The Work In Colour Blog is a free weekly blog covering all kinds of stuff to do with working in colour, from career tips to creative thinking ideas and much in between.http://workincolour.com.au/Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:07:59 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/77/your-career-story/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/77/your-career-story/One of my favourite quotes is from American poet Muriel Rukeyser: The world is made of stories, not atoms. Stories aren't just for children, or indulgent afternoons on the sofa. They are are equally important in the world of work.Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:31:16 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/76/that-anxious-feeling/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/76/that-anxious-feeling/I wrote a couple of weeks ago about sudden change. It must have been an omen, because since then I have had change all around me.Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:40:59 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/75/serious-play/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/75/serious-play/I've written before about the importance of play for creative thought and I emphasise curiosity and play every time I speak or run a workshop. And that's because play frees up the mind, breaks the hold of the rational brain and let's us make connections that otherwise would not have happened.Tue, 6 Jul 2010 16:52:08 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/74/sudden-changes/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/74/sudden-changes/What a week...in Australia we have seen a change of Prime Minister (almost) out of the blue, we have seen Australia - and a whole heap of other countries - out of the soccer World Cup, we have seen contestants eliminated from Masterchef as well as some eliminated contestants brought back in. Some of you may think that it's silly to mention Masterchef in the same sentence as the Prime Minister - let alone the soccer - but it's not silly, not at all :)Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:28:43 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/73/have-you-seen-walt-disneys-mindmap/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/73/have-you-seen-walt-disneys-mindmap/I have spoken about mindmapping before, and I teach it almost every time I present, because I truly believe it is THE most useful thinking, planning, connecting and clarifying tool around.Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:49:06 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/72/where-do-ideas-come-from/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/72/where-do-ideas-come-from/I was listening to an audiobook the other day, and the guy was talking about some research he'd seen. It was all about mathematicians and scientific types describing how they came up with their creative ideas. It seems that creativity happens in the space between other thoughts, in those moments when the mental chatter, day-to-day concerns and external stimuli drop away. This is why we get so many of our good ideas in the shower or when waking or when out walking the dog.Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:00:29 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/71/declutter-your-space-declutter-your-mind/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/71/declutter-your-space-declutter-your-mind/Most of us have no trouble thinking of a corner of our life which contains clutter (definition: a confused or disordered state or collection; a jumble). The benefits of removing this clutter from your home and work environments are obvious - a sense of order, being able to find things, no more junk lying around, and that feeling of deep satisfaction that comes from rendering order from chaos.Wed, 9 Jun 2010 16:00:19 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/70/ken-robinson-returns-to-ted-with-more-on-creativity/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/70/ken-robinson-returns-to-ted-with-more-on-creativity/Four years ago, English creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson argued in his first talk for TED that we don't get the best out of people because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies - far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity - are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. 'We are educating people out of their creativity,' he said.Wed, 2 Jun 2010 08:39:04 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/69/is-compromise-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/69/is-compromise-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/I was lucky enough (actually, privileged enough) to attend the inaugral TEDx Sydney event at Carriageworks a couple of Saturdays ago. So many ideas, so many fascinating people on and off the main stage. Amazing day. Apart from 'discovering' Missy Higgins (as usual, I am the LAST person in the whole world to do so) one of the highlights for me was listening to a guy from South Australia's Flinders University talking about whether compromise is the best option, at least most of the time.Thu, 27 May 2010 17:43:15 +1000http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/68/what-are-your-talents/http://workincolour.com.au/blog/post/68/what-are-your-talents/It's not currently fashionable to talk about talents: we focus on skills and experience, or describe someone as 'gifted' without getting too specific. But talents are part of our essential make-up - the gifts, passions, interests and natural aptitudes we are born with. If you want to find long-term satisfaction and success, it's helpful to identify your talents (and equally, your non-talents).