Leadership and Creative Wisdom...

Survive and Thrive….what if we could?use the full power of creativity?

Creativity is enough…the power of creativity and visualization is within everyone's grasp - we just need to reach out...

Creativity we know is prevalent in children, Why is it then that they lose this sense of wonderment and imagination and why is it important to the human race to retain this amazing flexibility of thought that enhances wisdom and freedom of thinking?

Having had a world wind of a life - and having used creativity to survive and thrive I think I have a small window of clarity on this both from an individual, scientific and social perspective.

The questions that are often asked of creativity in the scientific world - is how we can we measure its significance? Well, here’s the thing, we can measure it, but it has to be in a different way other than conventional linear thinking.

Ok, why do we care? what’s the benefits??

The first part of this story - is about my journey. I hope it will answer some questions about 'born to be creative' and 'culture to encourage creativity'. We know the conversation - some people have it and some people don’t.

I will say up front ,that everyone is born with a gift - whether they are neuro-diverse or something else. It doesn’t matter. Picasso said “Find your gift in life” - and he was certainly gifted enough and creative enough to make a remark like that.

So who am I and why should you listen to me about the importance of creativity?

I was an ACE child - Adverse Childhood Experience - many psychologists are studying this social disease because it impacts the whole of society - in an adverse way.

It costs the Health Sector Billions of dollars and children that are fostered for instance have over 50% chance of going to prison. That’s just one statistic. Hold on to your hats… the second most common form of death in children between10 to 24 year old's is suicide. Many deaths can be attributed to mental illness and it is something of a taboo subject which prevents researchers from obtaining any long term useful and rational information. There is a better way to learn which builds capacity for resilience, self regulation and creativity in equal measure.

I remember as a child that everyday was about survival - ‘the knock at the door’ was a trigger and when my Dad came home (he was an alcoholic) - ‘hiding under the bed’ was the go to place. You developed a habit of not talking about these things - because people and friends (if you had any) would give you a wide birth as indeed my mother and my sister witnessed from their own perspective.??So you would grow up with this baggage - fearful of the world. And with expectations that would trigger ‘alarm bells’ - that you were unconsciously aware of. That is enough of that fear inducing subject you might think - many scenes are deleted from your memory because that was the safest way of dealing with it. Selected memory loss - although your subconscious would hold onto it - whether you liked it or not.

I remember reading some comics about superman and there’s was a particular category of DC comics that was the legion of sub super heroes. My child life was a constant battle for acknowledgment striving for “I am good enough” against a background of bullying and abuse. I am sure many struggling people and youngsters would resonate with this.

So, fast forward to a bunch of scientists in Houston in the US that would witness one of my innovation techniques and inventions that permitted a wealth of creative freedom of thought. The Innovation Matrix, later termed The Darwin Matrix.”

We, as a collective scientific mind (in Houston) moved away from the dark to the light. We explored and created 100s of new patents. This is what this 'Creative Wisdom' course is all about - releasing and reinvigorating new energy that would pave the way for harmony and a dynamic way of learning that would never go back to sleep (in the old ways of thinking). Even the scientists said that their dreams were different afterwards and the felt more empowered and creative. I thought to myself at the time, this knowledge could be transferred to the younger generation. I used the process on my Entrepreneurship and Innovation MBA course - the students loved the Creativity - it was empowering and it gave them purpose and a competitive advantage (they told me).

Those same scientists are thinking (in Houston) in a non linear way, see clarity, strategy and opportunity wherever they look, Their creativity and inner wisdom re-ignited - what’s not to like? I have nothing to sell but to help other people see their true creative self.

I leave you in this short article with a testimonial from Dr Allan Samuel - and it hints at what makes this idea for Creative Wisdom Lessons worthwhile.

Thank you Allan…??

“The systems thinking process by John Rainford helps enormously with our Ambitious Business Challenges (ABC) and launch of Shell Global Solutions, the process allowed us to think differently, in a non linear way. It is genius and provokes new solutions to difficult problems.”

In 2004 the Rainford family were in a fatal car crash where the other driver was killed. They all suffered from PTSD - the education and learning revolution I had planned was halted. The children were taken out of school and home schooled. John and his wife used these creative leadership processes to develop their children’s aspirations. To date (most in their 20s) they are to helping to run multi-million dollar businesses with no academic qualifications whatsoever. We did fostering after the accident and the children we fostered developed extraordinary confident abilities and would volunteer for school plays against their previous background of crying every day at school. The Headmistress was delighted. These were children who would have most likely be criminalized or self harm - without these creative intervention techniques. The reason I am so passionate about this process is that one of my children started to self harm after the accident. I abandoned my trajectory to get back on the road to make a ton of money and decided I would use my insights to help children and young people throughout the world with Creativity and Self realization, in that, that they can be the best they can be, whatever their circumstances.?Look out for the lessons in future.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/connecting-fostering-leadership-empathy-confidence-john-rainford-frsa

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/we-cannot-memorise-our-way-out-poverty-so-why-change-john ?

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"Creativity is a powerhouse and the differentiator in life. People ask me am I happy - and I say Yes, because I have my spark and my purpose and I understand why I am here - through igniting other peoples creativity so they can find their spark and be champions of their own destiny." John Rainford.

"Everyone has huge creative capacities. The challenge is to develop them. A culture of creativity has to involve everybody, not just a select few." Sir Ken Robinson.