{"id":596,"date":"2013-10-25T03:44:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T03:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=596"},"modified":"2014-08-13T21:54:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T21:54:17","slug":"the-human-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-human-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"The Human Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

During my seminary years I worked as a trauma MRI tech at a University Hospital here in the States.\u00a0 On one of my first days at work, my mentor which was assigned to me shared with me that one of the greatest assets in saving patients lives was our human imagination.\u00a0 She was so right!\u00a0 Over the next four years I found myself in repeated situations where creativity, intuition and thinking outside the box led to lives being saved.\u00a0 Those around our trauma team would often validate the importance of the creative abilities of each team member and the need to stay fresh.\u00a0 We were often reminded to get consistent breaks outside the unit, vary our roles on the team and make sure that we never worked more than a few days straight.\u00a0 Our team leader was religious about it, always saying that if we didn\u2019t mix things up, learn how to laugh, set small goals and just simply enjoy life, we wouldn\u2019t have the imagination or pep we needed when the time came.\u00a0 She we would often say, “You need a pep talk!”\u00a0<\/strong> In fact, this video by Kid President reminds me a great deal of her crazy pep talks.\u00a0 Watch and enjoy!<\/p>\n

This past week while reading “The Leadership Mystique: Leading Behavior in The Human Enterprise”<\/strong>, I was struck by the concept of anhedonia.\u00a0 Anhedonia is defined as the inability to experience pleasure.\u00a0 Many in job situations where work is tedious and non intermittent can experience a quasi-anhedonia.\u00a0 This quasi-anhedonia is a milder form but when displayed by a team member or leader can have devastating effects on the organization. \u00a0Though linked to stage one of burnout characteristics, quasi-anhedonia is quickly treatable through minor work place alterations.\u00a0 The following are three work place changes which emerged.<\/p>\n

Caring for Dead Leaders Running<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Sense of Flow\u2026\u00a0<\/strong> Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says it this way, \u201cWe need to rediscover a sense of \u201cflow\u201d, a feeling comprised of exhilaration, concentration, and such total involvement in what we\u2019re doing that we lose all sense of time.\u201d\u00a0 You know what he\u2019s talking about.\u00a0 Working in a way that you enjoy and are partakers in life.\u00a0 We work hard, but we also laugh, dream, rest\u2026\u00a0 and then we work hard again.\u00a0 And before we know it, the day is done!<\/p>\n

Needing a Challenge\u2026<\/strong> Challenge is absolutely essential because it forces all of us to learn.\u00a0 If we work predominantly without challenge, merely managing our day, our senses become blurred.\u00a0 Built into every human being is the hunger to create, explore and move beyond the mundane.\u00a0 Organizations that help their employees through creating opportunities, fuel the souls of their workers.\u00a0 The natural outflow then becomes a healthier worker, work environment and organization.<\/p>\n

Needing Small Milestones\u2026\u00a0<\/strong> We all need milestones.\u00a0 Have you ever been on a long distance road trip and have lived and died by the green mile markers along the highway?\u00a0 They give hope.\u00a0 Without small accomplishments along any journey or even a work day, our work can become monotonous. \u00a0\u00a0Within our flow we must set small goals, and once accomplishing those goals celebrate the win.\u00a0 If we simply get locked into nonstop work, never celebrating, never pausing to taste what is good, we are in grave danger of dulling our senses and losing our human imagination.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

Be careful you\u2019re not becoming a dead leader running<\/strong>.\u00a0 Ask yourself the question, \u201cWhat can I do to regain a sense of excitement in my work?\u00a0 How can I re-invent myself?\u00a0 If human imagination is the most meaningful asset I have to offer an organization, how can I unleash my specific gifting within this imagination?\u201d\u00a0 Make sure if you need a pep talk, watch Kid President, and learn to dance!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During my seminary years I worked as a trauma MRI tech at a University Hospital here in the States.\u00a0 On one of my first days at work, my mentor which was assigned to me shared with me that one of the greatest assets in saving patients lives was our human imagination.\u00a0 She was so right!\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,246],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-ketsdevries","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}