Open Comments, hosted by The Open Group
Welcome to Open Comments hosted by The Open Group
Themes and Topics: Lifelong Learning | Career Journeys | Career Advice | Inspiring Conversations | AI | Cybersecurity | Virtual Data Lakes | HR | Enterprise Architecture | Information Technology | Business Careers | Creative Sectors | Education + Beyond
The podcasts feature subject matter experts and panels including industry leaders, and The Open Group staff.
Season 3 premiering from January 2026 onwards.
Host: Ash – CDMP – Certified Copywriter (CMP) – CDMA – Certified Proofreader
and Editor (CMP) – Certified Business Writer (CMP), Content Marketing Manager,
joined The Open Group in 2020, initially working in the Certification Team as a Certification Services Agent, before moving into the Marketing Team, where he now works on marketing collateral, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and produces/hosts The Open Group, Open Comments Podcast.
Disclaimer: The Open Comments Podcast (hosted by The Open Group) is presented purely for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and the guests are their own and are not intended to harm or offend any group, organization, company, individual, anyone, or anything.
Open Comments, hosted by The Open Group
Open Comments: S3 Ep.1 - Psychological Safety as a Creative Leadership Practice with Donna Preece-Jones
Ever wondered what happens when we feel truly safe to create, innovate, and express ourselves authentically? In this episode, Donna Preece-Jones, Creative Leadership Facilitator and founder of the Dynamic Potential Academy, shares her journey from running award-winning, pragmatic personal development support for a university to experiencing a profound personal breakdown—and how creativity became her pathway to healing and professional transformation.
During this challenging time, unable to articulate her emotions, Donna turned to painting and discovered her most authentic work yet, as well as a deeper way to connect with herself and others. This pivotal experience inspired her mission: helping others unlock well-being and creative potential in psychologically safe environments.
Key insights from this episode include:
- Psychological safety is the foundation for effective transformation, learning, and team innovation
- Creative leadership centres around communication, workplace well-being, and team unification
- Creativity is problem solving, a skill applicable to all areas of life and work—not just for artists
- Emotional intelligence is about connection, relationships, and creating space for all voices
- Vulnerability in creativity is courage and authenticity, not weakness
- Lifelong learning provides both knowledge and well-being
- Art and creative expression can help externalise emotions when words fail
Whether you’re a leader seeking to foster innovation, exploring your own creative potential, or curious about the connection between psychological safety and creativity, this conversation offers insights that will transform your perspective on creativity and workplace culture.
Connect with Donna at www.thedpa.uk or at Linkedin
Copyright © The Open Group 2023-2026. All rights reserved.
Welcome back to Open Comments. With me, Ash, Today we're diving deep into creativity and psychological safety. With me today is Donna Preece, Creative Leadership Facilitator, founder of the Dynamic Potential Academy. Thank you for joining us today, Donna. Please can you tell us a little bit about yourself, including your career journey so far?
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for having me, Ash. I'm looking forward to chatting with you. So about my career so far? So, in a nutshell, I'll give you a quick whistle stop tour.
Speaker 2:I started a business in mid-20s which was a creative photography business. This was a bit of a roller coaster. It crashed and burned after some unfortunate business decisions, but I was also lecturing at the local university whilst I was delivering the business and I was able to segue into an entrepreneurial role supporting young students and community to start up their own businesses through the Evolve Personal Development through Business Development programme, which turned out to be a great success. I was then able to tap into technology technological organisations of businesses and startups with the Tech Incub incubator program. Uh had the privilege of traveling to silicon valley, uh, to check out what the venture capitalists and um incubation and business support was happening over there, as well as boston mit um, as well as supporting very they're going from tech businesses to social businesses. So very much about social enterprises, setting up social enterprises, thinking about social impact and supporting people in a deeper way with their businesses.
Speaker 2:So long story short, in that scenario I was reaching great heights in my career and hit a massive low. I had a breakdown about five years ago and I had to walk away from everything that was going on there because I realized I wasn't actually doing all of that work for me. I was doing it for a lot of people that I was enabling and I was a tool for for the bigger organization as a whole, but I wasn't actually questioning what I was doing for myself and what was right for me. So, um, five years ago, I set up the dynamic potential academy, which has been a journey of recovery for me. Uh, all of the lessons that I've learned, uh, for the last five years, in conjunction with the successful personal development aspects from previously that I'd established at the universities, and that is basically a convergence of skills and empowerment. That is the Dynamic Potential Academy now.
