#creativethinking Archives - Page 3 of 4

Small wins

It is sometimes hard for us to celebrate our accomplishments.

Even small wins are overlooked by the promise that, if we keep going steady, we will arrive to our goals sooner than later. Yet, when it comes to our friends, we insist they take a break and enjoy the fruits of their hard work. For some strange reason, we think it’s better for us to freeze our fruits for later. And later comes with its own surprises.

Don’t miss the chance to pause and cheer. Take a deep breath. You’ve reached so far and have done so much.

Well done.

May this time bring much needed chance to rejoice. Happy Eid everyone.

Find the others

No matter what stage in your career life you’re in, finding other people who think like you is a great way to build your community at work.

People who are interested in similar challenges, have some wild ideas do bounce off, or don’t mind working tirelessly for hours digging through material to find the right piece of the puzzle to your mutual challenge.

Those people can come from other departments or from other organizations entirely. They share a similar cause or are driven by the sense of “we’re all in this together”.

A wise man once said to his son, “Build yourself a house in every country”.
Where am I to get such money? Asked his son.
Find a friend in every country, and you will have yourself all those homes.

Find the others. Build your houses.

Your ex-architect,
Randah Taher

Imagination for Ibn Sina

(image source)

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, imagination is defined as “the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality”.

The etymological origin of the word imagination “is having a picture in the mind’s eye”. Incidentally, unlike the dictionary’s date of reference for the creation of this word (14th century), the ‘mind’s eye’ term and that very definition of imagination was developed in the 10th century by the Persian philosopher Ibn Sina (also known by his Latinized name Avicenna).

As the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopedist, mathematician and astronomer of his time, he described in his “Book Of Healing” the five mental senses we possess as: common sense, imagination, estimation, representation, and recollection. Explaining how the sense are related, Ibn Sina writes: “for all beauty which is suitable and goodness which one perceives, that one loves and desires, the principle of perceiving them relies on the senses, imagination (khayal), the estimative faculty, conjecture and the intellect”.

Ibn Sina wrote about creativity in general, but focused on the imagination and its affect on

self and other’s behavior. “The imagination of man can act not only on his own body, but even on others and very distant bodies. It can fascinate and modify them; make them ill, or restore them to health”.

Think about it for a few minutes. How’s your imagination affecting people’s health around you?

Creatively yours,

Randah Taher

examples.

Consider these examples of creative people who’s talents were not recognized by their teachers, parents or friends:

Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was too stupid to learn anything.
Abraham Lincoln entered the Black Hawk War as a Captain and came out as a much lower private.
Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was at the bottom of his class in one school and twice failed the entrance exams for another.
Louis Pasteur was rated mediocre in chemistry at the Royal College.
Albert Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read.
Charles Darwin did poorly in the early grades and failed a university medical course.
Fred Waring once was rejected from high school chorus
Enrico Caruso’s music teacher told him he can’t sing and doesn’t have a voice.
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he “lacked imagination”.
Pablo Picasso could barely read and write by age 10. His tutor gave up and quit.
Madonna got fired form her early-career job at Dunkin Donuts when she squirted jelly filling all over a customer.
Oprah Winfrey was fired from WJZ-TV as being “unfit for television news”. She showed too much emotions.
Steve Jobs was fired from his own company.
Marilyn Monroe was told by modeling agencies that she should consider becoming a secretary.
Stephen King’s renown and first book, Carrie, was rejected 30 times. His wife rescued the book from the trash and convinced him to re-submit it.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
J.K. Rowling was a divorced single mother on welfare with 12 rejections from publishers on the Harry Potter books.
Sidney Poitier was told to become a dishwasher.
The Beetles were rejected by a recording company saying they have no future in show business. They didn’t like their “sound”.
Socrates was labeled as “immoral corruptor of youth” which lead him to his death sentence.

What more proof do you need to bring out the creative power in you? It doesn’t matter if others recognized it or not, especially at work. It requires you to recognize it.

Are you ready to be creative in your workplace?

People who are labeled creative are also considered independent, risk takers, dare to differ, challenge traditions, bed a few rules and know how to make waves.
Yet, the untold story is that they also face a lot of failure, criticism, embarrassment, and are most likely to make fools of themselves.

You cannot have one side without the other. They come as a package.

Are you ready for 2022?

