THE WHEEL OF CREATIVITY

Last week, while I was in London for the London Book Fair, I had the joy of a rare evening with my lovely step-daughter over sushi in Notting Hill. We talked about a lot of things, but what I want to share here is the point at which our conversation turned toward education.

Regi teaches young people. She has always been interested in the Wheel of Creativity; but through teaching, her interest has taken on a professional slant. She sees the Wheel as a tool for young people to make life make a little more sense. And that, as you can imagine, delights me.

The next day at the book fair I met with a senior manager of a creative social network for young people. Movellas is an online community where (mostly) young people publish stories they’ve written, read each others’ stories, and give and receive feedback. Thousands of young people from different countries show up there; and from what I’ve seen, they are highly engaged.

The same theme came up in both meetings. In order to succeed in the contemporary world, young people need more than knowledge. They need understanding – about how life works – and wisdom – about how to get through it in one piece. While schools are organized and standardized to teach the former, they aren’t necessarily set up to teach the latter two.

So I was intrigued to come across an article this month in the New York Times about Manhattan’s Blue School, where students from pre-school through third grade learn differently, where openness to new ideas is a top priority. According to journalist Jenny Anderson, “Periods of reflection are built into the day for students and teachers alike, because reflection helps executive function — the ability to process information in an orderly way, focus on tasks and exhibit self-control.”

It’s not really their fault. Schools have traditionally existed to teach the three R’s:  reading, writing and arithmetic. Students must pass tests to progress, and the passing of those tests now organizes the curricula. Anderson’s article quotes neuropsychiatrist and advisor to the school Daniel J. Siegel, who believes that schools should also be teaching “the three other R’s:  reflection, relationships and resilience.”

Education today is intensely active; but activity is only half the equation; receptivity is the other half. According to the Wheel of Creativity, the creative process is the marriage of the two.

Personally, I wonder if school is really the best place for the other three R’s, which sound to me a lot more social than institutional. First, there’s the cost. Parents of Blue School students pay close to $32,000 a year for tuition. Second, there is the growing pressure to educate children to be able to compete in an increasingly competitive job market. And third, well maybe there are other, more inspiring ways to learn them.

A chasm has developed in learning, and understanding and wisdom have fallen in. To fill the gap, young people turn primarily to each other, occasionally to their parents, and rarely to a trusted advisor. They need to learn to think and feel and navigate life for themselves. And they need clear, inspiring and creative tools to do so. Maybe Blue School gives them a head start. Maybe Movellas gives them a place to learn from each others’ stories. Maybe the Wheel of Creativity gives them a compass they can use for life.

What are you teaching your children to prepare them for life? Share your secrets here.

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I’ve been interested for some time in our assumptions about creativity, where we learn them, and how they define us. So last month, I created an online survey posing eight questions on the matter. Thanks to all of you who participated.  Here are the results.

If you have not taken the survey, it’s still up. If you’d like to learn a bit more about yourself and the creative process, please pop over here and take it yourself! Then come back here and see how your experience compares.

Enjoy!

1.    When I hear the word creativity, I feel…

• Excited… 67%
• Intimidated… 25%
• Other (Serene)… 8%
• Sad
• Detached

2.    I learned most of what I know about Creativity from…

• Personal experimentation… 46%
• Teachers… 18%
• Family…  18%
• Nature… 18%
• Friends
• Professional training

3.    For me, creativity is most often evident in…

• Nature… 44%
• The Arts… 33%
• People I know… 33%
• Science and Technology… 11%
• Business enterprise… 11%

4.    When I was a child, I felt creative. Since then I’ve…

• Cultivated a creative attitude in everything I do… 55%
• Continued dabbling in it but got too busy with other things… 36%
• Developed it into a talent that gives me great pleasure… 9%
• I did not feel creative as a child… 9%
• Lost touch with my creativity

5.    To believe that I am creative…

• Comes naturally to me… 80%
• Would be a dream come true… 20%
• Is a luxury I don’t have time for
• Is too much to hope for

6.    I use creativity in my work…

• Regularly… 46%
• Constantly… 36%
• Rarely… 18%
• Never

7.    Creativity is…

• A naturally quality of all living things… 68%
• A human birthright to be developed in service to the world… 42%
• A special gift for an elite group of people
• A luxury of the idle rich

8.    I would define Creativity as…

• “The use of a new way of doing or seeing a thing applied to a problem or possibility.”
• “Having a unique vision and pursuing it.”
• “The art of reflecting the Creator; seeing creating with new glasses each day.”
• “Natural, subjective to the beholder, a means to survival, enjoyment and beauty and joy.”
• “Creativity is making something new. It could be something physical, like a picture, a flower arrangement, or a piece of music. Or, it could be something intangible like a process or a unique viewpoint. Creativity often is a result of combining old things together in a new way – building on the shoulders of giants. But ultimately, it comes down to making something new.”
• “An entity’s ability to bring a unique thing or concept into the world that expresses the nature of the entity.”
• “Any act engaged in consciously.”
• “The ability to transform.”
• “Responding in multiple ways toward producing new “……..”. Fill in the blank – with words, ideas, thoughts, products, solutions, etc. Limitless NEW thinking.”
• “The ability to find a solution for a need – from making the most of limited resources… to self-expression with unlimited resources…and everything in between.”
• “Life.”

