Sheerwater rediscovered follow ups

A photo about our event in October 29 2025 reported in the Woking News and Mail 

After our successful event in 2025 "Sheerwater rediscovered!" (also reported in this blog), in 2026 I have been following up with several activities which I would like to share and reflect on.  

Here is a summary to date: 

• In November 7^th, 2025, and thanks to the support of the Mascot Hub and St Michael’s church, I was radio interviewed in the BBC Surrey Breakfast by Mr James Cannon (at 7:21am). I offered a quick summary of the project leading to the event, and highlighted the key project finding that “The Sheerwater community is still alive, we just need to know where to look for it.” 

 

• Also in November 18^th,  Mr Paul Salt visited Royal Holloway, University of London (my workplace) to talk about the “Sheerwater group” to the business school’s M.Sc. students.   This Facebook© group of around 2.3k members currently acts as a main forum for discussion and news about the Sheerwater community issues. Paul engaged very well with our students, and they enjoyed his company.  He made us all aware of the importance of having clear boundaries in both the design and use of social media and technology in general. Thank you Paul, it was a pleasure having you on campus! 

 

Sheerwater resident Paul Salt talking to Royal Holloway M.Sc. students (AI in Business and Business Analytics 2025-2026, November 18^th, 2025)

 

• In January 14^th 2026 I was invited to talk to teachers about the history of Sheerwater at the Broadmere Primary Academy in Sheerwater. The feedback received was very positive. One of them suggested to have the same talk at the David Bishop Brown secondary school next door. This is something to be considered for further funding and dissemination.  Many thanks to Tracey Francis (St Michael's Church in Sheerwater) and Karen Barham (Headteacher at Broadmere) for making this talk possible. 

 Presenting a history of Sheerwater at Broadmere Primary Academy

• On the 23rd of April 2026 and thanks to the invitation of Trevor Wenden, Sheerwater Football Club secretary and a long standing member of this club, I attended a Sheerwater residents meeting which included residents and local councillors.  During the meeting, I ventured to speak out to present our research project and one of its posters (history of Sheerwater).  Having listened to several problematic issues raised by residents during the meeting, I suggested that our project gave us the key suggestion to work together to face these and other issues as it was done in the past. I also offered an idea: to join forces with the Sheerwater Football club to help clean the rubbish that is still lying around from the buildings that have been vacated for more than a year now.  Am happy to report that the community engagement team of Woking Borough Council had a similar idea, and in May 22 2026 they organised a community litter picking event. Whether they took my suggestion or not, that will be up to the jury (of the meeting) to decide.  

• Throughout the football season of 2025-2026, I have become an almost staunch supporter of the Sheerwater Football club.  It is a great community of fans and volunteers which has given me a place to learn more about Sheerwater, take my children to live football on Saturdays and meet lovely people. We are to volunteer for the children's tournament on the 13th of June and are looking forward to see the mini-sheers in action.  

As I finish writing his post, and finally have managed to join the facebook Sheerwater group,  I can still say that the Sheerwater community is much alive, and that now I am more familiar with the places and events where this happens. I hope to help them continue rediscovering their communities and regaining a sense of hope for the future.   We all need it!

Messages of and about eco-anxiety

The Cop26 meeting is now about to finish.  There are many important lessons that all of us as individuals could grasp, some of them clearer than others.  What follows is my own take on what has happened. I present my own messages of and about eco-anxiety.

At work, we have been encouraged to present what we have been doing (teaching, research, engagement with the community) to better understand the complexities of climate change.  During this summer me and some students decided to explore how our campus is currently dealing with food waste.   We were fortunate to be supported by other academics and a manager of an anaerobic digestion company.  It has been a very helpful exercise for learning to talk to them and also to interact with campus managers in different areas like accommodation services and food production.  

As a result, students prepared and delivered a great presentation where a key message was that we need to better recycle food as well as prevent its potential waste.  How we carry this out could then be divided into two aspects:  

• Increase the value that we attribute to food recycling via better messaging, support processes and awareness
• Adopt new technologies like anaerobic digestion or AD.  

Tackling both of the above requires working on promoting a cultural if not behavioural change in our attitudes to waste and specifically to food.  

