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Creative Blog 5-Creative Problem Solving

CPS requires a high functioning team in order to successfully implement a proper plan to solve the problem at hand. The three roles of facilitator, scribe, and resource group all play equally important roles in the execution CPS

Critical factors include exemplary team cohesion, proper allocation of roles, and proper communication among all members. If the facilitator needs to be making sure ideas are being ‘powered up’ and that things are organized. If the process is chaotic and the facilitator does have control over the group, the scribe will have difficulty making important notes, and the ideas will become misaligned and very unclear.

In our CPS process, i acted both as a facilitator and as a resource group member. As a facilitator i did a good job at making sure all members of the resource group were involved and building on others ideas. When i participated in the resource group, i think i could have done a better job at being a team member and listening to others ideas. I get caught up in thinking my ideas are the best that i don’t think to become more engaged in my group members suggestions throughout the process. 

The process of diverging and converging ideas is an aspect that I will apply in the future. I think it is a practical process that allows you to be open and creative in the first part and then bring things back in the converge section. It uses a mix of both left brain and right brain thinking that is critical in facilitating proper CPS working. 

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Blog 4 Ideation

Ideation and brainstorming gives you the creative freedom for me to explore the new ideas and thoughts that come out in real time. I believe that the individual aspect of ideation really speak to me and are a positive component of this process. The most important aspect of this is the absence of group brainstorming. I find in brainstorming proposals with others that the ego comes into play a lot more and manipulates my ideas and can stifle creativity. 

In our group brainstorming sessions, i often found myself playing the role of facilitation in a lot of the activities. I believe that my leadership skills play an important aspect in several of my roles, and i did a good job at converging on our groups ideas and filtering. 

I think individual brainstorming will be a tool that i use is in the future more. Often we think that more is better and that can be a fallacy with brainstorming. it cannot be understated how important it is to take the ego out of ideation, and by being alone, you can be free to run with wild ideas.

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Creativity Blog 3 - Mindmapping

Mindmapping and idea mapping are excellent tools that serve as productive alternatives to taking notes. They allow you to interpret the information given into a way that helps you retain it best. The TedTalk did a great job at illustrating how we do not retain information in long, complex sentences. Then why do we take and attempt to memorize notes that in that form? 

For someone like myself, i remember things in simpler terms than the ways in which we are taught to memorize them. These tools help me be more creative by allowing me to retain information in a more free way. I recognize that most of what we learn will not be retained word-for-word with how its presented to us. I feel more free to highlight things that are of interest to me, write down points that resonated with me. Its this freedom to interpret how you want that inspires a more creative approach to learning. 

I have started using these tools for note-taking during our classroom discussions at Sheridan. Its can be difficult to master as breaking down points and keeping it simple can be hard when you are used to taking long notes your entire life. What is great about this environment is that if i make mistakes along the way, there is a large safety net. I can look at my peers notes, and reference the powerpoint’s and Slate notes incase my maps are not ideal or if they are missing important information. 

It was amazing to experience this tool, as before the class demonstration, I had never heard of it before. I liked how I knew instantly words that I would remember and could jot them down. It also felt as if a layer of stress was lifted off of my shoulders, as i did not have to worry about taking a note for every single point made throughout the class. I was able to just pay attention throughout the class and could simply focus on listening to what was being taught. 

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Creativity Reflective Blog 2 - Creative Blocks

I have noticed how time and time again that there are three blocks that stop my creative juices from flowing right in their tracks. Fear, lack of motivation, and self-doubt often times stifle my ability to think clearly and open my mind. Fear and self-doubt to me, often work together in my struggles. The fear of failure can easily be reenforced by negative self-talk. This eventually makes it impossible to have the motivation to follow through on things.

 I found that courage really helped me break through these creative blocks. i believe courage the antidote of fear. To me, courage is best exemplified when you follow through on things that make you scared, not doing something in the absence of fear. Motivation was tackled doing a different approach. It required a counter to the negative self-talk. its amazing how positive reinforcement can build motivation, as much as negative-reinforcement can make fear more prominent. 

