Facilitating Creativity
Facilitating Creativity
Facilitating Creativity
CREATIVITY
BUILDING CONNECTIONS,
DRAWING INSPIRATION AND
EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES AS
INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS
Facilitator Handbook #4
CREATIVITY
BUILDING CONNECTIONS,
DRAWING INSPIRATION AND
EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES AS
INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS
European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an
endorsement of its contents, which reflect only the views of the authors. The Commission cannot be held
responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.
A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS
Legend:
Throughout the publication we use three types of labels:
Under the label “Case Study” you will find specific examples
from real life that address a certain topic from the chapter.
Look out for to the label “Task” if you are searching for tasks or
methods for working with your group on a certain topic.
INTRODUCTION:
page
06
Chapter 4
page
36
CREATIVITY AT EVERY CONVERGENCE:
TURN, AND IN US ALL NARROWING YOUR
THINKING
Chapter 1
page
10 Tasks | Case Studies
WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
Creativity and Social Change
Chapter 5
page
45
Creative Competence CREATIVE FACILITATION
What happens in Creative Minds?
Holistic Learning | Creative Spaces
22
Moderation | Humor
page
Diversity Consiousness
Chapter 2
Variety of Senses | Solution Orientation
CREATIVE PROCESSES Multiple Perspectives | Visual Facilitation
75
Creativity as a Learning Process
page
28
page
Chapter 6
Chapter 3 SOCIAL IMPACT AS A
DIVERGENCE: LEARNING SPACE
THINKING IN DIFFERENT From Ideas to Public Activity | Tasks
DIRECTIONS Case Studies
87
Tasks | Case Studies
page
OUTLOOK: TOWARD
SOCIAL TRANSITION
Applying Creativity to Cross-sector
Competences | Creative Commons
6
INTRODUCTION:
CREATIVITY AT EVERY TURN,
AND IN US ALL
Unleashing creativity
We feel it is important to start talking about creativity more openly in order
to define its place in education and society and to demystify the term. In
society creativity is often discussed as something that you either have or
don’t, much like talent. Today however, we recognize creativity as an innate
process that can be stimulated through activities, for example in groups, or
by creating the right conditions, for example through facilitation.
In this book we examine creativity through the lens of facilitation for the
purposes of:
Introduction:Creativity at every turn, and in us all | 7
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CREATIVITY e
Chapter 1
WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
Creativity is an ability that helps us process the wealth of information that our
minds collect and forge connections between different pieces of information
in order to find a solution to a problem in a new way, or to come to a new
understanding of the problem itself.
Often, this involves establishing new connections where there have been none,
and exploring the potential of seemingly unrelated topics. Creativity is as
much about providing answers to particular needs as it is about redefining the
questions that guide the search for answers. Ultimately, building upon previous
knowledge and experiences is the essence of most creative deliberation.
Therefore, in many ways creativity is about exploration: exploring the
knowledge that we already possess, exploring our environment and the rules
within it, and exploring the problems that we face in order to understand
and tackle them in new ways. Learners must overcome their discomfort with
unclear situations, and any tendency to go into "fight or flight" mode or avoid
uncertainty and ambiguousness. That means constructively dealing with
'mental disorder' and disruptive processes.
Children are often creative – they are constantly learning to explore and
reason. Ideally, they would connect this with an attitude of curiosity. In this
way, all creative processes begin with curiosity, or a willingness to explore.
Since learning about the world and trying to understand the connections that
guide it are connected to personal development and social experience, one could
conclude that creativity is an essential competence required in the processes of
learning.
Creative Competence
Creativity requires an attitude of curiosity to explore social surroundings.
Basically, it is the ability to connect new things with old things, to build
unexpected connections, and to develop new solutions to a problem or
challenge.
Within the context of groups, communities, or society, creative individuals'
ability to make connections means a proactive adaptability to social change
and an ability to recognize synergies and create new qualities out of what
already exists in discourses and groups.
Crucial for this social dimension of creativity is a mindset that demonstrates a
willingness and ability to generate ideas and a motivation to think and share
new solutions.
Creativity includes certain analytical and reflective skills required for exploring
new insights, as well as an ability to to implement these insights through
activities – here creativity is understood as a methodological competence.
Modelling creative competence for educational purposes can try to
articulate the essential aspects of this key competence in a systematic way.
One option is to distinguish between the factual, methodological, social and
personal competencies included in creative competence. This allows for the
facilitation of creative competencies in a targeted and conscious way. It helps
with planning and during learning processes, and can assist faciliators and
learners in developing criteria for evaluating achievements.
14
Inspired by: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) 2
CONVERGENT DIVERGENT
STRUCTURED CHAOTIC
INTERPRETING PERCEIVING
LOGICAL SYNCHRONOUS
MENTAL ACTIVITIES MENTAL ACTIVITIES
What is creativity? | 17
of a linear logic follows, as well as the goal of making sense and putting
some experiences aside to reduce complexity. By consciously and regularly
introducing creative disruptions between phases, facilitators can assist in this
interaction; in contrast enforced discipline limits dynamics.
SEEKING OUT AND GATHERING
CONTEXTUAL MATERIAL
and sometimes they proceed toward a goal. To achieve this flexibility, the
brain needs to develop structures that allow for such flexibility.
This idea of interaction between different parts of the brain, the interaction
of different brain functions in a hub-style as well as a flexible, interconnecting
way contradicts the assumption of a static work division between mental
processes or a static understanding of creativity as located in one certain place
in the human brain. 9 It is an ability to make connections with help of a bipolar
style of thinking shifting between “blind variation” and “selective retention”. 10
Creative learning processes imply both intellectual and physical development.
They keep our competencies and dendrites developing.
You are searching for a creative idea, but nothing comes to mind; you are
missing the context, inspiration, or point of reference. Brainstorming does
not help, no fresh ideas come to your mind. The SCAMPER method, an
approach created by Alex Osborn/Bob Eberle 11, provides a more specific
framework.
Instead of trying to develop completely new ideas for improving your project
or product, start first by modifying and transforming existing ones. This
method directs thinking by giving a context for the creative process and the
common ways for fostering creative logic.
Let us take an example from the fieldwork of the Warsaw based SKORO
What is creativity? | 19
S Substitute
Idea: Remove one aspect of the current situation, thing, or concept and
replace it with something else.
→→ What elements does your learning event currently include?
→→ Which of them can be replaced?
Example: Trainings usually begin with a group activity that is often very
dynamic and loud.
These might be replaced with an activity that helps one focus on oneself and
calm down before the start of the training.
C Combine
Idea: Join, affiliate, or force together two or more elements of your
subject matter.
