Divya Marie Kato - When In Doubt, Draw - Getting The World Drawing

When In Doubt, Draw Creative Empowerment Workshop ADOBE Japan

ADOBE regularly holds various events to motivate employees and ADOBE Japan are beginning to kickstart a few such events too.

Special thanks to Yuuki Shimizu, Misa Maraun and Yoko Saito of ADOBE Japan for making this possible. Let’s help the conversation continue!

In 2017, ADOBE Japan co-sponsored Blossom Blast – an art event marking International Women’s Day. ADOBE wanted to show their support for art projects and female artists and it was during this event that they learned of the creative empowerment workshop that I facilitated there.

For our recent workshop, I focused on a 3 part process that I’ve been working on to distill the main elements of my When In Doubt, Draw programme into a workshop format:

Re-Sparking. Reflecting. Reconnecting.

You can enjoy a video of the workshop by clicking here or on the picture below and read the official article on the ADOBE corporate blog by clicking here (Japanese only)

Read on for my write up and to find out more about this 3 part process.

Should you or your team need a little re-sparking, get in touch and let us know how we can help: info@divyamariekato.com

When In Doubt, Draw: What if, instead of holding us back, our doubts are the very thing we need to know where we need to go next?

When In Doubt, Draw Creative Empowerment Workshop Adobe Japan

1. Re-Sparking

A common misconception is that creativity is a quality reserved only for artists. This is a belief I try my best to shatter!

Creativity can be applied to many fields – you can get creative making bread, playing outside or in drafting a business plan. Creativity can be found everywhere and in everyone. In short, it’s a resource available to us all, but one that sadly often gets left behind at school.

I’ve always found this a great shame. Why isn’t this encouraged more as we get older? However, this is what gives me the most motivation in my work – how can I re-spark this in others? How can I encourage people back to a state of play and discovery?

In the process of re-sparking, I first encourage people to forget about fixed concepts of creativity, art, artist, good and bad and lay the ground work in creating a safe space for discussion and the free flow of ideas.

2. Reflecting

Demands on our attention are increasing rapidly and opportunities for self reflection are decreasing.

In the process of reflecting, I invite participants to come back to themselves through a simple drawing exercise that immediately invites them into a conversation with self and their place in a much bigger picture.

My mama has often taught me that a disconnection with self, and with our place in the world around us, is what leads to much unhappiness – that there’s a direct correlation between disconnection and unhappiness.

Unfortunately, it’s now becoming rare to find time to spend alone and so we have to make the effort to find small spaces of stillness in our days.

3. Reconnecting

In the process of reconnecting, we came back together as a group and enjoyed a discussion about the art work that inspires us. Whether a painting, photo, movie poster or album cover, this conversation sparked connection within the group as people learned what their co-workers were drawn to and why.

Although formally this could be called a critique, I often feel this word puts many people off sharing their ideas. Especially when it comes to commenting on art. People wonder if they know enough or are scared of saying the wrong thing.

It’s vulnerable sharing your opinion and saying how something makes you feel. Sometimes we don’t even know why we like something! But this vulnerability is the very thing that sparks innovation and connection.

“85% of the men and women we’ve interviewed, 13,000 pieces of data, 85% can recall a time in school that was so shaming, it forever changed how they thought of themselves as learners.

50% of those stories involved art and creativity.

Now today I get asked to go into corporations, organisations and the number one problem is – there’s no innovation, we don’t understand what’s going on.

Without vulnerability, there can be no creativity, there can be no innovation.

Without failure, which is maybe the ultimate experience of vulnerability… there can never be innovation.”
– Dr Brené Brown

Come Together!

Create. Destroy. Celebrate!

In the final part of the workshop, we get together to create a collaborative group mural and, in doing so, not only learn how to work together and merge ideas, but also about the importance of create and destroy in the process of creation.

An inspiring day with the team from ADOBE Japan and what a way to kick off spring!

As the famous blossoms here in Japan begin to give way for fresh growth, I hope this workshop will have sparked a conversation that will continue to grow.

“I walked out of the workshop being reminded what it felt like to feel free and like a child!”