During the presentation the audience was very receptive and open to the ideas we were presenting.  One aspect that surfaced to be further considered is that how feedback about the need to generate cultural and behavioural awareness needs to be continuous and at all levels of academic and administrative activity in our campus.  Technologies like AD or those to better support better food waste monitoring (weighting, data analytics) as well as recycling are already available.  Why is it that only a few university campuses in countries like the UK are doing something about food?  

It seems to me that the higher level resolutions and agreements of Cop26 by governments need to be both reflected and challenged by local actions from universities, councils and private companies working together.  This is something that again requires a cultural mind shift from management of these organisations.  

Perhaps more importantly we all need to acknowledge that so far the desire to do something about climate change and doing it now is generating more anxiety than awareness.  Myself I had to slow down in my work and let students and the company manager carry on because I was feeling overwhelmed with so many messages from the media.  

Eco-anxiety is not only an individual but also a collective 'illness'.  During summer of 2021 I started to feel that any change about climate change is going to be slow and has to be concerted: it is difficult to mediate between parties that have different views about what needs to be done.  Every step has to be reflected upon and negotiated.  

This despite what many organisations have already in their strategic plans of achieving net-zero by a certain date.  It is also true that some actions are going to produce more impacts than others (i.e. not flying is more impactful than buying or using electric transport).  So perhaps it would be more important to assess and agree on these actions collectively.  And to establish ways of incorporating our conversations about such actions into strategic plans.  This could also help us all to deal with our own eco-anxieties.  

Creativity and risk taking - Finding your Element by Sir Ken Robinson (RIP)

I am about to finish reading Ken Robinson's "Finding your Element" book.This year of 2021 I have given myself time to think about my vocation.  This book has been very helpful to let me understand myself a bit more.  It has useful exercises to get the reader to think about talents, aptitudes,  attitudes,  passions and other aspects of our personality.   It encourages reflection and self honesty about things we really want to do and are good at, even if we are to learn them fro  scratch.   

I studied computer science and systems engineering as it was the right thing to do at the time.  During my degree I learned how to program computers, and also to type and write bit more academically. I graduated and went to work on software development, process analyses and software selection.  

But something was off.  I could not really be happy knowing that there were politics when it came to work with technology users, consultants or software providers.  I left a technology career behind and studied systems thinking.  I found myself telling my research supervisor that I wanted a life change.  

Ken Robinson talks about taking risks when we feel that something is off.  In his book he gives lots of examples of people who changed careers, went to live in unexpected places, created businesses or simply turned away from what they were supposed to do in life.  To many of these people, comfort signalled a need to move on and engage in what they thought was 'next'.  

Robinson encourages people to take risks, given that life is uncertain and far from linear.  Taking risks promises that we can all start living more genuinely according to our Element(s) (where passions and talents meet).  In my own case, I took a bit of risk by getting into debt to pay for my systems thinking studies. I got the backing of my twin sister that acted as a financial guarantor of a scholarship loan I was awarded.  I will be always thankful to her, to my mum, my sister Clara, my other siblings and people who I encountered throughout.  

Thanks to life I keep encountering help. My guarantors have helped me to start a new life and to maintain it when things were not going well.  Graduating from a PhD with no job on sight and in another country was a challenge I did not foresee: the funny thing was that even getting a funded post-doc was seen as an alien thing by them.  This lack of approval affected my mental health and it took some years of counselling to accept that being a researcher was what I wanted to do, despite my previous technology education, my loyalty to loved ones, my anxiety of not being good enough, or my conservative attitude to life (and risk).  

I agree with Robinson that life is full of risks.  But I now find myself questioning if when taking them we are to involve our loved ones to act as 'guarantors' (the ones picking up the bill if things go wrong).   It is worth pursuing one's own passions.  But at what cost?  And for whom And? And if finding one's Element is not a linear process that could also involving 'going back' according to Robinson, why the rush?  Why do we have to do things now?  Why the 'now or never' attitude? 