→→ Which elements can be combined and which have to stay
unchanged?
→→ What other ideas can be affiliated with your primary learning event?
Example: Scholars and practitioners talk about issues during separate
learning events (e.g. conferences for scholars and non-formal events for
practitioners).
Bring these groups together to work on a certain issue.
A
Adapt
Idea: Copy an existing solution and apply it to your problem.
→→ Does my event share common elements with something else?
→→ Are there other fields, spheres, or educational practices that
inspire me?
→→ What previous solutions or situations are applicable to my current
learning event?
Example: Venture capitalists are usually “pitching” ideas and teams.
Adapt the highly successful business approach of presenting and mentoring
civic initiatives.
20
M Modify
Idea: Change a particular element's size, shape, other dimensions,
texture, color, attitude, position, history.
→→ What happens if I make my learning event bigger or smaller?
→→ Can I speed up or slow down the process of my learning event?
→→ What if I change the frequency?
Example: The usual training in SKORO takes place 5 full days at one
stationary place.
Offer a weekend meeting plus a series of webinars.
E Eliminate
Idea: Arbitrarily remove any or all elements of your subject, simplify,
reduce to core functionality.
→→ What can be removed?
→→ What is not needed for the stated goal or intended impact?
→→ What do others find superfluous?
Example: Learning events are usually facilitated by one person.
Create an open space, self-facilitated by mentors and participants, in so called
“peer-to-peer meetings”.
R Reverse or Rearrange
Idea: Turn it upside-down, inside-out, or make it go backwards,
against the direction it was intended to go or be used. Alternatively,
modify the order of operations.
→→ How can I rearrange the elements of the learning event?
→→ What about starting from the end?
→→ What habits and patterns can I change?
Example: The learning events are facilitated by the SKORO facilitators.
Let the participants teach the educators how they should facilitate.
What is creativity? | 21
Chapter 2
CREATIVE PROCESSES
Creative process
INVESTIGATION INCUBATION
ILLUMINATION
VERIFICATION
Creative processes | 23
Process Design
Some approaches to group faciliation try to direct the process of creativity
towards a social goal . For example, Design Thinking seeks to mobilize
the divergent and convergent aspects of the creative process for the
development of products or product-like solutions. This approach leads
participants through various stages:
→→ Empathize (deeply understand and observe the social context )
→→ Define the challenge
→→ Ideate & prototype
→→ Test & iterate
→→ Modeling
Human Centered Design follows a similar logic to Design Thinking ,
featuring the stages of hear, create and deliver.
Other programs seek to combine classical learning phases with typical
project development phases. We introduced this approach in the first
handbook of this series (Steps toward action).
→→ Ideation (gathering ideas)
→→ Concretization (transforming them into concepts)
→→ Experimentation (activities)
→→ Reflection (impact assessment and evaluation)
These complex approaches incorporate diverse learning experiences in a holistic
process and give creativity a chance to appear over the long term.
2.Incubation
This is a less conscious process that deliberately inserts breaks into
the concentrated effort of the workflow, voluntarily leaving problems
unfinished, and incorporating relief and rest. Keeping participants' minds
open ("mindwandering") for inspiration, taking a break from the intense
process of thinking in order to refresh the mind, maintaining perspective
and returning to the task with a different state of mind.1
→→ Writing down ideas individually and putting yourself in new shoes while
brainstorming (taking third person perspective)
→→ Generating content: Writing a “laundry list” of at least 100 ideas
3. Illuminating a new formation
An Aha moment follows the incubation phase. The “flash” moment of
insight happens after gathering all the elements (preparation phase) and
letting them float freely (incubation). It can be enforced but not controlled.
Sometimes it happens immediately, sometimes as a result of diverse smaller
insights. Stimulating illumination and raising learners' awareness of the
nature of the process makes its occurence more likely.
4. Verification
A conscious and deliberate phase for testing the validity of an idea, setting
down the idea in clearer form, planning it in detail, adapting it, and applying it.
Ideas for facilitating verification:
→→ Six Thinking Hats: www.competendo.net/en/Six_Thinking_Hats
→→ Future Workshop: www.competendo.net/en/Future_Workshop
→→ Describing the idea according to its impact on society:
www.competendo.net/en/Theory_of_Change
Ongoing evaluation relates to the development of creative competence. Such
reflection helps learners to understand the nature of creativity and draw
conclusions on how they might arrive at better creative insights during the
next steps of a process and in the future.
WORKPLACE, PEOPLE
FAMILY AND SCHOOL OR
FRIENDS UNIVERSITY
MY CITY
MYSELF,
MY DREAMS,
AND MY INTERESTS
PERSPECTIVES
Introduction
You can introduce this activity with a brief meditation or a focusing
exercise.
Tell participants to go to one station and see what occurs to them. Have
them write down any ideas that come to mind and place them into the
buckets/boxes. If they so choose, participants should feel free to draw
instead of write.
Participants then change station, continuing until they have visited all
of them.
1. Fantasy phase
Participants do the imagination stations silently. During a 30 minute
break, the trainers empty the buckets/boxes, cluster them together
in a general way according to topic and put them up on a large wall
or board. Note: Be sure to allow enough space for the next step!
2. Review phase
Next the participants read the ideas that have been written and
have a chance to add questions, new inspirations, or comments in
the forms of mind mapping, drawings and text.
3. Evaluation phase
The participants identify the ideas/topical fields that inspire them
most for their project work. They place evaluation dots (small round
stickers) next to these ideas, or can make dots with markers.
4. Small group phase
A brainstorming/mind map/idea collection takes place in smaller
groups. These can also be small project teams selected according
to the inspiration each participant had during the previous steps.
These teams then perform a critical review: Which ideas are actually
possible to implement?
Next, participants elaborate on a feasible project concept and create
an outline on a poster.
5. Presentation phase
Each group presents its results. After the presentations, you can add
a phase to evaluate the project concepts with feedback which could
include questions, (appreciative) commentaries or proposals.
1. Zedelius CM and Schooler JW (2015) Mind wandering “Ahas” versus mindful reasoning: alternative
routes to creative solutions. Front. Psychol. 6:834. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00834
28
Chapter 3
DIVERGENCE:
THINKING IN DIFFERENT
DIRECTIONS
Exploring new and original ideas about a topic and drawing inspiration from
the ideas or action of others leads to a colorful bouquet of opportunities that
people need first for reasoning, and then for using these opportunities as
material for creativity at a later stage. For example, divergent thinking can be
encouraged by:
→→ Allowing participants to get into the flow
→→ Unleashing participants' associative potential
→→ Providing opportunities for different sources of inspiration. Expression
through diverse active cultural activities, such as dancing, performing,
music, or drawing
→→ Encouraging and practicing non-conformist and unconventional ways
of thinking
Fiction writing, poetry writing, and creative non-fiction writing can give
expression to our thoughts, experiences, or emotions. Rather than simply
providing information, creative writing can entertain or educate, spread
awareness about something or someone, or simply express a writer's ideas
and opinions.
