A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2008 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

Organizational Creativity is about addressing the practical aspects of accessing the creative spirit for improved organizational performance and bringing creativity into an organization or to group of individuals. It does not espouse or embrace any particular approach to organizational design, organizational management or organizational dynamics. It was observed any approach can work if one is consistent in what is applied. It is just that some approaches are more effect for some applications of others

The following are thoughts and considerations that have been observed to affect changing and transforming organizational design, organizational performance and/or organizational management in some way. Some of these can create organizational failure and/or thwart transforming an organization. Some are lessons learned and we can benefit from the difficulties and problems faced by others. Others reflect organizational platitudes and organizational euphemism addressed from a creativity perspective. It is recommended each be reviewed, eaten and digested taking what is useful and nourishing, discarding the remainder.

Also it needs to be noted that what is discussed here are also the same types and kinds of things which interfere with our personal relationship and how and what we create in our life. In essence they represent a type of mind set that does not allow for the free unfoldment of the creative spirit.

Considerations

Start with the end in mind: Probably the single most important concept for any creative endeavor, which, includes living life and creating organizational performance, is to start with the end in mind. Starting with the end in mind is about knowing what you want and have the clarity of intention to purse it and never lose focus.

For an individual, the recommendation is to write one’s eulogy to know what one would like to have said at their death about the life that was lived. Or, the individual can write up what they will say to the Creator in an immediate post death review of one’s life as to what the individual was trying to accomplish with the life that was lived. When all is said and done, what do you really want said about life that you have lived?

For an organization, two thing can be done. One is to do the equivalent of the organizations eulogy. Pick a point in the future either representative of the end of the organization or a "state of the organization" report as to what one hopes the organization has accomplished at that point in time. The second things is the individual in the organization should write the equivalent of their eulogy for departing the organization. What do you want said about what you accomplished in and for the organization and what the organization has been able to accomplish because of the role you played in the organization?

The most important standards (of performance): In keeping with the principle of starting with the end in mind, probably the most important standards of any organization are those which are most important to the customer. But the question is, "Who is the customer?" Alternatively asked, "Who or what does the organization really serve?"

Here we cannot lie to ourselves. For whom, and why, was the organization created? Was it created to make money for its creators or was it created to provide a service to people? To say an organization chartered to make money for its investors desires to service or satisfy their customers is, in essence, a lie. They do not desire satisfied customers. They will seek to satisfy their customers only to the point the customers are willing to return and continue to buy or use the services provided so the investors can make money.

Similarly, governments will charter organizations to provide services to the public and they say it is to help the people. But, it is not necessarily about helping the people but keeping the people content so as to not rebel or become dissatisfied with the existing government or politicians in charge.

What is said here may sound cynical but one needs to look very carefully at what is the real intention for an organization and whether or not working for that organization aligns with one’s personal code of honor and what they hold dear in life.

In any case, the standards of performance for the organization will ultimate need to address the concerns of the customer, but then, who are the real customers?

An overall thought: Any organization is a creation initiated by a single or multiple human beings not really different than any other creation. To create anything depend on focus, the energy we put into that on which we focus, and the environment. Additionally, we must have the ability to hold focus for the duration of the creative process and what we create is inherently linked to our environment. Some environments simply cannot support what we desire to create. It is not that we cannot create what we desire. Rather it is just the environment may not be able to support it.

In any case, we need to plant the seed of our creation in fertile ground, nurture it to it grow and unfold while holding a single point focus. Growing takes time and we cannot, and should not, expect quick overnight growth. It is essential one keep focused on the mission or goal they wish to achieve remembering that mind only knows the past and for a creation to unfold we need to step out of mind into the unknown and nurture its true needs including the organizational needs. The key to manifesting our creative endeavors is to learn to do the dance between the mind and heart whether in our personal life or in the organization.

What lies in the heart of the individual: For any individual, what lies in the heart of the individual is what provides the ultimate energy for an individual to act in the world. When the individual is free to act on their creative passion there is a tremendous energy and motivation to act. The more the individual moves away from the creative passion, less and less energy is available. The individual is usually able to muster enough energy to survive in the world. But what they create to survive is much different than what they can create from the full alignment and free expression of their creative passion.

The question for the individual is, " How much of what I do in life aligns with my creative passion and what my heart wants and desires and how much is controlled by my mind to do what my mind wants to do and/or control by some external influence that limits or suppresses my creative passion?" The greater the disconnect between what the heart wants and what the mind wants and/or external influence wants, the greater the discomfort or outright pain we will experience. Here the recommendations is to explore and come to understand our creative spirit.

The question for the organizations is, "Does what is asked of any individual allow for the growth an unfoldment of their creative passion, is neutral in that it neither helps or suppresses, or does what is asked stifle, if not suppress, the creative spirit?" Here consideration should be given to what is discussed in the topics, "Why nurture the creative spirit in the organization" and "Harnessing the energy of the individual."

Two types of organization: Realizing all generalizations are false and any one organization is a composite of many different interests, in essence, there are two types of organizations. There are those that in some way compete for customers and those that don’t. The challenge for organizations that compete for customers is two fold. One is to keep customers satisfied. The second way is to look for ways to keep the customers they have and to gain more customers by attracting them away from their competitors. In this regard, it is probably safe to say the ability to learn, both in implementing new techniques and to find new techniques, is probably the only sustainable advantage one will have over their competitors.

Relative to organizations which do not compete for customers, the challenge is to sustain if not improve the level of service provided. Otherwise, some competition will arise to draw the customers. Even government controlled services faces this challenge if the service become poor enough. Here the challenge is to keep individuals the individuals fresh, enthusiastic and motivated in what they do even when there is no outside stimulus to improve how and what is done.

In either of these cases, again, what provides the energy to perform comes from the creative spirit which lies within the individual. The recommendation is to look to find individuals whose creative passion aligns in some way with the tasks which need to be performed. This is the easiest way to keep individuals motivated.

Myths about learning: Relative to organizational performance, there are two beliefs/myths which has a tendency to bias our thinking about the ability of individuals to learn. They are in part true but they are also false. One is individuals are readily and able to learn and the other is we can’t teach an old dog new tricks. These myths are discussed in the topic, "Myths about learning."

Power of belief: The placebo effect, rituals, visualizations and the like all have an aspect of their power based in what we believe and what we expect. Placebos and rituals have their power arise from what we already believe consciously and, more importantly, nonconsciously. Visualizations are a way to focus our nonconscious mind through imagery and visualization and things like metal rehearsals of complex feats. From an organizational perspective, the goal of training and motivation should be to get people to believe in themselves and the importance of what they do in the job. Carrying such beliefs will make the individual more enthusiastic in performing their job well and with little difficult for they believe they can do the job effectively.

Learning and training versus educating and thinking: Learning, training and education are often seen and used interchangeably. However there are difference which need to be noted.

Learning is about acquiring or obtaining knowledge of and skill by study, experience or example. It is to find out or become aware, or become informed of something. It is to commit to memory

Training is about rendering skillful, proficient, or qualified by systematic instruction, drills or the like. Or, it is to make obedient to orders or instruction.

To educate is to develop or train the mind, capabilities, character of by instruction or study. It is to give knowledge or a skill or to teach.

Teaching is about imparting knowledge by lessons or to give instruction. It is to train by practice or exercise.

