Creativity has become a business requirement. Products less than three years old now constitute a major part of American corporations’ revenues. Companies simply cannot afford to stifle people’s creativity. So Mark Bryan and his collaborators have developed a methodology to help people become creative at work.

The same rules used in the arts and sciences apply to business. Competence and mastery must be linked. Working in collaboration with Julia Cameron, who is known for _The Artist’s Way_ book and workshops, and business executive Catherine Allen, Mark offers a wide range of social, intuitive and interpersonal skills that together comprise the human community. He also builds on his work with MIT’s Organizational Learning Center and Dialogue Project.

Businesses must nurture creativity to survive. And creativity takes work. Mark’s techniques range from “morning pages” and “time-outs” to a week of No Media -- no talk radio, no television, no reading, no e-mail, no Internet. (The outer silence casts us into our own inner silence, allows us to hear our own intuitive wise inner mentor who is often drowned in media noise.)

Start with the only person over whom we have control. Look to yourself. Listen to your own powerful inner mentor. Evolve your own actions, over time. Re-frame failures into learning experiences. Find the courage to take risks. Deal with old grudges, hurts and slights. You can use that energy for creative ends. Be a participant-observer. Practice.

We have un-learning to do, too. Having been taught in school to de-construct, we must teach ourselves to construct. Un-learn risk-averse behaviors which make us collaborators in our organization’s problems. Acquire the skills to overcome our own unwillingness to change.

A safe, trusting environment is essential to any kind of creativity. People have to be able to take risks, fail on the way to success, trust each other in the pursuit of a common goal. Creating such an environment is a challenge in many businesses and the stakes are high -- when employees don't feel safe enough to risk the truth, it can be fatal to the enterprise.

Creativity takes time as well as skills. Developing an idea takes work, refinement and many iterations. The person doing that work has to be candid, be able to see a bigger picture, and not be mired in office politics or frozen in embarrassment. Train yourself to optimism. Develop the courage to take risks. Expect to win. It’s how we make meaning in our lives and evolve ourselves toward authenticity. It’s how we invent the future.

Conversation 1

Mark Bryan uses dragons to establish the rhythm of the teachings in The Artist’s Way at Work for Paula Gordon and Bill Russell. Mark reminds us that dragons are very reminiscent of the elemental forces of nature in the Oriental world, forces we would do well to capture. He challenges business' obsession with war metaphors, demonstrating how cooperation and solace power the business world, just as they do the other parts of our lives.

Conversation 2

Mark and his collaborators offer us a structure with which to balance our uniqueness with the ways we interact in groups. He raises our sights from our individual involvement to see how we are involved in a group as a whole. He explains some of the rewards of this balanced approach. He describes “time-outs,” one tool with which to learn how to deal with an economy exploding onto the global stage. He points out the negative effects of judging ourselves based on other’s perceptions, rather than looking within ourselves. He talks about the wide range of social, intuitive and interpersonal skills that together comprise the human community, citing his work with MIT’s Organizational Learning Center and Peter Senge.

Conversation 3

Mark and his collaborators offer us a structure with which to balance our uniqueness with the ways we interact in groups. He raises our sights from our individual involvement to see how we are involved in a group as a whole. He explains some of the rewards of this balanced approach. He describes “time-outs,” one tool with which to learn how to deal with an economy exploding onto the global stage. He points out the negative effects of judging ourselves based on other’s perceptions, rather than looking within ourselves. He talks about the wide range of social, intuitive and interpersonal skills that together comprise the human community, citing his work with MIT’s Organizational Learning Center and Peter Senge.

Conversation 4

Balancing the tension between society’s socializing forces and capital markets is one of today’s great challenges Mark asserts. We cannot change the world, he reminds us, we can only change ourselves. In doing so, we can give meaning to life. Mark describes “morning pages” and explains how this technique can help one become a “participant-observer.” He offers ways to access the wise “inner mentor” we all have but too often drown out. He moves us beyond American education’s de-construction to the beauty of risk-taking and con-struction.

Conversation 5

A third technique Mark offers is the power to cast oneself into our own inner silence. It’s a week of No Media -- no talk radio, no television, no reading, no e-mail, no Internet. He offers ways to move beyond anger and resentment -- where time heals nothing -- to free up energy and empower ourselves. “Before you seek revenge,” admonishes the Chinese proverb, “you much first dig two graves.” Mark tells the effect of Edward Deming’s observation, “No one goes to work to do a bad job.” Mark describes the “creative contagion” he and his collaborators are trying to release and reminds us that sometimes we must step forward from our place on leadership’s continuum.

Conversation 6

Honor your own courage, Mark urges, be willing to engage in a self-change process. It has its risks and it also has the potential for enormous rewards. Stop idolizing others, both for their good and their bad qualities, and resist being idolized. He calls us all to work constantly to evolve ourselves toward authenticity.

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