It is the shy kids who are easy to forget. They can be ushered into the corner by the teacher/director or the other actors/students and overlooked because they generally won't complain. They will accept the status quo because they won't want to rock the boat. Their creative skills enable them to show acceptance and contrition when faced with missing out on opportunities.
Learning Culture
True learning and true education forces us to take long-term approaches. To realise and accept that learning is long haul. Results do not come over night, but when they do, the long-term results are so much greater than simply the sum of their parts (which is the classic short-term strategy).
Culture is Feeling
Organisations fool themselves into believing that they want to be transformative, innovative and adaptive. They also fool themselves into believing that by changing the top-down message, the mandate from the executive, that innovation will flow like the ancient Saharan rivers of gold. Unfortunately, corporate culture is focused on operational excellence and efficiency. This is the very antithesis of the collective hearts, minds and habits of the organisation's people and their mutual perception of 'this is how we do things'. Top-down mandates can only ever command compliance, they can never influence confidence, belief, enthusiasm or creativity.
All for One and All Will Fall
When Alexander Dumas wrote his swashbuckling classic The Three Musketeers, he coined the phrase synonymous with this band adroit nobleman 'All for One and One for All'. It is thought by some to be the truest and most symbolic example of teamwork. We (the team are all in this together). Fast forward several centuries and our work lives are still all about 'the team' in many respects, only this time it's about getting things done and getting them done within our allotted hours of work. But what exactly are we all in for? What are we striving to achieve in the modern workday. The modern work week. Are we all in for the work or just to work?
Creativity & Emotional Intelligence are Strange Bedfellows
Lets be honest. Creativity can be a cranky, moody, tempestuous individual at times. Never satisfied. Always looking for the different angle, always searching for something new, quick to judge and often speaks before applying a social filter. Conversely, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) can be stable, happy, and diplomatic person who does their work, doesn't rock the boat and follows the company line. They are a jolly bunch even when things aren't going so well. EQs are admired by workmates because of their serenity and ability to remain cool under pressure. They are perfect employee... Or so we thought.
Is the Art of Oracy dying?
No doubt Trump's own zealotry and self-idolatry would shelter his ego from harm, for even a seven-year-old primary school student would cringe at the redundancy and inaneness of his attempt at a logical thought process in pursuit of his own brand of Twitteroracy.
The Land of the Free and the Home of the Afraid
Fear is only ever a concept. It is a concept coined by humans to pigeon-hole feelings of loss of control, of strength, of purpose. But fear is the antithesis to security. When you feel secure you are secure. When you feel afraid you are afraid.
Why force change?
Any change that is forced, that is foisted is fraught with danger, both for the employer and more so for the employee. If an organisation cannot clearly outline the benefits for the change for the individual the organisation could find itself hoist upon its own petard in venturing down the change path purely for financial and economical gain.
Failing to act is acting to fail
We must give in to our curiosity. Just like kids in playground having a ride on new swing for the first time or a puppy experiencing new surroundings. There is excitement, there is trepidation, but there is a willingness to be positive and to come out the other side, bigger, stronger, with greater confidence and feeling safe.
Thank you, Mr Watkins
Poetry, beauty, romance and love are all about the heart. True creativity comes from the heart. Its about feeling. When you feel, you know. You get the shivers. Mr Watkins gave me the shivers, because every time I walked into his classroom, I new it was going to be a great adventure.
