tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35204868029855733852012-01-24T20:28:45.668+11:00Ludic Creative provides proven, organised, smart and out-of-the-box events grounded in corporate experience events. Our work bonds teams, leads them to think differently and to have fun. Call Cindy on +61 412 135 426 or hit the Contact us tab below. She'll call you back in 24 hours or less.The Team at Ludic Creativehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06915703901542877326noreply@blogger.comBlogger351100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-18171983732525257052012-01-10T10:07:00.000+11:002012-01-10T10:12:20.798+11:00

Entertaining 10:50 video from Dave Morris, a Canadian improviser. He describes the "way of improvisation" in 7 "rules": play let yourself fail (which is different to failing... giving yourself permission is half the issue) listen (listening is the willingness to change) say yes say and (we love "yes men", but we love "and men" even more) play the game (whatever the constraints are, stay within

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-81369190189846526402011-12-15T15:58:00.000+11:002012-01-10T10:13:15.811+11:00

Mistakes are only mistakes because we don't listen and adjust to incorporate them, says Stefon Harris in There are no mistakes on the bandstand Music goes till about 9:58 or so in, so if you're in a hurry, fast forward! Or download enounce, which allows you to adjust the speed of online video - it has doubled my online browsing effectiveness! 'via Blog this'

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-45833824405082774432011-10-17T18:45:00.000+11:002011-10-17T18:45:00.232+11:00

Millward Brown took improvising as a nice metaphor for social media.I particularly like the line "The core to improv is to take someone else’s idea and to make something new and compelling out of it"'via Blog this'

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-64732526694261356272011-10-03T17:22:00.001+11:002011-10-03T17:22:41.900+11:00

Just putting the finishing touches on a presentation/workshop for the Creative Methods Conference in Melbourne this week (October 5 - 7, 2011). Here is a handout I'm preparing for my session on working with creative arts in corporates: Solving the Insoluble. The session is a sample session I have run for corporates before, which is both an "experience" of that session, and a meta-commentary

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-6769992305932146102011-06-06T09:24:00.000+10:002011-06-06T09:24:21.937+10:00

Original artwork by Cindy Tonkin 2009 I played for 3 hours with inspiring High Potential individuals from TAFE last night at MGSM. Here are links to the references I made: Time to Think - about giving people time to think and speak, and how you can solve your own problems if someone just listens The Upside of Irrationality - marvellous research into people's need for acknowledgement at work (

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-39659401228216812652011-05-28T10:52:00.000+10:002011-05-28T10:52:21.609+10:00

Conan O'Brien says Improvising is like surfing in this Fast Company article on the top 100 creative people in America. "I heard once years ago, they did a study and they found that really successful CEOs are good at knowing what's in their control and what's not in their control".  This is what improvising gives you - a sense of what and how to let go when you need to (and when to keep on!).

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-21276702200301279572011-05-24T13:06:00.000+10:002011-05-24T13:06:31.173+10:00

If you're interested in using more creative methods in your organisations, or with your clients, or if you're curious to see how creative and artistic endeavour can be relevant to improving organisational productivity and quality of life, pay attention now! The talented Andrew Rixon has run two years' of Story Conferences  in Melbourne, Australia. He's just announced the next part in his trilogy.

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-10395699980739694412011-05-23T15:57:00.000+10:002011-05-23T15:57:48.261+10:00

Go see Kate Koppett talk at Ted. Her theory is that improvising is not just for comedy anymore. Work is theatre, and every business is a stage.

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-61595448729330793112011-04-27T17:02:00.000+10:002011-04-27T17:02:32.624+10:00

Check out some online improv - Second City players play acting a "working lunch". Click on the menu at left of the screen to choose the "topic" they discuss (I particularly liked "When will the elevator be fixed?").

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-81403293302112207692011-04-27T16:57:00.002+10:002011-04-27T17:16:37.722+10:00

Read this New York Times interview with a CEO who uses improvisation techniques to teach listening, not just one off, but as a constant refresher to his staff..