Creative writing is also a great learning tool, a means to explore the world
around us and challenge our assumptions. Creative writing exercises and
workshops offer much more than writing skills. In our professional lives,
creative writing might reveal new ways of presenting knowledge and
experience to various target groups, and improving your persuasion skills.
For educators, creative writing is a great way to broaden the curriculum
and give students new challenges. Creative writing helps to develop our
imagination, and therefore helps us to come up with original ideas and
new solutions for the challenges we face. In terms of personal growth,
creative writing also provides us with a means to grow more comfortable
with sharing our own thoughts, to learn more about ourselves, to explore
our strengths (and areas we may need to improve), to get in touch with our
feelings, and to improve self-confidence and self-esteem. Writing can help
us find self-forgiveness and healing.
CREATIVITY FIRE
BIRD
MOTIVATION
SOCK
LOVE LISTENING
BICYCLE PENCIL
TEAMWORK
TREE
CONFIDENCE COURAGE COFFEE
Connect 3 words from the first column to 3 words from the second column.
Be quick! Then complete sentences:
following construction:
“[ACTION] is like [NOUN] because...”, for example:
“WRITING is like SKY because it hides much more than we can ever imagine.”
Questions for reflection
→→ How can noticing and forcing connections help us to develop
creative ideas?
→→ How do metaphors help us to become more clear and persuasive in
communication?
→→ What are the benefits and risks of using figurative language?
Experience
This task is a suitable warm-up for longer writing exercises.
Source: Creative Writing Cookbook, 2016
Goal
For learners to increase their perception skills and to mobilize their visual
sense for creativity.
Steps
We usually ignore many of the shapes and forms around us. Shifting focus
may allow us to perceive them more consciously. By choosing certain
sections of photographs or adopting a different perspective, we can find
numerous letters around us, although they were not written. A pot handle
turns out to be a "D", for example, while the space between bricks can be "I"
or "T". Take pictures and spell your name, one picture for each letter.
After taking pictures, crop the images (if needed) and assemble the name
on a LibreImpress/Powerpoint slide. Or print the pictures and assemble
them on a paper sheet.
Reflection
→→ How did the activity unfold for you?
→→ What was easy?
→→ What was difficult, and what was your strategy to overcome
the difficulty?
→→ What might you conclude for building your perception skills?
34
Task: Visioning
45 min 1-25
MitOst
Goal
Mobilizing learners' positive imagination and motivation.
Instruction
Before beginning a new task, imagine how you could complete this task
with joy and energy. Envision the future moment in which you have
completed this task – how good and capable you’ll feel, and how proud
you’ll be of yourself.
→→ What exactly will you see?
→→ What will you hear?
→→ How will you feel?
→→ What will you say to yourself ?
→→ What will others say to you?
Perhaps you can find a certain image – real or imagined – or a song that
connects with your feeling. If you fall into a slump imagine it, look at it,
listen to it – and thus simply imagine a good feeling.
Experience
Facilitators might make use of different methods for such an exercise in
imagination:
For example, a phantasy journey where people listen to the questions in a
relaxed position, accessing their unconscious knowledge:
www.competendo.net/en/My_Further_Civic_Involvement:_Meditation_
on_the_Future
Use an activity like Bridge to the Future or The Identity River from his
handbook to allow participants to express themselves non-verbally.
Some participants may prefer to document their imagination visually.
Divergence: Thinking in different directions | 35
Goal
This is a tool for collecting associations in a small group or team context.
In the first step, participants gather associations, in the second they
prioritize them.
Preparation
Make sure that learners are in a relaxed and focused mood. Background
music or inspiring decorations in the learning space may support this.
For each group of three/four people, prepare 5 to 7 sheets with one word
on each sheet in the center (font size 36pt). Example words might include:
INITIATIVE
ENVIRONMENT NEIGHBOURHOOD
POLITICS SUSTAINABILITY AT HOME
TEAM
CHALLENGES PROBLEMS
Steps
1. From small groups of 3 or 4 participants. While 2 or 3 people sit back-
to-back on the floor, the third/fourth person receives a sheet
with words.
2. The person with the sheet reads the first word out loud. The other
2 participants make free associations between the words, speaking
them out loud. The person reading writes down the associations on
the paper.
After 1 minute another is read and the process is repeated with all of
the 5 to 7 sheets.
Reflection
Ask participants to analyze their word clouds.
Which are the five most important or interesting associations on each
sheet? Mark them.
Experience
This method is a good starting point for a second step. For example, the
most important aspects might be used for a project concept, or as the
main topic of an article.
36
Chapter 4
CONVERGENCE:
NARROWING YOUR
THINKING
Affinity Diagram
Group what belongs together.
A b C
a c
B
A C
B
Convergence: Narrowing your thinking | 37
Fishbone Diagram
Describe cause and effect (outcome).
CAUSE EFFECT
A B C
A1 B1 C1
SUBSECTIONS
A2 B2 C2 PROBLEM
or
D1 E1 F1
SUBSECTIONS OUTCOME
D2 E2 F2
D E F
Interrelationship Diagram
Alternatively, describe the way that things interrelate.
B C
A
D E
Tree Diagram
Break broad categories down into details.
B
A C
F E D
Prioritize
Set ideas or words into a hierarchical order.
A
C
Matrix
Set ideas or words into relation.
White Red Blue
Tree birch acorn chinese wisteria
Flower camomille rose cornflower
Fruit lichi apple plum
38
Task: Mapping
A mindmap is a good tool for ideation and documenting
associations. It is often used in group processes and set
down on paper.
The interesting aspect of mindmaps is that they bring structure and
order to thoughts, however. Applications for electronic mindmapping are
especially effective, as everything can be rearranged or enlarged.
Moderation
Mental state
Definition Creativity Facilitation Evaluation/Decisions
A process
Holistic Learning Mix
The open source electronic tool FreePlane helps you to change, rearrange,
add and connect ideas, words or phrases. Even complex knowledge can be
arranged in such electronic maps.
These maps may further be used as an alternative to Powerpoint or
Impress for presenting ideas.
