I Am No Longer Here

In This Bloutcher
Where Art, Life and Leadership Collide

• I Am No Longer Here
• A Request
• Announcements

I am no longer here

Now that's a strange statement.  How can I say "I am no longer here" if I am not here?

"I am no longer here" cannot be a true statement.  The only way I can make the statement is if I am here in which case the statement is false because, in truth, I am here.

This is a paradox.

But rather than see paradox as contradiction, why not see it as an opportunity for creativity, as an opportunity to challenge ourselves to find new insights.

I would like to propose that awareness of the paradoxes in our lives has the potential to expand our creativity in several ways:

• Paradox forces us to examine our assumptions thereby freeing us from becoming prisoners of our own mind.
• Paradox invites us to address the apparent tension in the paradox.  How can two things that contradict each other both be true?
• Paradox requires us to hold two contradictory ideas in our thoughts at the same time thereby extending our consciousness into levels of nuance that lead to new information, new food for thought and new insights.
• Paradox may very well be our prevalent state of being rather than harmony and balance--in other words, we spend more time living in contradiction and tension than we do in harmony.  This means we need to develop awareness of where paradox exists in our lives as a stepping stone into greater coherence and creativity.
• Paradox is by its very nature disruptive.  Disruption is a critical element of creativity.

A Request

I am beginning to explore a project that centers on the relationship between paradox and creativity.  I am interested in collecting paradoxes people experience in their lives.  Here are a few examples:

• Seeing beauty in ugliness
• Finding hope through despair
• Solving a problem by giving up on it
• A place that is both ending and beginning
•  Succeeding by failing

I would like to ask you dear readers for your help.  Can you think of paradoxes that have shown up in your life or the lives of others you know and would you kindly send them to me.

Your paradox can be as simple or complex as you like, many words or a few.  Where have you experienced contradictions in your life?  Do you currently see contradictions in your life?

A quick sketch of myself as paradox

Announcement

Good news about 

The Coach's Studio; Where Outrageously Creative Coaching Happens!

  

The ICF just increased the CCE credits to 7.5 in core competencies. 

If you are interested in the program you can now earn more credits.

Also don't forget to take advantage of the early bird discount of $250 which expires on September 7th. 

"This is my all time favorite class!  This is "THE" class for developing your inner creative muse as well as your client's, to address all those life challenges."  Eileen Caroscio, Life Coach

 

To register directly go to www.lcacoach.com
Or contact me directly with questions.

Bald Faced Promotion

In This Bloutcher
Where Art, Life and Leadership Intersect

• Bald Faced Promotion
• Additional Thoughts

Bald Faced Promotions

I usually don't use the main topic of my bloutcher to promote stuff but as my wife is fond of reminding me:  consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Actually, she acknowledges that Emerson said it first.  But, hey, there's that consistency thing again.

So here's the deal.

I am extremely excited by what my partners Kathy Jordan and Donna Krone and I have created:

        The Coach's Studio; Where Outrageously Creative           Coaching Happens.

As one participant put it:

"Imagine learning a cornucopia of creative approaches to life's challenges and applying new tools, techniques and having heaps of fun too.   That is what the master creative geniuses, Fred, Kathy and Donna direct you to do in class via a variety of platforms using large group, small group, videos, community chat and much, much more.  This is my all time favorite class!  I have integrated what I learned into my personal life as well as professionally with my clients.  This "THE" class for developing your inner creative muse as well as your client's, to address all those life challenges."

So if you are a coach please consider joining us.  The program is approved for 6 CEU credits in the core competencies.  Our Fall Session begins October 3rd.  We have arranged a substantial early bird discount if you register before September 7th.

Please forward this bloutcher entry to others you think might have interest.

To register directly, go to: www.lcacoach.com

Of course, I would be happy to talk to you directly if you have any questions.  Just contact me at:  famandell@verizon.net

And if you would like to view the video we use to introduce the program please click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_iHESaZMD4

 And one more thing.  Click on this link to view one of my all time favorite paintings.  It's by Rembrandt and it is entitled The Artist in His Studio.  This has been called the littlest large painting ever painting because it gives such a sense of space yet it is only 10 by 12 inches in size.  I like to think of it as a metaphor for how we think of ourselves.  Sometimes we think of ourselves as smaller than we really are, especially when you think of the great expanses contained within us!