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-21879311837947281772011-04-27T16:54:00.001+10:002011-04-27T17:16:48.992+10:00

Everyone who adopts the improvising mindset knows that it does something to your head. It frees up your mind, makes you feel smarter and come up with ideas you didn't know you had. And see the value in other people's ideas in a way you wouldn't otherwise. So it's wonderful that people like Charles Limb, a surgeon, have begun to study the neurology of improvisation. Using an fMRI scanner he

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-68821783341319805782009-12-17T17:21:00.003+11:002011-04-27T16:59:57.488+10:00

I have been reading Seth Godin's latest free ebook. The book, What Matters Now, is a collection of 70 contributions where the writers are restricted to one page of text that focuses on one word. The topic that caught my attention from a Ludic Creative direction was Neoteny - the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood - by Joi Ito. Her article can be viewed on her blog and it highlights

Glennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-89316484641753158832009-11-28T00:20:00.002+11:002011-04-27T17:00:14.148+10:00

I have just finished reading Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun. It is a great read and I recommend it. He makes the following insight about improvisation:"Paying attention makes things funny. If I have any secret to being entertaining, it's that I studied improvisation theatre. There I learned how to see and how to listen. Humour and insight come from paying attention, not from

Glennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-27476256994701450302009-11-07T21:25:00.004+11:002009-11-07T21:31:20.027+11:00

I am so very proud of our Glen Bell, here he is telling a Sydney audience about the evil of Pie Charts. You too can see that the world is being mislead.Ludic's not just a pretty face, we do real business things too!

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-85519096613360521272009-09-28T18:19:00.002+10:002009-09-28T18:40:23.314+10:00

I have just finished reading 'Play' by Stuart Brown. Brown makes the case that play is important to humans throughout their lives and the concept that adults should not play is plain wrong. While there can be a dark side to play, such as when people become addicted to computer games, the beneficial effects of play outweigh the risks.It is not just humans that need to play - it is important for

Glennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-83011253323078431282009-09-28T17:57:00.003+10:002009-09-28T18:02:03.523+10:00

I stumbled upon an Internet site called 'We Tell Stories' which you can find here. It uses Google map technology to enable the reader to see where the story's characters are physically located. Intriguing.

Glennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-85757804513337814512009-08-14T10:42:00.005+10:002009-08-14T10:44:35.767+10:00

Check out this article from the Edinburgh festival 2009 chronicling the rise in story telling for adults. It's not quite stand up, it's a single person on stage taking you on a journey!!

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-26460960010709816022009-08-09T17:36:00.006+10:002011-04-27T17:01:38.077+10:00

An article about confabulation by Tom Stafford, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Sheffield, has just been reprinted in the Australian Financial Review. Confabulation is a rare disorder caused by severe brain damage. Confabulators cannot distinguish between their memories and things that just come into their minds. They then create elaborate stories to make sense of their situation.

Glennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-11865914880556207032009-04-19T20:16:00.003+10:002011-04-27T17:04:01.779+10:00

I have just finished reading The Rise Of The Creative Class by Richard Florida. A little long but still interesting. The basic message is that a city will be more economically successful if it has more 'creative' people (the definition of creative is broad and includes engineers and scientists rather than just actors and authors). Florida believes that creatives are attracted to cities that have

Glennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-71357724774963752132009-04-16T11:51:00.003+10:002009-04-16T11:59:11.218+10:00

Listen to Stuart Brown, an expert on play, speaking at TED. His research says that play is not just joyful and energising, it's also deeply involved in developing humans and intelligence.Continuing to play as adults makes us smarter and more innovative, he says.Stuart is the author of Play: how it shapes the brain, opens the imagination and invigorates the soul. He tells a story linking playing

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-76415605646962508782009-03-28T17:33:00.002+11:002009-03-28T17:44:21.788+11:00

I have just finished reading Brain Rules by John Medina. It is full of fascinating insights into how to make your brain work more effectively.The book also explores how a species as fragile as humans could come to dominate the planet. The answer is that we got smarter and learnt to adapt to different situations. This is called Variability Selection Theory which predicts that there will be

Glennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-83121166243304486562009-03-12T16:42:00.004+11:002009-03-12T16:48:22.627+11:00

Back in November 08 I ran a 3 hour improvising session for facilitators.Here's an outline of the session from one of the facilitators' points of view. Daryl's point is that games aren't just touchy-feely - and that much of the learning is in the debrief.The Buddhists say how you do anything is how you do everything... and improvising games can adapt to show you how you approach many things in

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-87681896003908217062009-02-18T14:24:00.002+11:002009-02-18T14:31:51.393+11:00

The TED.com website streams fascinating presentations. I have just watch Barry Schwartz speaking on wisdom, which can be seen at http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.htmlDuring this presentation Larry makes the assertion that a wise person knows when to improvise. He uses the example of hospital janitors recognising patient needs and adjusting their work activities

Glennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-3306886029151017482009-02-04T15:09:00.003+11:002009-02-04T15:14:32.266+11:00

Hey, Charles Darwin reputedly said: "in the long history of humankind (and animalkind too), those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed". So Charlie was an improviser too!