More: www.freeplane.org
There are many creative ways to facilitate global topics such as human
rights, global inequality, climate change or distributive justice. Newspapers,
books, and webpages often describe our world in terms of numbers and
figures. These give a clear and often well researched overview of how our
world actually looks. At the same time, numbers can be overwhelming,
hard to put into relation, and difficult to draw conclusions from. Therefore,
a creative approach to facilitation might connect the everyday experience
of learners with such complex global issues. Concrete local experience
connects with abstract, complicated ideas like globalization, supply chains,
and the world economy.
Drawing or making visual representations of global connections is often
helpful not only to understand a certain topic or situation, but to really feel
it and get a holistic view. Drawing mindmaps of global processes can help
us to understand them and figure out which parts are most moving and
interesting for the participants.
Convergence: Narrowing your thinking | 39
Steps
→→ Ask participants to create a map of the training session, the venue or
their school.
→→ Add every place that they associate somehow with globalization.
→→ Participants then examine their own bags, clothes, lunchbox,
computer room, smartphone, the materials the venue is built with
.. and reflect on how it relates to CO2 emissions or global labor
inequalities.
→→ Have participants sketch the items, one card per item, and write a
short description of every item.
→→ The whole class then attaches the cards to the big training map.
→→ The leading question is: Why and in what way are these icons
(products, places, histories) related to CO2 and globalization?
40
Reflection
→→ How easy or difficult was it to find global connections?
→→ How deep were you able to dive into various global topics?
→→ What global topics are most important?
→→ Where would you like to explore more?
Experience
When we do this activity with less experienced participants, it is often the
first time that they understand that even this training is not an island,
but is connected to the outside world and has direct consequences. For
example, it makes a difference to people outside the training if we choose
vegetarian food or meat. Similarly, the kind of transport we use to come to
the training affects climate change.
US
NOISE FO C
FOCUS new possible
paths and options
Goals
→→ Assessing the potential of diverse ideas and scenarios for learners’
future activities, for example in a social initiative or an organization.
→→ Assessing and evaluating their realistic capabilities .
A creative group process has yielded one (or more) ideas in rough format,
and now the team has diverse visions for its possible impact. Now it is
the challenge of the team to cluster, evaluate and to choose the one idea
they want to follow. The task examines the potential behind an idea by
assessing it through the lens of a kind of market analysis matrix: To what
extent is it possible to (re-)invent something? And who stands to gain
from our initiative? This task might help in two ways:
→→ By describing the same idea in slightly different ways, for example as a
revolutionary (totally new approach) or incremental (slight change
of an already existing, sufficient practice) concept. This would help
provide a deeper understanding of how the initiative could change
and have a different impact.
→→ By providing an overview of what a concept might require in terms
of opportunities, capacities, and the competences of the team or
organization.
Mapping phase
new users/target groups/stakeholders/audience
new offers
Resource analysis
The matrix above demonstrated how different options change the
nature of an initiative. Further, it probably helped participants gain a
mutual understanding of how a team wants to shape their initiative. The
following step makes this more concrete and gives its assessment greater
precision. Take a look at the existing or needed resources. Criteria for
assessment may include:
Assessment Strengths and
1–5 weaknesses
Existing competences: +
Participants' attitudes, experience
and skills. -
Personal resources: +
Intensity, complexity of
the project. -
Social impact: +
Adequateness, usability
for people. -
Strategy:
+
Your visibility, does it open up
further opportunities?
Does or should it help to enter a
-
new stage?
Financial resources: +
No-budget or low-budget, or
fundraising needs. -
+
...
-
44
Chapter 5
CREATIVE
FACILITATION
Holistic approach
Learning that focuses on key competencies prepares learners for ongoing
changes and transformations in their lives. It provides them with new skills
and capabilities to effect future transformation on their own. When used in
a holistic learning mix, as described in Facilitator Handbook #2, facilitation
can unleash learners' creativity, allowing them to draw on it in group
activities. Such a process combines group interactions and experiential
learning, cognitive learning, and opportunities for informal learning and
reflection.
Emotional
Playfulness, feeling connected to others, experiencing
positive and negative emotions by being challenged;
emotions regarding values and intellectual concepts.
Practical
Trying things out, doing things together, modeling,
turning ideas into decisions and actions, practicing skills,
experimenting.
Ongoing and integrated reflection strengthens the process of convergent
thinking. This can be achieved through tasks designed to evaluate outcome,
46
HOLISTIC LEARNING
engages learners’ knowledge,
skills, attitudes, emotions, and
practices. It helps build their key
competencies, and improves their
ability to meet complex demands*
www.competendo.net/en/Handbooks_for_Facilitators
LEARNING PROCESSES
48
Moderation
Creative insights in learning processes are often unexpected, they may
even sound ridiculous at first. Creative insights require a willingness
to think differently. Mobilizing this style of thinking can be described
as non-conformist, in the sense that it treats differences as a resource.
Participants must feel accepted, free to disagree, and welcome to break
taboo associations. They must also feel sufficient confidence and trust in the
general honesty and willingness of others to contribute to a positive learning
experience that is shared between facilitators and participants. Facilitation
increases clarity in the group and helps to develop group norms that help
to foster creativity, such as those mentioned above. It is about listening and
empowering learners to listen and to speak with each other. Including methods
for stimulating creativity provides space for difference, for "crazy" or "stupid", and
for opposing ideas and opinions.
Creative facilitation seeks to incorporate norm-breaking behavior while
at the same time shaping new common norms and agreements. As such,
50
moderators should be aware of the need for negotiation, keep in mind the
possibility of consensus, and maintain the courage to manage conflicts if they arise.
This is what allows for social diversity - a space where people with common and
divided interests learn to accept one another. In a training or workshop, this
social diversity and each learners' individual needs must be appreciated and
included. Diversity-conscious facilitation empowers people to become (co-)
creators. Keeping the phases of creative processes in mind, disruptive practices
should be included throughout the facilitation. This encourages learners to
make new connections, change their methodological approach, reframe things,
shift their mindset, and see things from a different perspective.
A Sense of Humor
Humor is about amusement and triggering enjoyable shift in consciousness.
The punchline of a joke can quickly change one's perspective, allowing him
or her to see things in a new way or adopt a more playful attitude with a
broader perspective.
Humor lets us see that values and concepts are not absolute, but specific to
people, situations, and each individuals' experience. Jokes reveal the blind
spots in our understanding of reality.
When asked whether he loved his country, a former German president once
famously replied “well, I love my wife”. In doing so, he showed his surprised
public that “love” is a very personal concept, and not suited to abstract units
like society. He gave people cause to reflect on how loyalty to one’s country
differs from personal love.
Most people’s everyday experiences include failure, disappointment, and
suffering; humor makes life bearable, allowing us to take things more easily
and enjoy life's problems.
