The following post is written by Juice on the Loose facilitator Adam Shames:
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Read more about Adam’s musical story, click the picture
In my mid-twenties, I did not believe I could ever, ever, play music or respectably sing or write my own songs. Even though I loved music, my mindset was: I am not a musician and it would be impossible for me to become one. But thanks to spending time with others who helped me break that mindset and inspired me to risk trying, I became a prolific singer-songwriter and now a speaker-consultant-facilitator who uses music with corporate groups to help them become better at collaborating creatively…
I had always been interested in creativity and self-expression, having studied in college with Teresa Amabile, one of the world’s leading creativity researchers, and, after a master’s degree in education from Stanford, getting an opportunity to experiment with group creativity for five years as an eventual teacher-of-the-year at a top private school in Northern California. At the time I began to play music, I lived in San Francisco and saw how easy it is for all of us to turn off our creative faucet, to accept being a spectator rather than a creator in our lives. So I founded the Kreativity Network then, which eventually brought thousands of people together in the Bay Area to share and support their own creativity through events and workshops. When I moved to Chicago ten years ago, Kreativity Network became the name of my business.
As adults in organizations (and in our personal lives), many factors conspire to squelch rather than unleash our creative thinking and doing. To be creative together, a group needs to operate by different ground rules and permission to experiment, to risk, to sometimes be wrong and sometimes fail. I share with clients this definition of innovation: To improve what’s now and to create what’s next. To do that requires a shift of mindset, a willingness to imagine and envision, that may seem nearly impossible. My job is to help groups and individuals embrace new possibilities, like the possibility, perhaps, that you too could become a musician.
Now I’ve worked with more than 100 companies and organizations, including McDonald’s, Panasonic, Siemens and the Federal Reserve, to help them build cultures that are more innovative and collaborative. You can check out a brochure here. My goal, through innovation retreats, teambuilding events and strategy sessions, is for the group to experience creativity together so that they bring a new mindset into the way they work.
I’ve also continued to take my own risks as a creator, now directing a groundbreaking interfaith creativity program for kids called Poetry Pals, recently writing a musical with unusual audience-participation components, and expanding my offerings to include how we are changing as a culture overall, based on research on Cultural Creatives.
So come out to Catalyst Ranch Wednesday night to celebrate creativity and experiment with ideas (and perhaps music…) with me—you might be surprised to find a shift is possible for you too.
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Adam Shames is a creativity expert, organizational consultant and speaker who specializes in innovation, teambuilding and community events. He is also a musician, poet and executive director of Poetry Pals. Adam is the founder of the Kreativity Network and writes about creativity in his “Innovation on my Mind” blog. See him in action at our World Creativity and Innovation Week event Juice on the Loose on April 17th at 5:30PM. [/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