Speaker 1:Thank you. And what does creativity and psychological safety mean to you?
Speaker 2:Okay. So creativity and psychological safety, for me as a facilitator, are the absolute foundation of everything that is important in decent not decent, but what's the word I'm looking for in effective transformation for individuals and effective engagement from learners. That's what I've found, so I tend to model my learning environments on spaces that I would want to be in and attend and help people feel how I would want to feel in their shoes. That number one is feeling safe. So you've heard of the term safe space, right? So safe space is everybody, you know, mutual respect, and it's about feeling like you are, you're heard, you're there, there's no one stepping on each other. There is the mutual respect that is needed within that space. So psychological safety is a step on top of that. So you need the safe space. Of course, mutual respect is a given in people to grow.
Speaker 2:So psychological safety isn't necessarily about just making sure that everybody is like completely 100 comfortable all the time.
Speaker 2:It's about having potentially it could be a confronting conversation, but it is about being able to be constructive with with these conversations. So it's setting the space up so that suggestions can be made. Mistakes can happen and they can happen and you can move forward with them and understand what's going on there as well. So it's all about innovation, it's all about being able to create in that space, and that's why I started with psychological safety, because that's the foundation for any raw creative process to grow from. Essentially, um so, and creativity is important in not just in life, in personal life uh, it's important in professional life, and I can go into more detail about the different aspects and different impact that can come from that. But so from a foundational facilitation perspective, that is, the importance of psychological safety is enabling an environment where people feel like they can step up, make mistakes, suggestions, be a part of a creative process and that is nurtured. It is not quashed. So that's essentially what psychological safety and creativity are.
Speaker 1:So why is psychological safety important in creative leadership?
Speaker 2:Okay. So psychological safety in creative leadership is the cornerstone of creative leadership. So creative leadership is a leadership style which is centered around innovation and, as discussed, the, the creative process can only thrive if people feel like they are psychologically safe and they can contribute. They can make suggestions and make mistakes, um, whilst having a protection from uh, you know the powers that be in any organization, so, um, it's really really crucial. Um.
Speaker 2:So, with my, my approach to creative leadership, for instance, I've created a three-pronged approach which is all about cultivating uh communication skill sets within the leaders to be able to um and enrich fully and put this, these practices, in place, um with their team and do enable processes like creative exploration to happen within the workplace.
Speaker 2:The second prong to this is an understanding of well-being, a formal well-being within the workplace which is centered around the workforce being able to look out for each other and understand that we're not robots, we are human beings and there needs to be an understanding of boundaries and expectations and and work those into the processes and and stop trying to like just squeeze everything out of employees um and and putting their nose to the grindstone until you know they have no nose anymore.
Speaker 2:And then the third one is about fun. It is about cultivating a fun environment. So it's all about I call it team unification. You would probably call it team building in the past, like with trust exercises that used to be done back in the day, but I collaborate with a games designer, which is all about creating a gamified, psychologically safe space where you can create bigger connections outside of the work environment, but also you could gamify a work process or gamify a problem within that as well. So it's looking at like it's a creative response to a creative leadership need that I have seen since coming out and healing and being able to put all these lessons together from what I did before to what I have learned a wealth of since, and it's a really powerful process as well to to take on board okay, perfect.
Speaker 1:So next we have what does emotional intelligence mean to you and how can it be continually fostered?
Speaker 2:so emotional intelligence for me is everything. So I think emotional intelligence is connection, it is human, it is relationships and I think that's life. So, um, when there has been a severe lack of emotional intelligence in my own personal story of emotional intelligence in my own personal story um it it is a difficult scenario um to navigate. It is it can make individuals ill, it can just pervasive um it can really cripple and throttle a workforce um the lack of of understanding and empathy. Um I think the more that we thrive to develop our emotional intelligence muscles, the stronger a workforce can be working together. Productivity increases um employee retention is is improved. Um costs are saved because employees are retained, so training and like new recruitment fees are reduced. It's just for. So, especially in a workforce, emotional intelligence is absolutely crucial.