Jokes regarding power provide a good case in point, such as the following
joke from the solidarity movement in Poland: “Why is Jaruzelski’s government
shooting at workers? Because the central targets of socialist politics are the
workers“. A joke like this demonstrates how humor helps us explore
incongruity and discrepancies, for example, between what people say and
what they do.
A sense of humor can give us relief and help us to examine important and
serious issues less emotionally. Furthermore, a humorous mind-set helps us
to think flexibly, and to notice new perspectives and connections between
ideas. “Why are conspiracy theories like moon landings? Because they’re all fake”.
Or: “Two planets meet. One says to the other: You look strange today! The other
replies: Yes, I know, I have homo sapiens. What does the first planet say? Oh, I know,
it will pass...”
52
Humor combines different states of mind, mixing the emotional with the
rational, and therefore has a close relationship to creativity.
Facilitation that leaves space for a sense of humor ensures that the learning
process incorporates different perspectives, doesn't lose sight of the big
picture, and fosters creativity and critical thinking. It helps participants
to maintain a certain distance from themselves in challenging situations,
for example through irony. It enables facilitators to enjoy the process and
naturally leads to funny situations.
Below are some examples from my own experience as a facilitator where I
used creative humor to help participants’ learning process:
Alternating forms, methods, and content during a meeting
I once facilitated a conference for community leaders from all over the
European Union. Immediately following a highly intellectual panel
discussion, we invited participants in mixed groups to participate in a TV-
style quiz about decision making processes at the EU level. It was about
knowledge, but also speed and intelligence, and it enhanced the conference
by creating funny situations and leading to many insights.
→→ Changing methods and settings helps people see the same idea from a
different perspective, remain open to surprises, and explore new ideas in
a topic or a group. By switching methodologies, new situations emerge,
making the entire process more dynamic. Creating a timed quiz and
competing on a not very serious issue made it a lot of fun.
Self-distance and authenticity
Once, just before the start of an expert training on organizational
development, I lost a folder with all of my print-outs and my glasses.
Although I was well prepared. I became stressed. So I began the training
by saying the truth: “Unfortunately I lost all my written materials, which
anyway I wouldn’t be able to use without my glasses, which I also lost.”
Admitting my situation in front of the group in the beginning made my
initial tension disappear. The whole situation was quite funny to the group,
and participants instead grew more connected and empathetic.
→→ Being open with our own weaknesses and keeping a little bit distance
from our own work by having fun and relying on a sense of humor often
results in a group becoming more committed and more open. The
Creative facilitation | 53
Consciousness
Collecting information and
setting learning goals
Incompetence Competence
Unconsciousness
Diversity – what is it? Diversity is everyday work
Unconscious incompetence Applying information about
diversity in a certain way as an
unconscious competence
We can gain insights from different people, although this in turn depends on
whether we are open to diversity. In this sense, diversity-conscious education
stimulates creativity.
The challenge for facilitators is:
→→ to raise individual and group awareness of the wealth of diversity that
each person brings to the group, and to make multiple perspectives
visible
→→ to incorporate all the senses in one's methodology, as different learners
have different relationships to sensual perception
→→ to respond to different learning styles and groups with different learning
preferences or expectations
→→ to facilitate group communication by promoting a non-violent
communication culture, instilling a tolerance for ambiguity, and training
listening skills
→→ to balance power relations by prohibiting intellectual hegemony
occuring through status and hierarchy, and by choosing methods that
exclude such practices.
Constructive Questions
When a group requires the support of a facilitator, there are two main
approaches: to give advice or to ask questions. Similarly, when you want to
buy something in a store, a clerk can help you in a number of ways. One clerk
might describe the product’s specifications to you, while another will ask you
what you need the item for. Both accomplish the same goal, but they follow a
different inner logic, and only the second option stimulates creative processes
to identify options and solutions to a problem. They are based on the learner’s
capacities, rather then the facilitator’s knowledge. By concentrating on an
individual or group's needs, we can identify solutions that we might not have
have thought of in the first place.5
Asking questions that stimulate participants to find their own solutions and
listening to their answers is a key competence in facilitation. Constructive
questions are essential in this context, as they have a central goal of solution
orientation but need to be open. Regarding the role of the facilitator, it is crucial
to provide space for answering and to allow individuals to think. This will be
accomplished more easily if facilitators remain in the role of the querent,
rather than turning into a problem-solver or advisor. The best solutions are
those that learners treat as their own.
Depending on the context, setting, and needs of the counterpart, there are
many different types of question one might ask. A facilitator should have a
variety in his or her toolbox, and be able to switch between them.
Open questions
Problem-oriented approach
An orientation to the problem or the solution represent the
! two main approaches when facing a challenge. In academia,
an orientation to the problem is very common: we test a
hypothesis critically. This criticism helps us to understand the
complexity of the hypothesis, and other people review it with
a critical attitude. In public relations we often define ourselves
as “critically-thinking people.” While this problem-oriented
approach can be helpful in understanding the complexity
of a given situation or topic, it often causes conflicts during
creative processes.
Solution-oriented questions
In most cases, participants will be able to find solutions for
their problems on their own: they just need support along the
way. There is a broad range of literature about helping people
to find and develop solutions based on their own abilities,
rather than on their problems.6 A solution-oriented approach
encourages people to engage in a reflective mode of thinking.
This approach can be especially helpful when people are
struggling to define the overall goal and feel like the ground
is shifting beneath their feet. Some solution-oriented
questions might be:
→→ “What do you want to achieve?”
→→ “Which options are available?”
→→ “Tell me about the last time you succeeded? How did
you respond?“
→→ “What do you need to avoid in order to achieve your goal?”
→→ “What will you need to do differently if the situation changes?”
58
In order to understand better what changes your own ideas can bring
about, it can help to picture a bridge. On one side of the bridge is the
present or the past, on the other side is the future. The two sides are
connected by a bridge, which represents the initiative. This bridge will
be built by answering constructive questions. Answers can be written
or drawn.
Goals
→→ Reflecting on the status quo, identifying current problems and things
that are lacking
→→ Creating a vision for the future
→→ Identifying different solutions for different problems
Steps
1. Draw a bridge. The left hand side is the participants' current state. On
this side, you will make a note of everything that occurs to you when
answering the questions that follow.
2. After answering all the questions on the present/past side, you travel
to the far bank, or the future side. On this side, write down what the
future reality should look like. Be as specific as possible.
62
Reflection
Let the participants share and briefly describe what they came up with.
Divide them into small groups (max. 4 people), keeping an eye on the
time. After working individually, some participants may have a greater
need to talk and share their ideas, but this step should not exceed 20
minutes.
