 Location: The Hilton Adelaide. Breakfast - eggs, bacon and a double short macchiato. The coffee, Vittoria, a super commercial brew, but if made well it's actually really good. I'm leaving the resturant and went via the coffee machine. The barista was Otto. I said "Hi Otto, you just made me a double macchiato." I wish I could publish a photo of his face. It was a look of horror, fear, what's he gonna say next, what did I do wrong, am I in trouble? Otto said "Yes " I followed with "It was really good. I just wanted to let you know, thanks very much." A look of huge relief came over his face. I walked way thinking how few positive comments Otto must receive on the coffee station or perhaps the only comments he gets are when there's a problem. It's almost like he didn't know how to accept a compliment because it was so rare to receive them. It's such a simple thing; to find somebody in a situation like that and give them a genuine authentic compliment of appreciation. A genuine compliment, to look them in the eye, give them a simple smile and say thank you. It goes so far, yet isn't it sad, the simplest things get pushed aside, taken for granted ...yet they mean the most. GB
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 This was the set up to an innovative idea session that invited supporters, suppliers, and important people to this charity, that were being called together to design ideas for the future. They tried to plug-in an old School VGR data projector, you know the ones that wobble everywhere and you can never focus. Then they had no power supply or power socket to plug into, and ... no extension lead as the participants started to file in to the room. There was an old dirty whiteboard in the corner full of marks and old blue tac with no pens. There was nothing on the table to write on or with. I've come to believe that the environment you create for creativity has a big impact on the output you receive. The where and the environment impacts how people feel. What's around them to stimulate their minds, and how they feel in order to share and create. In The War of Art Steven Pressfield wrote about resistance. The resistance is the artist's worst enemy. The resistance creates all the excuses, judgements, blocks, distractions, inner narratives and reasons not to create. The where here is playing into the hands of resistance. Should it matter? Probably not. If you have the identity of a creator, you train yourself to think in a nonlinear fashion whilst appreciating the linear journey, you're up for the challenge, and you say yourself "what else?" then the environment shouldn't matter. But it does. The environment and how you feel, what you see, feel, touch, smell and taste, impacts creativity through your senses. (In the cupboard I found an old VHS player... old school, enough said). GB
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