An interview with Charlie Smith, PhD. by IdeaConnection‘s Vern Burkhardt. Excerpt below, read full interview HERE.
“Inevitably organizations with the most available energy will prevail. This refers to energy, aliveness, and vitality. Energy is equivalent to the power to act, which in turn determines success.” Charles E. Smith
Vern Burkhardt (VB): In Navigating From The Future you talk about “sustainable transformation.” Is this the essence of creativity and innovation?
Charles Smith: Creativity calls for returning to a zero point; returning to a possibility. It’s pure invention.
Sustainable Transformation is a misnomer as it’s generally used. You’re not really sustaining something. In order for transformation to happen, you have to become present or “real,” in the strongest possible sense, to what is going on now and to the inhibiting influences of the past. The past stops us from thinking about what’s new or could be new.
Sustainable Transformation means looking at things as they truly are right now, as we truly are now, with a clear mind. And then we can invent what we want. This may include re-inventing some aspect of what already exists, something else.
So yes, sustainable transformation is the essence of creativity. It’s the essence of sprouting something that isn’t already in existence. My view of creativity in its pure sense isn’t simply improving something. This is our approach to creativity when we are working with people in companies.
An awful lot of what’s going on in the world in the name of creativity and innovation cannot produce what companies are after or what their customers want. They’re stuck with their past.
VB: In order to have the type of creativity you’re talking about, you have to train yourself to not think about your past experiences?
Charles Smith: It’s the notion of “beginner’s mind” starting with a blank slate. A Quantum Physics view indicates that the world consists of an infinite number of possibilities that don’t come into existence until you ask a question. The real creativity involves coming up with questions for which the answers will generate something that’s new. A lot of it has to do with…[READ MORE]
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