Judith de Zanger

Wouldn’t it be nice if………….? Come spend an hour and a half, focusing on a dream, a possibility. An Immersion into one question, one wish. Start with Doing and end with Being. We will explore our subconscious and journey into new realms of ideas using nature, music, drawing, body sculpting and deep relaxation. It is an hour and a half of using your right brain and subconscious to gain new information and revelations and using your left brain to bring them back into usable, functional, valuable ideas. This process of evolution allows answers to emerge naturally, seemingly without effort, as if they had been there all along. It is a process which allows you to listen to your deeper self and relax into a harmony with what is and what might be.

Wayne Fisher

Wayne became fascinated with the psychology of Creative Problem Solving after meeting Min Basadur and sharing his Creative Problem Solving Profile with countless workshop participants at P&G. Curious about what’s really going on in the hearts and minds of the participants in his workshops, Wayne enrolled Art Markman, one of the world’s leading Cognitive Scientists.

Art, Wayne, and an eclectic band of experienced CPS facilitators spent two days in wilds of Indiana to share their collective wisdom. Come and learn about the very predictable pitfalls of leading teams through the CPS process. With new insights into how the human mind works (and often doesn’t), you can create your own strategies for strengthening CPS in team settings.

Innovation Theatre: Integrating Mind, Body and Spirit 

William Sturner

Enter the Theatre of Innovation - where you will enact the major roles of the truly Integrated, Authentic and Creative Person: flexible, risk-taking, interactive, centered, visionary, playful, motivated, receptive, assertive, imaginative, engaged and living in the now. Test your capacity for unifying these crucial roles through a series of highly experimental exercises - including movement, imaging, music, body sculpting, map-making, drawing, and mano-e-mano interactions.

Laws of Creative Manifestation
 

Swami Laraaji Nadananda LVN

Is it time to update and refine your approach to manifesting your heart's true desires? During this brief but potent experience you will re-connect to your heart's contemporary vision for self and the field at large and then create a PET NAME for this. Then you will identify and play with the realistic behavior which compliments that vision being fulfilled here in present time. This includes the
happy body and positive verbal language of success and fulfillment, which will embrace your attitude of authentic gratitude and celebration. Through individual and group process/play you will enhance your optimism and come away from this laughter friendly class with practical tools for creatively manifesting any thing your imagination and loving intention can conceive. The rest will be up to you and your commitment to being a happier camper in this or any life time. Bring writing material and an open imagination.
 

Humor and Laughter - Bridges to Creativity Across Cultures

Bruce Baum and Eileen Doyle

This interactive program will explore how laughter and humor can serve as catalysts for promoting creativity, innovation, motivation, collaboration, problem solving and productivity while mitigating negative effects of stress among people across cultures. Culturally specific examples of humor will be shared, and the subjectivity of humor will be contrasted with the universality of laughter. The laughter club movement will be reviewed, and participants will have the opportunity to engage in a brief laughter session. It has been demonstrated that encouraging humor, laughter and “play” in education and work environments can add significantly to creativity and innovation as well as individual and group productivity. Research on how humour and laughter contribute (or do not contribute) to such productivity will be reviewed. Strategies for infusing appropriate humour, laughter and “fun” in varied environments will be shared and discussed. Handouts including resources for further exploration of this field will be distributed.

Participants will:

• describe attributes of humor and laughter including psychological and physical benefits
• identify three or more ways that humor and laughter serve as catalysts for creativity, team building, positive interpersonal interactions, stress prevention and productivity.
• share how humor and laughter can promote creativity in their cultural environment with examples.
• engage in a laughter session
• laugh and have fun

Andre de Zanger

There is an ancient saying in the Upanishads some 5,000 year ago, that “Dissatisfaction is a root of Creativity”. In this session we will explore those things that we are dissatisfied with (“the things that tick us off”). Then we will use one of the fundamental Creativity processes of creativity -“Saturation ~ Incubation” to resolve it. We will explore one of our personal dissatisfactions and Saturate it using the “Wind-Tunnel” methodology and then Incubate it in an “Alpha-Theta-Delta” (dreamy) state of consciousness. We will then integrate it with the 1st Law of Quantum Mechanics – that ‘All Matter is frozen Energy and evolving towards the Field” Albert Einstein. This is also the most used principle in all the Patents and in all the Inventions around the world (TRIZ).

