and I'll try to make is as smooth as possible without problems for you.
Back to the important things...
What it is Creativity@Work
First things first: this is an unconventional issue
Yeah. This topic would need a whole book just to scratch the surface.
This newsletter is a kind of "Course-letter" so I'll drop a couple of section in favour of the main topic.
You may remember some parts, in fact a few concepts are borrowed from the Make it Visible - Introduce Sketchnotes and Visuals in the Workplace on Skillshare.
I tried to condense the key aspects and give you a sort of framework.
I’ll do this with more sketchnotes than usual and trying to keep the text at minimum .
In this issue I will:
Rain on the parade (he he he, at least at first)
be Creative and bring the magic back: it is not a battle, it is a dance!
Show you a couple of the tools I use constantly
How we see Creativity@Work
Dreaming comes for free, right? Some people actually live in a reality like the one I depict below but I believe the large majority of us (me included) are not.
Creativity@Work is WORK!
Sorry about this, I'm very serious when it comes to work.
A business, to be sustainable, needs to make some money. Not even the dog wags his tail for nothing.
The Stereotype is (sadly) accurate and real
This is an old joke but, sadly and particularly in these post-pandemic times, it is more accurate than ever.
We are Creative People, let us BE Creative People
Whatever happens, we are Creative people, the positivity, the open mind and heart are hardwired in our DNA.
Keep your feet on the ground
Again, when it comes to Creativity it is easy to follow a "dreamy" reality that at the end of the day may be hard to translate into business.
We need to live, think and Create here and now, on this earth, in this context, aiming to a better tomorrow and to be still relevant in the future.
If you need to refresh your memory:
The elusive nature of Lacks
Sometimes you can’t define lacks because… you don’t know they lack.
This is a super simple map but do not underestimate the power of actually seeing what you mean.
We are human, we are people, we need to harmoniously work together
Creativity doesn't happen in a vacuum, at work we are surrounded by other people.
Moreover, our responsibility as Creative people it is not solely upward (Bosses, Clients, Stakeholders...), it is downward too, toward those people who will use, who will be impacted by the fruits of our creativity.
We create for and with other people and those people, even though they may be those who actually ask and need Creativity, might not like it or see it as a threat.
The Creativity Critical Triangle
Since I "codified" this, I found that it was and is tremendously helpful to literally depict the human scenario.
This is the map. Understand it, work on it, write/draw it down, actually write names.
We are visual thinkers, right? The goal of this map is to become "automatic" in our minds. To make this happens it is important to start with actually bringing it to the real world: draw it, update it, take notes on it.
Over and over and over.
Conclusions
Creativity@Work is not only making or inventing stuff. Creativity must be applied to processes, relations, strategies…
Creativity@Work is, first and foremost, about creating (even temporarily) the environment, the context and the culture where Creativity can happen, can benefit the business and can make us earn our wages.
November Monthly Creative Challenge
An old Zen proverb says:
You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes everyday - unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour
The easiest, yet the hardest of all challenges.
Let we adapt a bit to our times: can you go out and walk 20 minutes really slow or sit doing nothing for 10 minutes (without looking at the clock)?
I did it for a week and I took notes of every sessions. At the end of the week I realised that it was a disaster: during the sessions I spent the time taking mental notes about what I'd write in my notes. I nullified the main goal that is... "nothing".
I did it again the next week without taking notes. This time it was...
Well, now is up to you to discover.
Signals&Dots
think: The Importance of Creativity in the Workplace
The first paragraph says:
"The cornerstones of productivity are staying organized, mission-driven, and efficient. But, staying creative shouldn’t come at the expense of those pillars."
think: Paradox Mindset: The Source of Remarkable Creativity in Teams
"Teams are more successful if they embrace internal differences and explore conflicting ideas instead of glossing over them."
think: What is a picture?
"A picture is an object that is here and because of its look makes us imagine something else that is not here."
Dedicated to all my Sketchnoters friends! I love this post.
My Stuff
This newsletter it's already too long. No fancy stuff this time.
That’s it!
As always, thank you so much for reading this issue! It was a honor spending time with you.
I’d LOVE to hear from you, just reply to this email or DM on Twitter, even if we don’t follow each other.
See you on December, 5th 2022 at h7.30 AM CET and we will talk about
Creative Walks
Ciao
Mauro