Additional Thoughts

• I'm writing from Quebec and half way through Joseph Jaworski's new book Source; The Inner Path of Knowledge Creation.  Jaworski continues his intellectual and spiritual journey in an effort to understand how to create profound change in the world.  As part of this journey he applies the ideas of David Bohm (he of quantum physics and the implicate order) to bring us to a "place of deeper knowing."  This is heady stuff and hard not to be swept up in the scope of its ambitions.
• I have also just begun a fabulous new biography of Vincent Van Gogh by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.  Reads like a novel.  I am trying to find Van Gogh's "place of deeper knowing."  Wouldn't it be a marvel and perhaps NOT surprising to discover there are parallel access points between the science of "deeper knowing" and the art of "deeper knowing."

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/32665

Leadership Bromides

In This Bloutcher
Where Art, Life and Leadership Intersect

In This Bloutcher

• Leadership Bromides
• Announcements

Leadership Bromides

Few topics get as much attention as leadership.  If you look up Amazon the number of titles associated with leadership shows 82,642.  That compares with 13,590 for creativity, 70,885 for parenting and 25,084 for golfing.  Of course that is not as high as religion at 856,019 or spirituality at 165,971.  But it is up there.

Presumably, each of these leadership titles found a publisher under the premise that it offers a unique take on leadership--each has something to say that other books have not yet said.  My goodness, do we really have 82,642 new, unique takes on leadership?  Unlikely.  Perhaps we need a book of books about leadership?  Also unlikely.

And this bridges into leadership bromides.  Perhaps what we need is to re-examine what is already out there.

As an example, take the very popular notion that leadership of others begins with management of oneself.  This is certainly an appealing idea and a lot of good stuff can come out of it.  Since we can reasonably define leadership as the capacity to influence others I suspect that the others in this definition take into account how well someone models behavior as an important factor in whether s/he will follow a particular person.  So, self management becomes the starting point in becoming an effective leader.

Or does it?  Personally I don't think so.  I believe that leadership and self management have an important antecedent--and that is self narrative.  I have had the opportunity to interview many folks over the years.  Both organizational leaders and individuals navigating change in their personal lives.  One of the things I have learned is when personal narrative is based on a strong sense of personal agency self management can follow.  In the absence of this kind of narrative, self management crumbles in the face of stress and challenge.  When one weaves together the warp and woof of one's personal experience into a story about oneself that embodies resilience, hope and belief in the ability to make a difference then one has created a powerful foundation for self management and leadership..

What is the story you tell yourself about yourself?
Does your personal narrative hold empowering or limiting attributes?

Here are elements of a powerful agency based personal narrative I have picked up over the years:
I  am resilient
I am resourceful
I am a learner
I am self reflective
I land on my feet
I can self correct
I've known fear and acted despite it
I know how to ask for help
I am honest with myself
I am accountable
I have the capacity to give and receive love
I have the capacity to forgive

Click here to see an example of a story we tell ourselves about ourselves:



Announcements:

• The Coach's Studio.  We are excited to announce the Fall Session of The Coach's Studio will begin October 3rd.  We have received outstanding feedback and we continue to add elements to the program.  Let me know if you might have interest. Or if you know someone who might.  For a full description of the program click here.
• I will be speaking at the American Creativity Association National Conference in Lewiston, Maine this weekend.  Creative folks from all over the globe will be driving their broomsticks to the University of Southern Maine for the two day conference, beginning Friday and ending Saturday.  Check it out here.
• Bill Zinke is a visionary with a long and successful career in the human resources field.  In 2007 he created the Center for Productive Longevity--dedicated to "stimulating the substantially increased engagement of people 55 + in productive activities, paid and volunteer, where they are qualified and ready to continue adding value." CPL held its first conference in Washington DC that year.  This year he will be holding a series of conferences at Babson College in Waltham, MA, The Kellogg School at Northwestern in Chicago, and the University of Denver in Denver, CO. As part of these programs CPL is sponsoring an essay contest for those 50+.  I will be one of three judges for the "Later Life Essay Contest."  If you are interested in entering the contest with the possibility of winning $1000 click on this link:  To learn more, click here.