Woman looking through a rolled up piece of paper

Creativity squelchers

Have you noticed the subtle creativity squelchers at work?

Here are some of the symptoms of an unhealthy culture:

There is a general attitude of secrecy: Of information, of events, of updates. Someone has the info and their guarding it with their lives.
There’s general fear of loosing jobs to new technology or way of work. Normally people resist change because of its discomfort. But here they might resist it because of fear that this technology or tool will make them redundant and they don’t want to find or use any of their other talents.
There is a level of unhealthy envy and conflict that focuses on people rather than ideas. People talk about and worry about other people and the focus is on who did what.
A strong desire to protect the status quo. Those who have it welcome “change” and “innovation” at the surface level only. Just the naming will do. But they will not allow it to enter their door.
There’s an attitude that creative types don’t work in this department or this organization. To them, this is a waste of time and energy and they need to stay productive and efficient. Creativity can go somewhere else.

There are many others, but for now, look out for those deadly ones.

Happy new year everyone.

Cheers to an amazing start 2022!

Cooperation or competition

Would you describe your work environment as a place that focuses on collaboration or competition?

Either of those scenarios on its own can be a barrier to creativeness.

If high cooperation is the case, then a person might have to conform or please others in order to “fit in”. This means they might have to tone down their creative ideas. Ask yourself: are you driving away the talented employees?

On the other hand, if competitiveness is overemphasized then people might consider “beating somebody else to it” rather than finding good creative solutions. Ask yourself: Does the lone inventor even exist in this universe? Can we ever find unique and un-thought-of idea?

In the Arabic culture we emphasize the saying: “The best options are on the middle path” (loosely translated ofcourse). And here is no exception. Find your place on the continuum and continue to connect the others to share ideas and compete to benefit the group as a whole.

How are you showing up?

You are the expert on your intentions.

People around you only see your impact.

How can you make sure that what you intended is what is showing up?

This question can be applied to an immediate situation or one that is more long term.

The immediate one is easy. We dress and walk and ask our friends, “Do I look confident to you?”

The long term one is a bit harder. How can you manifest caring during the ups and downs of a project? How can you walk with poise to every meeting you have planned for a this campaign?

Here’s a quick exercise to help you uncover some insights.

Send this request to 5 people who you work with.

Ask them: what are 3 words that you think about when you think about me?

These are not strength or weaknesses. These are just 3 words to describe you.

A lot of words will come back.

See if the words coming in are similar to the words you use to describe yourself. See if your brand is out there, and not just in your head. They observe you and your action.

This is your first step bring out more of how you want others to describe you.

“I don’t know”

It’s impossible to learn something if you think you already know it.
If you find yourself responding to every question asked, commenting on all conversation topics, or talking about your experiences without a breathing moment, you’re manifesting ignorance more than anything else.

When we pretend to know what we think we know, we ignore anything that will contradict our beliefs. When we strive to give others the impression that we know-it-all, we portray the image of being better, more important and smarter. We also shut off incoming signals from outside sources that can greatly educate us, leaving us less smarter than what we thought we were.

There’s nothing more powerful than a leader who says eloquently “I don’t know.”
This is the ultimate wisdom from those who know.
It opens mind, ears and attention to what might be the answer. It grounds the person and connects with others who are eager to explore the question together.
Are you open for knowledge?

daydream.

Surrealists are on to something. They can put aside their rational mind temporarily to create something imaginative and powerful. The canvas would be just a mirror for what emerged out of that process.

We experience similar surreal moments that sometimes stretch into a process, like doodling during a boring meeting or looking out the window and imagining building the “Death Star” with Vader.

We keep forgetting that daydreaming gives us a direct access to our creative mind. We conclude that we must have drifted apart or we don’t feel like working. While in fact we’re in the middle of working and about to arrive to an epiphany that solves a problem for us. If we just continue this daydream for a few more minutes.

I had the pleasure of speaking with my friend Ismet (Izzy) Mamnoon who is a successful teacher coach and an amazing organization facilitator with projects around the globe. Her unique point of view is letting daydream be part of her process to feed into her creative thoughts. I talked with her and a bunch of other intrapreneurs on what makes their process unique and created The Creative Senses Challenge. Join the others and get inspired on finding ways to engage your full senses at work.

Here’s a snippet of our conversation on my linkedin page.