As I pose these questions, maybe I am also learning to accept that in our lives there will be always things that are 'off' and that there will be times when we need to live with such things: I am now living with anxiety and that is OK.  I did live with problems as we all do.  I cannot fully blame my taking of risks for my anxiety although I would say there is a fine line between taking a risk and becoming a neurotic (my therapist's favourite term).   In Robinson's account of finding one's Element, there does not seem to be any choice but to pursue it (with guarantors, debts and anxieties involved).  Even of that involves small steps. The issue becomes: "do something!".  It reminds me of a wrong thing to say when one is mentally ill:"man up, get over it!". 

To this choiceless invitation,  one my psychotherapists would say something similar: There is no other choice but to be truthful to oneself and professional, so that we measure more carefully what we aim for.  There are some anxieties we can live with, and there are others we cannot.  And there is no shame in not being able to develop a 'thick skin' about anxieties as Robinson's examples seem to suggest.   

Both Robinson and my therapist will acknowledge that some form of 'guarantor' is needed.  Lucky if we are able to have them I think.  Maybe we need to ask for true help in our lives.  Help that tell us what risks are worth taking or when to take them.  

So what could be next? 

Out of these ideas and also echoing what Gabor Mate says to his younger self, my creative one would say:   "Worry, but not too much.  There is no need to pursue perfection.  Young or old, time is on your side"

And as I finish Robinson's book and review some of its ideas, I find myself feeling grateful for this year of 2021.  I can say that I am not yet sure what my Element is.  It has to do with connecting people to learning opportunities.  It also has to do with slowing down and saying no to things I can do but do not really want to.  There might not be big risks yet for me on this.  And time is still on my side.  

So what could be next for me?  Let people do things bit more, let me do bit more of aside art and writing, let me do more walking or swimming if not cycling.  Time is on my side I think! 

And for you?  

  

The limits of kindness

Monday morning in one of my favourite cafes.  Writing bits of a new book chapter.  A flurry of emails to look at.  Some things to do before they become too big to attend.  A longing, a desire to be with people.  

2013.  Me and my twins.  Trying to survive.  Stepping in for a colleague who needed urgent treatment.  I cover for him, and another colleague who found it difficult to teach the postgraduates.  I was kind at the time.  Early waking up.  My wife was kind to me and the children.  We made it.  

2021. One email gets my attention: we need to cover for a colleague; another one does not want to teach software use.  Yes, we are all busy.  But why is it that some who are in the digital world (or at least they say they are) do not want to learn about new tools, let alone share with others? 

I say no.  In my own ways.  

2020-2021.  We have all survived lock-downs and challenges in the last few years.  Kindness has helped.  But there are limits to kindness.  

If anything, lock-down (s) have taught me that we all need support.  But it is not fair to continue relying on the same people who give it and the same people who ask for it.  This forces us to be creative, I will give you that.  But there are ethical limits to how creative we can be. 

It might be good to limit our kindness.  Not with a view that we cannot do anything new.  But rather to be responsible with our energy and to also teach others what we think is important in our lives.  

Rituals for moving on, others are hard to let go of

My book writing is progressing, slowly.  Today I am mixing it up with writing this blog post.  

Summer time is now spent with family and preparing for more returns to 'normality'.  

One of my bosses recently said that the world has moved and cannot wait for us to take a breath or slow down.  In the food chain of education, other institutions or governments decide what needs to happen, and we follow suit.  Not much of this has really changed, except perhaps that we are bit more allowed to work remotely. 

Yes, it is time to move on, but also it is hard to let go of other things, I am finding.  

Human beings need some sort of structure, I heard recently.  We had to set up routines during lock-downs, and we had to start giving them meaning.  Some of them have become rituals.  Things to keep us afloat, to help us navigate the world. Myself, I am now doing some Pilates and short running.  I also have gone back to my cafe writing.  And I have planted new flowers in my garden.  

If you ask me why I do these things, well, they help me keep a good mood.  And the more I do them, the less I need to explain or justify them to myself or other people.  I am preparing for the winter.  

Finding hard to let go of driving to work, to email people to express my worries, to become silent or isolated when not feeling very well.  My ritual of self-berating or catastrophic thinking is still here: it does not have much more meaning anymore, but I grew up using it to cope with my circumstances.  Why is it hard to let go of?  