Quantum Physics Parable

In This Bloutcher
Where Art, Life and Leadership Collide

• Quantum Physics Parable
• Announcements

1. Clicking
2. Awakened Leadership; Beyond Self Mastery

Quantum Physics Parable
I've been reading about quantum physics.  Please note I said "about" not "in."  I have only the most rudimentary introduction to this fascinating and discombobulating science.

I first got interested in quantum physics through Joseph Jaworski's wonderful book Synchronicity; The Inner Path of Leadership in which he introduced the thinking of physicist David Bohm (1917-1992.) I subsequently--back in 2001/2002--read Bohm's The Undivided Universe (1995) and more recently On Creativity (2004.)

Bohm makes me realize how great science and great art are truly kindred enterprises.

Here are five important ideas of quantum physics.  You can find these on Wikepedia.  They also echo the writings of Bohm.  I believe that each one of these ideas is also true of creativity and the imagination.  I have placed creativity/imagination in parenthesis as a stand-in for the word/idea that comes before it to illustrate the point.

1. Energy (creativity) is not continuous, but comes in small but discreet units.
2. The elementary particles (of creativity) behave both like particles and like waves.
3. The movement of these particles (of creativity) is inherently random.
4. It is impossible to know both the position and the momentum of a particle (of creativity) at the same time.
5. The atomic (creative/imagining) world is nothing like the world we live in.

So what can we take away from David Bohm and these ideas?

• We think we know but we don't.
• Our world of perceptions and "knowing" is less than half the story.
• There are great, untapped possibilities beyond our current awareness. 
• We are each part of a whole rather than a discreet and separate entity.
• Creativity and imagination are about connecting to this wholeness.
• We can experience the experience of wholeness but we cannot know it.
• Therefore, our journey of seeking will never end.

Implications:

• For Leadership:  Embedded in quantum physics is the dynamic reality that just when you think you've got it, you don't.  How does a leader respond to such moments in their organizations and their strategy?  How does a leader lead in such moments?
• For Creativity:  Science will never be able to fully understand creativity. As Paul Cezanne put it:  "Painting is damned difficult--you always think you've got it, but you haven't."  How do you continue to create knowing what you create will never be enough?
• For Life:  There is no such thing as stasis.  As Estragon laments in Waiting for Godot:  "I can't go on like this" to which his companion Vladimir responds:  "That's what you think."  There is no rest for the weary.  We are all endless seekers.

Here is a short parable:
There was once a very sad frog.  So sad he could not stop croaking at the moon.
A hungry fox heard the frog's lament and suggested,
"Listen frog, you sound so distressed you should allow me to eat you for dinner so I can mercifully end your misery."
The frog agreed and closed his eyes for one final croak.
Then the fox walked away.
Moral of the story:  Sometimes nature isn't what it appears to be.
Quantum physics wrote this parable.
And that's the key to creativity.

Here's a photo of quantum physics at work:

Announcements:

• How do you describe the wonderful stories in Karen Mandell's book Clicking?  The characters are familiar (as in your neighbor) yet quirky (just like your neighbor.)  The stories are uplifting but not sappy.  The writing is wonderfully textured.  But perhaps the best way to describe the book is, as one reviewer put it:  "These are not love stories.  They're soon-to-be love stories."  Now that's an original concept.  A soon-to-be love story book!  To order click here.
• Alan Shelton has written an intriguing book Awakened Leadership; Beyond Self Mastery about his personal journey from successful business-first senior executive (CEO, entrepreneur) to spiritual seeker for greater truths and ultimately to an "awakened leader."  Alan was referred to me by a mutual friend and we had a chance to chat the other week.  I came away impressed by his down to earth wisdom, hearty laughter and story telling acumen.  In the book, Alan chronicles his journey and along the way shares valuable and poignant lessons for life and leadership.  If you are on a journey for greater meaning or are an organizational leader who thinks there is more to it all, then Alan's book may be just the right cup of tea at the right time.  To order a copy of Alan's book click here.