With courage in mind, i set up to tackle my fear of failure. It can harm my creativity and productivity, as i am scared my ideas and thoughts are not going to work out. This can make me pigeon-hole myself with ideas that are not conducive to being creative.  At my work this past weekend, i wanted to make changes to my job duties to make myself more productive, allowing me to support other staff by opening up more of my time. I decided to make the changes that i thought would lead to a more successful performance without the fear of failure. I developed the confidence through positive self-talk because i knew based on my experience and expertise that i could take more control of my role and make it better. It ended up working well, as it was very relieving to know that I am able to be successful when i have this sense of confidence in my abilities. 

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Creativity Reflective Blog 1- Creative Inclination

What areas of creativity can differ for many people. It can be difficult to judge since there may be areas’s that I have simply not tapped yet, that I may excel in but just have not realized it. 

For this exercise i went off the board a bit. I believe sports are my greatest inclination. It may sound strange to equate creativity and sports, but there is a connection. A lot of pro athletes, when they tell their stories, mention all sorts of challenging situations that they have had outside their sporting life growing up. The challenges are different for all the players, but they all state how when they are with their team playing, all the outside noise just disappears.  You can get so lost in the moment that any outside distraction cannot penetrate what you are focusing on right now, its almost as if you are in a flow, a trance-like state. Im describing my experiences with sports, but if I just mentioned the above sentence, you would think i would be describing an art-form. That is my calling, that is why i believe sports is my creative inclination. 

Peter discussed in class out important getting outside your comfort zone is, and how all growth we achieve in life flows through there, including learning new creative methods and processes that we can add to our life. For my creative experience, i chose to try Yoga for the first time. Not only that, i did it at my community rec centre (where i know people quite well) during a session that caters mostly to the elderly. Why? I wanted to get outside of my comfort zone, and there is a lot of stigma attached to a young male doing yoga at a local rec centre. Going through the movements that day, I tried to make it my own. The instructors preach how important it is to find your own balance and level of comfort during a yoga session, its a breeding ground for creativity. I tried several technics to improve my posture and balance, and tried creative ways to channel my focus and energy. It was an eye-opening experience to see just how powerful yoga is. Its more than just a sport, activity, its an art-form. I never realized how much you can express yourself through yoga. 

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Week 5: Motivating and Inspirng

Before this class, i would have assumed motivating and inspiring are two words that could be used interchangeably. Now i see how motivating focuses on external desires, whereas Inspiring is centred on your internal-self. 

At our hockey game last week, i was playing terrible. I was missing passes and not playing up to my abilities. My teammates knew that I was frustrated, they could see it on my face. Our captain pulled me aside and drew out ever ‘cliche’ hockey phrase to try and motivate me. He told me how good i was, how much i meant to the team, and tried to ‘fire me up’ so to say. 

I recently watched a movie called Revolution, by my inspirational leader, Rob Stewart. The movie is about climate change, and human impact on the natural environment. Many documentaries of this ilk picture a gloomy future and make me feel hopeless for humanity. Towards the end of this movie, Rob talks about how his side, environmental activists, is increasing. He documents cases around the world in which people are taking an active role against climate change. It was so moving because i felt every fibre in body scream ‘I want to be apart of this’. 

The core difference is in my emotions directed from each situation. With my inspiring situation, i did not feel the need to be pushed to do something, I just wanted to be apart of this special movement. Whereas my hockey moment, I had to will myself forward to better the situation. Inspiring moments really ignite a passion that is fulfilling. Motivation serves great purposes, but it does not build strongly on internal strengths and emotions the way that Inspiration does. It does not open the creativity and sense of purpose that I can connect with.

Personal power comes in three forms; Expert power, referent power, and persuasion power. All three personal powers involve others having belief in your abilities. All three are not mutually exclusive. Someone can use their expertise to build trust in others and place strong influence on them. 

