CREATIVE JOLTS
In the February 2001 issue of HOW, the magazine for graphic designers, Robin Landa suggest some ways that artists can jolt themselves into creativity.
Here are our versions of three of them (they work just as well for
non-artists):
1. Become a scavenger. When you face a challenge, look at everything around
you with a view to finding out how any element of your surroundings might
give you a clue to a solution.
2. Reinvent yourself. When you feel stale, buy a new shirt or skirt, put lifts into your shoes for the day, or speak to strangers using a foreign accent (you use the accent, not the strangers…).
3. Let someone take you there. Spend an evening (or an afternoon, or a full day) following around a friend who does something totally different from you.
Ask "why?" a lot and really listen for how their approach could be useful to you, too. At the end of the time, buy them a meal and eat something you’ve never eaten before.
WHAT’S YOUR (ARCHE)TYPE?
In world mythology and literature there are types of figures that recur again and again. They are called archetypes. Below are some of them, see which one you think fits you most closely:
The Hero
The Wise Fool
The Devil Figure
The Outcast
The Scapegoat
The Temptress
The Earth Mother
After you have selected the one closest to you, the next time you face a challenge, consider how each of the other types might handle it. What is there in their solutions you can use?
WE MUST START MEETING LIKE THIS
The German business magazine, BIZZ, analyzed the reasons for the success of discount-store chain, Aldi. One of the elements was simplicity in all things, including meetings. Here are the key points:
1. No meetings unless they are absolutely necessary
2. Only the people most directly affected are invited to the meetings
3. A maximum length is set for the meeting beforehand
4. No fancy fallible presentation technology, no PowerPoint, just a flip chart
5. During the meetings, one person writes down who agrees to do what by when.
This list is copied and given to every participant at the end of the meeting.
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Two weeks to change your life! In August and September, I will be offering two sessions of the CREATE YOUR FUTURE workshop, on the Greek islands of Skyros and Atsitsa. You will also have time to participate in other classes, to relax, and to socialise with like-minded people. For full details and a
brochure, please ring Sheridan on 020 7580 54997, or send us an email at BstormUK@aol.com.
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E-MAIL SECRETS
A recent study of e-mail by Stanford associate professor Michael Morris,
Ph.D., reveals that e-mail is prone to being misunderstood because it lacks the visual cues of a face-to-face meeting and the aural cues of a phone conversation.
His advice: if you’re going to use e-mail for business purposes, make a phone call or two first, to establish trust and rapport. Pepper the first few e-mails with some personal messages (the equivalent of small talk), and emphasize the positive. And when the topic is difficult or awkward, resist
putting it into an e-mail—meet or at least phone instead.
AND A FEW WISE WORDS
For years, British scholar Bruce Lloyd has been studying the nature of wisdom and collecting quotes that define it. Here are a few that seem particularly apt for these times:
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." – Edward
Abbey, American writer and conservationist.
"The future is purchased by the present." – Samuel Johnson
And this one, particularly, as our pagers beep, our e-mails pile up, and our mobile phones bring us up-to-the-second stock quotes:
"Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
— T. S. Eliot
Util next time, JURGEN
(ps: check out our website, www.BrainstormNet.com for details of our New
competition)
