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The consciously elected journey
into exploring creativity really started when the author chose to
relinquished his position as the Acting Director of the Office of Research, Development and
Testing Facilities at the US Department of Energy, to become a
senior technical advisor to the office director of a newly formed
engineering support group. It was through that decision that he
place himself into the situation he had both the time and workplace
flexibility to study creativity both organizationally and on the
individual level. The journey started as an
exploration of creativity in the work place but as discussed
here it evolved into and exploration of our
inherent creativity. Yet, this only makes sense for people lie
at the heart of any organization and the individual’s
creative spirit lies at the
heart
of each individual.
As was stated in “The
Unfoldment of the Calling,” ...as the Acting Director of the
Office of Research, Development and Testing Facilities, the issue
the author ultimately came to face was how does one get individuals
to freely play with the situation they face to find those creative
solutions that go to the depth of the situation and address the root
of the issue they face. It was clear individuals seemed to lack the
creative ability to solve the problem they faced at the root level.
What he began to observe, that no matter how creative and/or
intelligent individuals claimed to be unless the issues lied in
their particular area of expertise, they usually tended to look to
someone else to solve their problem. Individuals seemed to be
creatively block outside their direct area of expertise.
Although he began to think about creativity and began to dabble in
it privately, it was the experience of developing the
Laboratory Integrated Prioritization System as the Acting
Director of the Office of Research, Development and Testing
Facilities, that really caused him to look at creativity and how
individuals were making decisions and why they were making the
decisions they did. What he found because of the project, decision
makers at every level did not always want to see the facts. Or
rather maybe better said, he found they often couldn’t see the
facts. The author was confuses as to why managers were making what appeared
to be seemingly fact less based decisions. That is what Laboratory
Integration Prioritization System was revealing.
Decision making and the issue managers faced in decision making was
not new to the author. The author had spend years as decision maker
in one form or another at a variety of levels. He always knew
decision makers had their personal agendas, so it is always good to
know the agenda of one’s supervisor. He learned the lesson of
supervisors having a personal agenda as a young officer in the Navy
in a rather embarrassing way. Similarly, he always knew decision
makers also tried to put off, or put on someone else, decisions they
did not want to make, couldn’t make or didn’t know how to make. This
relearned this lesson in a rather radical way as a safety officer at
a nuclear materials research facility. He also knew that most
decisions makers wanted to take the easy solution to any problem
they faced. This was one of those lessons he learned early in life
as a child. Then he knew many decisions makers were short term
planner and did not always look at the longer solution or even the
"big" picture. Most just wanted to create a comfortable lives for
themselves. Here too, childhood experience provided this awareness.
There is no judgment in these statements. It is just the way most of
us are live our lives.
But what he come to see through the
Laboratory Integrated Prioritization System was something more
profound and totally unexpected. He began to see the areas in which decision makers avoided
the facts and often literally could not see the fact. They always
had reason for what they did and could sometimes even provide
excuses as to why the facts could be avoided. It was here he began
to see interesting failures in logic of even brilliantly logical
minds. It was as thought the decision makers were blinded by
something when it came to certain areas or aspects of the job. They
could not see past certain limits and barriers they were somehow
imposing on themselves. They had more than enough reasons which they would
give for their decisions but that did not mean those reason were
really valid. The reasons always sounded good but when explored,
they were not necessarily valid.
In part, you could say many managers were being asked to manage
issues and problems that were beyond or outside their areas of
training, experience and expertise. Once could say he was only
experiencing the “Peter Principle” in action. That is, where
managers are promoted to their level of incompetency. But that did
not explain what was being seen. There was something more fundament
at work.
If it wasn’t for that fact that the author had reviewed so many
accident investigations and reports he probably would not have taken
any interest in what he was observe because of the Laboratory
Integration Prioritization System. But he knew every accident or
incident had precursors. The precursors were often readily visible
if you were observant and understood what you were observing. He was
seeing the creation of accident precursors in the way managers were
making decisions. Although he did not call it awareness, without
realizing it, the author began to explore the concept of awareness
and what does or does not make one aware. The author initial thought
what was needed to get individuals to prevent accidents and make
competent decisions came through training and education. So his
efforts moved in the direction of exploring accelerated learning
technique to assist the creation of awareness through training and
education.
Over the years, while watching people in the work place lose
enthusiasm for their work, the question kept coming back, “Why do so
many people loose their creativity and enthusiasm for life by the
time they reach middle age?” Where was that spontaneity of childhood
to explore. Young children, in general, seemed to have such a great
capacity for creativity and were so free to try new things. They
engage life with an enthusiasm that is so quickly lost. Where did
the willingness to approach life in that child-like enthusiasm go?
Accompanying the accelerated training exploration the author also
began to look at motivational techniques for the workplace. Many
changes that were occurring and the question was how to get
individuals motivated to embrace the changes. How does one get them
to that childlike enthusiasm to flow with the changes. The author worked on
shifting culture a few years earlier in the Office of Scientific and
Engineering Recruitment, Training and Staff Development. But now,
because of the shifting world situation the organizational changes
being required were much more substantial changes that just
improving safety, health and quality.