I am a very persuasive person. Almost like a lawyer, i can be argumentative and believe in my abilities to influence others and see things from my point of view. At my workplace, I have initiated a more robust recycling plan. I am not a recycling expert, i have no formal experience and they do not see my as one to trust on the subject matter. However, I was able to persuade my co-workers that we would benefit from the new recycling plan. I used positive reinforcement techniques, making them aware of how this will help everyone in our team if we all work together and follow through. For me that is a critical component of persuasion. You need to make others believe that they will benefit, you need to believe that you are not trying to benefit more than everyone else with decisions involving the use of persuasion. As I have mentioned in previous posts, being an effective communicator goes a long way in this regard. All these leadership strengths tie together in one shape or another.

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Week 4: Key areas of leadership

I consider myself a global citizen. Canada is my home, but i am a person of this world first. I have travelled extensively, and often ponder my impact on the world we live in.

Global Leadership draws my attention because it represents the kind of person I am. With modern technology and travel, people are becoming more connected across the globe. This has given rise to new leaders, ones that can operate within a global environment. My communication skills and strengths are providing me with the abilities to further develop in this leadership area. In this environment, its very important to be culturally sensitive. Sometimes language and cultural barriers can interfere with team and leadership success. Im an attentive listener, i use non-verbal cues, and I try to build deep relationships with my team members. 

Virtual leadership baffles me at times. It may sound ironic as being a leader in a global environment may encompass a lot of online communication tools. Its the impairment of abilities that being a virtual leader faces. To me, it seems impersonal. It is much more difficult to read body language, use cues, and develop deep relationships over the internet and computers. As humans, our brains have not caught up to the rapid increase in technology, and our brains reward in-person comfort and bonds. Part of this could just be naive. I have not given virtual leadership my proper attention and some of these assumptions may be false. Upon further research, people engage so much in an online world that they see virtual leaders in the same way that they see in-person leaders. It is just a different skill-set and traditional characteristics in great leaders are not always the same. 

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Week 3: Fundamentals of Teamwork, a Hockey Story

Hockey is a team sport. Basketball can also be labelled as a team sport. The difference? Lebron James took a pedestrian Cavaliers team to the NBA finals several times. Connor Mcdavid took the Oilers to 10th last in the NHL. One player cannot make a hockey team the greatest, its a group effort. Its why the Vegas Golden Knights, a team of cast-offs and has-been’s, made it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Like the Golden Knights, my senior high school hockey team made an improbable run to the regional finals. We lost in the final game, but it was an epic run, that no one saw coming. 

The one factor that our success can be attributed to was the dedication from all team members. Every game, every shift, we worked as hard as we could to win. This is because every single one of us knew that the only way to succeed as a team was to out-work our opponents. It took a level of commitment from every member. There was no guy in that dressing-room that i could say, ‘We would be better off without him on the ice’. Our skillsets were all different, but we all had a common goal to achieve, and we all knew that it was going to take hard-work and dedication from every member to achieve it. 

It was my senior year, and I had been on the team the previous year. We had many new players and, although i would no classify myself as a ‘skilled-player’ i wanted to take on a leadership role. I not only wore an A, but i played the part to earn it. Reflecting on the skills we are learning in our program, I realize that many of them can be applied to myself and this situation. Communication, motivation, persistence, honesty. All traits of a good leader. I was not the best player but i knew that I had to embody the type of team that we wanted to be. I wanted to inspire and motivate the new players, and build our identity. The best way i knew how was by example. I set the tone. Every practice i would show up early, stayed late. I made sure that every player was on the same page. There would be no days off, just a goal that we wanted to achieve and how to set about doing it. 

Looking back, I would have taken pressure off of everyone involved as the situation got more intense. When we were the ‘Cinderella team’ with no expectations, it was easy to have fun and my leadership duties were easy to keep in check. As we got more notice, we faced a burden of expectations. From our school, our family, but most of all, ourselves. In teams like this, it is very important to stay focused and have fun. Thinking of these large expectations can have a major detrimental impact of team performance. As a leader of that team, i take responsibility in not easing the situation and reminding the team members what is most important to us. 

