A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2008 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

Attempting to accessing the collective energy of an organization has been a priority for many. It has been given many names such a the morale of the organization, its team spirit, and the like. However, the collective passion is more than accessing the collective energy that can be accomplished by improving morale or developing a team spirit. It is something much deeper and much more powerful.

Within any group of individuals there is an energy that can be harnessed if the group of individual work together toward a common goal. In essence, a group of individual and what they can accomplish as group is greater than the individual parts. One only needs to look at the harmony between two instruments or two singers to see that what is produced is much greater than the individuals instruments or singers. For example two identical instruments playing the exact same note makes the sound produced louder. The increased sound is simply the addition of the sound of the two individual instruments. Here the energy within the two instruments are added together to give a more powerful energetic sound. However, if the instruments are played in harmony they each play different notes which blend together in something neither instrument can accomplish by itself. This is what the collective passion is like.

The collective passion is about harmonizing individuals. The collective passion is more that adding together the energy of the individual and focusing them in a particular direction. Collective passion is about harmonizing the creative passion in each heart and the uniqueness of the individuals to create something much larger than the parts. It is about orchestrating the creative passion or orchestrating the hearts of the individual into a collective endeavor. It is this concept of the collective passion which gives rise to the concept of "Orchestrating the Organization" as a management approach.

Accessing the collective passion can be seen to lie on a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum is what is characteristic of the typical organization. That is, a group of people who work together toward a common goal but each individual has little to no awareness of their creative passion and how the organization does, or does not, allow them to fulfill that creative passion in what they do. At the other end of the spectrum is where each member of the group knows and understand both their creative passion and how the organization is able to help them to live and become that passion.

Most organization lie near end of the spectrum where the employees are unaware of their creative passion simply because most individuals are not taught about the creative passion within nor are they given the space for it to be express. Rather, at least relative to our inherent creativity, what most individuals face is reflected in the topic, "The Human Condition as seek from the Creativity Perspective." We are like a eaglet desiring to fly raised with chickens who do not know how to fly or we are like the lion cub raised with sheep never knowing who and what we are and what really fits our nature to become.

Accessing the collective passion is about getting individuals in touch with their creative passion and then placing the individuals where they can best live that creative passion and serve the needs of the organization. Or, if that cannot be done, place the individual such that they can create an effective dance between the heart and the mind to do what needs to be done in the workplace for the organization yet sufficient nurture their creative spirit to keep it healthy. This of course means a more suitable place for some individual is outside the organization. In these cases the organization would help the individual move to a new place of employment which better serves the individual.

At first glance it would not appear to make sense for an organization to help one of its employees find employment elsewhere which better suits their creative passion. However, in the long run, several things are achieved. One is the organization will have loyal friends outside itself. A second is that prevents the issue that arise when the creative spirit is not nurtured. A third is that remaining employees see the support and loyalty the organization has for all of its employees, not just those that fit certain criteria. The fourth is that the organization will learn how to nurture the creative spirit within the individual but more importantly, it will learn how to hire individuals who creative passion aligns with the mission and function of the organization.

If the organizational leaders desire to access the collective passion of the organization, the question, of course, is "What exactly needs to be done within an existing organization to access the creative passion of its employees?" Unfortunately, as with other organizational issue and creativity, this question cannot be addressed unless the particulars about the desired creation and the particulars of the organization are known. The two topics "Transforming the Organization" and "Transforming the Heart of the Organization" have been were created to help understand what a particular organization will need to do. Each lies at opposite ends of a spectrum for the type and kind of organization that is desired and how active a role the organization takes in creating the space for nurturing the creative spirit of it employees.

Related topics
Creative passion
Harnessing the creative spirit

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