“I WANT TO BE MORE CREATIVE!”
Understanding “The Creative Process,” Unlocking Roadblocks to Creativity; Applying This to Your Planning Career; Applying Your Planning Skills to Your Life
Julia B. Davis, AICP & Certified Life Coach, & Mara Walkinsun, Life Coach in Training & Production Assistant
For FPC 2025, Tuesday, September 16, 3 PM to 5 PM. →
“YOUR BAG”
INTRODUCTIONS OF PRESENTERS
THE OBLIGATORY ICE-BREAKER ACTIVITY
WHAT WE WILL DO TODAY
KEY CONCEPTS
1. We agree: “What happens here, stays here.” After this workshop, you may tell friends something you personally experienced, or something you saw the Co-Facilitators do. But do not discuss what you saw or heard about other people’s experiences.
2. Your cell phones must stay muted and, in your bags, while you are in the room. We will have breaks, and you may check your phones then.
3. This is an interactive workshop. We will play Games, prepare Worksheets, and there are many Activities. We ask that you do each one of these! We will not break into “Small Groups!” ☺ No one will be required to talk or share. But we will ask for Volunteers!
+ There’s lots of fun stuff in the bag. We will add things to your bag, during the Workshop + Surprise yourself by not peeking. (Allow yourself to relax.)
+ Please put your muted cell phone(s) in the bag. We will have designated breaks where you may check your phone.
+ You may decorate your bag; it’s yours to keep.
Julia B. Davis
Certified Life Coach umbrellas and
• Writer and Thespian in high school - Stage Crew and Improvisation
• Content Maker & Trainer: “The Creative Process”- since 1990
• Certified Life Coach, Creativity Emphasis -since 2009
• Blogger
• Create costumes and portray characters at local, regional, national “comic-convention” cos-play events. “Promoter’s Choice Award Winner: SYFY BARTOW 2025 – The Villains” Flora Bane, Queen of Poisonous Plants
• “Icebreaker”
Julia B. Davis, AICP
Transportation Planning Administrator
• Bachelors in Urban Planning, 1982
✓ Film making minor
✓ AICP since 1999
• THOUSANDS of presentations & multiple conference sessions
• Florida Senate Transportation Committee
• Star of Polk County Government Television (PGTV) since 2017, playing the role of Polk Transportation Planning Administrator before TPO and TDLCB & on YouTube
• Aerial Photographer
Mara Walkinsun
Life Coach (Cert. in progress), and Production Assistant
• Trained Massage Therapist
• Anatomy and Physiology focus
• Pursuing certification as a Life Coach
• Research Associate with Forgey Planning.
“WhoAreYou?” From a Planner’s P.O.V.
yrs Land Use Planner
0-10 yrs 11-20 yrs 21-30 yrs
How long have you been employed as a “practicing planner” Your priorities change at different points in your career.
Different Planners have different worlds of work. (Perspective!)
CREATIVITY STEPS AND COMPONENTS APPLIED TO YOUR PLANNING CAREER
Your PERSONAL Strategic Plan
• Time management
• Roles, Goals, Objectives, Strategies – for yourself
• Your priorities & values
• Your Perspective
• GAMES: Wheels, Plates, Pies, Buckets & more!
“WHAT
• Data collection and analysis
• Issue identification
• Formulating goals and objectives
• Selecting policies and tools
• prioritizing
• Formally adopting the plan
• Monitoring and evaluation
• editing the plan as necessary
• Carry out public involvement
Myerson
• Attend meetings
• Conduct Research & Make Spreadsheets
• Communicate
• Think
• Write Staff Reports
• Make Slide Decks & Presentations
• Present to the Board
• Respond to Questions
• “And…” (improvise a solution)
“HOW
By Time Periods, By things to do, or By “Fire Fighting”?
& your meetings
As Things Come Up
Time Management
What time of day is best for you to do:
• New things.
• Things you’ve done before (which are boring to you).
• Things you’ve done before (which are fun to you).
• Difficult things - difficult conversations.