Conflict can be difficult to deal with, and can stifle a team or help them grow. Outlined in the conflict management matrix, I view myself as too much of a passive, avoiding conflict manager. I am making strides to move myself towards a more collaborative approach. Avoid conflict is like staying in your comfort zone. Its nice, you won’t feel threatened, but you and your team will not grow. A collaborative approach tackles problems proactively, and looks at the roots of problems and how we can solve them as  a group. Conflict creates pressure, stress, and uncertainty. Situations like these create great leaders as you perform and grow the most in these pressure situations. 

In the future, I think its important to know when and how to get involved in tense conflicts. One thing i have learned is in the area of dealing with problems with group members. Often times, it is one member that is being exiled by the entire group. Instead of confronting the member as a team in an onslaught, one representative would be better. It is less intimidating, and offers more opportunity for the conflict to reach a settlement organically, instead of a head-on approach led by too many people at once. 

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Week 2 Blog: Being my Authentic Self

Being an authentic leader is difficult. Theres an image in your head of what you are and what you want to become or improve on, and its often easy to have these idyllic goals that don’t stay true to who you are. What if you don’t like the leader you are right now, there are a lot of questions that require deep thinking to answer. 

Out of the lessons we did so far, i think finding my admired leader, and examining their traits that I want to adopt had a big impact on me. Inspiration, unselfish, motived, passionate, these are adjectives that best describe Rob Stewart, the leader that I admire. Its not the sing, Rod, he was an oceanographer that made two films pertaining to Sharks and climate change. Connecting those traits to my values of Self-Respect and wanting to do meaningful work, I can see how these internal beliefs and rewards have the most meaning to me. Title, salary, and power are not things Rob wanted, and neither do I. This is helping me understand that to be a great leader, I have to truly believe in the cause, thats what helped shape Rob, and will help shape me. Im starting to see the bigger picture in what motivates me, what I want out of a career, and out of life. 

Starting now, im trying to apply what I learned from analyzing Rob to my own life and to the leader that I wish to become. Marcus Buckingham made a great point in the video, to consciously acknowledge things that made you happy, and it will help you better understand what you want in life. I want to continue to discover what really gets me passionate in a way that just consumes me. I know that i care about climate change, conservation, and general do good deeds for a planet. Im not a biologist, a zookeeper, or scientist, but I want to get involved in these industries in some profound way, and If i can find something here that excites me and suites my skills, I think there is a leadership opportunity for me. 

The leadership credo is turning out to be a difficult task. Its easy to get writers block by overthinking what you want to write, because when you have it right, you’ll just know.  One aspect of my credo i really love is ‘To create meaningful relationships with my team based on our fundamental desire to inspire powerful change’. When you are working with people who believe in the same cause as you, no matter their personality type or background, it ignites you to work harder and really connect with them. Finding those relationship in life is difficult, but if you start working towards a goal that you are passionate about, the opportunity will be there to meet others that are interested in the same thing.

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Week 1: A leadership Analysis of Myself

Leadership is a tricky subject. People seem to think you have it or you do not, they often times don’t realize the strength that has yet to tap into. 

In my opinion, leadership is shown and growth is experienced only through difficult experiences and circumstances. This past weekend, I was asked to MC at my fathers’ wedding, a role I had absolutely zero experience with. To add, it was a last minute request as my sister was originally slotted for the role, before backing out at the last minute. Me, being a ‘do-er’, opted to fill the vacancy without much thought or consideration. I knew my sister would be uncomfortable with the role, and a recent personal situation meant it would be just too much for her. My dad and Marcel (his bride to be) did not have many options and little time, so I took charge and volunteered. There was not much planning done by anyone beforehand, and I had soon come to realize that this would be one of those classic ‘wing-it’ situations. Thankfully, the wedding planner had an outline of the schedule that I could go off of, but it was largely up to me to inform guests on the schedule, perform a speech during the toasts, and apply for some comedic relief throughout the day. This can all sound overwhelming for most people, thankfully I am comfortable with a mic, and have an uncanny ability to improvise and make smooth commentary without putting much thought into the words coming out. I was able to work for the crowd, make small jokes, answer questions, and lead them through the events of the day in a hospitable fashion. It was great for me because I realized how confident I can be in pressure situations. I didn't worry about saying silly things or making a fool of myself. I guess you could say I realized that I could be comfortable with uncertainty, a skill I am really trying to develop in my personal life. It neutralizes that anxiety that can paralyze your ability to be in the present and just go with the flow. Now, I am not saying that you can just take on roles without prior planning, relying only on your skillset, and expect a great outcome each time. My speech for the toast, something that was meant to be heartfelt, honest, and warming, was a trainwreck of sorts. I had a difficult time with something that needs to be deep and well thought through. I had to think before i spoke and it made it difficult to let the words flow correctly. I learned that you can be a leader and take charge in situations that you are comfortable in, but when it comes down to a really meaningful task that is going to really resignate with the people that you are conveying it to, you can't just pull it off without proper practice and processing, in order for things to go well.

