The Power of Wondering and Wandering

<span style="font-weight: 400;">This episode, Dr. Natalie Nixon and I dig into not just what it means to be creative, but also how leaders can create space for creativity and inspire it in their teams by letting in a little chaos.</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">Dr. Nixon is the author of The Creativity Leap, a creativity strategist, and a highly sought-after keynote speaker. In this conversation, we dive into the ideas behind her book, what makes someone "a creative" (hint: it involves being deeply human), and how important humanity and creativity are to the future of work - Natalie and I agree that we should let our AI overlords do what they do best…and we humans should focus on what we do best - be creative and empathetic!</span> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Natalie and I have three unexpected things in common: Ballroom dancing, an enthusiasm for Chaordic Thinking, and a deep sense that these two things are deeply intertwined!</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dancing looks to regularly resolve the dynamic tension between chaos and order, and find a state of flow between the two.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chaordic Systems Thinking, if you’re new to it, was first coined by Dee Hock, the founder and former CEO of VISA. He felt an ideal organization would balance order and control with disorder and openness, moving between them as it grew. Chaordic is just a made-up word combining chaos and order. I made a basic diagram of Chaordic systems Thinking for my book, Good Talk.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src= "//assets.libsyn.com/show/95692/unnamed.png" alt="" width="369" height="129" /></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Total Order (O, on the right) is oppressive and stultifying. It also doesn’t deal well with surprise or adapt to unpredictability. Total chaos (C, on the left) can mean a total collapse of a given system - as Natalie says, without any boundaries, what is it even!?! </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A chaordic