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As a professional writer, my medium has almost always been the written or spoken word. So, when I saw this performance by violinist Robert Gupta and cellist Joshua Roman at a March 2011 TED Conference, what touched me most was the power of their communication beyond words. I was grateful to be speechless.

open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutions

The piece Gupta and Roman play in this video is Johan Halvorsen’s “Passacaglia.” It is written for violin and viola, but Joshua Roman plays the viola part on his Stradivarius cello instead. Their generous, honest performance is deeply moving not only for the richness of their notes, but also for their risks in the spaces between them. When I see them perform, and when I discover their stories, it is clear to me that they have opened themselves wide to let Life flow through them, not only in their music but also in the streets.

Robert Gupta joined the LA Philharmonic when he was 19, already 8 years into his music career. That was four years ago. In addition to a Masters in music, Gupta did his undergraduate degree in pre-med (neurobiology). And he is a mental health activist as well as a musician. In fact, he teaches violin to Nathaniel Ayers, the brilliant schizophrenic musician discovered on the streets of LA and portrayed so beautifully in the film “The Soloist.”

At 26, Joshua Roman has been called a “classical rock star” by the press for his “absolute commitment to communicating the essence of the music at its most organic level.” In 2006, at the age of 22, he won the role of principle cellist of the Seattle Symphony, the youngest musician ever to be a principle player there. Just two years later, he launched his solo career. Roman can as easily be found playing nightclubs or online in his video series, “The Popper Project.” He also travels frequently to Uganda to perform with his violinist siblings for schoolchildren in HIV/AIDS centers and refugee camps.

In 26 years as a freelance writer, my work has often been solitary. I have sometimes longed for the kind of creative connection that passes so visibly between these two young musicians. And some of my most meaningful work has occurred on the sidelines, when I was invited to play in someone else’s project.

“Life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans.” (John Lennon)

At times today, I find myself isolated in my own ambition, and that kind of solitude is far from creative. At the same time, Life is offering me more and more opportunities to share the pure joy of creative exchange with others. It is not easy for any of us today who have a vision, to let go of our agendas and allow Life to direct the flow. But, more often than not, our most prolific moments come in the spaces between the notes, if we are willing to risk going there.

Enjoy this raw, imperfect and brilliant performance. And notice how much Life occurs in the spaces between the notes as in the notes themselves.

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Several weeks ago, when I was doing my grocery shopping at Carrefour (the WalMart of France), I saw this egg in the tray. I picked it up and held it in my hand; and instantly we drew a small crowd of people who found the egg equally disturbing. “C’est bizarre” was their assessment. Well, that cinched it. I had to have it.

I have always been attracted to the fringe:

• The broken lemon drops
• The forgotten fruit
• The questions without answers
• The mystery schools
• The contrarians
• The cutting edges

This egg would find good company there.

Over the past few weeks, I have often thought about the hen who laid this egg. What did she think of her egg? What did she feel? Did she love it or reject it? Did it hurt her? Did she ever even see it or was it snatched from her beforehand?

If I were in the United States, I seriously doubt whether my egg would have even made it to the supermarket. Eggs are supposed to look a certain way, you know. And this is not it. But not seeing the egg in the tray that day would have been a loss indeed.

Over the past few weeks, I have come to love this egg. It is not a golden egg. It is not a normal egg. It is an original egg. Every time I see this egg, it speaks to me as one who is willing to be different from the rest, stand out in the crowd, catalyze the reactions of others, speak with a voice all its own. And I will treasure it forever.

My friend Peter Fox, solar physicist and computer scientist, describes creativity in science as having “an original thought.” In other words, you have to be willing to see things differently. He observes, “As a scientist, you have to have some element of confidence in yourself, because otherwise you don’t open yourself up to the creative thought. There’s the point where you have to trust that at some level your intuition is right.”

We are drawn to the original like a car accident, as long as it’s happening to someone else; but we are reluctant to own it in ourselves. We live in a world of plastic surgery, social networks, and “irresistible content.” Marketing gurus tell us to write our books based on keyword searches:  find the words others are using, title your chapters with those words, and sell more books. I can’t help wondering where Michelangelo would fit into all this.

