Bean Water, Creativity, and Community: Coffee With A Shot Of Creativity Recap

The bond between coffee and community is undeniable. Many rely on that initial cup before tackling emails or engaging with fellow humans (apologies, ChatGPT). Coffee is a unifying force – whether we find a sense of belonging at our local coffee shop, even if we don't chat with anyone, or gather around the office coffee pot for casual and formal conversations.

Last Wednesday, IDLance kicked off this cool thing called "Coffee with a Shot of Creativity" – part of our new monthly Innovation Hour jam that started in 2024. It's basically a chance for our community folks to chill, forget life's craziness, and let the creative juices flow. We got the idea after checking out Learning 2023 in December.

Brooke Barker andRobyn Cole-Jacksonspilled the beans on how to pitch, pilot, and set up a creative space at work. IDLance loved the vibe and brought the concept to our crew.  Here are a few highlights of our first session.

Intentional Silence

Nothing can dampen your creative spark more than when someone says, “ok, be creative.” To help relieve that pressure and clear our minds, our session began with a Mind Sweep.

Participants took out a pen and a piece of paper or opened up a blank document on their device and took three minutes, in silence, to write down any thoughts or ideas that came to their mind.

We often associate silence in a virtual meeting as unsetting, but Jennifer Edenfieldfound the opposite. “Any silence at virtual conferences is an awkward silence. The intentional silence was refreshing.” With clear minds, the group started the first activity, coming up with a definition of creativity.

Ideas Without Judgement

Describing creativity is like trying to explain the perfect cup of coffee – you know it when you taste it, but putting it into words can be tricky. So, after consulting Google and ChatGPT, we turned to the group and asked them to define creativity. Using Poll Everywhere, we brewed up a fantastic word cloud with everyone's unique take on it.

During the discussion that followed, some members of the group shared their personal definitions.Bobbi Vernon saw creativity as  "stretching one's thoughts and ideas beyond the ordinary." Meanwhile,Lynette Amador shared that creativity is "ideas without judgment." The word cloud served as the bridge between our definitions.

6 Words Sentences

In our next activity, we drew inspiration from Ernest Hemingway's style. While he may have preferred daiquiris and mojitos to coffee, we applied his six-word story approach to describe our favorite cup. Whether it was the coffee itself or the creative energy in the air, the definitions started flowing! Here are a few of our favorites:

Alex Mitts: Cream and sugar plus bean water.

Norma Kaplan: It begins my day with vigor.

Amanda Roseboom: Warm, yet bitter, hug in [a] mug.

Melinda Thomas: Delicious throat-warming brain wake-up call.

What’s Your Sentence?

Ever stumbled over words trying to describe yourself to a client or recruiter? Yeah, we've all been there. Drawing inspiration from Daniel Pink's 2009 book "Drive," our final activity involved reflecting on ourselves to envision 2024. We aimed to transform those muddled paragraphs into concise, meaningful sentences. What emerged was a profound reflection, serving as a reminder of why we came together as a community.

Carolyn Brown: Is your sentence better today than yesterday? 😂

Stefania Metzger: How will my sentence change as my aspirations and goals evolve?

Our initial "Coffee with a Shot of Creativity" brewed up a fantastic blend of the IDLance community, mixing connection, community vibes, and a dash of fun. We can't wait to pour another cup of creativity together soon! ☕

Interested in attending one of our Slack-exclusive events? Join us on January 24 for IDHacks!