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-2333411459013965882009-01-18T15:42:00.003+11:002011-04-27T17:05:04.228+10:00

The online magazine Change This has a great article on how improvisation techniques can help business people. You will also learn about animation techniques used by Walt Disney in 1937. Enjoy!

The Team at Ludic Creativehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06915703901542877326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-29811332270278163772008-11-28T10:43:00.002+11:002008-11-28T10:47:42.615+11:00

what i forgot to say in my last 2 posts is that I collect fascinating things like the neurology info and send them out in a sort-of monthly ezine (like a magazine only e). You can subcribe at my own web site.

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-28085517219134842172008-11-28T08:41:00.002+11:002008-11-28T08:44:57.494+11:00

I also briefly mentioned this article in the New Yorker on Insight.They say that to have insight into a problem, we must stop focusing on it. Hence the epiphanies we tend to have in the shower, while shaving, putting on make up or when lying in bed in the morning. I have begun "disciplining" myself to take an extra 10 - 20 minutes lying awake in bed in the morning, and my problem-solving has

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-76679505642810317322008-11-28T08:36:00.005+11:002008-12-01T17:32:11.632+11:00

When I ran my improv session for the Australasian Facilitators' Network Conference yesterday, I mentioned that being able to reframe on the fly was especially important when things aren't going so well. Read this short article to find out more.

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-2772593150186009832008-11-25T10:53:00.003+11:002008-11-25T11:02:31.034+11:00

Off to Bathurst in regional New South Wales today to participate in the Australasian Facilitators' Network Conference. Presenting our favourite fun workshop - "Life is not a Rehearsal - start improvising" for facilitators on Thursday. Here is the background to some of the games we play in that workshop!

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-87192108157310802252008-11-03T13:57:00.003+11:002008-11-03T14:04:09.323+11:00

I'm running a session on Improvising for facilitators at the Australian Facilitator's Network conference on November 27 2008 in Bathurst (NSW, Australia).The session will be based on our popular workshop Life is not a Rehearsal, start improvising. And it will of course bring in all sorts of ideas from my recent readings.I probably won't get to this one - Viv McWaters an Australian facilitator who

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-1420658711657639892008-09-16T15:23:00.003+10:002008-09-16T15:31:51.732+10:00

The Asia Pacific Neuroleadership Summit in Sydney last week had some amazing new information to add to my world.Professor Bob Wood, a cognitive psychologist, likened working memory to a gate, and long-term memory to a paddock. Working memory is limited (the famous 7 plus or minus 2 chunks), and impeded by stress, negative self-talk ("I'm crap at this") and other such stressors.The idea is that if

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-10993325383417176542008-09-08T10:34:00.002+10:002008-09-08T10:40:24.671+10:00

Read today a quick blog (blogs on blogs, don't you love it?) - Seth Kahan of FastCompany quoting Michael Hammer of business process reengineering fame, saying "The Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff".After (gulp) 18 years of working in corporate change and improvement that's why I'm working now with Ludic Creative - we're doing the "soft stuff" in a way which, like the toothpaste, "gets in".Improvising

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-42035166701093805512008-08-15T13:16:00.003+10:002008-08-15T13:24:22.670+10:00

Hey, there's an international story telling festival in Hobart, Tasmania from 31 August to 6 September 2008. Looks like it could be fun!

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-68796432633247888062008-07-14T00:07:00.001+10:002008-07-14T00:09:12.834+10:00

I've put some of the photos from Vietnam up on the web.

Cindy Tonkinnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3520486802985573385.post-20980434002837199292008-07-13T13:35:00.000+10:002008-12-12T03:07:54.874+11:00

We just got back from a cool job in Vietnam. We helped 42 accountants find their inner story teller and perform it in front of 100 of their peers. The program was part of a broader agenda for corporate social responsibility, and was quite impressively managed and pulled together.We used a process we call "Epic Journey", which involves story arcs, colour and movement, and allows a group to devise

The Team at Ludic Creativehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06915703901542877326noreply@blogger.com0