Jacqueline Lloyd Smith, Col. Jason Trew (TOGA), and Stephen J. Walling at the Squadron Officer School, Montgomery, Alabama 2019
World Creativity and Innovation Day was April 21, and we wanted to do something special. After all, when your life’s work is all about solving problems through creativity, this day is a pretty big deal. We marked the occasion by holding our first ever Creative Coffee Break in the Strategic Play Facilitator’s Network. To our excitement, the perennial favorite TOGA agreed to co-host the event along with Stephen Walling.
The idea was simple. We invited network members to drop in for a freestyle chat on creativity. TOGA warmed up the group with a brainteaser, and then he get the discussion going by asking everyone: What is creativity? There were some great responses, including creativity is:
- Something you learn by doing. You have to immerse yourself in it.
- A process to learn things about yourself, new capabilities you didn’t think you had.
- Physically expressing solutions to a problem through a medium not necessarily exclusive to your work.
- Connecting your inner self with something larger.
We covered way too much ground to share everything with you here. But know we had a great time and can’t wait to do this again. A huge thanks to everyone who showed up to engage with us and make this event a success.
Jacquie Lloyd Smith, our company founder, demonstrated disruptive innovation with a surprise appearance from Italy. No one, not even the hosts, expected to see her due to the time difference. But she just couldn’t resist the temptation to pop in and see everyone.
We’ll leave you with a final thought to contemplate. Several participants admitted to thinking they are not inherently creative. Stephen made the observation he believes people need a process to be creative. How about you? Is creativity something that feels natural to you, or do you need an intentional path to get there?
Feel your free to share your thoughts in the comments.