If we look carefully, learning and training is about taking in information, knowledge, facts and/or a way of performing. We go to training classes, workshops and the like to get what we need. Education is about developing the mind. A developed mind knows how to get what it needs for the situation it faces. An undeveloped mind become powerless when faced with change and events that lies outside what it has learned and been trained to do.

Learning and training personnel may be more than adequate for many organizations. But one still needs to realize the limitations. If there is any desire for change, there will be the need to educate the employees so they can figure out how to do what they need to do for their own job and changes in their life as a result of the changes in their job.

More importantly, we live in an age of information and if not educated but only trained, managers will have difficulty in sifting through what is really important. What is needed in managers is an understanding of what is important and what is not important beyond today’s facts and information. Education provides the awareness to know what variable to monitor and those for which to pay little or no attention need to be paid. One can be trained to monitor certain variables but training does not give the understanding to the subtle change that will in hindsight be accident precursors. Additionally individuals need to know how to communicate and share the understanding of what the information is really communicating or not communicating. Here an individual needs to understanding the basics of getting out of the box of mind set and tunnel vision to see where things are working as expected and/or as new influences arise or old influences become less important. Here more intangible qualities like intuitive guidance that do not lend themselves will to empirical measurements but are a natural byproduct of personal mastery will need to be fostered and developed.

Illusion of sharing a vision: From a creativity perspective, a true vision is not something easily shared. The nature of a true vision is not about having an idea of what we desire to create although it is often used in this context. It is about transcending the current world to see possibilities not yet conceived by most individuals. When people talk about sharing a vision what they are really talking about is sharing a commonly held or joint intention, mission, goal or objective. Vision are unique to a perspective and very rarely do individuals share a truly common perspective about a situation. We have similar views, ideas, and the like but perspective tend to be very unique for they based upon the experiences we have had and what we think and believe. However, when two or more individuals have very similar backgrounds to share a common set of beliefs and they have been together to have a sufficient number of shared experiences, then it is possible to truly share a vision. However, this is rare.

To have a vision requires one to be able to step past what they think and believe to see into the unknown to see possibilities not yet considered. Most adults have little sense or experience of real vision for the tend to live their life based on what they have experienced and hence the past. We can gave goals, objectives, mission, or an intention but these are not vision. Most are trying to escape or move away from so way of life or being they do not like or want. Most do not see a world that does not yet exist and they wish to create. Vision is very much about moving toward something as opposed to moving away.

We are tend to live life by coping, fitting in to expectations of others, solving the problems of life and reacting to life if not surviving more that jumping into life. Vision requires us to jump into life and into where no one has gone before and requires a commitment for as long as it takes to manifest the visions.

Vision births purpose, ideas, mission, goals, objectives and the like. It is the purpose, ideas, mission, goals, objective and the like which arise from the vision the vision holder shares with others and look to get other to support. But the vision itself cannot be shared unless the other individual has a very similar perspective.

Carrying a vision requires a developed personal mastery. Obtaining the vision, clarifying the vision, sharing the vision and even moving to implement the vision is relative easy when compared to facing the current reality to bring about the necessary changes within oneself and one’s environment. As discussed in the variety of discussion on the creative process and the creative tension, there is a separation between that which exists and that which is envisions and desired to be manifested. The desire to remove that separation supplies the energy for the creation. If there were no separate there would be no energy to move toward manifesting the vision. However, that separation can be quite painful and some may be lead to numb the pain. Rather, the pain should be a catalyst to bring forth that creation such that it is much like passion a drowning person has for air. It is to know that if the vision is not brought forth a part of oneself will die. Visions can die because the vision holder become discouraged by the difficulties encountered in bring a vision into reality and emerging vision can die because one is overwhelmed by the demands of the current reality. Learning to develop single point focus is most essential in manifesting a vision and it helpful to have a visionary leader leading or at least consulting in, the manifestation of any vision to be able to hold focus.

True sharing of intention, missions, goals and objectives: Ideally the individual who works for an organization should in some way share the intention, mission, goals and objectives. Many work for an organization in order to have a job or to do something they like to do. However, the have no real loyalty or commitment to what the organization is ultimately trying to achieve. They may help the organization to make money in order for the organization to survive, but they have no commitment or loyalty to the organization.

When a individual shares the intention, mission, goals or objectives, the organization become a focus for the individual’s energy and the relationship the individual has with the company changes. The organization moves from concept of "the organization" to "our organization." Ownership of the company is taken. The company now become both a vehicle and a collective which is assisting the individual to meet their mission, goals, objectives and/or intention. It is about what the individual is trying to create with the organization rather than the individual working for an organization. It can be said the individual and the organization binds aka cords.

When there is a joint collective sharing of the intention, mission, goals and objectives a new level of trust forms between the participants. Individual who had reason to mistrust other in the organization now have a reason to trust them. Their actions to help manifest that collectively held intention, mission, goal or objective helps to strengthen that trust and lays the foundation for developing the attributes of a responsive or improvisational organization.

What also is gain in a joint collective sharing is that many of the little and petty annoyances give way to the importance of what is being created together. Often deeply held views and/or patterns of thinking are given up in favor of what needs to be accomplished for the good of the collective shared intention, mission, goal or objective. Short term planning give away to a longer term perspective for one looks to the over arching mission, goals, objectives and/or intention to guide their actions.

In looking at the longer term relative to a shared collective intention, mission, goal or objective, members become encouraged to develop and align their personal vision with the collective. The more one’s vision for their life aligns with the collective effort, the more passion and energy that can be accessed and the greater the ownership the individual will take in any outcomes. There is little incentive to have an individual sign up to someone else lead. The goal is to move away from compliance and making a contribution to the effort to making a commitment.

It is much like making a breakfast of eggs and bacon. The chicken makes a contribution to the breakfast with the eggs. The pig make a commitment with its life. So too developing jointly held or shard intentions, missions, goals and objectives. It is to move from making a contribution and buying into what another desire to making a commitment of a part of one’s own being to effort. The end results in such personal commitments are unparalleled dynamic and responsive organizations.

If one looks carefully, they will see many talking about sharing a vision, mission, goals, objectives, and intentions. However, in reality, most are not committed but only trying to stay in compliance with those who provide payment. To create a responsive organization sufficient to manifest a vision, there is the need to move from individual living in compliance to individual who are committed. To achieve this end, one will most probably have to consider addressing cultural change from the existing organizational culture to one more supportive of the desired Creation.

I am my position: For any role we play in life, such as a parent, a son or daughter, a manager or whatever, we can see ourselves playing a role for a period of time or we assume the identity of the role and believe we are the role. The difference is quite profound. If we see ourselves playing a role we can drop the role at will and assume a new role. If we believe we are the role, we can not give up the role unless a part of our identity dies we will literally have to face a death in some way. This phenomenon has profound impacts for an organization especially if an organization needs to undergo an organizational change an roles and responsibilities are to be redefined.

What needs to be understood is that we are taught to be loyal to the role we are given. Each role has responsibilities and duties for which we are responsible for doing. What tends to happen is we confuse our identity with the role. The role, responsibilities and duties become our role, our responsibilities and our duties. We being to see ourselves as owning them. We see them as something within which we control and outside of which we do not control and are not necessarily responsible for doing. Our roles begin to define the limits of our power and those limits are the boundaries of our position.

