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The awareness of the creative
spirit as an entity that can exist apart from our mind,
as we currently understand mind, and our ego arose,
surprisingly, out of trying to improve safety in the workplace. In
1987 I was hired by the Department of Energy (DOE) based on my
diverse background and organization insights as part of the DOE
response to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report on its
nuclear facilities. This report concluded the Department was not
technically competent to oversee its contractors.
I was hired specifically by the Deputy Assistance Secretary for
Safety to address the management structure and organizational issues
of DOE and its Contractors to (1) improve technical performance of
both the DOE and its contractors and (2) improve the DOE ability to
oversee its contractors. To address the concern of the NAS, over a
period of the next ten years, career position changes in DOE were
organized to address specific weak links in the organization
structure. Why the effort took ten years and achieved questionable
success during that time is a story unto itself and a marvelous case
study. That story was one of the primary catalysts to capture the
lessons learned and many of the insights found on the “Organizational
Creativity” Home Page.
In essence the difficultly arose not because the problem was
insolvable. Rather the difficult arose as a result of the lack of an
organizational single point focus for the effort, a short term,
“quick fix” mentality and the continual changes in Department
priorities as each Secretary of Energy, or their primary appointees,
changed. Few realized the depth and breadth of the problem that
existed. Few had the ability to remain focus and not be distracted
for as long as was necessary. Yet is was this experience that helped
give rise to the information discussed on this and related web
sites, and in particular and, surprisingly, “Meditation
Concepts and Principles for Creativity.”
Creating effective and adequate correction action required moving
through four organizational components. Each move addressing a
different aspect of the root issue. The first organization stop was
to identify exactly what it was that caused the NAS to conclude the
DOE was not technically competent. By all existing Department
standards, qualified personnel and individuals with adequate
credentials were hired by DOE and its contractors. Yet an aspect of
technical competency was missing. Finding the problem was best
accomplished from the safety oversight and policy development
organization. Once identified, standards and requirements were
changed to correct deficiencies. However, it was necessary to
educate the staff on the problem and how to fix the problem. If they
truly understood the problem in the first place, the problem in
question would never have existed. Changing standards and requires
without providing a cultural change which understood what needed to
be done would not provide adequate corrective action. The necessary
cultural change was best accomplished through the training
organization and developing the experiential training to go with the
new requirements. Then it became necessary to become part of the
line organization to implement the necessary changes and to “lead
the way.” Finally I move to coaching the organization on maintaining
the fixes.
This journey through the organization began to reveal something
else. Although effective correction actions were implemented, the
tradition management methods were still lacking at resolving the
basic issues. Something was still missing. The solution was given to
those who needed it but the individuals could not seem to find the
solution themselves. Without the ability to find the solution and
modify them as the situation changes themselves, a long term
solution would not be sustainable. Another, or others, seemed to be
almost always needed to point out what was lacking. Quite simply,
the organization lacked the ability to create the ability it needed
to find a solution. It lack the ability to be organizationally
creative to be able to respond to the changing demands being placed
on it. What become clear was that NAS report was only a snapshot
in time. Everyone assumed the snapshot was accurate over time. So we
fixed what the snapshot revealed in the moment but we were not
addressing what the snapshot revealed over time. We did not address
why the snapshot existed as it did.
As a manager, the issue I ultimately came to face was how do I get
individuals to freely play with the situation they face to find
those creative solutions that go to the depth of the situation and
address the root of the issue they face. It was clear individuals
seemed to lack the creative ability to solve the problem they faced
at the root level. They usually tended to look to someone else to
solve their problem. I wondered why individuals could not step out
of their current thinking to find alternatives that would work. I
was working with some that the best scientific and engineering minds
in the world. I initially could not understand how and why they were
unable to be sufficiently creativity to address the problem as it
existed at the root level. They were creative in so many other ways.
Why was their creativity blinded? So, I began to explore what was
known about creativity and how to become creative. Although I
listened to what the experts said and read what they wrote it, was a
synchronicity which occurred outside the workplace that allowed me
to look deeply into the creative desire of another and from were our
creativity arose. That experience was the key to understanding
creativity, the creative spirit, and the issues I faced in the
workplace.