Variations
You can also use the metaphor of a sea or a tree.
Creative facilitation | 63
Experience
It may be the case that some participants have multiple ideas for
initiatives and their involvement, and have not yet decided for
themselves which idea they prefer. Encourage them to sketch both.
Allow people to express themselves in whatever way is most comfortable
to them. Some may prefer to draw, some to write down the aspects
chronologically, others may prefer mindmapping. The task can work with
all of them.
The newer a concept, the more intensively the concept must be
explained. Concepts that are more straightforward are easier to grasp.
Therefore, self-explanation is not necessarily a quality criteria, but
some learners may need more space than others when working on their
explanatory skillset.
Source: Initiative Cookbook 9
We enjoy live performance because it provides such a rich experience for our
senses. The feeling of being in a crowd stimulates the social brain network.
This mirror neuron system helps us to read emotions, movements, and
gestures: we feel what we see. In essence, empathy is what makes us enjoy a
performance. 10
64
Goals
Participants reflect on how they feel, see, and respond to all that
surrounds them by activating their sensory knowledge and perception
skills through their eyes, ears, skin, muscles, and organs.
Preparation and materials
Prepare sets of 10 cards in different tones of the same color, creating one
set for each group of two. (for the Sight part)
Prepare a selection of instrumental music. It should be music that
participants will not recognize.
Have some blindfolds on hand to cover participants’ eyes.
Prepare some background information about the different senses and
concepts that help to explain the role of senses in the learning process.
Plan around 30 minutes for each exercise, including time for sharing
some of the texts.
Instruction
The following short exercises are intended to help participants explore
different senses. Time for sharing texts should be provided after each
exercise.
Sight
Make-up catalogues can be a useful place to gain inspiration for the
different associations we have with colors, such as “Red Fox,” “Impatient
Pink,” or “Mauve Madness.” Divide participants into pairs and give each
pair 10 cards in different tones of the same color, for instance, 10 tones of blue.
Ask them to imagine that they are copywriters working for a cosmetic or
fashion brand, and that they have to give names to each of these ten color
tones.
Hearing
Invite the participants to find a comfortable spot and close their eyes,
then play them the instrumental music you have selected. When it stops,
ask them to write a text reflecting the feelings and associations the song
evoked for them. Time should be limited to 20 minutes. The name and
story of the song can be revealed after some of the stories are shared.
Creative facilitation | 65
Smell
Ask participants to describe their favorite season by its smell, without
revealing which season it is in their text. When the descriptions are read
aloud, participants can guess if the text is describing spring, summer,
autumn, or winter. If time allows, you might also ask them to also describe
the smell of dirty clothes or stinky cheese, and what this smell means to
them.
Taste
Ask participants to describe the taste of a common food to a person who is
not able to taste – an orange, coffee, or chocolate, for example.
Touch
Divide participants into pairs and have them close their eyes. Give them
clay, wet sand, play-doh, or even paper to create different objects. The task
is to create a sculpture while working together for 10–15 minutes with their
eyes closed, and without speaking. Next, ask them to describe the other
person based on their cooperation during the exercise.
Questions for reflection
→→ Do you use all your senses when you are learning?
→→ Which senses are the most important and helpful for your learning
process?
→→ How would your world change if you lost one of your senses, and how
could you adapt?
→→ How can working with our senses help us to produce more creative
results – ideas, artworks, questions, texts?
Experience
When writing, we often rely on our visual sense, but a story that we can
truly feel needs much more than visual descriptions. It should also make
use of sounds, scents, tastes, and physical touch. Using all five senses
makes writing more real, and more relevant. For learning processes, it is
important to work with different senses, enabling learners to boost their
creativity.
Source: Creative Writing Cookbook, 2016 11
66
10:00
10:30
Simplicity
According to a concept by Scott McCloud (author of “Understanding Comics”)
“amplification is done through simplification.” Sizing down an image to its very
essentials by removing (unnecessary) features allows the viewer give it more
meaning. A simple stick figure can be more effective than an elaborate and
well-drawn character!
ABC
integration creativity development reflection
organisation european union
search
efficiency skills design funding
deadline
programme sustainability
development office work project erasmus+
Getting good results from an evaluation is less about the technique, and
more about the questions you ask. Think not only about the content here,
but about the learning goals of the day: the tasks, the group collaboration,
meeting the goal and other aspects. For more information about evaluation
visit www.competendo.net
Using dots for evaluating and prioritizing
A
+ B B
0 A
C
- C
-
An example of cooperative evaluation in a training. Each participant marks
his or her fish. Near the surface of the water means +, and at the floor of the
sea means -.
Experienced-oriented evaluation:
topic A topic B topic C
A B
“It is no surprise that artists don't use pens, which are fixed and permanent
and locked on their ideas. It's no surprise they use pencils and constantly
shade, remap or rub out less precious elements.
They have many ideas, and many ideas is a key to this. Seeing the dots that
others don't see. Bringing out dots and more dots into a (open ended) funnel.
When you see a black screen you might assume that something is broken.
Creative people, on the other hand, might say that's dark, that's moody. They
see the black and instead see a variety of connotations that you have maybe
never thought about.
How do we reward imagination? We can ask students to have lots of ideas.
We can ask them to explain how they came up with those ideas. We can also
ask what would you do in the future? How would you develop these things,
connect them and explain them? It's a bit like being an entrepreneur giving a
pitch. During the pitch the thing does not yet exist, but there's a damn good
argument. There are many ways that we can reward our students."
