My Kind of Research

"Talking explores history. Doing rewrites it." 

- National Geographic Magazine

That is a revolutionary perspective. We know so much, we have access to all kinds of information and are bombarded with messages galore on the importance of health, recreation, wellness, and how to live well. Packaging that entices and inspires us to act is important still, unless we DO IT, the chance of changing the world is slim, and doesn't everybody want to change the world?

Okay maybe not.

So I'm working away building "Showgirl Trapped in a Librarian's Body," a resource in my creative connection Snackseries, and BANG! It hit me, all of the work I do IS my research. Not revolutionary in itself but until I connected the dots, I hadn't looked at it this way. It put what I do into new perspective.

As I facilitate workshops, teach courses, speak at conferences, and coach leaders I am actively researching. Now that's MY kind of research! Last year I taught a course at Mount Royal University and together with the students, used the course as an informal applied research study (results will be shared in the Snackseries) on how we as facilitators, instructors, and teachers build more meaningful connections with participants. My work is my research.

The upcoming "Leading with Creative Intention"workshop I'm hosting at the ARPA conference in October (www.arpaonline.ca), is about how we as leaders can use different strategies and techniques to develop new processes, ideas, products, and services that are effective, and how we can facilitate a more creative team/work environment. A big part of this is our mindset, how we look at things.  If we believe that we can produce valuable creative solutions we are more likely to do so, and we can teach ourselves to be confidently creative by intentionally focussing on and using techniques to support creative action.

Doing THIS is my research and this informs the evolution of my practice.

What does your research look like?