Where, along the way, did we decide that things have to look a certain way in life? Uniform, predictable, safe. Where is the imagination in that? Where is the diversity? Where is Life? What kinds of possibilities might appear through us if we did not reject the unusual, the bizarre and the original out of hand?

What hope do we have for creativity and innovation if we reject the original in and around us? If we continue to create from the outside in, what role can originality possibly play in our lives? What solutions would never appear in the world?

Am I alone in my concerns?

Do you have an original egg to share?

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“Life is a sacred process.  What is yours asking from you now?”

In just two weeks, I will begin a new coaching group based on the principles of The Wheel of Creativity. The first Wheel of Creativity Creative Process Group of 2011 will take place in Nice, France, every Wednesday night, March 16-June 15, 2011*, from 19:00 to 21:30.

The Wheel of Creativity Creative Process Group will help you:

• Produce the outcomes in life that flow from your innermost essence
• Increase your capacity to live in the power of the creative process
• Strengthen your connection with the life force that flows through you all the time
• Come to know yourself more intimately than ever before
• Take your place in the adventure of life’s great unfolding

The Wheel of Creativity is a map of the creative journey, developed by Katherine Robertson-Pilling. This group is the guided tour, using your own life as the landscape. Ultimately, the journey is always made alone. But here you will find a community of fellow travelers and the guidance of one who knows the way.

Each of you comes to this group with your own destination. You may or may not know the next step. The Wheel of Creativity is a practical framework for creating what is next for you in life. It could be a new creative project, a new business, a new career, a new way of life. Or it could be something you’ve been working on without success. The Wheel of Creativity enables you to engage with the natural creative cycles of Life, not only to create something new in the world, but also to transform yourself through the process.

“For more than 10 years, I have been researching and developing a methodology to use the creative process as a means to personal transformation. The result is The Wheel of Creativity.This group offers a select group of people the opportunity to put these principles to work in their day-to-day lives to create the projects and the lives they dream of.”

What other clients say:

• “The Wheel of Creativity and your presentation of it is a deep and integrative experience. I appreciate you as a contemplative and loving person. As a coach you are dynamic, centered and inspiring. Thank you for the gifts you share with the world.” (Lane Lasater, Ph.D., Psychologist, Author, Consultant)

• “I find your work extremely useful in contemporary life. I have to say that I find myself lucky to have met you. Your life and work serve as an inspiration to a young and naive college student who is just beginning to discover life and the creative process. Thank you!” (Nadia Florez, University student)

• “I want to underline your ability to listen and draw out with love. I always feel that your quality of attention enables me to not only know where I am but to go to a deeper level.” (Alison Prideaux, massage therapist)

There are a limited number of spaces for this group.

For a free consultation to learn more, contact: katherine@katherinerobertson.com

* Excluding school holidays (April 20 & 27)

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Ferran Adrià has a new project. The celebrated chef, whom Spain has made a national icon, has taken Spanish restaurant elBulli to what is now accepted as the best restaurant in the world. Now he is closing his doors and preparing the next course.

According to one of the 8,000 diners per year who defeat a million other people vying for reservations at elBulli, Adrià’s beyond-innovative cuisine extends their experience of what life can be. If I were speaking, I’d probably use the term ‘spiritual experience’, but I haven’t been fortunate enough to dine there. Thought I must say, just a visit to elBulli’s website is a mouthwatering, not to mention inspiring, experience.

With the support of now 70 international chefs in his kitchen, Adrià has created 1,800 envelope-pushing recipes in his 25 years there.  His joy is creation; his medium is food. His next step is to share that with the world.

Adrià’s project is to turn elBulli the restaurant into elBulli the foundation.

Adrià has always loved mixing cuisine with other disciplines, and his latest is telecommunications. With R&D from Spanish telephone company Telefónica, Adrià will create the world’s largest digital recipe exchange. Using technology to embed recipes in kitchen gadgets and even Andrià himself as an avatar, he will bring his cuisine to the people.

Adrià hopes the elBullifoundation will “change the relationship between creativity and society,” giving people all around the world the chance to engage with him creatively from their own homes. He calls it “a social project to continue creating and to share everything by Internet.”

As quoted in his interview with CNN Revealed, Adrià said, “The most important work is theoretical, to have ideas. The rest is trial and error.” Adrià recognizes that in order to keep your creative edge, you have to be free. You have to upset the status quo. Quite a courageous act as his stage of the game. Felicidad, Señor Adrià. We’ll be watching!

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“To establish a place of work where engineers can feel the joy of technological innovation, be aware of their mission to society, and work to their heart’s content.”

Masaru Ibuka (Co-founder, Sony Corporation)

Seems to me Ibuka had a good idea for the rest of us.

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