1. Source: Border Wall: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
2. Additional source: Comedy, tragedy, and religion, John Morreal, State University of New York, Albany
3. Alison Reynolds, David Lewis: "Teams Solve Problems Faster When They’re More Cognitively Diverse"
in: Harvard Business Review, March 2017
4. Susan Cain: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking www.ted.com/talks/
susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts Susan Cain: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't
Stop Talking, New York 2012
5. Nils-Eyk Zimmermann: Mentoring Handbook – Providing Systemic Support for Mentees and their
Projects – A Handbook for Facilitators; Berlin 2012; p. 36ff
6. Often inspired by the creative psychotherapist Steve de Shazer and his colleague Insoo Kim Berg.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association; www.sfbta.org and
http://sfbta.org/BFTC/Steve_de_Shazer_Insoo_Kim_Burg.html
7. Arist. v. Schlippe, Jochen Schweizer: Systemische Interventionen; 2nd edition; Göttingen 2010; p. 7
8. Sabine Prohaska: Coaching in der Praxis, Paderborn, 2013
9. Heike Fahrun, Nils-Eyk Zimmermann, Eliza Skowron: Initiative Cookbook - Homemade Civic
Engagement - An Introduction into Project Management, Berlin 2015
10. Sarah L. Kaufman, Dani Player, Jayne Orenstein, May-Ying Lam, Elizabeth Hart and Shelly Tan: This is
your brain on art; Washington Post online: www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/your-
brain-on-art/; Published Sept. 18, 2017
11. Ilona Olehlova, Inese Priedite: Creative Writing Cookbook; Estonian UNESCO Youth Association,
Piepildito Sapnu Istaba, Cooperativa Braccianti. Published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
License; www.creativelearningcookbook.tumblr.com
12. Understanding Youth- Exploring Identity and its Role in International Youth Work; Nik Paddison for
SALTO-YOUTH Cultural Diversity Resource Centre; www.salto-youth.net/diversity; S.32
75
Chapter 6
SOCIAL IMPACT AS A
LEARNING SPACE
Created by Roy Verhaag
from the Noun Project
Creativity and participation are very much interlinked. In order for a group
to exercise creativity collectively, each member needs to be included and
involved. The reverse is also true: in order to ensure everyone's participation,
everyone must feel and see that their visions, ideas, experiences, and
competencies are valued. They need to feel actively involved in the process of
co-creation – that they are creating something with the community for the
community.
Throughout Europe, it is increasingly common to see community-based
civil initiatives that focus on solving social, cultural and political needs and
problems, reflecting on value and rules, and fostering dialogue. In this process,
creativity is a necessary raw material, motivating individuals to participate,
76
Reflection
After the performance follows a common group reflection. [30 min]
→→ What was the basic information underlying the scene? Why did you
choose that?
→→ How did the theatre change your perspective on the topic?
→→ What was the feedback and emotions you received from the
audience?
→→ Which important aspects in the topic are worth revisiting?
Source: After Augusto Boal Theater der Unterdrückten. Übungen und Spiele für Schauspieler und
Nicht-Schauspieler; Frankfurt;, 1989
At the heart of our daily work at Ideas Factory is a belief that creative thinking
and sharing empathetic experiences with a given community is the only
path to social impact that retains its human aspect. Here, art is one tool
used not only for its own sake, but also for its social impact. We prepare the
soil for solutions by bringing together center and periphery challenging the
assumption that innovation takes place mainly in the centres. In focusing on
the quality of human relations, we try to create a social glue that connects
different disciplines, generations, cultures, cities, peripheries, areas, spaces,
people, and ideas. We work with a wide palette of approaches and a variety of
creative and design thinking.
Baba Residence, one of our activities, illustrates this approach. " Baba" means "
grandma" in Bulgarian. It shows in practice one way in which intergenerational
creativity and creativity between rural and urban people and culture might be
supported.
How Baba Residence works
Young people from urban centers spend a month living in the households
of elderly people in depopulated Bulgarian villages. Throughout the month,
they share, learn about local customs, explore rituals, resources, and discover
the current or potential possibilities and challenges that locals face.
Ideas Factory works with different Bulgarian villages. After a selection
process, participants go through a training to prepare them for the
differences between rural and urban culture. They learn how to develop
empathy rather offer ready-made solutions, and also how to work together
Social impact as a learning space | 81
Sharing stories from our experiences represents an important way for people
to learn from and about each other, have fun together, and overcome social
division.
The community center KOMSU KAPISI seeks to bring people together and
break the ice of isolation within a peaceful setting. Located at the very center
of Istanbul, the centre finds itself in the middle of many environmental,
social, and political problems that affect the whole country. During our
storytelling nights we encourage community members to tell stories about
specific issues on a stage open to all kinds of audiences.
It’s not easy to call people to the stage just like that and ask them to tell
a story and overcome their shyness. Even when they do get on stage, the
real stories are sometimes hard to coax out. By focusing on the potential of
working with small communities, we have learned a few tricks to unlock
raw stories:
We encourage volunteer tellers to share their stories while also working with
a storyteller/facilitator to enhance their performance.
During storytelling night we have two facilitators, one from the community
and the other with a storytelling background. This pair helps to people to
warm up and encourages them to tell their story in a cozy and unstructured
improvisational atmosphere.
Finding icebreaking keywords that people like to talk about can also
stimulate the process. When it comes to childhood for example, almost
everybody has a nostalgic memory to share.
You can never really know what will happen. Sometimes stories trigger other
stories and it continues beautifully. It might be the reverse. This is the risk of
an open, participatory process.
The magic in such urban storytelling nights lies in their potential to
reveal a shared soul within the community, the condition for community
transformation. This is a simple idea, but it can be applied in different
community contexts, or for talking about social relevant issues like peace
making, reconciliation, or community identity.
Social impact as a learning space | 85
As a city dramaturg at the Brussels City Theatre KVS, one part of my work
is bringing the city to the theater and taking the theater into the city. A city
dramaturg is a term that was created by my colleague. As city dramaturg, I
am tasked with creating a mission for the theater, carrying it out, and, on the
other side of the spectrum, doing dramaturgy for actual theater pieces.
The project Slam Our World (SLOW) is the perfect embodiment and product
of my work. Through SLOW, we try to reconceptualize the world we live in
and re-envision how we occupy a space like the city of Brussels. We do so
by inviting an artist from outside of Belgium for a residency at the KVS for
3 weeks. Within these 3 weeks, the artist interacts and meets with different
cross-sections of the greater Brussels community: activists, academics, sex-
workers, community organizers, artists.
For example, our first visiting artist – the British Egyptian Sabrina Mahfouz
– focused on Muslim feminism. In the form of a blog, we collected the
opinions of different individuals from the community who gave their
reflections about Muslim feminism (www.whatismuslimfeminism.tumblr.
com). This created a discussion that in turn created a buzz, which eventually
filled our 200 seat theater two nights in a row.
The artist Quinsy Gario from Holland took a different approach. Months
before his residency, he engaged artists and asked them to keep a diary
of the experiences they had, especially racist ones. During his three week
residency, he conducted two masterclasses, not in the theater, but at
Le Space, a tiny community center, where ten community members shared
their experiences with race, class, and post-colonial realities in Brussels.
These texts were used in the final script of SLOW #02. One might consider
this a sort of crowd-sourcing for writing, something which created a
powerful text that included the voices of the community and a variety of
languages, including French, Spanish, English, and Dutch.
The craft of a city dramaturg is to create a unique theater experience while
exploring the community and its vast resources. This is done with the aim
of moving towards a theater culture that is more inclusive and considers the
participation of different cross-sections of society.
