The energy generated by the Creativity in Business Conference in Washington D.C. on Oct. 4 was, and continues to be, exhilarating. The conference was populated by people who are inquisitive, open to learning, and restless about solving problems of all kinds.  It almost doesn’t matter what the problem is, if there’s a problem, these folks are interested in contributing to its solution.

I got to the location of the conference, Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts in Georgetown, at about 10:30 Sunday morning, in time to sit in on the last third of Paul Scheele’s session. When I got there, five participants were on stage wearing masks and funny hats and were juxtaposed with one another in interesting ways. I had fun playing catch-up, and trying to figure out what the scene was about. (It was about tapping into the unconscious mind for creative inspiration–and how to hold onto that, both individually and organizationally.)

I attended Dr. Win Wenger’s session on creative problem solving. He gave us a problem-solving exercise my friend Rasul Sha’ir and I did together. What the exercise revealed to Rasul and me is that there is a transition that takes place in your process if you ‘peel open’ a problem via relentless answering of a simple question like “How can I build strategic partnerships for my brand? ” In Dr. Wenger’s exercise, we spent 11 minutes answering the same question non-stop. It works! Rasul and I both experienced a transition in the way we were answering our questions.  Our answers went from obvious and surfacey to unexpected and insightful.   This occurred, for both of us, between 6 and 7 minutes into the exercise. We went from addressing what was outside of us, what we had little control over, for example the root causes of the problem, to answers that were more about what was within us, what we personally could do to help solve the problem.  The problem is without. The solution is within.

Before the plenary session I visited briefly with Dr. Wenger.   His name tag said “Win Win Win”. It was like getting to sit down with one of Disney’s Nine Old Men of animation, because the dude is a classic. He is so insightful, and has such a strong desire to be of service by helping people solve problems, particularly in the realm of sustainability, it was palpable, and I hope some of it rubbed off on me.

The event’s organizer, Michelle James of the Center for Creative Emergence, and I co-hosted the plenary session, which was attended by a majority of the 150 people at the Conference.  I talked a lot. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I was feeling it, and I expressed some things pretty well, I think. I reminded the audience that for many people in business, creativity is the enemy. I spoke about what we can do to help make creativity more accessible to individuals and teams who spend most of their time in their left brains.  For one thing, we can point out how a creative move can always be a very short step from the status quo.  It does not have to be a quantum leap or a masterstroke or a gamechanger.

Those attributes can only be ascribed after the fact, anyway.  Creativity does not have to be outside any box.  It does not have to go barefoot or bring its dog to work or inhabit a workstation lined with toy robots .  Creativity is always present and accessible, and always right next to our self-conscious selves.  As musicians say, there’s always a good note right next to a bad one.

I attended Michael Margolis’ session on authentic storytelling. This is a subject of which I never tire, and it is inspiring to be in a workshop with someone like Michael, who brings a sense of excitement and discovery to the subject. In one of the exercises, Frank Gruber and Jen Consalvo, who have a start-up called ThankfulFor, and I brainstormed ideas for their brand narrative. Not only did we come up with some fresh takes, Jen and I discovered we have a mutual friend in Jim Crosby.  I texted Mr. Jim to that effect, and have since heard that he and Jen reconnected after a couple years of not being in touch.   I’m ThankfulFor that.

Then came the GameChangers Workshop. Here’s what one of the attendees, Jennifer Lee, founder of Artizen Coaching in San Francisco, said about it:

Mike gave some great examples of companies who use improvisation principles to enhance their business success and facilitated exercises to help us embody the learning:

* Companies tend to focus on the successful outcome. They try to re-create the next innovative product/outcome but fail because they really should’ve tried to institutionalize the successful process. The game is the process.
* Mike defines games as engines for exploring the theme of your narrative. They help create focus and discipline and they energize and invite team members to perform. Good games attract the good players.
* He had us play with the improvisation principles directly by inviting us to co-create a message around a random thing. It was amazing to see what our group came up with to market cookware. It was even more fun to get up in front of the room and “perform” it!
* Improvisation asks us to be very present with each other and to look for what we can build on. What a great way to leverage creativity in the workplace.

Thanks, Jenn, thanks Michelle and everyone at the Conference. Even if we didn’t get a chance to meet personally, we are now only a degree away.