Speaker 2:Um and then you said what can we do to foster it? So, um, fostering emotional intelligence is looking at um like the psychological safety for people to be able to have emotionally intelligent conversations. Okay. So um being able to to speak to if there is a hierarchy within a workforce, being able to have a more of an even even keel of conversation which is productive and not destructive. So that is a bigger area, that um around communication that we could possibly explore.
Speaker 2:But, um, yeah, I, I think it's. Yeah, the nurturing is it's mainly about listening, I think, and hearing not just listening with inactivity. I think hearing is an action and an activity within itself, actually processing concerns and what people are struggling with. Um, observation as well is a huge um attribute of being able to empathize, look at what people are going through, sit back from your own assumptions and really like, allow people to kind of tell you what's going on and not just fill in the blanks.
Speaker 2:I think that's a lot of the issues that I've witnessed working with people, and I've made mistakes in the past in these areas where it's you can feel like it's a sign of weakness if you don't have the answers to everything, um, or if, if there is silence it's weakness, or if there is silence, it's like there's there's a vulnerability in you that you feel like. No, I have to fill the noise in because in this extroverted, lenient, more leaning towards an extroverted working uh, work, working, expectation, it is the loudest voices or the voices that fill the most space, that tend to forcibly be heard in these non-emotionally intelligent spaces, and they're not necessarily the right or the the most productive and expansive voices in the space. So I think emotional intelligence is really about allowing space for smaller voices, but not necessarily smaller in power, smaller in volume, to be able to come out and shine through and be heard.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Would you also say according to you, is emotional intelligence taught or learnt, or is it a bit of both?
Speaker 2:I would say and I'll bring my neurodivergence into this I think there was an element of me being quite an emotionally intelligent child a lot over the last like 30 years that I have had to learn about where my own personal inclinations would come in and I I wouldn't understand or I wasn't aware of how that might like make other people feel so, um, I'm talking from the perspective of, like, for instance, doing the photography business.
Speaker 2:Each, each step of my career ladder has taught me a little bit more about emotional intelligence. So in my photography business, I had to learn how to make people feel comfortable, comfortable enough for me to photograph them and get great results. Okay, now, that was a baptism of fire and emotional intelligence, um, and because I was really shy kid as well, there's an element of, like you know, stepping outside of a comfort zone, but like, growing into that area outside of your comfort zone as well, um, so I do. I firmly believe that these are skills that can be taught and and we can learn um, but we need to be willing to do that, willing to accept that we're not just perfect, um, complete, uh and and flawless individuals from the get-go.
Speaker 1:I think that's the main thing and continuing on with the theme of learning, where would you say lifelong learning fits into all of that? So it could be lifelong learning in the sense of not only your career journey but continuing to learn who you are as a person within your personal life as well. That for maybe for that to also translate across to your work life in a way, too okay.
Speaker 2:So lifelong learning, I would argue I'm going to bring in another element into this conversation now. So, of course, like lifelong learning, like every day, I'm actively thriving to learn something new. Okay, um, and it not only sets me up as a curious individual as opposed to a kind of closed I know everything kind of individual, but what I find that helps me with is my sense of well-being and purpose okay so I it's, it's, it's, it's um, it's a deeper, a much deeper, more significant importance than just the title lifelong learning.
Speaker 2:I think it is life. For me it's life force and you, you will see like accounts of people, like in the later years of their lives and and the things that they, they it's just keeping that curiosity alive. You can just see the life force like sparking through them and just the sense of well-being is, um, is really significant. So yeah, for me that's that's where I am with lifelong learning so, would you say as well.
Speaker 1:It's not only keeping your skill sets sharp but, as you say, like your own self and learning what that means to you in terms of how you progress your values, how you work on your values throughout and also, as you say, like you're continuing to lifelong learn in a way. But also it's not just, you're not just taking lifelong learning for what it is, it's not just lifelong learning. I liked how you put that just before, where it's like learning life in a sense. Right, you're continuing to evolve and learn through life. So in a way that fits into lifelong learning. So I really like that. Can you share an example of creativity making a difference in your work?