→ ACTIVITY: Body Clocks & circadian rhythm (“your nose knows”) Which ever way you manage your time, you must make time in your life/schedule to get your goals accomplished, and for being creative.
Your Day Look Like?
When you are 4, a year is ¼ of your life 1/25 1/50
to: Jean S. Davis, 1921-2013. In the 1960s
Davis & Walkinsun, 2025
1. Locate a 3x5 card.
2. Put, “Game # ___” on it.
3. Take a moment, write your thoughts
4. We will have an eggtimer running for :60
5. We will invite volunteers to share
Take one minute to list your Roles
Put ‘Personal’ on one side, flip it over, Put ‘Planner/Worker’ on the other side.
Examples: Wife, Mother, Planner, Bird-watcher
→KeeptheseRoles inmindasweproceedthroughthis WorkshopsincetheyfeedintoyourPriorities&Activities, latertoday
→Keep these game cards handy, in your bag or at your place. You may add to them as ideas come to you.
• Eat
• Find food/make food/monitor seasonal cycles
• Sleep
• Make & Maintain Shelter
• Procreate
• Relationships & Take care of young and elders;
• Safety from Predators
• Tool making
• Create
• Communication & Story telling & Oral History
Eat Sleep Procreate Safety Create
• Career & Education
• Financial
• Health and Fitness
• Personal Development
• Relationships & Social Life*
• Spiritual & Ethical
• Creativity & Fun
• Environmental & Community
• “Relationships” and “Social Life” are two very different categories
Personal Goals – weighted equally, not prioritized
Career & Education Financial
Health and Fitness
Personal Development
Relationships & Social Life Spiritual & Ethical
Creativity & Fun Environmental & Community
Your Goals will change, over your life-span, because your priorities will change
(*) Relo & Social = SOCIAL LIFE! – new friends.
(*) RELATIONSHIPS is the priority –new Mom & Baby, 18 Davis & Walkinsun, 2025
• Career & Education
• Commuting
• Financial
• Health and Fitness
• Personal Development
• Relationships /
• Social Life
• Watching stuff / doing stuff on Devices
• Sports
• Watching On Devices
• Watching In person (“going to games”)
• Taking kids to sports events
• Hurricane Preparations
• Pets – maintenance and repair
• Home Maintenance and Repair
• Dishes
• Spiritual & Religious & Ethical
• Creativity & Fun
• Travel and Vacation
• Environmental & Community
• Social organizations (“Rotary”)
(*) Discuss: Laundry as a Life Goal Category…
• Laundry(*)
• bills & paperwork
• Financial planning
• yard and garden
• Vehicle maintenance and repair
• Computer & Phone and other Device maintenance (software updates! Apps! Password management! Identity Theft!)
• Shopping:
• For necessities
• For recreation
We are all busier than we used to be!
Prioritization -- The act of putting many choices into the order that is right for you.
- Your priorities should reflect how you spend your resources: * your time, * your money.
→ Using one (1) Paper
Plate from your bag, identify your Roles/ Goal Categories and consider your Priorities.
Whatmatterstoyouandhowsatisfied areyou withtheamountoftimeyou spenddoingthethingsonYourPlate??
• You can’t do it all.
• You can’t do all of it yourself.
• You must prioritize.
• If we all share then we can all (get things done) and (be creative) and (have fun.)
• Ask for help.
• Financial
• Health
SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ATTAINABLE, RELEVANT, TIME-BOUND =PERSONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING
These are goals: Goal Category These are SMART GOALS: [Objectives, Strategies]
These are Action Steps: (includes measurements)
I need to go to college.
Career & Education
I need a ride to work.
Career & Education
I need to get an Associates Degree at a local college by the end of 2026.
I will register for the next semester at “Florida Local College” in MyTown, FL.
• I will sign up for classes by _____
• I will purchase my books and class materials by ______.
I need a ride to The Transit Barn by 7:30AM this Thursday I will call Joe tonight to see if he can give me a ride to work.
My cousin wants to see the buses.
