Creativity in Organizations (Part 8 of 9)

creativity as export

Whether or not you are using creativity in your business, every organization creates. 

They create products, processes, ideas, artifacts, meaningful works of art, and masterful communication. Every business puts something new in the world. Every organization delivers some kind of value. 

Therefore, every business finds itself in the role of exporter — shipping ideas, processes or products that have a reach beyond the immediate tribe or community. Every business relies on their exports — things that speak to the tribes outside their own — to feed them.
Ideas are currency. Value is a transaction.

Sometimes, as a member of a community or tribe, you may feel sick, sad or angry. You may feel depressed or like you don’t “fit” in ways that you can’t describe. 

Most organizations have a medicine man (or woman) on salary and standing by that will happily invite you into their tent, cubicle, office or clinic and perform the ritual of healing, reconciliation, grounding, or coherence. They will most likely administer a series of questions, a bitter dose of truthful medicine, or possibly send you outside the organizational borders on a vision quest for meaning.

Sometimes those who are seeking (inside or outside the organization) are following the breadcrumbs of a personal development plan. Sometimes they are following road signs and looking for landmarks. Sometimes, they are fighting in the foam with the sea monsters at the frayed edges of the map – pushing the envelope where there is no established process. Those on the path of mastery have always known how to lean into the turn and embrace the plateaus. 

READ PART 7

READ PART 9