Speaker 2:Creativity? I'm going to start to answer that question with a statement so creativity has become everything to me? Um, so it wasn't. I had a conception of creativity being um frivolous, um irrelevant because it's not monetary. Um see, I saw it as uh indulgent and um, it was problematic. I had a lot of these false beliefs now around it which stopped me from really exploring, uh, creative aspects of myself. I'd actually done a degree in fine art and I turned my back on it. Um, so I know I ran a photography business, but it was purely from a functional perspective. I didn't consider myself a creative, creative in those in that like turn um within itself, but um, I so I didn't. I did fine art, but I didn't pick up a paintbrush until 14 years later, when I was in the middle of my breakdown. So, um and I will get to answer your question, there's just a little bit of context, that's, that's a neat lord. And so I didn't pick up a paintbrush until 14 years later, when I was in the middle of my breakdown and I was having such an overwhelming anxiety attack that no amount of talking to anyone, as supportive as they were, um, or, or journaling or all the more conventional or acceptable like methods of trying to deal with these things that I was going through worked.
Speaker 2:Now, my husband and I we went to uni together and we had like 14 year old monkey paints and supplies in the shed and I felt like at the time I just needed to get something out of my system. So I went and I got some specific colors that I was just feeling. There was no words that described how I was feeling. So I went and I got these colors. I also I didn't have the mind, the presence of mind, to put words to anything, because I was so unwell to put words to anything because I was so unwell. So I I went and got, um, these canvases and I got these paints and I just spilled out what I felt onto these, these canvases, and what I created was some of the best work and and my, I add, it's not about judging what the work is, but for me, looking at it, compared to the stuff that I had been like trying to pull out of myself at uni, it was just like that's real.
Speaker 2:It was like the most authentic work that I had created and it was also a great tool for communication for my now husband, who was like is that how you're feeling about this? And it's like yes, and then he was able to go oh, so you're feeling like x, y and z, because he was able to put more words around it, which then was like yes, and then I could like explore more from those realizations that someone else had had. So for me, creativity has enabled my work because it's unlocked a level of understanding, self-understanding, as well as deeper connection and understanding with other people. Okay, in so many forms, not just the pure creative, like getting the paints out, but through, uh, coaching sessions where we'll do a mind map of what someone's feeling and exploring that, or just having a conversation and capturing the aspects and essences of what's coming through and then sorting it. So it's it's being able to to really identify. That's what is really key with creativity, is that process of identification would you also say as well?
Speaker 1:so for those, some of our listeners out there who may be struggling with maybe putting a name to a particular emotion like what you've just mentioned, it doesn't necessarily maybe have to be, you know, it could take different forms, but would you say the process that you went through in terms of you know, I guess, in a way to put it as an expression putting pen to paper, almost that you found, as you say, like it was not only a release for you but you could make sense of the emotions more?
Speaker 1:in a way that you maybe didn't expect that it would work out like that before in a way, if that makes sense- oh, absolutely it's.
Speaker 2:What happened for me when I went through that process was, um, of course, you could view what it looked like, but I'd also it felt like I had kind of taken a lot of what I was feeling out of my body and I put it. I made it external. It had become its own thing outside of me. So I was able to look at it and I was like, okay, this is the creative process.
Speaker 2:I've spent many years in education being a creative in adverted commerce with absolutely no understanding of what on earth that was about.
Speaker 2:I was just for me, I was a young person, I was looking at, choosing between sciences or art, and I was also struggling with neurodivergence and did not get on in the educational system at all.
Speaker 2:So I it's.
Speaker 2:I never felt a resonance with that.
Speaker 2:I never really understood what the creative in adverted commas process was until I went through this, this process myself, um of like exploring it in a in a really authentic way, um, and that taps into a deeper level of understanding about what psychological safety is as well, because I do not feel that pure creativity can be created unless it's in a psychologically safe space, and I I never felt that I was in a psychologically safe space in my educational institutions, definitely not in my workplaces until I'd gone through these, this process with my own personal well-being and understanding what it was that was lacking and what I needed and what many people need.
Speaker 2:It's not just me being a needy, needy person. I've spoken to a lot of people about this. I've done a lot of research and from my exploration, my research when I was delivering the more creative well-being side of support that I can offer, it was really clear I did creativity sessions from two parts the first part, number one, I never showed what my artwork was like Okay, and I never put up any example artwork for people, what people needed to do okay and I guided them with rules around choosing colors and not using paint brushes.