Maybe it is because I fear that if I let it go, I will not be appreciated, I will not succeed, I will not be loved.  A hard thought I think, A thought that allowed me to survive and to 'move on', a thought that can fuel many of our desires to act, or to live.

But then I will have to disagree with my boss.  I do not need to move on, not at least based on fear of approval.  My morning ritual has started to include gratitude for just being alive, and for reassuring myself that whatever life throws at us, we will be OK.  

As if nothing has happened

End of February 2021 in the UK.  Spring is at the doorstep and vaccinations are taking place in several countries.  There is a general feeling that we are soon getting back to normal.  My twins’ school is about to reopen and I am looking forward to this, I also want to have some space to myself! 

It would be easy to forget what has happened in the last year and to focus on ‘catching up’ with family, friends, work, holidays or anything else.  Myself,  have been doing some reading and writing for what I think is going to be my next book.  I have tried hard also to seek alternative hobbies or career possibilities.  I have now exhausted myself.  Luckily I have people around me that keep telling me to slow down. There is no need for the rush. I was supposed to go easy on myself during this new lockdown!

Anyway, I think that part of my problem is that I somehow want to forget about 2020 and to carry on as if nothing had happened.  This is a normal reaction to adverse events.  Only that if we take another look at what went on, we could also rescue some positives.  And then accept that we are to move on, with this awareness.

Some of us would want to cling to helpful habits that we have acquired.  Paradoxically in my case, I have learned to do some things slowly.  Waking up and having breakfast, getting ready for the day whilst having a nice chat with my wife has been really good.  We talk about science fiction or comics, the mangas that she is reading, novelties about our twins or my ideas about how crazy and un predictable creativity is.  We also vent out our frustrations and worries.  And then we start working or homeschooling.  For me it has become a realisation that it is not possible to do everything on a single day, or do it very well.  My praise to my twins teachers, they do an amazing job, all things considered.  

I would love to get back to my office on campus,  with a view to enjoy the physical surroundings.  I would love to do less there.  I used to spend a great deal of time there, wandering between the office and the cafes or the shop, feeling that I needed to be there and with a fear of wasting my time.  Now, I think can still do my work and would love to stop on the way for a coffee in nearby towns, or strolling for a walk as I used to do some times.  

We just have to be grateful to be alive, to have some energy to carry out during our days, to have loved ones.  Yes, we are now living differently and more carefully.  But we can still live.  Slowly but surely.  Who wouldn’t want to do that?  

Me? I am just a symptom!

This year of 2020 will be remembered by how we all faced up to the world pandemic, and how, as human beings, we are capable of many good and not so good things.   

I can only praise the creativity of many of us, the dedication and the help we have received from, and some times given to, others.  

Have been lucky to be part of families as well as communities which came together via zoom and other means to help each other. With ups and downs, it has also been possible to many of us get by if not improve our quality of life, and keep smiling.  

Myself, I have been fortunate to find a new balance in what I do.  And to acknowledge what and who I really value.  Despite my best attempts to be who I am not,  I have found that I value family, respect, honesty and support above other things.  And I still tend to please others.  

So if you ask me what has happened with me this year, I can only say: “Me?  I am just a symptom.  As such it comes and goes, and it is (not) that important in the grand scheme of things...”

Ending 2020 on a high, I would like to say thank you to those who helped me.  And thank you to those who I try to help. 

What is for 2021?  

Well, lots of things I guess.  

Let us try to be instruments of greater and good purposes.   

Some thoughts for the new and creative 'normal'

Let us face it.  Most if not all of us have been caught off-guard with this pandemic.

(Source: https://clipground.com/free-animated-surprise-clipart.html) 

We still long to return to the old days where we could to go our offices, cafes, visit friends or family, running around like headless chickens in the pursuit of happiness.

The lock down brought a sense of distance to those days.  But for people like me, it also brought a new form of anxiety, which is manifested in my desire to cling on to what I know, what I love to do and what I fear to lose.  

For the new normal, the return to how things were, it might not be enough to continue supporting systems that contributed to fuel this sort of anxiety.  This is because the elephant in the room, the different selves or identities that what we used to get by, are still there.

And we will have to learn to live with these different guys, being now more anxious because of a greater risk to lose them, or to see them go.  

