Behind every Fear lies Pure Creativity

Behind every Fear lies Pure Creativity

23. March 2020

…. or – to quote a well-known saying – fear gives wings!

Fear is going around in these days of the pandemic threat, is stirred up by daily bad news and even stricter regulations and measures. Fear makes us nervous, stressed, insecure and open to manipulation. Our body releases stress hormones. It is medically proven that our immune system as well as our creative thinking power is severely weakened.

However, fear can be the door opener and signpost to the development of creativity, our ability to experience adventure, to find ways out and solutions, to grow beyond ourselves. Fear can activate powerful resources of strength and enable us to achieve things that would not be possible without fear. This is exactly what the current times demand of us. Vivian Dittmar, the emotion expert, describes how this is possible. She has done groundbreaking work and written books on emotional intelligence, how to deal with emotions and how they can support us when we understand how to deal with them.

We are in the midst of a fundamental transformation, both globally and as humanity. Ancient shamanic people already knew that this time would come, and so did the psychologist Claire Graves, who in the 1980s laid the foundation for Spiral Dynamics, a consciousness level model that is very helpful to better understand what is happening in the world and in our organizations. He said in the 1980’s: “Humanity is preparing for a momentuous leap“.

Ecological crises and also the current virus crisis indicate that many things have gotten out of hand. That we become insecure and feel fear is actually normal under such conditions. We have to leave our comfort zone and develop ourselves.

So how can we learn to use fear creatively?

The current situation clearly shows that the old and proven no longer works. A new world is emerging in the background, but it is not really visible and tangible yet. So we are forced to let go of something old without having already found new ground. And at the same time we have to ask the question: “Where does real innovation come from to create this new world?”

We work with the integral model of Ken Wilber and Spiral Dynamics by Claire Graves. We combine these two models in an integral organizational map. The integral model shows very well that we have to develop new competencies in order to master the current challenges.

Our current, familiar mindset will not help us to find truly new solutions. So we are challenged to enter unknown territory, to endure the uncertainty, to develop a sense for the future and for wider spaces, and an ability to deal with the not-knowing. Our mindset needs an update from the future, so to speak. Those who are familiar with Otto Scharmer’s Theory-U know that there are already processes and tools for this.

We call them change competence, development competence and innovation competence. In order to navigate our steamships safely through transformation, whether they are corporations, SMEs or population groups and nations, these new competencies may be crucial.

In our Training Innovation Coaching (in German) we work together to develop these new competencies based on the background of the Integral Vision. The question is: “What do we need inside and outside to create something new?”

We learn together how to better understand the current situation and see it in a wider context. We practice to be fully present in the present moment. In this way we can relate more precisely to the current situation and find new solutions in co-creation and in creation from the intuitive space of the future.