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Why can't you be more creative? well, maybe it's because we aren't having fun!.
Play, according to Tim Brown, is a crucial part of fostering creativity, and in the following inspiring video he talks about "play", a topic he is obviously very passionate about.
| From the TED website : At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn't). |
It's not just about "play" it's about having fun.
Lets face it, through life you will probably spend more time at work than any other single activity except sleeping. Surely therefore you would want to enjoy your work, make a difference and have fun. You will spend more time with your colleagues than your spouse, so it's ironic that often a person will spend years searching for their perfect companion, and then just settle for a pay check and the guy in a cubical next door. Not me ... its hard to find the line between my work, my private life, my family, friends and colleagues ... my work is a crucial part of my life, it's a passion, it's a form of self expression and it is also my hobby. At Queensberry we do our best to have fun, there is "Project Life", a program promoting wellness and community participation, massages every so often, birthday leave, Kabab Friday, Our Cultural Day, a Mello Yellow Lunch, stress balls, celebrating successes, the netball team, Basket Brigade, and of course our Social Club and Chrismas Celebrations etc. I wouldn't however say we've perfected "safe" communication however. Although we aspire for it, and would put right any upset caused we've got a little way to go before I could look you in the eye and say everyone speaks their mind without fear of criticism. The idealist in me wants to tell you this happens already, but we have a very passionate environment, people are deeply and emotionally connected to the cause and care strongly about how things should be done ... that brings challenges. One of my favourite people to watch on TV is Gordon Ramsay. Once you get past the theatrics he's just a guy who cares passionately about his craft, about people and wants to help people reach their potential. It's different, but in a weird sort of way, what happens on his show is a bit like Queensberry, and fortunately that comes together as an awesome, creative team changing the world they life in.To stay creative and passionate you need to ...
Have fun Here are a few resources to use in your company. What about boss tennis, or you could consider peoples wellbeing, and of course make sure you schedule it by putting fun days in your calender. Finally to keep it fun, maybe there needs to be some rules Be inspired On the TED website there is a group of presentations called "Design Like You Give A Damn", that contains marvellous videos of Designers talking about their passion and discovery of design. Like the winemakers we met this week that made us want to have a go, these people are so creatively passionate they inspire you to find your own passion. Be the best you can be"Don't worry about winning, it's having fun that counts."This is a lie, and out of context it robs our children of ambition and destines many of them to loose as they don't ever get taught to win. There is no shame in loosing, there is no shame in making mistakes, but there is certain disappointment if you are not the best you can be. I believe in thinking big, and like Jim Collins, I believe in aspiring to move from Good To Great Be effective Finally, if you are to be happy, if you are to influence, if you are to be creative, and especially if you want to have fun you need to be effective. You need to get things done. In Leo Babauta's book "Zen to Done", he reminds us of these quotes.
"Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they've started" ~ David Allen
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" ~ Leonardo DaVinciZen to Done is an awesome book, and Leo's bi-line is "The ultimate simple productivity system". I'm not sure how it compares to all other systems, so can't say it's the ultimate system, but it certainly is a powerful way of organising your life and I have started using it myself.
"Talk doesn't cook rice" ~ Chinese ProverbThe most important part of any journey, is the first step, the second is picking a direction, and finally the decision to travel enthusiastically.
 | To find out more about Zen to Done click here or possibly you might like to read the Zen Habits Handbook for Life |
I found myself in trouble on Twitter this morning ... ok "in trouble" might be a bit strong, but a tweet I received did make me realise something I was doing was causing offence and of course don't want to do that.
In my "Direct Messages" (inbox) I received the following tweet.
At first I thought #DM meant "Deep and Meaningful" ... what no deep and meaningful conversation?, what a weird thing to say ... but then I realised more seriously that they meant "Direct Messages".
Twitalyzer is really interesting. It allows you to review, at least from Twitalyzer's perspective, your behaviour on Twitter.
The Idea of Generosity is clearly important in a conversation as it shows how much you contribute. On Twitter this is done by sharing information (links) and by re-tweeting (RT) others. I'm therefore reasonably happy with those figures. I don't care to much about velocity as I spend as much time there as I want, and don't want to spam my followers. The 1500 tweets a week, that this is measured against seems exceptionally high so question if this measure is set realistically. In terms of 'clout' and 'influence', I guess we all want to have some influence over the people we communicate with and therefore took most interest in those being so low and that's where this service has so much value.
If I cared about influence, and wanted to be a "Twitter Star" then it tells me what I need to do. Relative to the 1161 people Twitalyzer are tracking that have 25% more influence than me, I would need to send out about 40 more tweets a week, reference a lot more (20 ish) online resources and Reweet at least another couple times each week. Of course I would also need to make sure the content of those tweets was of value or no one will follow.
At first I thought #DM meant "Deep and Meaningful" ... what no deep and meaningful conversation?, what a weird thing to say ... but then I realised more seriously that they meant "Direct Messages".
So what happened, and why is this important?
juhasaarinen seems like a pretty cool person. Certainly they have an interesting blog, and write good articles. I followed them as I wanted to follow their tweets, and I guess they followed me in return. All good until this point. The problem was I use a service call Tweet Later, and had set up an 'Auto Direct Message' to say "hello and thank you for following me", in it I pointed harmlessly to my blog. Tweet Later is a service for managing your tweets, and other twitter activity. As I got busier on Twitter, and the number of people following me grew, I found it more and more difficult to respond and say thank you in a timely manner. I thought it more polite to send an 'auto thank you' quickly than attempt to send a personalised one knowing in most cases I probably never will. I realise now that's wrong. Twitter is about a conversation, I joined and love it because I get to connect with our clients who are photographers, my friends and people in the Wordpress community ... actually anyone that wants to say hello. Auto responders might be efficient but they aren't personal and they aren't about conversation or entertainment. With Twitter being overwhelmed with spam, it also sends the wrong message about who you are. So my thanks goes to juhasaarinen for this reminder ... DM Auto Replies are now turned off ... Tweet Later however is still helpful in many other ways."Having said that, is their response being short sighted?
I don't want to give with one hand, and then take away with the other. The learning is certainly appreciated, but I do think the response could be a little short sighted. If something about my profile made the "follow" worth while in the first place ... is an instant "un-follow" necessary. Of course I respect their right to, and appreciate that setting standards is important, but I think a persons previous updates and blog etc says a lot more about them than a single #DM message.Which brings me to another service I enjoy
Twitalyzer is really interesting. It allows you to review, at least from Twitalyzer's perspective, your behaviour on Twitter.
The Idea of Generosity is clearly important in a conversation as it shows how much you contribute. On Twitter this is done by sharing information (links) and by re-tweeting (RT) others. I'm therefore reasonably happy with those figures. I don't care to much about velocity as I spend as much time there as I want, and don't want to spam my followers. The 1500 tweets a week, that this is measured against seems exceptionally high so question if this measure is set realistically. In terms of 'clout' and 'influence', I guess we all want to have some influence over the people we communicate with and therefore took most interest in those being so low and that's where this service has so much value.
If I cared about influence, and wanted to be a "Twitter Star" then it tells me what I need to do. Relative to the 1161 people Twitalyzer are tracking that have 25% more influence than me, I would need to send out about 40 more tweets a week, reference a lot more (20 ish) online resources and Reweet at least another couple times each week. Of course I would also need to make sure the content of those tweets was of value or no one will follow.