When we focus on our position and identify with our position, we have little or no sense of responsibilities for what occurs outside our position or how we may affect the result outside our position because of how we act in our positions We do not see the influence and power we have outside our role because we have created a self imposed limit of where we see our control starting and ending. We then tend to blame others for we ourselves may have caused to happen. A usual reply is "I did my job" but there is a lack of understanding as to how our job interfaces with all the other activities of the organization.

From the perspective of organizational change, individual performance in change involves having learned both the skills and the way of performing to make any internal adjustments relative to the four aspects of our being necessary to accommodate the external change. The most common problem here is that an individual’s self-worth and identity are tied to their organizational position. As that position changes, the individual’s identity is threatened. Any change will involve the breaking of some old habits and the formation of new habits more appropriate to the task at hand. If the individuals are already reasonably accomplished individuals, and their identity comes from within an internal self worth, most of the effort to change if any would involve coaching these individuals in these new ways of performing. A self mastered individual will have little difficulty in coping If however, an individual is poorly accomplished, it may be necessary for the individual to get professional counseling on their particular issues since the proposed change could be more than their ego can handle. In most organizational change, often little consideration is given to how and individual’s identity is impacted by the change and how they will ultimately response to that loss of identity. If they believe they are their position, the individual will resist, if not fight the change.

The enemy is out there: The enemy out there is a corollary to "I am my position." When we see ourselves as our position and/or as the ego with which we define ourselves, we do not fully see how our actions are impacting our world. We tend to see things that go wrong as arising outside of ourselves and never see how our own actions give rise to what we experience. We tend to believe that we have control over ourselves and we know what we are doing. We see ourselves maybe as that expert who has been trained or that we have been selected for our role because of what we know. We think we do nothing wrong. Yet, we do not look within to see we are only experiencing the fruit of our actions. At the heart of such beliefs is the paradigm, model or view of the world we use. As long as we believe we are separate and unconnected to the world we experience, we will never see how our own beliefs, thinking and actions are causing us to experience what we do.

A desire for security: One thing that should be obvious is that many individual take a job in order to have the money to buy what they need to live. Or, they take a job that seems to fulfill their personal need but then over time as the job changes and they loose satisfaction. Yet, they are afraid to give up the pay check to find something which better serves them. Although people look for security in a job, many companies come and go or evolve in such a way jobs and positions are eliminated or change substantially from what the individual initiation sought.

Any organization or company has a life time much like a human being. Some last longer than the life of a particular human being where as others are born, live and die well within half the life span of a human being. Even the largest corporation change, evolve and become different. Some, of course, will find a job within a company such that the company gets bought and sold many times and/or is restructured again and again with the individual’s job seemingly unaffected. But, overall that is probably a very small percentage. Also, the technological changes tend to change the way every business handles information and does business.

The bottom line in all of this is that if an individual desire to have security in the work place, probably the single greatest contribution they can make to that secure is to be open to learning and remaining adaptable and flexible. Expect to be reeducated and retrained and spend a good percentage of life learning something new and different. The more one is open to change and they are willing to adapt to that change the greater security they will find in life.

Success is not always "my" success: One of the greatest illusions of the workplace is that we accomplish many things and we think we are successful and we are the ones’ that cause the success we have had. More often than not, nothing is farther from the truth. Success in any organization as in Creation itself, is dependent on the others in the organization or Creation and what they do or don’t do. This is especially true of individual who perform well with a well defined infrastructure with trained personnel. Many military officers pride themselves of doing a good or successful job. Few however realize how much their success was dependent upon a trained, profession and well performing group of individuals. In a well functioning organization, a single individual can often perform badly and yet be seen as performing well for the organization itself glosses over their mistakes, inefficiencies or lack of ability to performance. In organizations that are not functioning well, poor performing is more open to be seen for what it is.

There is the need to become a detached witness capable of seeing the truth of what is and seeing the reality of the situation as it truly exists. We need to learn to see past what we want to see and how we are distorting reality by what we think and believe. Here the paradigms we use to describe our world become very important. Some paradigms are more truth revealing than others. There is the need to become aware of the  undercurrents that are carrying the organization. There are undercurrents to Creation and often the organizations in which we participate are riding one of those undercurrents to success or destruction. This does not mean the outcome of an organization is inevitable. It is more about how effectively can the organization swim against the current. Some organization work fails in spite of performing well because they are riding an undercurrent change which looks like failure. Similarly, some organizations are successful in spite of the poor management and self destructive nature of the organization because the undercurrent of leading to what appears to be success is so strong.

Organizations exist for a reason as does everything else. One of the major implications of the assumption of the equivalency of energy and consciousness and they are just flip sides of the same coin is that Creation and all that is in Creation is not by accident. There is a conscious or nonconscious intention behind each flow of energy giving rise to Creation and/or any part of Creation. The cause effect relationship for a particular event may belong to an almost infinite cause effect chain. But, there is nevertheless some focus of the attention and awareness of some consciousness somewhere that has caused the cause effect chain.

When looking at intention, we need to be prepared to look at the deeper  undercurrents that may be creating the space for the organization to arise in the first place. In his light, there may be organizational events that really have nothing to do with the way the organization is managed and it makes little sense trying to engage management technique after management technique to improve something that is collapsing thought no fault of the organization. In fact the appropriate actions may be just to have a funeral and realize the organization as it was known is dying and will ether crumble into dust or be reborn as something new and different than the past.

When we look at our needs, desires and intentions we tend to think they are our needs, our desire and our intentions. We do not consider the fact that what is motivating us may come from something outside ourselves. If we can stand back and look that the larger flow of our life, the organization and society itself, we will find that often we can align with an existing flow of energy and make our life much easier. We seen fads come and go but we don’t look at fads as simply an energy wave passing through out society on which many of us tap into and ride. Business talk about saturating a market, have a sustained growth and/or creating new markets. Many of these types of phenomenon reflect larger currents of which we participate. If we begin to understand there are ebbs and flows to much of life and Creation we will begin to see that no organizational structure will be permanent and the structure must be designed to response to the changes that comes. In this realization it would be understood that there is no such thing as a sustained growth or continual career advancement. There are opportunities to grow and/or advance and there will be times that one may even have to step backwards. But there is nothing wrong with this. If one is aware of the creative process in which they are participating they will begin to understand if they are on a long term growth flow or a much quicker short term transient. Additional discussion is found in the topic, "Success is not always our success."

The illusion of taking charge: The illusion of taking charge is a corollary to success is not always our success. Individuals will step into a role and look to get control of the situation and determine its outcome. People are directed to do certain things and/or make certain things happen. The manager thinks they know what needs to be done and organizes their staff or organization accordingly. Sometimes everything works as desired. At other times, nothing seems to work even when the action taken seems to be more than appropriate.

Here again, we need detach and see the truth of the situation. Some organizations are so broke, nothing can fix them except dissolving. Some organization are just waiting to be lead. Some are malleable and can be molded into an effective organizations. Still others are actually working perfectly well for the given situation and perturbing the organization destroys the effectiveness which was present.

No matter what resume of accomplishments we can create, we need to look carefully and detached at those accomplishments. We need to look to see what is we really created and accomplished as opposed to simply being at the right place at the right time to reap the benefits of an undercurrent which existed in spite of us and what we do. Battles have been won and lost even when the individuals in command did everything perfectly correct but a quirk of fate intervenes to throw the events one way or another. Then there are battles that are won not because the winning individual did so well. Rather it was because the loser did so poorly. Then again there are those battles that only stupidly could cause one to lose but they are nevertheless lost because of stupidity.

