It’s easy to set out a company vision and align every decision to it. Sounds like a smart move right? But what happens when circumstances change, there is a dip in uptake or any other crisis? Is your team resilient enough to cope? Can you rely on them to think differently or be creative under pressure?
If the answer is no then you’re probably wondering how you can possibly develop a more mindful and creative team. After all, they need to be a team that is up for the challenges in a highly agile world.
Cheryl Sandberg Facebook’s Chief Operating Operator speaking at a conference recently said:
Apparently, Facebook is all about creativity in advertising. Sandberg said: “Mobile is more than text or copy, it is creating experiences that speak to people. When you are scrolling through you feed what makes you pause, what makes you stop, what makes you think? And even when you don’t pause what makes you remember?”
The key phrase here I believe is; ‘what makes you stop and what makes you think.’ So why should these be so important? Basically, if you consider the average concentration span is around 8 seconds we obviously don’t do enough of it. You might think that’s just a by-product of the modern digital world. But consider this. How much do you really take in? How much of what you ingest is a quick skim read or a cursory glance? How much time do you devote in a day to really exploring what you think, how you feel and what important questions need tackling? If we are all becoming obese because we graze and snack on junk what’s really happening to our minds? Are they getting flabby too?
It’s not something you can purchase off the shelf. It’s a way of life, a belief system, a philosophy that helps elicit our true feelings and perspective. This is something that should not be ignored in business especially, however frenetic deadlines become.
Every team should check in with themselves and discover just where they are. How can we ever explore what other people are thinking or feeling if we never take time to listen to ourselves? This is a criticism of the contemporary workspace where the rush and tear stops meaningful thought and a sense of perspective in its tracks.
How do you ensure your business teams can tap into their inner creativity and improve their lives, their thinking skills and even their work practices? Artist, Suzette Clough has a highly original approach that will totally transform problem solving in your industry. She calls the process Visual Medicine TM.
In essence, it’s a radically simple painting and writing process. Nothing original there you might think. But Visual Medicine is quite different. It appeals to anyone, regardless of artistic ability, as images emerge from the process rather than being painted. It immediately removes the stumbling block of ‘I’m not creative or I can’t paint.’ It’s actually a practice akin to meditation where a paradigm shift takes place – your team stops trying to be creative and becomes naturally creative in the moment. Imagine that as a different approach to CPD.
How does this happen? Users of this practice find they access what might be termed the Oracle Mind. It’s the potent visionary energy of the right brain that each human consciousness carries innately. What Visual Medicine does is allows access to an unpredictable and numinous realm where the creative mind can re-imagine, problem-solve and transform.
Does this sound like an alien business culture? It shouldn’t do, as these are the skills contemporary business teams really need to succeed. Consider for a moment how much time you allow your teams to play, to ponder, to freely associate. Without these opportunities solutions become predictable. The last thing any business needs right now is more of the same. The pressure is on to create experiences, micro moments, times where consumers experience a revelation. How can you possibly develop that without some kind of creative logic?
In essence, Visual Medicine is a practice where acrylic paint is bled onto wet watercolour paper. What emerges is not directed by human touch exactly. Images and ideas swirl and coalesce to open up opportunities, ideas and paths our rationalised right brain refuses to acknowledge. You are no longer limited by preconceptions of what the left brain considers to be normal. What you can access is the Self that is within each one of us but strangely is often not always known. This is the Self that longs to show its true nature and unique vision. This is the Self that can add such value to the economy.
Wouldn’t limitless creative potential make a massive difference to the results your business can achieve? What impact would arriving at solutions in surprising and dynamic ways have within your industry? Would you be seen as an outlier, a creative figurehead for your tribe?
It is a shift of emphasis from presuming we know into experiencing what is actually happening in the present. Every business is looking for a distinctive voice, that something to stop people and make them concentrate on your message or the solution you are offering. How would it feel to connect to your deeper intuitive knowing and the innately communicative nature of the world both within you and without? What would that be worth to your company?
Suzette Clough, artists and creator of Visual Medicine is adamant that we are not far from this practice. When we allow mindfulness and really acknowledging the moment we do communicate with our inner selves and also hear the abstract communications from the world around whether that’s bells, or the timbre of voices, clouds, shadows and ocean waves. So what I don’t understand is why business shuts itself away from all that stimuli to work in soulless environments. As Rumi said ‘a polished mirror cannot help reflecting.’
‘I have seen Visual Medicine take teams away from the map of what they already know and then undertake journeys of exploration. This whole process and set of experiences can trigger a flood of barely acknowledged thought connections, ignited by the visual associations of fluidity, randomness and movement. Business finally has a way of accessing the energetic matrix of evolutionary change present within all nature.’
‘In CPD sessions I have witnessed revelations as teams rediscover the right hemisphere of the brain they often ignore. We know from current neuroscientific research that this is the hub of our infinite capacity for new creative growth. So I wonder why business doesn’t offer the opportunity to people in their workplace and access relational associations then see the difference in productivity, creativity and agile thinking.’
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