70

In This Bloutcher: Where Art, Life and Leadership Intersect

• 70
• Soul Mates
• Congratulations!
• Correction

70
This is going to be a bit personal.
I turned 70 last week.
I never thought I would make it.
My Mom died at 53:  Cancer.
My Dad died at 55:  Cancer.
I expected to take leave of this world the day after my 55th birthday.
I didn't exactly wait, but something was there.
Everything since has been a gift.
I received many birthday greetings last week.
Through U.S. Postal, emails, e-cards, Facebook.
Even voices singing Happy Birthday in my message box.
Land line and mobile.
Friends and family asked me what wisdom I had to share.
I don't know wisdom.
I know gratitude.
I did two things on my birthday.
I went to the gym and shot baskets until I was in a meditative state.
That's when this bloutcher entry came to me.
I also painted a timed 3 minute flash self portrait without looking at myself.
I wanted to leave an evidence.
And, yes, there was a third thing.
I gave gratitude.
I am still seeking this wisdom thing. 


Here's my flash self portrait:


 









Soul Mates
If you want to see why I believe artists and scientists are soul mates just look at these two quotes:

Nobel Laureate in science Szent Gyorgyi:  "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody thought."

Artist Paul Klee:  "Art does not reproduce the visible, rather it makes visible."

Soul Mates 

Congratulations
Congratulations to the first graduating class of The Coach's Studio.  We had a group of exceptional coaches, consultants and trainers participating in this unique program designed to "outrageously" enhance personal creative skills and turbocharge professional practices.  We are excited to continue to support these graduates in taking this work out into the world.  Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

• "I thought I knew so much about myself and my coaching and I kept getting surprised.  This program has allowed my spirit to lead the way."  Dr. Kerry Bennett, M.D., surgeon and life coach.
• "The design is outstanding:  independent work, group interaction, options for a 'buddy,' the website community.  The impact for myself personally and professionally is a deeper and quicker path to change."  Judy Skoglund, Executive Coach and Chief Learning Officer 

The Coach's Studio will begin another session in early October.  Keep your eyes peeled for further information and let me know if you may have interest.

Correction
In my last bloutcher I mistakenly listed Adolphe Menjou as the actor in Casablanca who said to Humphrey Bogart "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."  Thank you to Kathleen Bergeron for catching my gaffe!  The actor was, in her words, "the incomparable Claude Raines."
 
 
  

The Virtuous Illusion

In This Bloutcher; Where Art, Life and Leadership Collide

• The Virtuous Illusion
• Announcements
• Caine's Arcade

The Virtuous Illusion

In the not too distant past, while still working for a Fortune 100 company, I received a message from The Boss.  He had set aside three precious hours to bring in an outside facilitator to challenge "the team" in a brainstorming session to come up with as many ideas as possible to solve one of the company's intractable challenges.  With this raw material in hand we would prioritize "the best" ideas and put together a work plan to implement them.  He was confident that the "natural creativity" of team members would yield "a cornucopia of innovative options."  Our Boss was a good boss.  He was smart, ethical and well intentioned.

So I, along with other executives, met at the designated time and place.  In order to get from my office to the brainstorming location in our finely designed, comfortable corporate headquarters, I, along with other executives, walked past rows of other offices and cubicles that were populated with similarly styled mahogany furniture, the floors coated with the same handsome earth toned carpeting, the walls punctuated with corporate purchased art.  We entered the same elevator we rode every day to our underground parking garage and landed in a large conference room, not surprisingly furnished in the same styled mahogany furniture and coated with the same earth toned carpeting.  On the conference room table sat platters of fresh fruit, cookies, bottled water and lots of little toys that could be manipulated by our restless, mostly type A fingers.  And so began our well facilitated brainstorming meeting seeking "a cornucopia of innovative options."

Everything about this experience was professionally done, well intended and resulted in "options" that were as uniform and bland as the furniture and carpeting.  The ideas we came up with, and there were many of them, were an extension of ideas which in one form or another already lived in the airspace of our corporate offices.  "A cornucopia" of ideas we had collected.  "Innovative options?"  Not so much.