I want to move up from Janitor, to bus operator
Relationships & Social Life
Career & Education
When my cousin visits me over the weekend, I will show her buses
I will take my Cousin to the Transit Barn when she is visiting me this weekend.
I want to learn to drive a bus, this year I will ask Supervisor to tell me about bus driving courses, on Tuesday.
Worksheet # 1
“TRY
1. In the SMART GOALS
Column, write a few GOALS you want to accomplish over the next 3 months. (EG, by December 16th).
2. List a few “Action Steps” that you must carry out, to achieve the GOALS.
3. What “Goal Category” is it? (This is optional.)
PS: Vocabulary is on back
1. Locate a 3x5 card.
2. Put, “Game # ___” on it.
3. Take a moment, write your thoughts
4. We will have an egg-timer running for :60
5. We will invite volunteers to share.
Get one 3x5 card from your Bag. Locate your “Bucket”
Take one minute to list your Bucket List – those trips and experiences you’ve “always wanted” to do, or that you will do, “when you have time,” or, “when you retire.”
Examples: * Trip to the Grand Canyon; Trip to Paris;
Win a Blue Ribbon at the State Fair; Sing on “America’s Got Talent”…
Keep your Bucket nearby, and add to it as we proceed through this Workshop.
This is about your Priorities.
Supplies: Yogurt cups.
• What is Creativity
• Who is Creative
• Habits!
• The Dimensions of Creativity
• Where does an idea come from
• Roadblocks
• The steps!!!
• Making Room in your life for Creativity
• Understanding The Creative Process: Several components called “Dimensions”, some of which have “Steps.”
• Learn by Doing
Take a break, be back by 3:35
WANT TO BE MORE CREATIVE”
MAY I EXPRESS MY CREATIVITY AS A PLANNER?”
MAY I HAVE FUN AT WORK?”
I’m a passenger in a helicopter. This is a sand mine in Davenport. There’s a sand crane in the center of the photo.
you see?
Intro: What is Creativity Everyone is Creative. (Even You) Really! Practice Creativity –The Steps of the Creative Process Make Room in your life for creativity & fun (& Apply it to your life)
• “ ”A phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created (such as an idea, a joke, an artistic or literary work, a painting or musical composition, a solution, an invention etc.) The ideas and concepts … manifest in any number of ways, but most often, they become something we can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste.” – Wikipedia.
“Mental characteristic that allows a person to think outside of the box, which results in innovative or different approaches to a particular task.” – BusinessDictionary.com
➢“Creativity is an attitude of playfully using your imagination to allow fun and whimsy and joy into
your
life”
–
Julia B. Davis.
•Creativity = making things & having fun.
•Everyone has the ability to make things, or think of new ways to solve problems or do things.
→ Let’s Play a Game!
1. Locate a 3x5 card.
2. Put, “Game # ___” on it.
3. Take a moment, write your thoughts
4. We will have an egg-timer running for :60
5. We will invite volunteers to share.
Get one 3x5 card from your Bag
Take one minute to list things you have made at work
Examples: Reports, spreadsheets, forms, emails, presentations
Keep these items in mind as we proceed through this Workshop since they feed into your Roles & Goals and Priorities Keep these game cards handy, in your bag or at your place. You may add to them as ideas come to you.
•We all create habits
• Take a moment, think of all your habits.
• You created them! &
* You can change them.
A habit can be good or bad, depending upon the situation
“People do not decide their futures; they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”
-- F. M. Alexander
• “Whinge” about it for awhile to all your friends…
• Experience a health crisis (which forces you to make a change)
• Change jobs (new commute, new office, new duties)
• Move homes (where you pack stuff up, drag it somewhere, and unpack it.)
• Leave a relationship.
• Just decide To Begin.
Levels of agency or control
“Resting Grumpy Face ”
Planner/Architecture Speak: “Form Follows Function” “affiliative signaling!” Story, “Cultivate a pleasant demeanor”
*Face, hair, outfit, shoes, some little thing….. …ok…how do I do that?