Eileen Doyle

“Get Clients Now!” is a sales and marketing system, designed to help you overcome the most challenging issue in building a business: landing new clients with a minimum of time and effort. Participants in the program will find out what really works to market a small business or consulting practice, discover the missing ingredients that are preventing their success, and learn tools and tactics for marketing and sales. Customize a personal marketing plan that you can begin taking action on immediately.

YOU WILL LEARN:

• What really works to market a service business, and what doesn't
• Tools & techniques for marketing your business
• How to diagnose your marketing ailments with the Universal Marketing Cycle
• How doing ten simple things per day can bring you all the clients you'll ever need
• Your own customized 28-day marketing plan that you can use over and over

Allie Middleton

An Introduction to Theory U Embodied Presence Practices - Sensing, Presencing and Realizing *

YOU WILL:
1. Experience a body-mind introduction to Theory-U and the three movements of the U, sensing, presencing, realizing;
2. Practice “the postcard”, a body-mind sensing & presencing activity with participants arranged as a community: a leader allows an individual gesture to unfold and call forth the emerging collective field.
3. In small groups, prototype something new through an individual and group embodiment activity

ACTION with INQUIRY: In the language of Theory-U, Sensing, Presencing and Realizing help us let go of habitual forms of preconceptions of thinking and reacting and invite us begin to act from our individual and perhaps collective presence, perhaps allowing for true creative action to emerge. These methods bring fresh, creative, nonaggressive energy to organization development and social change work. They are techniques for synchronizing body and mind in the present moment and may also enhance personal insight for transformational leadership development.
From a creative problem solving perspective, these practices may expand our capacity to experience a more multi-dimensional experience of diverging and converging, inviting awareness of the cognitive field, the somatic field and the universal field, perhaps even the emerging future. The internal state of the intervenor directly affects the result of the intervention.
Practicing balancing these more expanded states of perception, it becomes possible to direct our attention, intentions, communications and actions from clear and distinct perceptual states. The benefit is engaged and genuine, effective action integrative leadership practices unfolding in harmony with the emerging future.

*Inspired by Otto Scharmer and Arawana Hayashi and the Presencing Institute
 

Experiencing Architectural "Space"
 

Claude Samton

The goal of this workshop is for us to creatively experience architectural space in our daily lives. We are constantly experiencing architecture and the spaces around us which affect us deeply, often subconsciously. In this workshop, we will discuss and view the elements of architecture including form, function, structure, materials, scale, light, color, texture, art, etc. Then, independently, we'll walk around the Abode and through the spaces built by the Shakers who were among the finest architects and craftsmen we've had in America. Finally, we will share our experiences with the group and be able to take home the understanding and enjoyment gained in experiencing architectural space.

ALTER - A Way Back to the Future

Tim Hurson

Ironically, one of the most effective ways to change your future is to change your past. Is that possible? Well, we do it all the time, but rarely with conscious intent. Tim will show you how you can take a deliberate approach to literally altering your past so you can improve your future. Part of a suite of powerful techniques in Tim's Skillful Engagement model, ALTER is not a feel-good exercise. It's not a free ticket to LA-LA land. But it does offer the potential of radically changing the way you engage with your life. Come prepared for an emotional jolt and the possibility of a new beginning. This session is not simply interactive. The only thing it's about is you.

Upon successful completion of this program, participants will be able to:

• Re-experience and appropriately evaluate past mistakes and successes
• Extract relevant life lessons from these experiences
• Apply these life lessons to current and future endeavors

Appreciative Inquiry - When you are at your "Best"

Denise Lalonde

This highly interactive workshop will use the process of “Appreciative Inquiry” to identify and share how creativity manifests itself best, for you and others. Like a match lighting a candle, creative inspiration can come from anywhere. Be prepared to be surprised. Come share a time of inquiry and dialogue into highpoint moments of creative expression, find out where others have gotten inspiration, and how to create more opportunities for unleashing your own personal creativity. The process brings out lots of great creative energy and forward movement.

