I set up The Creative Thinking Company over fifteen years ago. At the time, I was working in the public sector, frustrated by the limitations of traditional meetings and convinced that there had to be a better way to help teams think. I trained as a facilitator, started running creative thinking workshops inspired by de Bono. I also used art in team development sessions to get people to think about their work visually.
Then the pandemic hit. Like many people, my face to face work stopped. Going online was relatively new then, so although I tried to move across it proved difficult. I felt it simply wasn’t possible to replicate what I did in person, online. (Things are a lot different now.) Amongst all of this, I also reflected on life and my personal ambitions.
I felt pulled back to my art practice more strongly than I had in years. So I focused on that. I now exhibit in galleries and run an art membership where I teach art.
But I never really stopped thinking about the connection between the two- what happens in the studio when I’m making art and the parallels that can be found in work, and in life.
For example, as an artist, you live with uncertainty every time you start a new piece of work. You don’t always know how something will turn out until you’re in the middle of it. You sit with ambiguity, make decisions without a clear outcome in sight, and find your way through by doing rather than planning.
These are things that organisations talk about as leadership skills. For an artist, they’re just part of the work.
Noticing these kinds of parallels never left me.
Earlier this year I ran a pilot session with an organisation who hosted my most recent exhibition. I posed the idea to them of an art based workshop that might help them with their rebrand and future direction. It seemed a nice way to give back.
Using simple materials, I helped them think about their work in a new way. I wasn’t sure how it would land. It had been a while. But it landed well.
The team made things with their hands, looked at what each other had created, and started having conversations that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Ideas surfaced. Connections were made. The Chief Executive told me afterwards that “everyone was beaming.” They finally got the chance to be creative about their own work.
That session confirmed something I think I already knew- that this work is worth doing, and that it’s as challenging and as rewarding for me as creating a painting. The combination of my more developed art practice gives it something it didn’t have pre-pandemic.
So I’m relaunching The Creative Thinking Company with a clearer sense of what I offer. I have let the creative thinking workshops go as I think AI is being used for that now, unfortunately, but I am focusing on the very human aspects. Facilitating thinking as an artist, with experience in the business and corporate world.
The lead offer is The Sculpture Workshop -Making Thinking Visible. A half-day facilitated session that uses sculpture, image, and texture to help teams explore complex challenges and find fresh perspectives.
Alongside that, a range of Creative Team Days – creative experiences that bring teams together to make something, which may or may not be related to work. But as a team they will be stronger after.
And for organisations that want to go deeper, Creative Projects- longer engagements that draw on my wider skillset and use art and making as a thread running through a bigger piece of work.
It feels exciting to be back offering this to the world. I think the rise of all things digital needs to be counterbalanced with the human. We need to make, speak, and be in the same room together. We need that sense of community that we’ve lost. Don’t you think?
If you’re curious about what a session might look like for your team, I’d love to hear from you.
