Last week Jessica Bowman, Associate Superintendent / School Principal, Siskiyou Union High School District, and Certified Intentional Creativity® Teacher shared how implementing creative practices in her district office created cultural transformation. This week Jessica shares ideas that could be brought into other places of work. She suggests setting up the projects as a collaboration vs a directive for what the projects are and how they will work and to notice how the projects make each person feel.

• Spend some time talking about what each person enjoyed doing as children. Let these activities become assigned on a task on a to do list. Some of Jessica’s staff played with a grandchild building sandcastles on the beach, another spent time with crayons and coloring books with a granddaughter. This was a win win for all as it allowed time and the structure to be reflective and address their own levels of stress. The also decided to create a mediation space in a break room with a cushion, plants and essential oils. It’s now used daily by almost all her staff.

• Create Achievement Jars, put notes into decorated jars when accomplishing something that feels like an achievement vs allowing for own negativity and inner critic voice to add to the stress. The jars are a wonderful visual reminder of the accomplishments as half way through the year Jessica’s staff’s jars are nearly full!

• To change up routines in a different way, Jessica used Dr. Shelly Carson’s learning that by eating a different food than one is used to, the brain perceives reality differently, from a different lens. One week each staff member was assigned to order something different than the usual item at a restaurant. This brought more attention into being present and experiencing the food in a different way.

• Create contests around answering questions. She created a contest that had different acronyms teams needed to come up with names for, or riddles and prompts with silly answers. This got everyone engaged by notes that were sent around to tease each other, awareness of each other’s strengths, and acknowledgments by peers. Prizes added to the fun.

I’ve led Intentional Creativity team building workshops in the corporate environment that included a memorable event where co-workers shared a large painting canvas placed on a table, with each person positioned around the canvas. A symbolic mark or shape was painted on the canvas In response to a question I asked around the team learning activities that had already taken place during a training. After each question, everyone moved one place to the left, painting next to and on top of each other’s marks. The result was a colorful abstract painting that served as a meaningful reminder of the training and now hangs in their lobby!

Jessica’s advice on creativity?

“It’s not just about making art, it’s ok to make mistakes – absolutely ok. In our culture, creative expression can bring condemnation, shunning, and we can experience incredible criticism, especially with our own inner critics. But this doesn’t need to be the case if we allow ourselves to play and learn, and celebrate the successes!”

You can reach Jessica at manifest_dreams@yahoo.com if you would like to learn more about her personal creative practices.

Kerry Lee, a 25 year Benicia resident, is a Certified Intentional Creativity® Teacher and Coach, officiates creative ceremonies and weddings, leads group workshops, experiential retreats, mobile social painting parties, customized corporate team building and corporate social responsibility events. Find her at KerryLeeArt.com / #TheAlchemicalArtist

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