6 The Steps of Creativity
“Rocks & Blocks” &
Dimension of creativity
Non-linear
Locate a 3x5 card from your Bag.
Take one minute to think about the last time you played a “board game,” or a “card game” in person, with other people, for fun. What was it, and when did you last play it &, when will you play it again?
Examples:
1. Locate a 3x5 card.
2. Put, “Game # ___” on it.
3. Take a moment, write your thoughts
4. We will have an egg-timer running for :60
5. We will invite volunteers to share.
Keep these fun experiences in mind as we proceed through this Workshop
Keep these game cards handy, in your bag or at your place. You may add to them as ideas come to you.
➢1. Play is an activity which is freely entered into.
➢2. Self determination (no micromanagement!)
➢3. Involves & stimulates the imagination (neuroplasticity)
➢4. Play is done for the sake of fun.
➢5. It is completely absorbing
From an essay by Dr. Peter Gray, in Freedom to Learn, a Psychology Today blog.
Make room in your life for creativity.
➢ Prioritize it!
➢ Make time for it,
➢ Make literal space for it.
Make room in your life, for whimsy & fun
➢Put your cell phone down.
➢Practice Relaxation or Meditation.
➢Collect experiences:
➢Travel.
➢Watch different movies.
➢Read new magazines
➢Listen to different music
➢Meet new people
➢Go for walks, outdoors
➢Do what you know. (Get into your groove)
Have Fun & Play
➢Yet, maintain your brain’s “hyperlinks” to promote Fluency and Flexibility of Thinking
• “The Right Answer”
• “Follow The Rules”
• “Avoid Ambiguity”
• “Don’t Be Foolish”
• “I’m Not Creative”
• “That’s Not Logical”
• “Be Practical”
• “To Err Is Wrong”
• “Play Is Frivolous”
• “That’s Not My Area”
• “I’ll look stupid”
• “What if I fail?”
“If I worried about how I look when I dance, I wouldn’t dance.”
- Julia B. Davis, “Dance While You Have The Chance”
“Feel the fear and do it any way.” -- Jeffers
Being the “Ice breaker,” February 2023
At my job, I get to go on Aerial Photo runs. This combines: My skills with photography; my love of flying, and looking at landforms; and, my Planning career. I love to do this!!!
Yet, what’s fun to me, may make you feel very uncomfortable
What do you see, here?
Planners must learn to see, “The Big Picture”
“Feel the fear and do it any way” - Jeffers
“FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY”
5 truths about Fear:
• As long as you are growing you will have fears. You can’t avoid them.
• To remove a fear, you must face it.
• It’s less scary to face a fear than to hide from it.
• Overcoming a fear feels good, no matter your fear.
• Everyone feels fear. You’re not alone.
3 Levels of Fear:
• Surface stories – fears of what will happen or what you must do. (Public Speaking. Roller coasters. Dental work.)
• Generalized Fears – inner states of mind that affect your sense of self. (Fear of rejection. Fear of failure.)
• Underlying Fear – beneath all fears: “I can’t handle it.”
• Maintain a questioning attitude
• Develop fluency and flexibility of thinking
• Use thinking aids (random lists and other devices.)
• Develop checklists.
• Understand the problem
• Devise a plan
• Carry it out
• Examine the solution
1. Locate a 3x5 card.
2. Put, “Game # ___” on it.
3. Take a moment, write your thoughts
4. We will have an egg-timer running for :60
5. We will invite volunteers to share.
Walkinsun,
Locate a 3x5 card in your Bag.
Take one minute to list the things that “Bug You” at work and which you would like to fix. This list is for Your Eyes Only Examples: Need a small printer for my office.
Keep these things in mind as we proceed through this Workshop.
Keep these game cards handy, in your bag or at your place. As you come across solutions today, and in the days ahead, note them on your cards.
Harvest Tools capture your creative output.
• Magic Markers and Flip Boards (Brain storming)
• 3x5 Cards
• Sticky Notes
“Collect First, Evaluate later” There are no wrong answers
Prop: My Rock “Pause…Breathe…Think/Smile!”