The Innovation Station - How to deliberately "UpShift" your Creative Output

Russ Schoen

Wouldn’t it be great if you had access to a deliberate creative process that you could use to boost your innovative thinking when facing real challenges? And don’t you wish, you could learn this process and how to apply it in under 90 minutes. Well you can! In this experiential workshop, you will learn how to use the Innovation Station, a simple, step-by-step thinking guide that walks you through the Foursight Creative Problem Solving process. Working individually and in small groups, you will learn how to use each step of the process and have the opportunity to apply it to real challenges. Come see for yourself, how 4 specific exercises can help you create a breakthrough. And be prepared to learn, laugh, and make new connections!
Participants will: • Learn a simple, repeatable, creative problem solving process • Apply the model to solve a real personal or professional challenge • Gain insight into the foundational research behind the tool • Understand how to increase creative output individually or in groups • Walk away with an innovation tool that you can use over and over to create breakthroughs

Core Connections: What's Your Story?

MaryAnn Smorra

Connect with your amazing story during this experiential workshop. Ubuntu, a South African word meaning “I am because we are”, describes the intention of this session. While combining our need for self-expression with the desire for communion with others in our lives, we will pursue our wishes, lies and dreams in this generativity arena. Discover the parts of your story you don’t need and the parts that will lead you to greater fulfillment. Allow awareness to incubate and illuminate as we proceed through a sequence of activities designed to bring you to the creative “aha”.

Creativity: Achievements and Illusions that Trap us.

Dan Bagley

You have perfect freedom, but the person you think you are has almost none. Why? Perhaps we are simply trapped in our own paradigms.

Since our perception dictates our reality, one of the shortcuts to achieving creative breakthroughs is to have more access to how we unconsciously see, feel and interact. In doing so we can then loosen the invisible constraints that limit our creative abilities and live more freely. After all, the toughest cages to escape from are those we don’t recognize we’re in.

This session is a fun, upbeat look at increasing our creative achievement by recognizing and transcending the blocks that keep us stuck.

Entering the Creative State of Consciousness through Meditative Drawing

Joanne Curran

Part of the Creative Process is the willingness to enter a state of "being" rather than "doing", a state of "receptivity" rather than "seeking" or "achieving". In this workshop we will create a space of "beingness" out of which creativity will emerge naturally and without effort.
Meditative Drawing is for everyone and an excellent way to enter Flow, to shut down the
critical voice and focus on listening and experiencing. We will be creating a space to
take time for oneself and to focus and respond to what is. Meditative Drawing, based on the work of Frederick Franck, introduces us to not only a new way of drawing, but a new way of seeing and looking at the world. Often what gets in our way of drawing or any other creative endeavor is our narrow, cognitive understanding of what is seen rather than what is actually perceived. Meditative drawing teaches us to get out of our own way, and respond to the world in a new and joyful way.

Participants will:

1. Enter a deep space of Being, out of which Creativity Emerges
2. Learn Franck's model of Meditative Drawing
3. Tame the critic within

This session is conducted with minimal conversation until our final debriefing.

Improv-Wrtiting - Stream of Consciousness

Amy Swisher

Applying principles of improvisational theatre and "Stream-of-Consciousness" to the writing experience. We will move from warm-up "Prompts" to longer forms, using compressed time to our advantage as we dive in and see what the mind turns up. Park your writer’s block squarely outside the door (No one will see your writing, spelling won't count); you’ll not even recognize it in the space we create.  By the end of this session, we’ll have a collection of pieces we have written together and separately, containing more beautiful nuggets of language than any one of us could have dreamt up had we tried and tried. Free your mind, let loose your pen, and fill the page!

Yoga for Creativity - Mind-Body-Spirit

Lisa Enzer
 
Bring your uncertainty, curiosity, and playful spirit as we explore the ancient teachings of yoga. Through movement, writing, dramatics, and traditional yoga practices we will refresh our inner guidance mechanisms and resources. These expressive activities cut across the lines of artistic disciplines to awaken new pathways for creativity, invention, and contentment. Yoga experience is not necessary; all postures and breathing practices will be done in a safe and mild manner. Please bring writing materials, and wear comfortable clothing.

Sheri Kennedy

Call it “Zen,” “blank slate,” “living in the moment” or simple “receptivity,” young children experience the world with their whole beings, one delicious experience at a time. In this loosely structured, interactive workshop, seize an opportunity to step away from the “linear” adult world and allow your mind to return to a state of noticing unusual pairings of objects, reassignment of things to new uses, and sheer joy in experiencing the new. At least one child will be in attendance. More are welcome. After a brief introduction, this workshop will be an opportunity for each participant to practice seeking his or her child-like Buddha mind. Children’s books will be read aloud and available for browsing, a selection of toys will entreat, and, assuming nap time corroborates, there will be children at play for inspiration. Bring your notebook and writing instrument to record the births of some wonderful ideas.