This is why I call traditional brainstorming "The Virtuous Illusion."  Because we feel like we are doing something important but we are not.  We simply get more of the same.  Even among well intentioned, capable executives.

The question is:  What is the purpose of brainstorming in the first place?  And have leaders been barking up the wrong tree to get it?

As I understand it the purpose of brainstorming is to generate "a cornucopia of innovative options" which can be used to breakthrough organizational challenges.  Brainstorming is thought to get at that by generating lots of ideas, mining those ideas for creative gems and then burnishing them through our efforts to implement them.

The irony is that traditional brainstorming is:

• done under the very conditions which lead to the extension of ideas rather than their breakthroughs
• is a lazy way of fostering creativity because it allows us off the hook the rest of the time which is almost all the time
• leads to an atrophy of the very creative skills we need to promote organic and sustained creativity in ourselves and our organizations

A different perspective:

•  Creativity is not an event.  Not even a facilitated event.  It's an investment.  It is an investment in the development of the creative skills of people.  True, this might take longer than a two or three hour brainstorming session, but the results are more long lasting and lead to an organic creativity that keeps giving back to the organization.
• Creative engagement is NOT, not working.  It is working in a different way.  Many leaders think that spending time on "creativity" is frivolous and diverts focus from productivity and the tasks at hand.  The evidence is quite different.  
• It is time to do what the great masters of art have done for centuries.  Look at the subject from a different perspective.  The great artists became masters because they mastered the creative skill of seeing in new ways.  They truly came up with "a cornucopia of innovative options" with this fresh perspective. 
• Organizational leaders now have the opportunity to do the same by investing in the development of their peoples' creative skills. If leaders wish to generate innovative options they can bring in the masters of art and be open to what they can teach us.  That would be virtuous.  
• As Adolphe Menjou said to Humphrey Bogart at the end of Casablanca:  "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."  And that was no illusion.

Announcements:

• Reminder to check out Clicking by Karen Mandell.  It's getting a lot of buzz.  One of the best parts about the stories is that the quirky characters are so recognizable and endearing!  To order from Amazon click here.
• This week we are finishing the Winter Session of The Coach's Studio; Where Outrageously Creative Coaching Happens.  We have had a remarkable group of participants go through the program and join our community.  It has been uplifting to watch everyone take wing!  We are grateful to all who participated in our first program. We continue to work with participants in our Spring Session as they begin to spread their wings.  We are planning to begin our Fall Session the first week in October.  We are learning that participants seek and thrive in community.  Personal growth and positive change accelerate when the journey is made with like minded spirits.  And creativity is the energy which grows life in its many forms.

Caine's Arcade
My business partner Kathy Jordan brought this short video to my attention.  It is a truly remarkable, inspiring story of a 9 year old with imagination who had a dream he would not let go of.  It brought tears to my eyes!  It is definitely worth the time to view:  Caine's Arcade

Why Words Deceive

In This Bloutcher (Where Art, Life and Leadership Collide)

• Why Words Deceive
• Announcement From Marcel Proust

Why Words Deceive

Let me cut right to it. Words may breathe life into poems, songs, stories and novels which lift the soul and weave wisdom into our lives. But when it comes to conveying experiences words are noble failures. Frustrated warriors. Beguiling deceivers.

Think about it. We have an experience. An experience is multi-sensory by nature and specific to a moment. An experience is non duplicative. In other words, we experience the experience. Then we try to describe it, convey it through words. Yet, words can never fully capture the nature of the experience the way the experience was fully experienced. Try as they may words fall short of the fully variegated, multi-sensory richness and nuance of the experience. This is frustrating and why words and experience are not happy together. They frustrate each other even though they are fated companions as long as we humans have the need to communicate our experiences to each other.

And, as with words, so with art. Both deceive.

That is why Cezanne declared "Art is harmony that runs parallel with Nature." He threw up his arms. No mas. Art cannot be the same as nature, as art cannot be the same as experience.

What are we to do?

Words are words.

Art is art.

Experience is experience.

Each is nothing more, nothing less.

The tension between them is where creativity lives.

The truth is that words and art are lies which create a new truth.

Announcement from Marcel Proust:

"Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were."

Memory especially deceives.