ACTIVITY:“You get a Rock!”
Check your Bag for your rock! Rocks have been around forever. Rocks are not judgmental.
• Teach yourself to PAUSE when you hold your rock.
• Use this PAUSE as an opportunity to BREATH.
• While you are breathing, you can THINK.
• While you think, Smile. Learn to ACT, not react. And Smile
SUPPLIES: Find Your Rock in Your Bag
Even if you haven’t created something artistic in awhile,
→ Let’s Take A Short Break… be back at 3:59
• The idea comes to life when you put pen to paper, that point, when you begin to WRITE. And I mean, handwriting
Planners write, right? All of the time. These days, we type, type, type and type some more.
Writing things by hand, is very important: The physical action of putting pen to paper triggers the creative process. The simple act of forming letters and making words out of those letters, is an amazing human achievement… Place your pen on the paper. That mark, is the beginning of communicating your ideas
▪ Locate all of your Worksheets in Your Bag. Find this one.
▪ Identify things that are fun for you, like, your hobbies, in the Left Column.
▪ On the Right column, note the last time you did that fun thing.
▪ Thoughts?
PS: “Resource List” on the Back.
Worksheet # 3
• What the worksheet looks like
“TAKE
From: “Dig a Grook; Try a Haiku”
Worksheet is in your bag
Davis & Walkinsun, 2025
• How do words create a PICTURE? Words convey your thoughts. You may write them down, or step up to Drawing & Painting flat images
…we’ve had to improvise for today’s workshop…
Davis & Walkinsun, 2025
Planners make and use a collection of images to illustrate their reports including maps, photographs, aerial photos, site plan drawings…
• At each place: A Base
• In Your Bag you will find:
▪ Travel Brochures
▪ Half-a-map
▪ “Flats” – magazines with images and words
• Make a collage of the pictures you like & places you’d like to visit. Select images/words which illustrate your roles and goals and your priorities
• There’s tape, scissors, stickers, paperclips, *stuff* and magazines on the Supplies Table & on your table
• You may trade and share items with your neighbors
“The creative mind has significant power to transform one thing into another. By changing perspective and playing with our knowledge and experience, we make the ordinary extraordinary and the unusual commonplace.”
Roger von Oech, “A Wack on the Side of the Head” page 7
“6 ways to move the spine”
Take a 5 minute break
“Everybody, Go!”
When you return: get Ribbon and 1 piece of Fabric and some “Treasure” from the Supply table
The idea—the Flat Image from the drawing or painting (or in this case, your Collage) -- TAKES
FORM… it becomes a Cube –a Sculpture…
…You’re going to make… a hat!
Planners wear many hats! They take on many roles.
Planners prepare plans which will change our physical world in one way or another
Look at all the things in your bag…and the room …who are you?
Davis & Walkinsun, 2025
A hat is the building block of a Character. Who Are You? Who do you want to be?
Worksheet # 4 The front
“WHO ARE YOU?” –
INSTRUCTIONS: Locate the Worksheet in Your Bag.
On THIS SIDE of the worksheet:
Think about, when you were younger what did you want to be when you grew up. Make notes.
And, think about who you’d like to be now. (In your career or your play time)
The Cube begins to turn…
The Hat becomes a Character…
Planners must make presentations to different Boards – They play different parts at different meetings
…Who Wears Your Hat?
Worksheet # 4 the back
“WHO ARE YOU?” – PART TWO
Fetch this Worksheet,
Flip it over!!!
What is your Character’s Name today?
How does your Character spend their time?
What is their “Super Power,” or “Theme Song?”
What is their Mission?
Remember your Roles & Goals, Priorities, Bucket List…
“2 CLIPS MAKE A CAPE”
• Using 2 clothespins and other things in Your Bag, the piece of fabric, ribbon and other things from the Treasures, make a Cape… or, something for your character.
• Improvisation (or “Improv”) is a technique to move the conversation or the action along. This is particularly important when the unexpected happens, or, when a person you are speaking to, does not respond in the way you expected.
