Session 6: March 30

Employing the creative process: listening and reflection

Exploring listening and reflection on a personal level

In the world of design we make sense of the world through analysis, but analysis only can leaves us short changed. The phenomenon of life is deep and nuanced and calls on us to listen and reflect deeply. During this class we explore deep listening, we explore ways to become still and access our innate wisdom to gain a deeper perspective on what is happening.

Lecture and activities

Activity and discussion: Delving into the difficulties of listening
Lecture: Introducing strategies to stay present and open
Lecture: Learning to stop (even if you feel you can’t), to cultivating stillness, openness and connection
Activity: Practicing methods of personal reflection on something you’ve just seen:
stillness, free-writing, and free-drawing in response to David Whyte’s discussion of the relevance of poetry to corporate leadership.

Key concepts

Otto Scharmer’s four levels of listening
The ladder of inference: watch the mind make stories
Exploring judgment, suspending judgment, staying with emotions
Becoming still, and using non-analytical tools of expression to reflect

Required materials

In preparation for session 7:

Selection on conditions for a “thinking environment” from Naomi Kline, More time to think (Amazon link)

Homework

Write a reflection paper on the creative process, based on the last two class sessions.

Optional materials

Interview: Joseph Jaworski interviews Brian Arthur (PDF)
Charles Duhigg (NY Times), What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team

6: The creative process: listen, reflect