But where would we start in the new normal?  A spell of honesty with ourselves could help.  

Myself, I woke up today and after a hectic week of trying to keep the work-life balance 'right'.  I realise that I have used the pandemic, and it has used me to do things that my selves wanted to keep:  finish writing a book, publishing an academic article and writing a few more, whilst keeping a good parenting role.  I have also learnt to wake up later than before, do more physical exercise and gardening, and catch up with old friends and things that I thought I did not have time to complete.  

In this new normal, my life has still busy and not so busy moments. I have tried to keep some 'precious' things at all cost: my job, my writing, my family, my health. The good friends to have coffee with and vent our mutual frustrations are now at a distance.  For good or bad, the remote family and the children are closer.  

The new normal has allowed me to keep these and other things.  However, some days I feel tired and sometimes angry with myself and the world.  Why is that?  Is it because I try to keep the old (committed, perfectionist) and have some new 'selves' (i.e. the sporty one) at the same time? 

I fear for the return to the 'normal', for the realisation that I need to let go of some of these selves. I wish I could let go of a competitive-creative self: :  feeling demanding audiences in colleagues and students, engaging in fights about our 'novelty' and 'contribution' on a daily basis, attending requests to get funding, travelling, evening meetings or plagiarism panels.  This on top of being the 'good' parent, whilst my bank account balance disappears nearer the end of each month.  And my other creative, writer self, is still here.  

(Source:  https://www.1001freedownloads.com/free-clipart/ma-2-2)

These realisations have made me acknowledge that the new normal for me needs to be, paradoxically, very abnormal.  It would need to be inclusive of uncertainty, self-compassion, introspection, human-sized jobs, doing good enough, touching fragility, developing simple education, enjoying nature locally, breathing, accepting frustration, welcoming the other selves in myself and my loved ones.  

And if possible keeping the writing going.   

In the new normal, my electric bike is also still waiting to be used a bit more.  

Creativity and Living with the Virus

Like many people out there and in lock down, I am starting to accept the situation that we are currently living in.

My first reaction from the last few weeks was to catch up with life online.  My teaching had to be moved to the virtual world in the space of two days.   

I initially struggled with the online platforms that are on offer (zoom, MS teams). The workplace had not fully set them up and it took sometime for all of us to learn to share their use.  

Still things can be improved, and now we have a full examination period coming up online.

At home I had to become more patient.  Combining work with just spending idle time has not been easy for me.  And as a creative person, I am supposed to make the best of the situation.  

But I am also an anxious one, so my creativity needs to accept that the adjustment is to take some time.  

Cooking, gardening, reading crime novels, video-conferencing, writing a new book, shopping, going for runs, more gardening, cleaning, more cooking, stopped writing the book (it is with my proofreader now), restarted writing old papers and new papers.   And a good support group with bit more of mindfulness practice have become the activities of my week.  

I thought I was not doing much, but on the whole and looking at the above list, it is quite a lot!

Creativity is still here with me, with my family, with neighbors, with key workers in supermarkets and in hospitals, with the self-employed.  It is not the old creativity we used to know.  Rather, and like the virus, she has mutated for good.  She is asking us to focus on the important things, to rest, to chat with loved ones, to make things simpler, to stop unnecessary shopping, to consider how we are going to make the best of the online world, to be more compassionate with ourselves and others.  

For me this would mean being bit more patient, pray again, meditate again, enjoy my slow writing, my close family, my cycling (when possible), and my garden.  

And for you?  

Try to rediscover your creativity, welcome her back to your home and your souls, don't ask her for the impossible.  And enjoy her company.  

Creativity, callings and crises

From time to time, we as human beings feel compelled to respond to what I call 'grand' callings.

These are invitations to save our planet or our countries, both of which are said to be in a continuous state of crisis.

Myself I remember responding to one of those crises during the 1990s decade when my home country was at 'disadvantage' when it came to design or use information and communications technologies (ICTs).  I saw a manifestation of this crisis at my job as a project analyst.   We were running against time.  The Spanish banks were to take the Colombian market.  We needed to do something.   And do it quickly.  

I did what I could at work.  And I also took this calling seriously and decided to go abroad and study.

