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?
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.
Taking a break during work does not necessarily restore your energy.
It depends on what you do in it.
Activities you take during your break influence your energy levels and subsequent performance. John Trougakos and his colleagues make a major distinction between breaks characterized as respite and chores.
A “Respite” break happens when you stop working as well as thinking about work and participate in activities that has a relaxing or pleasant experience. For example, you take a brief walk, listen to music, or surf the Web (aimlessly).
In contrast, a “chores” break happens when you stop the work you are doing, but turn attention toward another work-related responsibility. For example, checking email or making a to-do list for the rest of the week. In these cases, activities involving mental efforts continue to take place during the break, thereby preventing the restoration of energy levels.
In their book “Thriving under stress”, Britt and Jex explore studies that explain the results of increased positive emotional displays after “respite” breaks, compared to the negative emotions produced after the “chores” breaks.
So, keep this mind the next time you want to take a break. If your next break happens to be a “chores” one, know that you’re exercising at least some level of self-control that’s not allowing your brain to fully restore its energy level. Only breaks characterized by detachment from primary work tasks will aid in the restoration of energy levels needed for performance.
Not all breaks are created equal.
Choose wisely.
Taking a respite break, cheers,
Randah Taher
We miss running into people in the hallway. We miss meeting friends of friends or as academics call them our ‘weak connections’. Those moments of serendipity sparked some amusing conversations and interesting people to meet. How can we replicate that feeling?
What if you planned virtual ‘watercooler’ moments to help energize a hybrid workforce?
Last year I ran a daily coffee break with one zoom room and an open invitation for anyone to pop in. I shared the link with my groups and contacts and those people shared it with theirs. During this 30-minutes meetup, we joined, met new people, had a quick coffee chat, got inspired and connected with old friends.
Some even scheduled their working hours and meetings around our coffee break! It was that important during time of no-socializing in 2020.
Find a time and place for chance meeting and side learning to happen. Create a remote coffee break room, invite colleagues to an online game before work, have a daily check-in routine with random employees just to say hi or run a simply storytelling session daily. Basic rules applies in any such interaction: No agenda, no job titles, welcome random conversations, and most importantly, listen. Perhaps this is the greatest gift of online communication, we are forced to listen to speakers one at a time.
Consistently matters. This is the best connection you can create without much planning ahead or getting permission from anyone.
Stay playful,
Randah
You are an Intrapreneur. A maverick. A corporate innovator.
It feels sometimes that you’re a lone wolf.
You see things differently. There are always possibilities. You swim against the stream. There seems to be a lot of inefficiency. You wish your superiors will simplify things and consider a new point of view.
It feels sometimes you’re a misfit. Yet somehow you are connected to others and have a reputation of getting things done, even if in your own unique way. That gives you a chance of being heard. You have some proof to vouch for your creative ideas.
Sometimes you get stuck with others not understanding your solution or getting on board with it. Sometimes you can’t seem to move the discussion beyond the “we don’t have a budget” and the “this is now how we do it here” broken records.
You wonder if you’re singing a lonely song or you still cannot find your pack.
I hear you. And truly understand your situation. I’m here to listen to stories if you wish to share. You can stay anonymous and find a cool nickname to use. An animal, a plant or an object of your choice.
By sharing your story with others, you’ll be able to connect with other mavericks, and see how new versions of the same stories have sold its dilemmas.
The destination to your happy place is out there, you can reach and celebrate with like-minded mavericks, if you’ll howl a bit louder today.
Tell me what’s on your mind. I’m listening.
#IAmAMavericks
A whale is a mammal in the sea.
Surrounded with water, yet need air to breath.
Often misunderstood.
Talk about not fitting in with other fish.
Whales are unique, graceful and mysterious; they nurture, form friendships, innovate, grieve, play, sing and cooperate with one another.
Just like mavericks in an organization.
A maverick is another employee or manager.
Another number added to the sea of numbers.
Yet they are not like other fish.
They need air to breath. They need space to innovate. They need time to shift systems in a way that makes it work better.
Mavericks are beautiful, elegant and strong. They stand in face of adversity.
They become stubborn when a problem requires their attention, they put their full heart behind solving it for the sake of others and the mission of the organization. Sometimes they step on people’s toes to get it done. Sometimes they challenge the status quo. They are often misunderstood for being a misfit, a trouble-maker or someone who doesn’t’ breath the same way as other swimmers.
Mavericks found their power of being comfortable as a minority of one.
Can you hear them singing?
~ Randah
P.S. Our digital Mavericks Facilitation Forum will be announced soon. Stay tuned