The bottom line question one needs to ask is, "What really do I have control over?" Success often lies in influencing events more that trying to take charge and controlling them.

Convergent and divergent issues: Within any organization there are issues or problems that arise that seeming to converge into a solution or that continually diverge and no solution can be found. A convergent issue or problem is relative easy to address. The more one studies the problem the more the solution is obvious. However, divergent problems are different. Divergent problems tend to have no "correct" solution. The more they are studied or addressed the more what needs to be done seems to contradict what is done or another aspect arises which needs to be addressed and the process seemingly become never ending.

When faced with any situation which seems to become divergent and no agreeable solution can be found it is suggest one take a close look at focusing on the model or paradigm one is using. There are embedded assumptions of which we are unaware any time we apply a solution to a problem. Alternatively said, there are conflicting cultures and/or belief systems in some way that is preventing an agreeable solution to be found. One of the more interesting cases of a problem that seem to continually diverge was that facing Physics at the end of the 1800s and discussed in the topic, "A contribution of Niels Bohr to Physics and the Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity material." Quite simply a paradigm was being used that could not explain away the problems being faced. However, Niels Bohr was able to introduce a paradigm which resolves the problems. In essence, Physics needed to get out of the box of their own thinking. Similarly when we are face with an issue or problem which seems to only give divergence rather than convergence, it is suggested a different paradigm be explore, if not accepted.

The model or paradigm we use: Addressing convergent and divergent issues bring up the fact that the model or paradigm we use to explain what we face is extremely import. Quite simply the model or paradigm we are using may be too limited to give us the solution we seek. What needs to be understood is the paradigm or model we are using may not allow us to create what we desire. Here we need to remember, the mind which created the problem is not the mind which will solve our problem. What we think and believe as a result of the experiences we have had is determining the model we use to explain our world.

The model or paradigm we use determines how we make sense of our lives, our world, and how the world works and provides the framework for how we make our decisions and the actions we take. More often than not, a good portion of the model or paradigm we use lies in our nonconscious mind. That is, we have beliefs of which we are not really aware that we carry. Often these beliefs exist as embedded assumption in what we believe or statement about how Creation or society works that we have adopted from another or enculturated to believe.

What is important is how and what we believe determines how we view the world and especially the situation we face. If we believe a problem is solvable, we will look for a solution. Even if we do not find the solution we desire, we will see things we would never see if we believed the problem was unsolvable. If we think a problem is unsolvable, we will simply accept the situation as is for we do not believe we can find a way out of the problem.

The issue of what we believe and how it biases what we see is as simple as understanding what we believe determines if we see a glass have full of water or half empty. On the surface there appears to be no real difference. But how we act based on that observation makes a big different. To be half empty is to see limitations. To be half full to see options still exist.

Related to this point of the model or paradigm determining how we look at something it it determines what we look at. For example, do we see isolated events or does it allow us to stand back and see the interrelationship between the events we experience. Whatever model or paradigm we use should provide a way to detach from our actions and provide an openness to see reality for what it is. In particular it should allow for a way to see how we are not separate from the world we experience and that our action have an impact on our world. It should be a model that allows us to understand that the problems we see as being caused by someone or something external to us actually arises from our own action and how and what we think and believe.

Here again we are reminded that the mind which created the problem we face is not the mind that will give us the solution we seek. Many of our solutions to yesterday’s problems have laid the seeds for the problems we now face.

It talking about the model or paradigm we use, we need to understand it doesn’t matter whether or not the model or paradigm is ultimate right or wrong. The issue is whether or not it is effective for what we wish to do and to create. Classical physics was more than adequate to get a man to the moon but inadequate to lets us know how to split and atom and access the energy within the nucleus of an atom. Similarly, a complex model is not necessarily as effective as a simply model. It all depends on what we need to do.

There is one observations about the models and paradigms we use in our personal lives. A model or paradigm and the associated beliefs developed by the individual reflecting their truth and their experiences is more affective than a model or paradigm adopted by another even if the model or paradigm of the can help avoid to make mistakes. There reason for this is living life is a creative endeavor and requires us to step into the unknown. When are actions are based on an model or paradigm is based on beliefs we have chosen and maybe even have done our own experiments to test their truth, we can readily change and adapt to what we face in the unknown and never lose our way. If, however, we have adopted a model or paradigm of another and do not fully understand the embedded assumptions and beliefs which generated it does not allow us adapt it as we enter the unknown. In essence become lost and have no way of find our path and end up looking to the guidance of another. Unfortunate, few develop such models and paradigms based on their own truth but operate models and paradigms provide to them as child or in life by their teachers.

Pushing versus flowing: In advertising there is market push and market pull. In physics there is resistance to motion but energy will follow the path of least resistance. The question we all face in what we do is, "Are we being pushed or pulled and we facing resistance or simply going with the flow?" If we find we are attempting to do something and it appears that the harder we push the harder the system pushes back, we may want to consider if there is not an easier way to obtain what we desire to create.

For any creative endeavor, there is a flow of energy giving rise to the experience we desire to have and it follows the path of least resistance. However, to follow it, we must be willing to step out of mind to feel the flow and to surrender to that flow. To do so is quite hard when there are workplace tasks to be completed and organizational objectives to be met. The issue is not that it is impossible for an organization to surrender to the flow of energy which will create the desire outcome. But it is not something that the minds which created the organization can endure for they would lose control. However, the use of a visionary leader can help the organization move as close as possible to align with the path of least resistance for they have been through a creative endeavor and understand the creation process and the sacrifice of creation and the associated chaos of creation.

Relative to facing increases resistance, consideration should be given if what one’s effort is trying to create is moving against the desires of the collective. To escape the pull of the collective to manifest a new creation is like a rocket sent into space and it needs to escape the pull of gravity. There will need to be a significant passion to move past the collective pull. Similarly, the resistance that is faced may be simply moving against the prevailing undercurrent. Here again, unless there is a sufficient energy and passion to overcome the prevailing currents the effort will be lost. However, the resistance may be the individual’s paradigm, model or belief structure which does not allow them to see there are easier ways to go about creating what they desire. Here again, one needs to be able to detach from what is experienced to see the truth of what is.

Not willing to educate oneself on the needs for a job: Hiring individuals tend to be based hiring a "qualified individual." That is, hiring an individual who demonstrates they have the knowledge, skills, ability, experience and understanding to do a particular job. Or, at least, the hiring official believes the individual has such qualities.

However, in any job, there are what we think the job requires and then there are the true needs of the job. One of the frequent disconnects in hiring individuals or promoting individuals is there is an assumption the individual is qualified to perform the job as the job is understood. However, how the job is understood does not necessarily mean the true needs of the job and the true needs of the organization fulfilled by the job are properly identified. There is the need for the manager to continually look to see if the true needs are being met. Often the mundane of the life tend to distract individuals from doing what they really need to do. The classic complaint is the number of individual who say the amount of paperwork required does not let the do what they need to be doing. But the question is, "Is anyone looking at the true needs and ensuring they are getting fulfilled?" If not, the creation, whatever it is, will slowly whither and die.