86
The Design for Change (www.dfcspain.com) project aims to give children the
opportunity to change the world through their ideas. The method's creative
potential lies in the target group (children 8–15): the method helps them to
feel empowered by implementing their ideas for the urban development
of Barcelona. These are small project ideas and the process accompanies
the young participants through several steps. By successfully finishing the
process with a concrete project idea, the method allows them to understand
that “I can actually change the environment and my idea matters.”
The 5 steps of Design for Change are:
→→ Feel
Empathizing with the environment, simple methods such as seeing,
thinking, asking, circling of points of view, comparing and contrasting
help children to identify what concerns them, while at the same time
posing a challenge.
→→ Imagine
Imagining solutions and coming up with ideas without criticizing and
assessing them.
→→ Do
Carrying out the idea.
→→ Evaluate
Reflecting upon the process (What have I learned? How did I learn?
What are the three ideas that I will remember? How did I feel during
different stages in the process?)
→→ Share
Sharing the project in order to show it was possible, as well as to awaken
in other children a desire to change the world.
1. A. Rickert (Ed.), B. Kurz, D. Kubek: Social Impact Navigator: The practical guide for organizations
targeting better results; second revised edition, Berlin, PHINEO gAG, 2016; p.5
87
OUTLOOK: TOWARD
SOCIAL TRANSITION
symbols that reflect our inner feelings and experiences. Unlike intelligence,
with its focus on a working solution, creativity seeks to find as many
solutions as possible.
When we use our creativity, we play in order to find our way back to our
connection with the world. Experiencing a safe and nurturing environment
in a situation of need and/or moderate anxiety are vital to developing
creative capacity on a personal, group or societal level. It is about being
hungry, curious and ready to create solutions.
Once discovered, this creative input may expand, including not just play
and fantasy, but the other aspects of culture as well: its social structures,
approaches, artistry, modalities etc. Doing things becomes meaningful only
if we learn how to use this activity in order to relate to others, and ourselves.
If there is no space for creativity individuals may develop ‘false self’
patterns,2 behaviors that only rehearse the expectations of others and
requirements of society. This makes them feel unauthentic, turned into
something they are not. In a group context, the end result is alienated
communities and societies. Identification with this kind of alienation leads
to further loss of individuality and spontaneity, deficient autonomy and
self-identity, and a severing of links between the psychic and the social.
Understandably, as work practices and learning that were degrading to
people peaked in Europe, a series of social experiments in the 1970s veered
in the opposite direction. Most of them proved that creativity can be both
personal and social, as well as a powerful economic resource.
Group and community life foster creativity: interactions are a point of
departure for co-creativity and co-development. In these situations people
share knowledge and skills, use reflection to relate to each other, and set
into motion the type of individual dynamics that have the power to drive
organizations and communities forward.
Creativity is not a luxury: it is a capacity for self-expression and self-
actualization and is common to individuals, groups and communities. Each
context need transformational leadership to strengthen progressive and
formative trends in their transition to adulthood and independence, part of
which is an ability to acknowledge the right to be different.
A society of individuals, achieving maximum individual freedom and
relatedness to others, is a truly good one.3 It is a task that is in its essence
deeply creative and ethical, and as such requires a great deal of us.
* Zlatko Teoharov is a psychodrama-therapist, a group psychoanalyst and group
leader at IAG Bonn, Germany, a lecturer at New Bulgarian University in Sofia, and
at EFHD in Darmstadt, Germany and a Chair of the Board at Psychology of Groups
Institute.
Outlook: Toward social transition | 89
It is obvious that social innovation processes take time, and that during this
time the original ideas will transform. They change their original character
and, at the same time, society. It is a transition rather than a revolution. This
is why we can call them transition experiments: “A transition experiment is an
innovation project with a societal challenge as a starting point for learning aimed
at contributing to a transition”.5 Transition experiments go hand-in-hand with
interactions across groups and sectors. As such, creative people intending to
have a social impact need to be able to share their ideas, collaborate, and co-
create a community of people seeking change.
While creativity is often a required competency, it is not necessarily the
decisive one. Without creativity however, innovation projects might become
fruitless. Organizations and individual networks are essential spaces where
people are allowed and willing to relate to each other, where new creativity
can emerge, where participation guarantees that creative impulses are
appreciated, and where a participatory organizational culture leads to people
feeling empowered and motivated to cooperate with each other and pursue
their ideas.
Facilitation can support this effort by shaping spaces for such cross-sectoral
dialogue. It can foster cross-sectoral competencies and help individuals to
increase their capacity to speak and listen by making use of the language of
other groups, and shape inclusive, co-created transition processes. It can also
embed the individual activities of citizens in other social interactions, groups,
or movements.
citizens co-shape, co-design, and co-govern. At the same time we see that
cultural organizations function as places where creativity and new visions of
democracy emerge.
Take the example of POGON – the Zagreb center for independent culture
and youth – the first public cultural institution in Croatia based on a
civil-public governance model, and one which marked a a turning point
in institutional design. Urban challenges can no longer be designed
from a top-down oriented perspective. Culture and creativity are part of
the solutions: providing out-of-the box solutions, engaging people and
challenging stereotypes.
How are the Commons and creativity intertwined? Why is one important
to the other?
The commons refer to shared resources and social practices that are
maintained by communities in a sustainable way. "Commoning" is a
collective venture of co-development and co-government – challenging the
duopoly of the state and the market – where people collectively manage and
take stewardship over resources.
?
+
Sharing
0
?!
Incorporating experience in
new concepts and abilities
Some see in the commons a chance for alternative models for the creation
of value. While gatekeepers limit our alternatives, the commons opens
opportunities for collective impact and value. Wikipedia is an example of
this, as well as musicians who question old business models and plan the
distribution of their work differently. Publishing has similar examples,
while members of sharing platforms compensate each other with social
relationships and use of their skills.
Strengthening the Social Nature of Humans
The ambivalence in Open Educational Resources should not be overlooked.
Users and producers of Commons have legitimate and non-legitimate interests,
they might act altruisticly, or they may be looking for a “free lunch.” Commons
recognizes these ambiguities, but these strengthen our social and community
predispositions: If you take, then please share. And when you share, this will
have a positive impact on you as well.
But one thing still needs consideration. A content producer must be aware
of the value of one’s creations in order to decide deliberately to share them.
Only those who recognize their work's value for others decide on a voluntary
basis. Especially people who depend on their intellectual output for their
income should not be blamed for copyrighting or limiting access to their
works, especially when others could monetize these without sharing the
profits. In a world of copyrights and money, one has to find his or her path. In
many situations, commoning might provide a partial answer, but is not the
94
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GROUP CREATIVITY
C I V I L E N G AG E M E N T
CREATI
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S O C IA L T R A N S I T I O N