Stuart Eglin Online

Stuart Eglin Online

Archive for February, 2012

Capturing the Creative Learning Academy

Feb 22

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Coaching, Personal Development, Writing | No Comments

Doing something innovative is one thing, capturing it is another. I am capturing the personal development approach which I am taking forward with my team, and which I have been writing about here. The book which I have started on this, should be finished soon. (All part of the drive to ‘ship’ things before resistance kicks in!)

Below is the opening section of the book, which has the working title “We Get the Work Done Together”.

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s weblog (www.sethgodin.com ) for a few years now, and as well as reading his free books which are on the internet, I have also bought a couple of his books to read. I really enjoy the free flow of provocative ideas that he puts together. It really gets you thinking about things in unconventional ways.

One of his recent books is called “Linchpin” and it has become one of the group of books which the team I lead is working through as part of the Creative Learning Academy which I have developed.

A free e-book by Seth Godin, “The Insubordinates”, is an add-on to the Linchpin book. It sets out the people who Seth feels have influenced his thinking, or helped him to achieve what he has. He gives a bit of a rant and storyline on each person. I read it the other day, and it inspired me to pull together my own summary of the key people who have really shaped my thinking over the last few years.

At the time of writing, I am in the midst of developing a new approach to learning as a team. The Creative Learning Academy takes a set of ideas around personal development, co-creation and creativity. Using an organic approach, a set of workshops and learning tools have been used to take the team through a shared experience.  The focus is on encouraging everyone to see learning as an essential part of work and the life that surrounds it.

I’m not sure, as I write this, who I am writing it for. I guess to some extent that I am doing it to clarify my own thinking, but it may also help to explain the broader context for the Creative Learning Academy and its ongoing development. Either way, here goes…

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Developing a Shipping List!

Feb 20

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Writing | No Comments

A while ago I read ‘Linchpin’ by Seth Godin – a brilliant book. I’ve read a few of his books now – I also liked ‘Poke the Box’ which was part of a new publishing project which he ran throughout last year in partnership with Amazon. He is always pushing the boundaries and getting his readers to think out beyond their comfort zones.

One of the concepts he explores which I find really interesting is the idea that we constantly need to overcome resistance. And we do this by shipping. Getting past the inner critic. Thus, with any type of project it is key that we push on and through the resistance until the project is ready to ship. In other words, complete it and share it. Don’t aim for perfection.

Well, with this concept very much in mind the last time I met with my coach, we looked at how I can get a lot of the ‘open loops’ sorted. I have a lot of manuscripts unfinished. They create a drag with my energy, incomplete projects looking for a final burst of energy. So, we developed the idea of the ‘Shipping List’ – and then it struck me that if I can clear my ‘Shipping List’ I could then create a ‘Shipping Forecast’ with ideas for new writing projects. This has been incredibly motivating. I pulled together a ‘Shipping List’ and it had 13 items on it. This includes a couple of poetry collections, the book of the PhD thesis, a book on change, collected works of my poetry from the last 25 years, coaching tips, a new novel and a booklet about Buddhism. A really eclectic mix of ideas – and one that I need to conclude and sign off without being too precious about some of the ideas.

I’ve been working on the list over the last week or so, and I already have one manuscript (made up of the two poetry collections) virtually finished, a short coaching tips booklet to edit. It’s really exciting to find that I can pull together and ship at a real pace to get through the Shipping List. I will keep you posted as I progress the lists.

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