VOL. 132 | NO. 206 | Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Let's Grow
Michael Graber
Unlocking Daily Creativity
By Michael Graber
A Day of Innovation session led by Monica Kang, founder & CEO, InnovatorsBox. How can you face your fear and use it as a strength?
The session started with an exercise. Each person had to pick a challenge they haven’t been able to solve.
Once the challenge was chosen, then it was time to illustrate fears and joys. Literally, draw them out in two columns using crayons. Seriously, crayons.
Fears were drawn on one side of a piece of paper, joys on the other. Then, the participants broke into small groups. They shared about the process: What is something new I learned about myself in the process?
Here are some of the responses:
• “When I framed the challenge statement as a fear, it hit something primal, took me to a deeper place.”
• “A couple of us felt like it was surprisingly easy to come up with the answer using this method.”
• “I would argue the opposite. It was good to have time to reflect, which I normally don’t do.”
The next question for reflection: What is really stopping you from moving from fear to joy?
Then Monica asked, “Did anyone know the answer before the exercise?”
Someone shared, “Unconsciously, yes, but I could not articulate it until now; it loomed like a shadow.”
Another spoke: “Having to verbalize it this way was new. It’s hard to move out of fear if you don’t know what the outcome will be. Yet, knowing that others are facing their fears helps. I really don’t verbalize these kinds of things to people I work with on a daily basis.”
Another participant added: “We are so busy trying to get a group to buy into an idea that we put on a mask of confidence instead of facing fear, which is frustrating.”
“The most revolutionary acts are not big things, but some details to change the daily rituals, such as a using a crayon rather than a pen,” says Monica.
Such small shifts can give you the key insights to think about old problems in new ways.
Michael Graber, managing partner of the Southern Growth Studio, can be reached at southerngrowthstudio.com.