I believe that i have a very strong understanding in my skills and abilities as a leader. Empathy drives a lot my ability to work well with others. I genuinely like to see others work well and respect that everyone is different. Having traveled extensively in less developed areas of the world, I have seen how privileged we are in Canada, and it is wrong to judge people not knowing what they have been through in their life. Group projects were a staple of the last year in my undergrad, and we had a group assignment that required a lot of long reading and researching. Our group members were tough on one in our group as she struggled to keep pace with her assigned research. I called a meeting without her there to discuss the situations. It didn't take long to see that we were being judgemental without even realizing it. I decided to step up and turn the judging on us. English was her third language, and I don’t think we realized how difficult it was to go through this jargon in a language that isn't your own. It wasn’t fair for us to give her an even slice of the workload when it really gave her more work due to the difficulty in interpreting the information that she was assigned to read and look at. This situation also demonstrates my ability to recognize when I'm being a poor leader. It's easy to criticize others shortcomings, but harder to identify your own. Having gone on solo backpacking excursions, done difficult hikes, and a thirst for adrenaline, I think a thirst for getting out of my comfort zone makes me a great leader. Like I previously said, the best opportunity for leadership growth is in uncomfortable situations. You can be a leader in things you demonstrated strong abilities in, but you won't be challenged and you won't be able to grow as a leader. 

Having gloated about my strengths, there are areas I believe that I need to improve on. One of the most glaring weaknesses is my inability to deviate from my own ideas for others if I think mine is better. Even when there is a group consensus, I often regard my thoughts and plans as superior and it can be difficult to take off the rose coloured glasses and see others ideas without that predisposition towards my own. stubbornness can be helpful, but it can also deny you to opportunities and ways of thinking that you may not have previously known. Another area that needs improvement is to let others lead and be a follower. There might be a deeper layer of ego involvement in my desire to be relied upon always, but you need to recognize that you can't be Superman in every situation. Being a follower at times will give you the tools to be a leader, and analyzing someone else's leadership ability is a great way to analyze your own strengths and weaknesses. This class might cause people to overanalyze their leadership skills and try to push themselves to be a leader whenever and wherever possible, in hopes of improving their skills. Not every situation is a great one for you to be a leader, but that doesnt mean you can you that situation to develop your own leadership skills.

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An intro...

Welcome!

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting updates, stories, and analysis of leadership and what it means to both an individual and a group.

But first, a bit about me. 

I am 26 year old project management student at Sheridan College. After graduating with a business degree in 2014 from UBC, I wasn’t able to make up my mind of what to do. So i did what anyone would do, I travelled. I spent a year living in the pristine Lake Louise, skiing by day and greeting guests by night. I have been to several countries in SouthEast Asia, from motorobiking over a thousand kilometres in Vietnam, to enjoying undeveloped and remote parts of Myanmar. I picked up Spanish and travelled south america. I visited 20 000ft peaks, saw ancient ruins, and saw a magical paradise known as the Galapagus Islands. Now, after having a better understanding of who I am and what I want, am back in School to develop skills to enter the workforce in a new career, and you bet i am excited about it!

Just a side note, im a BIG hockey fan. I could be swamped in projects and homework, on my way to work, or in a bad mood, but I am always down to talk hockey!