Here's a re-publication of a blog entry I posted on my former blog created as an assignment in my masters degree program last fall:
An article in the September issue of Inc. magazine examines Robert Redford's Sundance Institute to find out how organizations can create an environment that supports sustainable creativity. The authors describe this as tapping into the "imaginative intelligence" of the people who work there.
The article is filled with wonderful observations and quotes. Redford is quoted as saying, "When you have the good fortune to have success in your life, I've always thought that is precisely the time you should reinvent yourself. You should go right back to zero as though nothing had happened and start again. Because you can get real stale."
The concepts drawn from Sundance by the authors include:
- Sketchpad (a kind of blank slate notion)
- Contradiction (discovering truth from contrary ideas and advice)
- Generosity (encouraging sharing by creating a safe, reciprocal culture)
- Story (both a social and a physical place for relaxed story-swapping)
The last one described in the article is Conversation and it deserves study in itself, so here's a quote I hope will send you to learn more:
"While most people, especially people in business situations, use conversation as a forum for presenting themselves, Redford uses conversation to become himself: He intends to be different when it is over."
The article by Stephen Zades is available online as Creativity Regained.
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