Monthly Archives: October 2009

ECCIXIheader

Thanks to the people from FlandersDC I will be attending the 11th European Conference on Creativity and Innovation. Expecting lots of inspiration and new ideas for this blog.

Follow me live on twitter (hashtag #eccixi)

This year’s edition of ECCI is taking place in Brussels, at the brand new meeting place The Square. Great venue, if you ask me.

Getting ready for creative action
“Enough said about creative theory, it’s time for some creative action.” Talking about creativity is interesting but also frustrating. When attending creativity talks I often went home with lots of great advice, but those were just words. In the end putting these ideas into practice is what counts.

Not in this conference. Apparently, ECCI XI is all about making it happen. Read More »


via @cocreatr

Who would have thought that you could do this with water?

My guess is, it’s the water who told the designer that this was possible. My guess is, the designer had already done/seen/experienced something similar – however small it may have been – which, by paying attention to it, grew into this fantastic idea.

That’s what I believe about people as well. The great stuff, it’s already there. You’ve already shown some of it along the way but chances are you haven’t noticed yet. Pay attention to them and something beautiful is about to happen.

If you’d ask me what solution focused coaching is about, then I might say it’s about paying attention. It’s about discovering your own greatness and ability to deal with life’s challenges. It’s about caring for your own success.

It’s about planting the seeds and allowing them to turn into trees. It’s about water. And allowing it to become a creative waterfall.

“Can you allow things to happen the right way?”

This question crossed my mind while listening to a session about mindfulness by John Kabat-Zinn at Google.

I got a picture in my mind of a friend of mine who’s constantly worrying at work. It’s like she never has enough time to set things straight and to make things right. Often she takes her work home. And still things aren’t the way she wants them to be. And when they do there’s almost no time to enjoy them because another task is waiting, accompanied by another impossible deadline.

I wondered if she would be willing to sit back and be aware, just to allow things to happen the right way.

I wondered if I would be willing to do so. Maybe you wonder as well whether you’d be willing to do so.

Hold that thought for a while.

It seems absurd to say that ‘allowing to happen’ may be the best way to get things under control.

But there are many kinds of control. When you’re in resonance, when you – as a surfer – are one with your wave, then you’re in control. You are because your body is reading the wave in a way your rational mind can’t begin to understand. You read in dolby surround, in every kind of direction at the same time, with every sense possible.

Some people call this harmony.
Some mindfulness.
Some awareness, or flow.

I’m curious if I could become aware of moments when trying to control things keeps me from resonating, keep me from ‘allowing things to happen the right way’?

There’s a sentence popping up in my mind right now which may help me to open up.

“In you I trust.”

Let’s try that for a second. See what it does to us.