Paralleling the organizational exploration into creativity, the
author also began to wonder why so many successful individuals seem
so unhappy and/or unfulfilled in the jobs they had. Part of the
problem was, of course, job assignment that the individual did not
like doing or did not want to do. However, again, he was seeing
something much deeper. Many were working only for a pay check even
when in their chosen field doing jobs reflective of that field. Many
seemed only to find excitement in life in what they did outside of
work. Although it was quite clear individuals needed to have a
paycheck or some type of income to live in the world a question was
arising as to why individuals were not accessing their
creative power to create something that was more satisfying in their job
life. After all, we spend about a third of our awakened life working
and/or traveling to and from work if not more. That is an enormous
amount of time doing something you don’t like doing. What was it
keeping them bound. Was it really the paycheck?
Over time, the organization went through a series of attempted work
place up grades like the Covey Approach to Management, Total Quality
Management, and other similar management philosophies, all with
questionable results. In seeing what these approaches assumed and
didn’t address, the author began to explore as to what he could
personally do. Given what he had come to know about creativity, he
set out to see if he could find an alternative way to resolve many
of the workplace issues he was experiencing and which remained unresolved
after many different organizational attempts.
He went back to what he had learned from is Physics Department
Chairman as un undergraduate in
understanding our assumptions. He knew there was some fallacy in
the assumptions being made about how the organization should be
structured. He knew there were better ways to run organizations for
he had been in such organizations. The
Laboratory Integrated Prioritization System demonstrated that aspects of the job that did
not appear capable of integration could be integrated. The question
was, “Was there
an alternative way to live life such that there was
overall improved workplace efforts in all areas and greater personal
satisfaction in life for the individual?” The author chose to look
for such a path through improved creativity. The Laboratory
Integrated Prioritization System proved it was possible.
The author began the initial journey into looking for
an alternative way in
the workplace through accelerated learning techniques to address new
training and qualification upgrades and management encouraged
organizational “upgrades.” To integrate the new training and
qualification upgrades with the management encouraged organizational
“upgrades” more efficiently and effectively the author did what he
though was going to be a simplifying action. He had his support
contractor
review all the desired upgrades for common attributes. It was
stated by the parties demanding upgrades that they all desired the
same end. So, since the stated end was the same, the logic was, all
the different approaches being suggest should develop the same
characteristics and attitudes although at different times in
different ways.
When each individual demanded upgrade was explored, there was a
great different in both what was being required and how it was to be
done. In fact, many were in conflict with each other. What managers
were stating as to what they were asking the organization and
individuals do to was not what their methods would produce. This
result took the author back to what he had observed in the
Laboratory Integrated Prioritization System project. It caused him
to contemplate what he was really observing about how and why
management decisions were being made in the way they were being
made. He was confuses as to why managers were making what appeared
to be seemingly fact less based decisions. He saw that result in the
Laboratory Integration Prioritization System and now he was seeing
it again when an entirely different approach was use to look what
was being required of the organization. He looked again at the issue to be
explored and the author started to explore deeper into the nature of
creativity and why we lose the ability to “play” with options and
outcomes to look at all the consequences before making decisions.
Paralleling the effort to look at creativity in the workplace, there
were two other efforts in progress in the author’s life that
impacted the consciously elected journey into creativity. One was
the author was asked by a physician to help create a mind body
healing foundation. Assisting in this effort allowed the author the
opportunity to explore the creative aspects of accident, illnesses,
disease, health, healing and wellness. The second effort was the
author’s extensive personal reading and exploration in any and all
aspects of creativity and how one can get conscious control
ourselves and what we experience. There were a variety of things he
had learned about creativity in his personal readings that were
slowly beginning to overlap with his
professional path in life.
The above discussion overviews the background issues that drove the
author to explore creativity. However, it does need to be noted that
the above only described what the author was consciously aware of
choosing to do. As stated in the
mystical path, there was, and is, a deep undercurrent to the
author’s life that was carrying him into exploring creativity. There
was an
subconscious journey to explore creativity that was present of
which the author was not really aware existed. It never really
reveal itself. Rather it revealed the intention for his life. It
revealed the much deeper third journey into creativity which is
reflected in the third dance introduced on the “Our
Creative Spirit” homepage, the
dance between the creator and the creation.
As you may have noticed, the presentation of the material on the
origins of the Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity technology and
its application is directed toward showing we each are on a deeper
journey into exploring creativity. Although the author was only
aware of consciously choosing to explore creativity as a result of
the issues he saw in the workplace and he subsequently consciously
choose to
explore our
inherent creativity and
look for an alternative way to live life, his whole life has
been orchestrated for this task. It has been so orchestrated in this
direction that it calls into question whether or not we even have a
free will. In the awareness of what the author has found about
our creativity and our
creative power and creative ability, it is
suggested that you being to take a close look at your life. Look to
see what undercurrent may be guiding you through life for in this
undercurrent you can access an
inner satisfaction that will create a
life worth living.
The next step
Subconscious journey into creativity
An Alternative step
The recovery of a creative spirit - a soul retrieval
Index of topics related to the origins of the Releasing Your Unlimited
Creativity Technology and applications
The pieces of the puzzle
Origins and Occasions
for the Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity Technology and it
applications
Index of origins and occasion topics
Related topics
Comment about the journey of exploration of our inherent creativity and the depth and breadth of our creativity
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