Willingness to experiment - intellectual versus experiential: Any activity does not work as theoretically envisioned. There is often a tremendous gap between and intellectual knowing of a concept and the experiential knowing which arises from its practical application. There are two parts to any understanding -the classroom and the laboratory. There is the intellectual knowledge, the classroom portion, the book portion, such that you can understand intellectually what you experience. Then there is the experiential knowing, the laboratory, such that you experience what you understand and you know it from within your being as true. Both are needed to claim any knowledge as your own. Unless you can experience what you know and know what you experience, you cannot really understand.

Within this understand is the need to experiment and prototype ideas for action before that ideas are implemented across an organization. Experimentation and prototyping are essential to discovering hidden problems, incomplete thinking and conception, and other unforeseen obstacles in moving from conceptualization into implementation. This is especially true for truly creative endeavors and ideas which are well outside the way business is currently done. The more the creative endeavor is not like the past the more mind will be unable to understand what is faced. Prototyping and experimentation allows for the exploration of the unknown in an way mind can gain the minimum set of experience to manifest what is desired.

Illusion of being proactive: The illusion of being proactive is reactivity being seen as proactive. More often than not, what is seen a being proactive is a reactiveness in disguise. The key as to whether or not one is proactive or reactive is whether or not we are responding to an existing condition. If we are acting in anyway in response to a situation we are reacting. To be proactive is to have no dependence on the situation we face.

Being truly proactive can be seen in one of two ways. One is to ensure the root cause of whatever is faced is eliminated so that root cause does not return in a different unanticipated way or in a similar way. The second way is to anticipate events before they happen. It is see the trend or pattern before something occurs. It is to learn to see the precursors and in accident precursors and the direction to which those precursors are pointing. But to see either the root cause or a precursor requires one to see beyond isolated event and look at the pattern as to what is unfolding or pull the string to trace the cause effect chain.

The fixation on events: Fixation on events can be expressed several different ways. One is "failure to connect the dots." Another way is the inability to follow a cause effect chain either forward or backwards. A third way is the inability to stand back and look at the pattern being created. A fourth way is that there is no awareness of the interconnectedness and interdependency of event in the Physical Creation.

Most look at the events in their life as a series of isolated and separated events. Most fail to consider all the influences on our life and the decisions we make and all the influences on the events in which we participate. To make a decision to drive to the store because we promised our child our son or daughter a special treat only to be hit by an individual talking on their cell phone and running a red light can demonstrate this. The isolated event is a collision of two cars of which we are the driver of one car. Our decision to drive was, as a minimum, influenced by our son or daughter. The driver of the other care was influences by the cell phone and the individual to whom they were talking. But if we look carefully, the influences and interconnectedness goes well beyond the event of the collision of two cars, the influences of our son or daughter and the individual on the phone.

To become less fixated on events we need to examine our life and pull the string to look as to why we make the decision we do in the way we make them. As we begin to understand how and why we make the decisions we make we can begin to see the beliefs and influences on our life. In that awareness we can begin to see what is really controlling the experiences we have. We can also begin to see the patterns within our own lives and our organizations. In seeing the patterns we begin to understand the causes of those patterns. In understanding the cause, we can being to change the cause to create a different pattern.

Quantified rules and laws: Humans tend to have a desire to simplify. We like to put things in manageable terms and a hand full of principles or concepts. We like to say thing such as seven rules, ten laws and the like which tend to make one think and believe all they need to know and apply are those seven rules and ten laws. Although we may find those seven rules or ten laws cover ninety or even ninety nine percent of what we face, we will find ourselves dealing with that percentage that does not fall into the seven rules or ten laws. One must always be open to the fact there is something else to consider, something which we missed. There are no simply answers. To say there are only seven rules or ten laws goes against life itself. There are always nuances to consider and one must be open to the moment in every way.

The lesson of the parable of the boiled frog: The lesson of the parable of the boiled frog is slow change can be devastating if not a prescription for death. The parable is that if we put a frog in hot water, it will jump out. If we put a frog in cold water and slowly heat the frog, we will cook the frog. This scenario is very real, in fact, literally real. In the 1970s while living in California the author remember reading about a couple in Marin County who where we cooked in a hot tub. They were relaxing in the tub and fell asleep. For some reason or another, the temperature was allowed to slowly increase and they were cooked.

The concern of all who tell this parable is that any slow changing process can lure one into a false sense of security such that they do not realize the hazards that are slowing creeping in. We all tend to become very busy and preoccupied by what we think is important in life and in what we do. Often we do not spend enough time looking at the pattern of our life to see where it is leading and whether or not there are slow changing hazards that are creeping into our life.

One area where the parable of the boiled frog becomes very applicable is when we are face with an intangible quality or outcome, for example customer service. Measuring customer service is very difficult to measure. One can ask the customer to fill out a survey form. But the request to fill out the form is often seen as reducing the quality of service because the customer is asked to do something they do not want to do. As a result, we look for tangible thing which may indicate customer satisfaction. For example, the number of customers served, the frequency of complaints, products returned and the like. However, these types and kinds of things don’t really tell us about how satisfied the customer really is.

Our problem is when we start believing the performance measures we are using are telling us what we need to know. Our performance indicators may say we are doing a good job but the quality of service slowly erodes and deteriorates. In time we find we have a poor reputation but we don’t seem to understand how we got there. One solution is that we look to similar organizations to see what they do and they look to us. If we are doing similar things, and provide a more or less equivalent level of service, we feel we are doing all we need to do. However, if someone enters with a new perspective, they can easily provide service well in excess of what we provide and draw away our customers.

The American Auto Industry back around the 1970s is an example. The American Auto Industry produced a reasonable product and seemed to satisfy its customers for several years. The American Auto Makers competed extremely well with each other based on what they thought satisfied the customer. Then a few Japanese imports arrives at lower prices and better quality. As customers abandoned the American cars for the Japanese cars the Auto Industry took notice and had to rethink what they were providing the customer. What they thought satisfied the customer did not, and the industry began dramatic shifts.

Any personal or organization work performed is subject to the same type of problem. Without good ways of measuring performance, what we think is good quality work may be eroded over time. We become surprised as we find ourselves facing a death we never thought would happen. It sort of "just crept up on us." Also what we often don’t realize is the same is true for our personal relationships. Slowly over time they erode because we do not care and feed the relationship as necessary.

Organizational core values and our code of honor: Organizational core values are about how the individuals within an organization are expected to act. Core values can be implicit or explicit. Often they center on things like integrity, openness, loyalty, equal opportunity, honesty, fairness, and the like. Our code of honor are principles by which we live our life and will not violate. Often the code of honor will cause the individual to act in ways that some consider as crazy for they will fight on principle when the odds seem stacked against them. There are three issues around core values and the code of honor.

Relative to organizational core values the individuals within the organization, especially its leaders and key managers, need to live those values and demonstrate them in all that they do. Otherwise the employees will see the dishonesty between what is said and what is done.

Relative to the code of honor, many are not aware of what exactly their code of honor may be. Many are programmed early in life to live and be a certain way in the world. If we ask an individual what they stand for, most will give a set of respectable principles as their code of honor. The question is whether or not they live those principles when the situation arises that call them act. How they act will only be known when the occasion arises. Until then, what they truly believe and we governs their actions will lie unknown. Yet, the same is true for each of us. Until we are challenged in certain ways we will not know what we really think and believe. We may think we know but only when we are challenged to act will we know.

The third issue is ideally, the organizational core values align with the code of honor of the individual within the organization. However, the code of honor is unique to each individual and core value may or may not encompass the codes of honor of all the individuals. What needs to be understood, when challenged by a situation the individual will default to their person code of honor before the organization’s core value. However, it is ultimately the code of honor which will keep and organization honest.

