March 10, 2010
Creative Workshop at the AC Conference
It's the eve of this conference here in London. I'm really looking forward to working with up to 60 coaches using visual imagery and toy animals to explore their coaching practice.
More and more I'm finding that working this way gives people permission to gain increasing self-awareness that may otherwise be lost. So, I find that these processes of discovery are really enriching for them and for me.
I've also noticed that the more I work this way, I am opening up my own capacity to 'create' material, interventions, new approaches. Ah yes, we 'teach the things we need to learn ourselves!'. I'll report back on the conference after the weekend.
Posted by Alison at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2010
Just because we are getting older.......is it possible to change?
According to the latest book by Sharon Begley entitled 'The Plastic Mind'. The question that she explores from the field of neuroplasticity is that through the process of learning or training our minds, the brain can change and can generate new neurons, even as we get older. This in turn opens up the notion and reality that by changing the structure of the brain, we can alter how we think and feel. So, if we give ourselves new experiences, learn something new, do a regular activity differently, then the brain develops new neural paths along which the messages are transmitted and we continue to develop.
At the moment, this is necessarily a brief comment on the book, which I've only just started to explore. But I'm excited by first sightings as I have a significant birthday coming up this year which might indicate I'm on a slippery downward slope, and the idea that perhaps I can directly affect this descent is great. I'll add more here when I've read the book fully!
Posted by Alison at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)
Creativity Workshop
A couple of weeks ago Louise and I created and facilitated a workshop for 60 employees in a county council. Our brief was to give people an experience and appreciation of the potential for right-brain thinking to inspire creativity and innovation.
Well, we had a fascinating time. In the process of preparing for the event, we mused on how best to achieve our purpose and explored all sorts of activities and exercises that we might use. However, in the end, we co-created a six-step process that took people from their right-brain creative resources through to their left-brain analytical, rational side. And the end result? Sixty different and unique descriptions of what creativity meant to each of them. Wow!
For us, this was very exciting.
We worked with drawing, visual imagery, natural objects and brain-storming. We worked very quickly through each stage and it was astonishing to see therefore how quickly people suspended their resistant 'but I'm not creative' voices and engaged with the process.
Equally exciting was how they related to each other. Many in the room did not know each other, but as they worked in small groups or pairs during each exercise, we noticed an incredible level of respectful intimacy and disclosure that was inspiring. As soon as they started working with their right brains, they suspended their rational, 'critical' judgement and gave each other permission to access their imaginations. The ideas and interpretations around creativity that emerged were very exciting and, we believe, may have given them more confidence in their capacity to 'be creative'.
Posted by Alison at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)