By doing the latter, I also wanted to have some breathing space and reflect on what was going on in Colombia and with myself.   At 27 years of age, I found myself running around like a headless chicken.  

A job, a girlfriend, a family business, a catholic movement to help guide, a very busy life.

And as time went by, slowly, I began to realize that there was another calling:  I also needed to save myself.

And do it on a daily basis. 

To date, and having studied the field of creativity for a bit, it has become apparent to me that in this field there have also been grand callings.   

In the 1950s, scientists were called to be more creative to help their country defeat another country in the space race.   

In the 2000s, another calling has been issued in countries like the UK to foster creativity in schools.This call still continues today with proposals by Wagner (2015) and Robinson and Aronica (2016) to change our mindsets about schools:  

Schools are not machines or production factories but organisms.  They are systems that need to adapt and co-evolve with their environments, so that they are able to truly cater for the needs of their students and staff.  

In the 'back office' or 'background' of these callings however is the idea that human creativity, in its different manifestations (now called innovation), is to contribute at least to the economic welfare of its creators, and from there, to their countries.   

The race continues...and so my calling to save myself. 

Looking back at my first 'calling', I remember that in parallel to government efforts to boost economic growth with ICTs, there was also a growing concern with software piracy and legal software licensing in the country.   This was another 'crisis' for some people whilst others were being very creative about it.   Addressing this crisis was not about being creative but abiding by the law.

With emerging concerns about climate change, data security and economic recessions, our creativity now needs to walk on two feet: One that follows and obeys (without forgetting our common sense), the other that does the opposite.

Myself, I need to keep remembering that I have a daily calling.  

This is not about evading responsibility from doing my bit about other callings, but also respecting that, as Elizabeth Gilbert says, creativity has this magic element that can touch many of us to manifest itself.

So in that regard, I think I am doing my bit, and am trusting that others are or are not doing theirs.  

Writing this blog, teaching, fathering, researching bits, writing other bits, and taking time off to breath are things on my creativity agenda.  I strive to do these on a daily basis.  

And what is in your day, your callings, your agendas?

Paradoxical Creativity

Those of us who decide, consciously or unconsciously, to welcome creativity in our lives, are learning how paradoxical this could be.

Creativity, aiming to do something creative, or studying ourselves as potentially creative beings, we do often do so with the conviction that we have been called to do so.

Only that this call is made to many.

We feel uniqueness, being blessed or cursed, as if we are not in full control of our actions.  

And yet, with some practice and habits (as I wrote earlier in this blog), we learn to cultivate some ways in which we feel 'in the driving seat, of that inspiration, a silent driving to destinations we don't know.

Elizabeth Gilbert writes in her book "Big Magic", that there are forces making the above possible (the welcoming of the call, the working silently).   As human beings we are to respect and cultivate such forces in what Gilbert calls a partnership.  

We are to trust such forces, as we trust when we love someone.   We are to make sure that we do not scare them with our anxieties, fears or attempts to over control them.

We are to respect them, if they decide to leave us, temporarily, whilst they find better hosts, whilst we regain our sense of awe to the universe, whilst we regain our trust in them.

With creativity, we stop thinking too much about ourselves, and let enjoyment take over, but not to the point of harming our bodies or other beings.   

We are to host creativity, look after it, but also look after ourselves, our financial and economic sanity.

The more we are able to understand this paradoxical creativity, and treat it like a good old friend who wants the best for us, and who cannot be told exactly who to be friends with, the better.

The wonders of creativity have made Gilbert's book possible, and I believe they have made my own contributions possible too.  

In my new project, I am hoping not to scare creativity away with the demands of daily life.   I also hope not to obsess with it.  Rather I hope to continue working on it, sanely and in tune with forces that I cannot control.   

That, perhaps is the biggest challenge.  To do so with enjoyment and gratitude. Even if the end result is not only mine, or unique.   

Dear creativity, let us sit together in silence, and let us keep working.  

My creativity syndromes

After my last post on creativity habits, which I hope sound positive and encouraging, now I would like to share my 'negatives' about creativity.   I decided to call them syndromes, as this last word seems to be more recognized and acknowledged.

