Taking CREA Home

by Erik op ten Berg

The week after CREA I was asked to conduct a training on Creative Climate for an Advanced Course in Creative Thinking. I decided to apply a new tool we had presented in our Developing Ideas program.

We worked with the finger painting to diverge our “thinking”, with the dance between the visual and verbal language to give meaning to our symbols. Then everybody wrote a poem as a convergency tool to draw out the personal conclusions. All the participants were very excited about this “Approche Sensible”… you can see it in the pictures!

At the end of June we are organizing a CREA-event in Holland were some of the Dutch participants at CREA will deliver a workshop about what them inspired most this year in Sestri Levante. I will write more about that in July.

Categories: English, Erik op ten Berg | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off

2013 CREA Experience in Photo

Photo montage by/de/di Rossana Barbati and/et/e Michael Maneia :-)

Categories: English, Français, Italiano | Tags: , , , | Comments Off

En-chanted

Comme beaucoup d’entre nous, de retour de CREA, je repasse le film dans ma tête…Outre l’énergie incroyable de cette édition, qui ressemblait à une renaissance, comme la joie d’une belle tribu célébrant la naissance du petit dernier, j’emporte dans mon cœur le bonheur éprouvé lors de l’atelier de Franca. Comment décrire une expérience avec des mots ?

chanterCommençons par la postulat de Franca : faire chanter des chansons (plutôt difficiles sur un plan technique) à des gens qui ne chantent jamais. Un pari gonflé, mais à CREA ça se tente sans soucis ! Tranquillement campée dans dans ses repères personnels, Franca ouvre ses capteurs, attrape les envies du groupe et propose un chant.  Un simple chant qui, sous ses indications à la fois simples et exigeantes, se transforme en chœur… puis en cœur joyeux, synchronisé, uni. Et chacun se surprend à savoir chanter et à y prendre plaisir. Les yeux brillent de joie, la concentration s’intensifie. Le bouquet final est un must : on finit par être capable de chanter en canon (sans se laisser entrainer par les autres voix) avec les membre de son groupe “à distance”.

Depuis ce moment, quand j’ai un coup de blues, quand le monde me parait bien terne, je chemine en chantant à tue-tête : Atchi tai tai, timourai, ouranica, ouranica, hey ne, hey ne , nohoa… sous les yeux des passants incrédules.

Sylvie

Categories: Français, Sylvie Courcelle | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Reason to Celebrate

birthday

Someone had a birthday at CREA this year. Can you guess which one?

Categories: English | Tags: | Comments Off

Notre prochain défi

Créa conférence se termine mais l’aventure continue.

aFFICE_POUVOIR_SHARING_petit-2

Pour tous ceux qui,  comme moi, de retour au bercail, ont encore la tête dans les étoiles, les yeux grands ouverts, et des envies qui fourmillent, je propose de continuer l’expérience hors les murs.

Reprenez doucement les défis et projets qui vous sont apparus pendant ces quelques jours et commencez à leur donner forme sans plus attendre !

Parmi toutes ces interrogations, un défi retiendra sans doute particulièrement votre attention : Comment faire pour revenir en 2014 ?….

Voilà un beau challenge à résoudre…. ; )

A bientôt 2014 !

Catherine

PS : …. Et n’oubliez pas ‘the power of sharing’ : les contacts de gardent, les idées se partagent

photo_sharing_post-it_petit

 

 

Categories: Français | Comments Off

Taking CREA Home

flowersAs CREA Conference 2013 comes to an end, some of you may be thinking, “How can I create this feeling back home?”

This year, I made a real effort to bring the CREA spirit into my everyday life, and it CAN be done!

Here are some things that have worked for me:

  • Find an object that will remind you of the CREA feeling and keep it at your desk. Could be a stone, a shell, your nametag.
  • Go on a CREA Date. (Similar to the Artist Date, from The Artist’s Way). Think of what you enjoyed most, and create themes – great conversations, meeting new people, playfulness, trying something new etc. Dedicate an afternoon or day to exploring that theme in your own city.
  • Keep in touch with the people you met! Its so easy to go back to routine life. Make an effort to call, skype, share pictures. These new friends are also a great Resource Group when Creative Problem Solving.

Its been fabulous being a part of the conference virtually. Today my theme is nature and slow. Its been a hectic couple of days, so I shall take the speed down and go for a replenishing walk in nature. Maybe even a nap this afternoon.

See you at CREA Conference 2014!

Bon voyage,
Patrizia

Categories: English, Patrizia Sorgiovanni | Tags: , , | Comments Off

Last Night // Dernier soir // L’ultima sera

Categories: English, Français, Italiano, Nederlands | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off

CREA London: Small but Mighty

Hello CREA goers and virtual CREA goers. Its Saturday already! Hope by now you’ve fallen into the Sestri rhythm of learning, great conversations and wine lunches.

In London today the theme is playfulness. If I can’t be playful with Scottie at CREA at least I can play with his kids! Joanie and I are with Max and Sam at the Natural History museum, having our own Mini-CREA. We are looking for crystals and dinosaurs first. Then we’ll head to the science museum to run some experiments.

Sun is shining again, not exactly like the Italian Riviera but I can use my imagination.

Ciao! Patrizia

Categories: English, Patrizia Sorgiovanni | Tags: , , | Comments Off

Questions of Desire

by Sylvain Rouillard

make_a_wishIf ever you want really creative solutions, not just solving problems, you will need a lot of energy. And if you see your situation only as a problem, it’s as though you try to start a trip with your gas tank empty.

One tool I use a lot is to work with questions that reflect the desired state, rather than the problem. This puts into the brain what you’re aiming for instead of what you’re trying to escape from. And that will give you the energy to develop really creative solutions.

Some examples of desired state questions would be:

  • What are your ideal wishes related to this situation?
  • How will you feel when the situation is solved?
  • What resources, internal and external, do you have that will help you get closer to your desired goal?
  • What would be the first action, the first step to do, in order to get closer to your desired state?
  • Think about a situation that you have solved in the past that would be kind of similar to the actual one, even if itʼs not exactly the same thing. Elaborate a little about this situation.
  • What are some of the common points between the past situation and the one youʼre solving today?
  • What would you need to reach the desired state?
  • How would a person know, looking from the outside, that the situation is solved, that you got what you wanted?
Categories: English, Sylvain Rouillard | Tags: , , | Comments Off

CREA Tip: Focaccia col Formaggio

Focaccia col formaggioBetter Living at CREA: Tips for managing your CREA experience.

Focaccia col formaggio is one of the signature dishes from the area. To say it’s a cheese pizza is like saying Cecilia Bartoli can carry a tune: it doesn’t begin to express the sheer delight of tasting this delicious thing.

The cheese they use here is special: it’s crescenza cheese from Recco, one of the towns nearby on the road to Genova. Never heard of Recco cheese? That’s because none of it ever gets out of Liguria. The folks here eat it up before anybody can even think of exporting it.

You’ll find out why if you go to Angiolina’s, just down the road toward the Baia di Silenzio. You’ll be glad you did. They make the best focaccia col formaggio in Sestri.

Categories: CREA Tips, English | Tags: , , | 1 Comment