Rock Balancing

Andre and Judy de Zanger and others

Finding Balance within and without. We will wander among rocks and find a few that call to us. Learn and practice the meditative art of balancing rocks. It is a joyous way of connecting with yourself while finding the still point within the stone. Connecting to the energy within the rock, you will at the same time center your own. You will become a certified member of the International Rock Balancing Association!

Anyone can be a Presenter

On Saturday evenings there will be Open-Space Sessions, which will allow everyone the opportunity to create and attend a session of their choosing. We have many gifted participants attending the conference who are experts with talents and knowledge. Therefore, the Open-Space format, provides the opportunity to experience some wonderful unexpected ideas.

There will be newsprint paper around the room in which you will be invited to write down a session that you might like to run or attend. We will then, as a group, choose up to 7 workshops and meeting places.

“Whatever is presented ... is what's presented, whoever comes ... comes and whatever is learned ... is learned."

Allie Middleton

Kripalu Yoga is an inquiry-based yoga methodology that promotes the awakening of the life force (prana). Using classic asanas, pranayama, meditation, and relaxation techniques, Kripalu Yoga increases awareness of body, breath, and mind and encourages natural alignment.
Off the mat, this inquiry-based approach to life also encourages natural alignment and increased awareness-of our thoughts, words, feelings, and actions. In this way, Kripalu Yoga is know as an inquiry into optimal living.
Kripalu Yoga emphasizes the mechanics of yoga (proper breath and alignment) as well as the inner, spiritual dimensions of yoga practice. Students are encouraged to honor the wisdom of the body and to work according to its particular limits and strengths.
The primary objective of Kripalu Yoga is to awaken the natural intelligence of the life-force (the flow of prana) in order to promote thriving in all aspects of life. Because of its approach, Kripalu Yoga is compatible with all other styles and traditions of yoga practice.
Come join us to start your day in community at the Abode sharing a body-mind-spirit practice to open to your optimal creativity! We will stretch, breathe and meditate together, creating an integrated foundation for the creative flow of energy.

Mindfulness and Creativity

Marguerite Battaglia

In this session you will experience Mindfulness Practices in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. To be mindful means to be aware, without judgment or evaluation of what is happening in the present moment. It is a way of quieting the thinking mind so as to be present to what is happening in your body through your senses.
As simple as it sounds to just be in the present moment, the challenges of doing so are many. The stories we tell ourselves are distractions that keep us from “Being” and propel us into “Doing”.
Participants will have an opportunity to quiet the thinking mind through the practice of mindful listening, walking and eating. According to Thich Nhat Hanh, “to look deeply is to use mindfulness to light up the recesses of our mind or to look into the heart of things in order to see their true nature. By looking deeply, we gain insight and wisdom.

Participants will:

1. Experience mindfulness meditation through conscious breathing and mindful walking
2. Gain insight into conscious breathing from listening to a talk by Thich Nhat Hanh
3. Recognize that when there is a gap in thinking or a pace between thoughts, there is the clear space of infinite possibility where creativity, and insight may occur.

Sue and Bill Brooks
 

This session asks the fundamental creative questions.

• Are willing to Take a Risk?

• How Curious are you anyway?

• Can you imagine what it might be?

• How much ambiguity can you tolerate?

Come hone your Creative Attitudes in this VERY HANDS-ON program.

Arji P. Cakouros and Laraaji


In this session will be a highly playful and deeply relaxing experience. Come immerse yourself in an interactive, sonically-supported inner journey and outer celebration sure to bring on your bliss! Our transportive communal sound journey will include zither, mbira, voice, percussion rhythms and ancient gong tones. We shall enter this highly experiential time together with the shared intention of loosening any blocks to our creative flow through Sound, Laughter, Music, Meditation and Movement. Join us as we prepare our inner terrain to embark on a weekend of pure joy and creative flow! Dress comfortably, pillows, blankets and eyecovers welcome during restorative meditative sonic immersion.