I was asked to help an individual create something that seemed to be
irrationally motivated given the circumstances that currently
existed in their life. If asked, they could not really explain why
they wanted to created it. They were just drawn to do so and needed
to do it. So, I looked at why they were having difficulty and looked
to see what needed to be done and did it. It was then I came face to
face with what could only be described as their creative spirit. I
call it a spirit for I had other experiences in life years earlier
that allowed me to recognize what seemed to be entities that existed
apart from, separate from, or different than, one’s normal self. It
was like an entirely different person. Yet it was not a separate
entity. It was only a part of this individual that was so
unexpressed and suppressed that, when expressed, it appeared foreign
and separate from them and had the potential to completely and
radically transform their life.
When I looked deeply at what was motivating the individual I come to
see what this creative spirit wanted to create. What it wanted was
so different than what the individual’s life was giving them and
what their mind thought needed to be done in their life. It was so
different that you could say I was faced with a completely different
entity. It was a result of this experience that I then began to
realize from where many of the problems I was encountering in the
workplace came. This creative desire within each individual can only
be called a spirit and it will create. This creative spirit has a
passion to express itself and we can feel its passion. If it is not
allowed to create consciously it will do so subconsciously. It will
find a way to challenge its own creativity to create. In essences it
looks for a way to challenge itself and if not done consciously it
will do so subconsciously.
I began to realize I was looking in the wrong direction to solve the
health and safety issues. I come to understand many of the technical
issues that surfaced had nothing to do with the technology. The
health and safety issue were not necessarily a result of the
technology. Rather they ultimately arose from this creative spirit
and how it was, or was not, being protected. Many of the issues that
arose ultimately stemmed from the individuals acting to protect the
creative spirit based on protective response patterns developed in
the past but now were ultimately hazardous and/or harmful to
themselves or another.
One could logically, and in often a very straight forward manner, do
what needed to be done to address the technology. The issue was the
creative spirit within key individuals was not being consciously
expressed or rather, suppressed. What was being done did not lead to
either an internal or external safety for there was a lack of
understanding as to what was really motivating one’s actions.
Exactly how one’s subconscious actions to protect this playful
creative spirit gets translated into unsafe workplace practices that
can threaten the public and environment is explainable. However,
that explanation requires more discussion that is warranted here.
Hopefully the material on this and related web sites will provide
the informant to help you to begin to see how this creative spirit
works.
So this creative spirit was finding a way subconsciously to express
itself to challenge itself and in doing so, it was creating hazards
for others. Rather than looking within to explore the creative
spirit, new requirements, rules and regulations would be imposed
from the outside which further stifled the creative spirit and set
one up for a different problem to surface since the root issue was
not being fixed. The answer was not to impose new requirements but
to create awareness. I was forced to change my entire understanding
as to how I thought the world worked. I had to face an aspect within
our being that we don’t even recognize as existing let alone know
how to properly use. I came to understand there was what only could
be called a childlike spirit that needed to be protected. If
improperly protected, those actions would create unsafe conditions
for the individual and others.
In looking at awareness, something else arose. When an individual
learned to become aware of hazards in the work place and how to
protect the creative spirit as opposed to simply complying with
imposed requirements they would make the workplace and their work
practices safer for they learn to foresee problems. But more
importantly, there is an awareness that arises within about what
gives life and makes it safe for this creative spirit to unfold that
transcends any one environment. This childlike creative spirit
possessed a life giving wisdom.
As the individuals related to this creative spirit, they would begin
to see hazards in other places in their lives such as at home and in
their recreational activities. Their whole life would become safer.
They would begin to transform their life simply by looking to
protect their creative spirit in a way that served that spirit. In
time, they could begin to see any other individual had a similar
desire and creative spirit within their being and it too needed to
be protected, supported and nurtured. They would being to act in a
way that made it safe for both their own creative spirit and the
creative spirit of the other to unfold. In doing so, they made their
world and the world of others safer. That is where the real safety
lies. It is when an environment is created based on this life giving
wisdom where it was safe for the creative spirit within oneself and
the other to both freely unfold true to their nature that one
creates health, safety, and quality in whatever the individual does.
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