What is interesting about the organizational core values and the code of honor is that if the core values are practiced in an organization and the individual code of honor does not correspond to the core values, there is a good chance that fear motivates compliance. However, if the code of honor of the individual aligns with the organization’s core values the individual will be catalyzed and access a desire to continually learn and further the growth and success of the organization for both the individual and organizational desires align.

What management does speaks louder then their words: In looking to know what is driving an individual or organization, we simply need to look at their actions. An intention is really only a thought or an idea and the will to make it happen. Individuals and organization each can have many stated goals, missions and/or intentions. But the truth of what and individual or organization really desires to manifest depends on where the individual or organization is focusing its will and energy. Actions speak louder than words and it is about the old adage - "put your money where your mouth is.".

To know the true intention of any individual or organization we simply needs to look at their actions. It needs to be remembered that we know a tree by its fruits. An apple tree does not produce pears and a pear tree does not produce apples. If we look at the actions of the individual or organization they will tell us where their intention lies. It is there, in that intention were the individual or organization is really focusing its energy. The question is, "Does the individual or organization put its money, its energy, where it mouth is?" Does the individual or organization walk its talk?

In a related aspect, relative to love and to know if an individual really loves what they say they love, we simply need to look to see if they nurture that object of their love by meeting it true needs or do they give what mind wants to give. Our action relative to the true needs of any creation will reveal if we really love that creation creating the space for it growth and unfoldment. Or, are we using it in some way to either meet a desire of our mind or providing out of some obligation we have or has been imposed on us. This is particularly true about managers in an organization. Do they put emphasis on the organization’s true needs and the true needs of the areas under their responsibility. Or, do the forgo addressing the true needs and put their time and energy and the organization’ s time and energy on things that serve their ego. Additional discussion is found in the topic, "Actions speak louder than words."

Need to lead by example A corollary to both the discussion of core values and actions speak louder than words is that management needs to lead by example to create the organization that is desired and for the organization to embody any stated core values. Changing how we live our life that arises from our core values and/or code of honor is not something that can be forced on individual. Each need to decide for themselves how they will act in, and respond to, the world. The key to getting people to adopt a particular set of core values that may require changing and individual’s code of honor is to create the safe and secure space for that change to occur and lead by setting an example of that way of being in the world.

Manager and leaders must work to create an environment in which the desired principles and core values are practiced in daily life. The individuals must be free to step out and change at their own pace. But, regardless of how long it takes, a good solid example needs to be continuously provided. Managers and leaders must build an organization where it is safe for the individual to access their truth and explore how it does or does not correspond to the organization’s core values. Then in the awareness of their own truth the individual can decide if the organization is, or is not, for them.

If the managers desire to create responsive individuals as in a responsive organization, the managers need to create the space where inquiry and commitment to truth are the norm, the individual can become committed to his or her own growth and unfoldment. Additionally the space should allow for the status quo can be challenged if it is not meeting the true needs of the organization. The simplest way to create such individual is for the manager or leader to become a model of what is expected of others. Actions do speak louder than words. Little is more encouraging than the leaders setting the example for what they desire the other to become.

Cause and effect are not necessarily closely related in time and space: One important awareness is that there is a cause effect chain existing in Physical Creation. What we experience is result of some cause. What we do becomes the cause for some effect. However, often the effects are significantly removed in time and space from the cause. How often does the issue arise where two individuals engage in a one night stand only to find a month later a child has been conceived?

But the same is true for many of our actions. Many of our actions are seeds that are planted but don’t spring forth to life for months or even years. Some quote the adage (or its equivalent) "Today’s solutions plant the seeds for tomorrow’s problem." Or, alternatively said, "Today's problems come from yesterday's solutions."

As discussed in the topic "The delusion of learning from experience" we can pull the string on experience we have to find it cause. Similarly, we can use the experiences of the past to project the impact of our actions assuming the future will be a repeat of the past. Although this is not a valid assumption, it can go a long way in understanding how our actions will recreate the past unless we do something different from the past. We will not know exactly what the unknown offers us. But we can at least address the hazards that arose in the past in similar situations.

The delusion of learning from experience: There is an old adage which states, "Experience is the best teacher." Although there is a truth in this statement and some of the most powerful experience comes through learning, there is the another adage which states, "An individual learns from their experience, a wise individual learns from the experience of others, and a fool never learns." However, there are several reason why individuals do not learn from their experience. These reason are discussed in the topic, "The delusion of learning from experience."

The need for personal mastery: Personal mastery is necessary or at least an asset in a variety of ways. It assists in bringing a vision into reality and is necessary to learn from our experience especially when the consequences of our action are in the distance future. Personal mastery is discussed in the topic, "Personal mastery."

Illusions around the concept of a team within an organization: There are a variety of topic related to teams and the organization. Topics include such thing as the organization as a team, leaderless teams, management teams, team learning, and creating a responsive and/or an improvisational team. Many of the beliefs we have about teams and the organization and how an organization functions as a team are illusionary. Yet much an be gained in looking at the organization as a team or teams within an organization. Teams, the organization and the illusions around teams are discussed in the topic, "Teams and the Organization."

It is in our assumptions we find our problems: Whether we realize it or not, what we think and believe carries embedded assumptions about how Creation works, about ourselves, about those in our life and the experiences we have. The problem we all face is that if we believe our view is an accurate view of what we are experience rather than a set of assumptions we will be unable to be open to the information that is available but not consistent with our world view. Rather we need to be willing to step out of mind either into what we feel or as a detached witness and out of the assumptions we may about what is occurring.

To step out of mind is not about becoming crazy. Rather is to suspend all of our judgments, opinions, ideas, thoughts and the like about what is occurring and either focus on what we feel is revealing and/or to become detached and simply observe. For most it is easier to focus on what we are feeling for it is difficult to become detached when something is happening to us personally.

In suspending all our judgments, opinions, ideas, thoughts and the like about is occurring to become aware of what we feel and/or what we observe we can compare what learn in what we feel or observe to see what assumption we have that bias what we see. It is essential that we become aware of our assumptions and examine them and understand the implication they have on what we can and cannot see because of them. If we remain unaware of the assumptions that are embedded in our belief structure and what we think and believe, we will be unable to break free of their hold to see the truth of what is.

The issue of conflict and disagreement: There is a belief that good relations and smooth running organization do not have conflict or disagreements. Considerations needs to be given to the fact that if everyone agrees and there is no conflict or disagreement the organization may suffer from mind set and/or tunnel vision. That is, the organization and it people are blinded by their own beliefs. The last thing a manager, especially a key decision maker, needs to have around them are all "yes" men. Someone need to be that loyal opposition and devil’s advocate to ensure if not all options are considered at least one is not following a blinded solution.

Although there is no desire or need for conflict and disagreement to cause fractions or dissension to exist, there does need to be health discussion, debating if not disagreement as to the best course of action. If one look carefully at both sides of an argument and finds some way to address all the key issues of each point of view, the final solution will probably be much more lasting and effective. But without that opposition there is the always the possibility one is too bias in what they do.

