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Open to Think: Dream with Creative Thinking, with Dan Pontefract, Leadership Strategist and Author, Open to Think
Creative thinkers. Why we start with the dreaming? Well, dream, to ideate, to ponder, to be creative is really, ironically, where it all starts, isn’t it? If we jump to action, where do those good ideas come from?
They should be coming from that ideation phase. And the critical importance of creative thinking is that you never know where ideas may take you. So if you’re not banding about with your buddies, your colleagues, your friends, if you’re not sort of going for a walk and saying, “What could be?” Then you never know what will be. So to be a creative thinker to start there first, I implore you do it. Ask yourself this question, “Does my organization allow me to dream? Or am I always measured by punching away on a keyboard?” You see, when we sit at that keyboard, when we sit at that cubicle, we sit at our desk, and we’re reprimanded for looking up and wondering, when we’re not busy all the time in our calendars, when we’re not in a meeting and showing that actually this is the dirty work. This is the real work.
When we’re reprimanded for not being able to dream, there’s an issue with your culture at the organization. Creative thinking requires a culture of pause. Creative thinking requires a culture of pause. That’s the most important step for an organization to ask. Are we allowing our team members to dream?