• If you can’t think of anything to say, then If the other guy says, “I like Spider Monkies,” you say, “Yes, and,”
• Don’t say, “No, you’re an Eggplant!” Keep their game going, keep their story going. In turn, they will keep yours going.
• You can Improv with words or with actions, or both.
• You use this at work, after you’ve made your scripted presentation and someone asks you a question.
The Whimsy Queen will ask two or three Characters to volunteer, take 60 seconds to introduce themselves.
➢ What is your Character’s Name?
➢ How do they spend their time?
➢ What is their “Super Power” or their “Theme Song”?
➢ What is their Mission?
Notice it’s easier in “3rd -Person.”
Planners sit…a lot. We sit and type, in front of our computers… for hours and hours and hours. Then, we go to Board Meetings and “power sit” for hours, waiting... (We may be “anxious” while we wait.) We skip meals, or eat snacks, instead of a meal. We can create good habits for our body and add stretching and movement to our day
❑ Warm-ups get more important, every day of your life.
❑ Examples: Stretching exercises, Balancing exercises, Dancing, Yoga.
❑ Eating right (good snacks for long meetings.)
❑ Proper Hydration
❑ Drink a lot of water, and go to the restroom, often
❑ Getting enough sleep.
❑ Reducing Stress.
❑ Meditation & Prayer.
❑ Cardiovascular for neurogenesis.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/-/media/kcms/gbs/patientconsumer/images/2013/11/15/17/41/ds01003_an01984_im02622_hdg7_carpaltunnelthu_jpg.png
• Carpal stretch
• Place your palm flat on a wall with your fingers pointing down. Keep your elbow straight. You should feel a pull on the palm side of your forearm.
• As you stretch, apply counter-resistance to the wall by trying to flex your wrist. Think about it like the wall is preventing your hand from moving.
• Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat four times.
• “Stretching these wrist flexors is imperative to treating or avoiding carpal tunnel. The wrist flexors are typically the most used muscle group in the forearm, so they tend to be over- developed,” explains Dr. Bang. “When they’re over-developed, they will cause collapse of the carpal arch, which can press on the median nerve — the nerve responsible for carpal tunnel.”
SOURCE: Cleveland Clinic: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff/17717andrew-bang
“To
grow your brain, take a short 3–5-minute break from desk work and juggle, perform cross-crawl movements, march in place, draw figure 8's in the air, jog in place, to activate the Right Hemisphere of your brain.”
In this Activity, Julia will demonstrate the 8’s & importance of sound effects and mention “Victor Borge”
Davis & Walkinsun, 2025
The narrative arc
…do we have time for a story?
Planners ‘tell a story’ with their staff write ups, and agenda items. The write ups become history. The story follows a narrative arc
“THE LADY AT THE DELICATESSEN COUNTER.”
As you hear this story, think about:
• How does “Finding your Fun at Work,” help you be more creative?
• How do you find your fun, at Work?
Why is story telling important?
• Story-telling:
• Passes down history and important knowledge;
• Provides context;
• Conveys emotions
Remember what she said:
RELAXATION & CREATIVITY & WHIMSY = The Creative Connection.
“Find Your Fun …
• What are you passionate about?
• Your Priorities, Goals and Dreams
• Slow Down, and create (do more)
• It is a paradox
• How do you Play and Relax
• Give yourself permission to Play
• Get Out of Your Own Way!
• Do It!
… & Get More Done!”
“If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”
—
Steve Jobs
Worksheet # 5: Testimonials
Worksheet # 6: Write Yourself a Letter
Parting Gifts & Prizes!
Worksheet # 5
Worksheet, is in your bag
…This is how we get feedback. Please put your testimonial form in the Box, where indicated.
Worksheet # 6
Look for a blank piece of paper & an envelope
1 Find the blank paper, in your bag. Write yourself a letter.
2 Put it in the envelope & seal it.
3 Put your address on it. (Work [“personal”] or home).
4 Put in the Box, as indicated.
We will mail this back to you, 30 days from now.