Discerning true organization needs and needed action: We live in a age of information where a tremendous volume of information is available on a variety of topics and there are a variety of ways to collect and analyze the information. The question is, "What information is useful?" Similar there are numerous things that arise in the workplace to distract workers and managers. Here again, the question is, "What is important and deserves attention and what is a distraction?" One thing which needs to continually be assessed is what are the true needs of the organization and needed for the organization to function and fulfill it mission. There are production needs, quality needs, safety needs and sometimes production, quality and safety compete with each other for limited resources. Each organization will need to find a way to set it priorities as impartially as possible and managers will need to put their private agendas aside to meet the true needs of the organization.

Role of intuition: Intuition, intuitive guidance, body wisdom, inner knowing and the like are all tools of the experienced managers and leaders. How often are key decision made more on a feeling that the fact? Managers and leaders will always find something to which they can point to alleviate the concern that decisions are being made on feel. Yet experienced managers and leaders probably rely on intuition more that most realize. Some call them hunches, some call them gut feelings. It doesn’t matter what they are called they are routinely used. However, things like intuition, intuitive guidance and the like are not easily measured and cannot be quantified to the satisfaction of the rational mind so most do not encourage their development. Nevertheless, they are an ability that needs to be developed if one desires to create an organization which build on all possible information sources.

Resistance to change: Inherent in the creative process is the need for some of the existing form to dissolve to make room for the new. Resistance to change arises from mind in some way or another not wanting to let go what needs to change. Relative to an organization, resistance often arises around the change the normal way things are done and/or an individual has identified themselves with their current job or position and they see that identity as somehow dying.

There are two ways to approach the resistance. One way is to address it and confront it head on. The other way is to discern the source of the resistance and address the resistance at it root. Exactly what this means and what will be encountered is dependent on the source of the resistance. In many case it will involve things never considered as being impacted by the change. In this regard, sometimes the cause of the resistance is illusionary and only a perceived threat. At other times it goes to the very fiber of what individual believe about themselves, their job or the organization itself.

Here the ability to detach from what is occurring to look beyond the obvious and into the interconnections and influences on what is occurring is essential. Here one often finds unexpected connections and interrelationship including embedded assumptions which all involved parties may be carrying. By addressing these non obvious connections and interrelationship much of the resistance can be eliminated if not removed.

Dealing with "the cure being worse than the disease": There is phrase that is often used to describe a situation where implementing the solution is harder or more difficult than living with the problem. The phrase is, "the cure can be worse than the disease," is really about dealing with the resistance to change. Quite simply, the current way of doing business has put the situation on a track that is analogously the equivalent to a disease that either is debilitating or a precursor to death. The cure being worse than the disease is about the magnitude of the necessary change being the equivalent of death of the existing way of doing business. Yet, the end is the same in both cases. If we live with the disease the system dies. If we implement the cure, we kill the system as it exist but bring a new and different life and way of being into the process.

The illusion of the quick fix: The illusion of the quick fix is the belief there is a fast and simply way to deal with difficult problems and issues. The illusion of a quick fix has two associated corollaries. One is "Faster is slower," and the other is "The easy way out usually lead back in."

We live in a world that has developed a "fast food" mentality. We can walk into a fast food restaurant to order and have a meal in a few minutes. We have instant communications around the world and with the internet we have access to libraries of information almost immediately. As such we begin to expect instant return on anything we do. We expect a quick fix to our problems. We forget that many things need to grow and unfold from a seed  condition and the that the whole fast food industry, communications and information world is build up a vast well run existing infrastructure. To enter a creative endeavor often requires going back to a initial starting conditions and starting from the proverbial "square one."

One of the corollaries to the quick fix mentality is faster is slower. We assume because something can be done quickly it can be done correctly. We live in a world of energy. It takes energy to move things. This is rather obvious in the physical world. However the same is true about the unseen world and the world of ideas, concepts and different patterns of thinking. It takes energy to make the changes. There are ways to increase efficiency but it still takes energy. For example it takes a certain amount f energy to move a ton of material along the highway. But it takes less energy to move that same ton of material along steel rails where there is less friction. However, to move two tons takes more energy that one ton of material.

When we have a certain amount of material to move, if we move fast one of two things happen. Either we expend an enormous amount of energy moving everything fast or we don’t take everything. But if we need everything and we don’t have enormous amounts of energy, we must slow down and move everything at a pace for which we have the energy.

Faster is slower just reflects the fact that if we rush through something complex, we will have to go back and bring all the pieces which we left behind or dropped along the way. This of course leads to the second corollary that the easy way out usually leads back in. That is, if we have a complex issue and there appears to be an easy solutions, usually we have failed to adequately consider all off the issues and we will have to go back and deal with what we left behind.

We just need to realize there are no quick fixed to complex problems. There are more efficient approaches. There are more cost effective approaches. There are ways to simplify the complex to make it easier to address. But there are no quick fixes.

However, there is a relative simple three step process to get what we desire for any desire that we have. It is; 1) get a clear understanding of what we ultimately wish to accomplish; 2) compare our existing process, experiences and environment we have to the process that is needed to get what we wish accomplished within the new environment of where we get what we wish; 3) and working patiently, with a single point focus, on removing the differences between the two. However, rather than take the time to do this simple process and methodically work through the process, we think there is a faster process. We tend to muddle along, sometimes with a clear endpoint, rarely examining either the existing process and environment or the desired end process and environment, inventing solutions as we stubble across problems, issues and things that are not working. Our creations tend to be a collection of ill fitting band-aid type fixes than may give us what we desire for short periods of time and cannot be sustained.

What needs to be understood is that the unique needs of the situation in which the organization finds itself determine what needs to be created. More importantly, what we create needs to be effective for what we need to do. We need to allow effectiveness to be our measure of truth and we need to allow ourselves to experiment to find what is effective. If what we use is effective, then what we do is somehow addressing the truth of the situation we face. If we understand the truth that lies within the situation we will be able to evolve the organization to meet change as it occurs.

However, many organization create systems that are not really effective for what they need to do. Rather than allowing themselves the time to explore and look at the true needs of the situation, they try and fit some systems that is successful elsewhere. Often what is used does not really fit and it is only in time that one discovers the inadequacies of what was chosen. So when changes occurs, the system cannot effectively deal with the change because the system was not founded on the truth of the situation as it existed.

There is a relative simple three step process to get what we desire for any desire that we have. It is; 1) get a clear understanding of what we ultimately wish to accomplish; 2) compare our existing process, experiences and environment we have to the process that is needed to get what we wish accomplishing what we wish within the new environment of where we get what we wish; 3) and working patiently, with a single point focus, on removing the differences between the two. However, rather than take the time to do this simple process and methodically work through the process, we think there is a faster process. We tend to muddle along, sometimes with a clear endpoint, rarely examining either the existing process and environment or the desired end process and environment, inventing solutions as we stubble across problems, issues and things that are not working. Our creations tend to be a collection of ill fitting band-aid type fixes than may give us what we desire for short periods of time and cannot be sustained.

Small changes can produce big results: Leverage, and the point of leverage, are terms that look to find a point at which a small change can produce big results. It is the existence of points of leverage that give the hope of a quick fix to a problem. However, a point of leverage is not a quick fix. It is to address a problem in such a way that large results are obtained from a relatively small effort. The most common point of leverage is to address a problem at its root. If we get to the root cause of an issue, we address it once and prevent it return in a different form. However, getting to the root cause or point of leverage is not always obvious. It has been observed, one needs to pull the string in answer to the question "why." Why do we have the particular results and situation as opposed to any other. If one purses the pulling the string for each answer received, one will find from where whatever they face arises.

