Introduction to role of ceativity and reflection in leadership, and use of haiku writing as a discipline, presnetaion from Academi Wales Summer School 2013

1. The flow of thought
26/6/13
Martin Locock
mlocock

2. Outline
Flow
Creativity and focus
Reflecting and recording
The haiku in theory and practice

3. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow:
Optimal experience, the combination of
absorption, effort, and discipline
Flow

4. Creativity and focus
Creative impulse
• To make a change in the world
• To convert thought into action
• To share an insight with others
Focus
• Absorption
• Intensity
• = flow
Photo: Rose White yarnivore

5. Managing creativity
• Leadership and creativity
• Creation is easy; craft is hard,
quality is variable
• The creative paradox (or, “There
was a young man from Hong
Kong”)

6. Poetry and reflection
• Capture moments of transformation
• Capture feelings and texture of
experience
• Jack Mezirow – critical reflection
transformational learning re-thinking
past experiences

7. Reflecting and recording
• Reflect > Record > Review
• Capturing the essence of insights and
experience

8. The haiku
Twilight
Midges cloud the air
Their frantic activity
Getting them nowhere

9. The haiku
Twilight
Midges cloud the air
Their frantic activity
Getting them nowhere
•Strong image, simple language, two halves, can be small
subject

10. Rules
• Japanese tradition
• A title
• Three lines
• Five, seven, five syllables
• Words can be omitted
• Changing moment: external > internal,
describe > feel/think; two aspects of
something

11. Examples
Proverb
Fifty years’ wisdom:
in spring prepare the woodpile
ready for autumn

12. Kijo Murakami
First autumn morning:
the mirror I stare into
shows my father's face

13. Haiku exercise
• Topic: a discovery or insight
• Content: context and event
• Focus on how it felt, how it
changed you
• No room for irrelevancies

14. Having a go
• Find a thought 3 minutes
• Write it down as a phrase
• First draft 5 minutes
• Write it neatly
• Title
• Pairs: read aloud
– What was best, what needs work 5 minutes
• Quick revision 2 minutes
• Final version: reading

15. Judging a poem
• Does it contain a truth?
• Does it express that truth?
• Does it communicate that truth?
Irrelevant questions:
• Is the idea new?
• Is the idea one you are committed to?
• Would someone else have written it
differently?

16. More words
http://changingmoment.blogspot.com
The Great Wave, Hokusai (1760-1849)

17. mlocock@gmail.com