I hope I can give justice to the presentation and workshop of our 22 March, 2023 webinar with Ruth Stanley on Applying Intentional Creativity to Quality Management. It’s not always easy to moderate such events, participate in the workshops, and then write up about them. However, here it goes.

Like all good presenters, Ruth spent some time sharing with us about the co-authors of her book “Your Creativity Sprint“, i.e. Dwight Powless, Tim Ragan, and Edwin Garro. After reviewing a few popular acronyms like VUCA (Volatile-Uncertain-Complex-Ambiguous) and BANI (Brittle-Anxious-Non-linear-Incomprehensible) and their significance, Ruth asked us “How do we nurture creativity?“, going through components such as Physical, Mental, Emotional, Relationship, Spiritual, and Cultural. This alone indicated we were going to talk about human factors which she summarized as “embracing our humanity“.

Ruth then spent time reviewing techniques such as “Look, Listen, Feel Challenge” and incorporating Intentional Creativity into an A3 Challenge, a tool many Quality professionals are very aware of. My favorite workshop exercises were the “Ugly Baby Challenge” where no “buts” were allowed and especially the “Hero Challenge” where the focus was on relating a message regarding a current issue using a hero to give your younger self a message from your experience — talk about thinking out of the box!

Having taken courses in coaching, I could not help feeling that Ruth’s Intentional Creativity approach shared strong elements with a coaching approach that really solicits individuals to think of alternatives and paths of action themselves rather than following prescribing best practices suggested to them. This ASQ event had everything we look for: information, application of theory, and an opportunity to reflect and learn. An excellent experience indeed. For more information on Ruth’s book, see Your Creativity Sprint Five-Week Challenge.

We look forward to continuing discussions on this and other topics in the future.