The issue of having your cake and eating it too: There the old adage, "You can’t have your can and eat it too." It simply refers to the fact that cakes are made for eating. If you want to have the cake, then you can’t eat it. If you want eat the cake, then you will not have it. So we have to make the decision, do we wish to have the cake or enjoy eating the cake.

However, some are of the opinion you can have your can and eat it too. That is, if we have a continual supply of cakes then we can eat the cake and not run out of cakes. But to adopt that type of mentality is to miss the whole point of the adage and is to play a mental game as to what life is all about. There is a fundament issue here of how we are going to approach life. Are we going to accumulate things (have our cake) or are we going to enjoy the journey of life (eating the cake). The two are quite different. There is the need to accumulate things and there is the need to eat things. The issue is one of balance and the balance point is different for each of us. The key is to know oneself.

Know thyself: To truly know thyself requires an inner journey that few are unwilling to take for what one will find is that who and what we think we are is quite different that who we really are. In particular, what we will find is that what we think and believe that has been governing most of our life are not things that we necessarily believe. Rather, they reflect programming, enculturation and expectations of other that have nothing really to do with what gives us an inner satisfaction in life. However the change required in our life to live true to what we know and believe is often too big to undertake. In lieu of taking such an inner journey, we at least needs to become mindful and aware of our thoughts and how they think, and ultimately, why we think the way the do and have that thoughts we have - as opposed to any others. If we can do at least this, we will begin to see there are many things we think are important but don’t really matter in the long run. This, in turn, takes a lot of pressure off our lives for there are many things we will no long worry about.

Don’t look to place blame, people are doing the best they know how: One very interesting observation resulting form the exploration of creativity in the workplace and the subsequent exploration of our inherent creativity is that people are doing the best they know how. We like to think people know better than what actions they produce but the truth of the matter is, they are doing the best they know how.

It needs to be understood there can be quite a substantial difference between intellectually knowing something and experientially knowing something. Many have learned ideas, concepts and the like but have not real experience in applying them. When it comes to acting in response to a situation, an individual will respond in the way they know how to respond. If they have not worked at making intellectual concepts experiential they will not use those concepts in how they respond. They will default to what they know about responding. The easiest why to understand what in individual believes and understanding is to observe how they response to a given situation and the look to see why they responded the way they did. What one will find is individuals are doing the best they know how regardless of what they may tell us as to what they believe, know or understand. Alternatively said, if an individual knew how to respond differently, they would do so. The proof of what and individual truly knows and understands is how they respond to the situation they face.

When one is faced with an individual performing inadequately, inappropriately, without understanding, lack of awareness or whatever, we need to realize they are doing the best they know how. It doesn’t matter what we think they should know or do and it doesn’t matter what excuse they may give us for their action. They are responding the best they know how and that their actions reflect the truth as they currently know it relative to the situation they face. Actions and performance speak louder than words and reveals what an individual truly knows and understands.

What we do with this understanding is our choice and reflects our truth so we only need to look at our own actions in response to know what we truly believe and understand.

We are our own worst enemy: There are many who make what can be called shallow interpretation that we are our own worst enemy. Many will take this phrase to mean that we embody many self defeating habits and pattern in our life that prevent us from achieving what we desire. This is of course true. But this phrase goes much deeper than this interpretation. We are our own worst enemy in that we are an infinitely creative being with an enormous creative ability and creative power to both create our experiences and create the reality we experience. However, we have come to believe things that rob us of our creative ability and creative power and that we are powerless in many situations and that we even are a victim of circumstances. Yet, the enemy is within. The enemy is what we have allow ourselves to think and believe such that we do not hold our creativity sacred, allow ourselves to do our own experiments and allow ourselves to live and become our truth. The true enemy we face is not "out there." It lies inside of us and only we have the power to change what we think and believe to creatively empower ourselves to accept and become our birthright.

Our energy goes where we focus our attention and awareness: Probably the single greatest most powerful understanding one can have is that our energy goes where we focus our  attention and awareness. Alternatively, we can say we become what we think about. This is true personally and organizationally and applicable to every area of our lives. There is really nothing more to say about this other than all the Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity material and its applications are directed toward understanding this concept and its implications - which are profoundly vast.

That on which we focus grows and expands in our life: That on which we focus grows and expands in our life is a corollary to our energy goes where we focus our attention and awareness. The recommendation is to look carefully at our life and look to see what is growing and unfolding in our life. That in turn, will us about where we have focused our attention and awareness consciously or nonconsciously.

The intention we hold: Any intention we hold, consciously or nonconsciously, is a focus of our attention and awareness and is directing the energy in our life. For whatever choice we have to make in life and/or what arises in our life we can pull the string to see what intention lies behind what we experience. If we wish to become proactive in any aspect of our life we need to become very clear in what we intend. Clarity of intention is not just about what we consciously intent. It is also about uncovering noncosncious intentions which maybe acting as  undercurrents directing our lives in a direction other than what we intend. Here again, this is true for any aspect of our life.

Any intention can, and will, go past the achievement of any particular goal or objective: When we set an intention for whatever we desire to create, we should try and become very clear as to what success will look like and feel like. Holding an intention over a period of time will create a habit. If we are not clear on what we desire to experience, the intention we hold will continue to direct our creative life energy long after we have achieved what we set out to do. We may be satisfied in what we have created but not realize we are still being carried by the intention and the habits it created. The way around this is to set a clear end point so that success can be recognized for what is it. Then when we are aware of having obtained it, we can choose to create something different or continue with the patterns we create to manifest what we desired.

In organizations, many set the goal to move up the corporate ladder with no clear end other than moving up. The question then becomes how far does one need to move up? Often the individual finds they were much happier at a lower level because of the freedom they had with less responsibility. But they never understood they had to choose to step off ascending the corporate ladder. As a result, the individual finds themselves is a position they don’t really enjoy but the added income is too much to give up or they have succumbed to the added power they have obtained.

Run your own race: Run your own race is the follow up to know thyself. When one come to know who and what they are, they find they need to run their own race and simply become true to who and what they are. Yet, without taking the inner journey it is very hard to know oneself to know the race one needs to run. Without thanking that inner journey or coming to know oneself, the recommendation is twofold. One is to calibrate the internal compass and use it to guide the decision one makes in life. The second recommendation is to know that one is running their own race and that the life created will look different and be different than any others. It is to understand the success criteria of others included those given in early life by our care givers and enculturation are not necessarily valid for our race. Rather, we allow the feeling of fullness of being and inner satisfaction guide our life.

Those who provide resistance and obstruction: As we move to change our life or make organizational changes we will encounter those who can be described as cynical about what we are attempting to create. We can allow their cynicism to bother if not defeat us. Or we can look a little deeper and come to see most cynics are individuals who have carried high ideas but have become frustrated and/or at a lost as to how live in a world where they are unable to manifest those ideas for whatever reasons they may have. Many have been disappointed, hurt, thwarted if not injured when they stepped out to manifest their ideas. As such the see little hope for others and see their world through disappointment. The recommendation is not to try and change them or convince them of what you desire to create. Rather, it is to ask the cynic what have the learned and what would they do different in their life. In doing so, you may find a few pearls of wisdom and the cynic may even being to change their view on reflecting on what they have learned.

Related topics
Orchestrating the Organization

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