CREATIVE SPARK

CREATE

The third building block of embodied at work.

“The insight presumably occurs when a subconscious connection between ideas fits so well that it is forced to pop out into awareness, like a cork held underwater breaking out into the air after it is released.”
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention

There’s a source of creativity inside each one of us. By connecting to our unconscious through embodied practices and movement, we are able to access new insights and ideas, finding alternative solutions.

In Theory U, there’s a journey that starts with clarity about the intention and suspension of previous knowledge and judgements, so that we can see with fresh eyes. In mindfulness and Zen, it’s talked of this open-mindedness as a beginner’s mind.

By sensing what is present and what wants to emerge, we’re all able to access a source of creativity that shows up as intuitive insights, and which we can crystallise and prototype new solutions.

Creative flow in your daily life

Arne Dietrich identified 4 types of creativity. He divided between deliberate and spontaneous, being the spontaneous referring to the moments when we are not actively trying to find a solution. In the origins of Theory U there was also the conclusion that many disruptive ideas came up while people were doing something else. Periods of incubation are included in most creativity processes.

Our goal is to establish flow moments in our work routines that are meant to access these insights in a systematic way. This creative flow may support people in finding solutions to a problem, but also to get new insights about their own inner process or new perceptions about relationships.