A sticker from Hyper-Japan Fair,2019

My creativity syndromes are certain habits and ways of thinking about myself and the world that do not help me.  In a nutshell, they keep me with fear and doom about my creative work.   They are now easy to spot, but difficult to manage, specially because they are ingrained in how I think about myself and the world around me.   

I seem to have acquired them when growing up. They probably helped me for a while, but now they seem to be in the way of me trying to live more creatively.    They drain my energy, and make me feel miserable at times.  

Because of these and other reasons, they need to be identified. So here they are:   

• Misplaced loyalty: I tend to overcommit to clans or tribes.   My commitment of saving the world by writing about it often leads me to say yes without thinking too much.   I give my allegiance to people and causes which, after a while, end up draining my energy because they do not align with my inner values or motivations.   I overdo helping those who have trouble in their academic careers, those with few friends, those who insist in working with me or those who praise me. I create unbalanced relationships in which I am willing to give more than what I receive. 

• Perfectionism.  I grew up thinking that I could become one of those ancient Kings (including Jesus Christ) that I read about in a book of Sacred Religious Catholic history: Noble and helpful, one which never complained and did good to everyone around; never tired, living according to high moral standards.  When I talked about this to a psychotherapist many years ago, he told me that I had a wrong idea about being 'good':  Jesus Christ expelled those who were trading in a sacred place!. It is difficult for me to accept failure and I fear failing.   So I often decide not to try, specially when there is strong competition around me. However, I also react when I see that things are not right.  

• Being an imposter.  I keep thinking:   Did I really deserve praise?   Do people really value me or my work?  Combined with the above misplaced loyalty and perfectionism, I have these moments of anxiety where I decide that what I do is not enough and I fear that someday, someone is going to 'find out', so I work harder.  

Life has taught me (sometimes the hard way), that these syndromes are not good for my health and thus for my creativity.   I now recognize more often and earlier when these syndromes show up. When they do,  I try to give myself a hug and say:  I am OK, I am good enough.   Work is just work.   Life is bigger than this or that situation.

I recently heard someone suggesting that we need to look at our relationship with both success and failure, so that we keep a balance in the stories about these guys that we entertain in our minds.   Wise words...

This guy will always make me feel special

I also try to remind myself now and again that what I creatively do has to do with my own personal values, and that they are good enough.   When I feel anxious, I talk to loved ones, to colleagues that do not take life too seriously, to people who know what I have been through or .  Or even if they do not know, they who are not judging me as hard as I judge myself.

To my dear creativity syndromes:   You are welcome to visit, but not to stay too long, I have more important things to do in life, and that includes being creative!

Creativity and the planet:Bike recycling

During the last academic term, me and students of one of my courses had the opportunity to visit the Surrey Bike Project, a social enterprise whose main remit is the recycling of bicycles.  It is a very interesting organisation that gathers many volunteers as well as youngsters around the topic of repairing, servicing and selling recycled bikes.  

Royal Holloway Students with John Thurlow, Project Manager

My students were asked to observe what goes on there, ask questions,and then select one specific process that they could improve, all of this using creativity ideas and techniques.

They did a great job coming up with solutions.    Some proposed a generic process of attracting more customers or enhancing the visibility of this organisation, whereas others focused on improving the diagnosis, repair and quality check activities and even suggesting new processes (i.e. making wallets out of tire rubber tubes).  

In the UK, the bike industry is economically strong, and within it repairs/recycling contribute a good deal.  The Surrey Bike Project provides education to youngsters who have left traditional education for whatever reason.  This is a great human aspect of the organisation. Other organisations around the country are also providing education through recycling in what appears to be an emerging, hybrid model of operation.   

This visit made me think that many of us, in our own ways, are doing something for the planet.   For creativity to emerge we need to set up spaces for different minds to come together and explore a common problem.   In her book "Peripheral Visions", Mary Catherine Bateson talks about the importance of setting up such spaces so that people can join in, learn and be allowed to make mistakes.   Like learning a language.   That is what the Surrey Bike Project does, ensuring a very high standard of quality as well.

I am sure my students learned a lot from this visit and the work that followed. I am also sure that John, Jim and colleagues from the project benefited from having different perspectives about their organisation.   We hope to continue our conversations and learn from each other.    

