The power of creativity. For some reason we think we lack it, but the truth is that is something that anyone can cultivate. It is both teachable and trackable. In a recent article in Scientific American Mind, three experts on creativity speak about powerful ways to unleash the creative self.

Mariette DiChirstina, the executive editor of SAM, brought together psychologist and professor John Houtz, poet and author Julia Cameron, and psychologist Robert Epstein for an article entitled, How to Unleash Your Creativity. During this discussion between the three, they reveal some fascinating aspects of creativity, the competencies involved in cultivating creativity and the impact of it on a person’s every day life.

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I’ve been reading A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin H. Friedman, in preparation for my doctoral dissertation. This book is about how emotional processes are what need to be engaged when thinking about leadership and change within an organization, not logic, reason, or methodology.

Friedman, in the first chapter on “Imaginative Gridlock” deals with the characteristics of a gridlocked system, and there are three:

1. An unending treadmill of trying harder;
2. Looking for answers rather than reframing questions; and
3. either/or thinking that creates false dichotomies.

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