Richard Maun

Category: Uncategorized

  • Thoughtful Creativity

    Nativity creativity
    Nativity creativity

    Here’s fun: A witty talk by Sir Ken Robinson about creativity and education. If you would like to listen to it please click here.

    Thank you to Mel Armstrong at Cardinal Talent for sending it through to me in the first place. It did remind me that we often strive for creativity at work; in order to solve problems, design new products and run useful marketing campaigns, for example, yet society tends to really value qualifications in ‘proper’ subjects, like maths and physics. Sometimes, society can be very silly.

    In my experience of work people have actively discouraged both thinking and creativity. Two comments, from my own past, will suffice for evidence:

    “You’re not thinking again are you Maun? Stop that and get on with some work!”

    “Richard, you have too many ideas; go and get on with something productive.”

    People who say these kind of things are not great leaders and I’m glad not to be working with them any more. This brings me to my point. The next time someone has an idea at work, any idea, find a way to say thank you, even if you don’t like the idea itself, because their next idea could be the one that really makes a difference. Creativity is the future. Celebrate it and foster it.

    I’m off to be creative with some Lego now. What could you do?

  • Playtime For All

    Richard making a friend (literally).
    Richard making a friend (literally).

    Christmas time can be a serious business, with mince pies to make, turkeys to stuff and massive amounts of small twinkly lights to hang outside, where we can’t see them. I’ve often wondered at the sense of spending all year diligently separating rubbish into different piles for recycling, buying eco-hessian bags at the supermarket, using energy saving bulbs and then turning your house into a crazy UFO for three weeks. There’s a house near to us on a main road that has so many lights NASA has asked them to turn a few off because they’re blinding their surveillance satellites. Mind you, I’m not entirely sure what they’re looking at in Norfolk…my best guess would be the pier at Cromer, but I’m open to suggestions.

    Snowman

    During this festive time, when life can get a bit too serious, it can be helpful to get a nudge in the ribs and be reminded that we can stop and play. A case in point: Yesterday I was about to leave the house and walk to my office (where I have installed myself, rather grandly, as ‘writer in residence’ at a local PR firm) when I realised that the children were all in the back garden playing in the snow. As this was a moment to be savoured, I joined them. We threw snowballs, built a snowman and rescued the tiny twins from snowdrifts, largey because they couldn’t bend in their snowsuits and laid on the ground like helpless starfish. It was a fun thing to bunk off work for a while and great to have some ‘Natural Child’ playtime.

    Stop and Play

    Natural Child is a term from Transactional Analysis and means when we’re in a playful state, having fun or being creative, without a Parent figure telling us what to do and how to behave. Just because we have turned into ‘grown ups’ doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy ourselves too.

    So, when things get serious over Christmas and your stress levels start to boil; take a deep breath and stop. Then find something to play with and have fun, because five minutes of fun can put a smile back on our face and remind us that without some Natural Child time, life is really very dull.

     

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