My wish for the New Year is for all of you dear subscribers to find the time for contemplation and creative expression. I know some of you are closet artists too busy being captains of industry to take the time to paint, but as the Talmud asks, “If not now, when?
My second wish is for policy makers to adopt common sense before creating regulations that cause us to suffer. I’m thinking of security and travel in particular.
My third wish is for leaders to inspire imagination and hope for the future.
I was reading Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat” (Release 2.0) over holidays and for some reason read the last chapter first. It’s my favourite part of the book. He quotes Irving Wladadawsky-Berger, the IBM computer scientist who says, “We need to think more seriously than ever about how we encourage people to focus on productive outcomes that advance and unite civilisation’s peaceful imaginations that seek to ‘minimize alienation and celebrate interdependence rather than self-sufficiency, inclusion rather than exclusion,’ openness, opportunity and hope, rather than limits, suspicion, and grievance.”
Later Friedman asks,”Does your society have more memories than dreams?” He says organizations and societies are the same. If they are focussed on the past, if memories exceed dreams, they are in trouble. To flourish in a flat world, he says the most important attribute you can have is creative imagination to create new opportunities, communities, and positive outcomes. You also need the right motivation to act.
What’s New(ish)
‘The Art of Woo’: Selling Your Ideas to the Entire Organization, One Person at a Time
Now there’s a seductive title just in time for Valentines. Check it out at Amazon:
Happy Creating,
Linda Naiman
Linda Naiman is recognised internationally for pioneering arts-based learning and development applied to creativity, innovation, collaborative leadership and teamwork. She is co-author with Arthur VanGundy of Orchestrating Collaboration at Work. Linda is available for coaching, corporate retreats, workshops, or to speak at your conference. Click here for details
Please pass this newsletter on to friends and colleagues.
The Creativity at Work Newsletter provides overviews of new research in creativity and innovation, ‘best practices’ of leading organizations, links to new or relevant websites and an array ideas and techniques from innovation experts. Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues.
Copyright 2008 The Creativity at Work Blog
Follow me on Twitter
Join Creativity at Work on Facebook
Linkedin
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
What a thrill to “find you”, to read about your work, your passion and to see how you have connected ideas across boundaries. I love the question shared above, ” does your society have more memories than dreams?” thank you! I plan to look around your site and savor the offerings – especially the ones tagged arts-based learning, community, and creativity.