My Creativity Book Tour - Third Stop: Manchester and Hull in the UK

Have I been preaching to the converted when presenting my book about Managing Creativity at Manchester and Hull in the UK? 

Not really 😁.  

I have visited colleagues in Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Business School, and Hull University Business School,.  I want to thank them and the fantastic audiences that my seminars had.  

Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Business School

At Manchester, I was asked about individual creativity, and how I see it.   In my book (Chapter 1), I venture to lay a distinction between individually and collectively oriented creativity. 

The creativity field has progressed in consolidating a sort of established tradition of the first one, not so much in the second one, which was one of the reasons that led me to write the book.  Systemic creativity, or conceiving of creativity as resulting from creators and their circumstances, could find a place under the second one.  

Green square in front of MMU Business School

In between these (which the sociologist Andrew Abbott associates to lineages or branches on trees as the picture on the right aims to emulate), I see a great deal of creativity research that is focused on the processes associated with creativity, be them internal (cognitive) or external to a creator. Whichever lineage or body of knowledge we consider in creativity, what is becoming clearer is that in each, there are different criteria to study and assess a creative process, idea or individual.  The audience at Manchester also saw that creativity needs to consider environmental constraints and tensions, many of which shape such success criteria.  

I was also asked about how I plan to continue developing my ideas.  Since finishing this book, I have continued looking at creativity, this time in management education   My claim so far is that we as management educators have narrowed down our ideas about creativity, and have become somehow passive instruments of a big trend in digital innovation.


To overcome this situation, we will need to develop more ethical awareness and choices in relation to creativity.  I want to further research on how creators (students, educators) could assume more ethically driven responsibility for our own creativity, a responsibility that also implies engaging with others and accepting that our life and work has some inevitable 'shit' we have to deal with.  

The renovated Hull University Library

At Hull, the discussion and questions after my presentation moved towards how creators need to learn a specific domains of knowledge, in order to be able to improve them.  But how far do creators want or have to go when  learning something new? What motivates them? What criteria of can we then use to assess our own creativity and that of others?  

In my book I present how I addressed a situation which required knowledge about inter-disciplinary creativity.  I found myself having to learn about the domain of creativity and also having to follow certain conventions about how knowledge in an inter-disciplinary research proposal was to be generated.  This situation led me thinking about the risks of following conventions to the letter, in particular if we as creators have to flexibly deal with challenges that we encounter along the way.   Add to this the need to look after our own well being, and the picture becomes more complex.

I was also asked about what notion of creativity I use in my book, which perhaps by now you as a reader are also intrigued about.   My response was that I do not subscribe to a particular one, except that I am aware that in the creativity field some attributes to something creative have been defined:  Novelty, Value and Implementation.    An idea, person, process or product needs to be seen as novel, valued by others and it needs to 'fit' or to 'work' somehow in a situation or context. 

A view of Ferens Way, Hull

On further reflection about these and other questions, perhaps not all creators want to be worldwide recognized eminences in a domain of knowledge.  Not everyone would aspire to write academic journal articles or win prizes or research grants at all times.   This is a lesson that has been difficult for me to accept and assimilate.  Partly forced by circumstances, partly motivated by curiosity and interest, I decided in the last few years to write my latest book instead of writing high impact journal articles.  Writing a book made more sense to my family situation and health.

Now I am pursuing another book project, am putting more effort into this blog, and am collaborating with others in writing some journal articles.  This to me means striving for success using my creativity.  However, and because I am a perfectionist academic, it is still not easy to see myself as different from colleagues or previous role models both in academia or elsewhere.  There is the daily temptation to look at my academic citations and compare myself with others.  

Centre for Professional Success at Hull Business School

There is a lesson from the above:  Perhaps we need to be honest with ourselves and say something about the inner motivations and the external pressures that guide us as creators, and how we could take them forward. Achieving success (fame, economic benefit, fitting in within a community, or even pleasing those who we think deserve credit) needs to fit in with who we want to be.  There is a need to better link creativity with ethics, and do that through education and reflection.   

Many thanks Manchester and Hull, see you soon, with new ideas about creativity and how best to make it happen!