Speaker 2:So they would have to apply paint straight to a page or a sectioned out piece of paper so it wasn't even one complete piece of paper and they would choose the colours they were drawn to. And then I would get them to choose application methods which weren't brushes. So I had loads of different items weren't brushes? So I had loads of different items Okay, string business card, old business cards of mine, and forks, you know, loads and loads of different methods for putting paint onto a piece of paper. And then, once all of that was dried off, you could take the individual components of what the overview picture was Okay, and I would get the individuals to pick the one that they liked the most, for whatever reason, and before you, even I get anyone to talk like about their work yes I would put the work up on the wall and I would ask the room how that work made the room feel.
Speaker 2:Wow, almost turning it around. Absolutely it wasn't about the, the level or ability of that creative.
Speaker 2:It wasn't about, um, a competition between the individuals in the group yes it wasn't about um me telling people what they were supposed to be feeling in this scenario. It was very much the power of the group just normal people these are not artists. These were people who were struggling with stress and they just wanted to do something outside of the norm, which was more wholesome, and they wanted to explore what their wellbeing could be. So the results were phenomenal. Such a profound process had, um, you know, I had engineers coming to my sessions. Um, I had um like oaps coming to the sessions I had. I had my 12 year old niece come to the session. Um, there was a students, professionals, lecturers, I I had um a real broad mix of individuals taking part in this and it was that's amazing such a leveling exercise.
Speaker 1:It was it's, it brings it, it's a unifier and on that note it follows quite nicely to the next question Is creativity a teachable skill according to you, or more about the mindset slash environment?
Speaker 1:I like what you touched on in terms of you know how you not only focus on creativity but how it just certainly sounds like it's been no holds barred, in the sense of you've really let creativity almost, I guess, take up space in its own self, but also let it speak volumes, giving it the space to do that without maybe, like the I think parameters are important, but without saying right, these are strict guidelines that you have to follow.
Speaker 1:So what was interesting with what you just mentioned, how you said wouldn't necessarily put a brush to paper, it would be. You know other utensils and tools and I find that really fascinating because it's like in you know one's mind, you might think but it has to be a brush because that's what we're taught or that's what we're used to, but by going against the grain we learn so much more about you know the um, not only the resolution, but the artifact that I guess occurs afterwards. So that's really fascinating and also it's like if we're not used to something, it can initially be uncomfortable, but I think we learn more about ourselves throughout that process as well oh, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Um. So through this process it was really clear that I mean I had so many people say, oh, I'm not creative, and I managed to because I can. You know I can. I'm good at bringing people together and making them feel like comfortable. So even if they're like I'm not creative, I would be like give it a go and see how you feel. Um, so yeah, I am firmly in the camp of I do not believe that you are born creative and you have to be born creative. In adverted comments. I believe that we're all born creative. Ok, it's socialized out of us or educated out of us. And even in the case of myself, I mean you can look at what I do now, like I mean I'm doing creative leadership, support and facilitation.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I'm very like. I love abstract painting, I love photography, so I'm an incredibly creative person on paper now and I'm embracing that more the older that I get, because when I was doing the business development side of stuff, I used to push that stuff down. I wouldn't talk about like my photography business experience. I wouldn't talk about like the creative processes in in like a boardroom, um, or with my teammates in any way, because it would feel like, oh, what's that flowery, like it's just flowery and necessary stuff, but it's not.
Speaker 2:It's crucial, like it's really clear that there are like several different career experiences of mine that were stifled because there was a lack of creativity and there was a lack of that innovation and psychological safety to be able to be creative within a space. So, coming back to answering the question again, so can people, um, learn it? It is something that needs to be nurtured. It needs to be nurtured in a psychologically safe space. Okay, um, and again that that really is about pulling back and allowing the space for those individuals to come forwards and fill it with their own creativity, without putting the stamp, like as a facilitator and or if I've been to many art processes in in the past or creative processes in the past.
Speaker 2:There is usually a massively prescriptive demonstration, which you know. There's a time and a place for this kind of learning, okay, but that's usually like the main format for these kind of sessions is this is the process, this is what you have to do and this is what it is to be creative. I did it, just never resonated with me. It never did and it felt like this is how I copy that person yes how is that creative?
Speaker 1:it felt like this is how I copy that person.
Speaker 1:Yes, how is that creative?
Speaker 1:It's like what you're maybe used to in terms of perception or what, like society on the whole right has maybe influence, but when you get down to it, it's almost like going against what you've almost been taught in the moment can be, because you can show a lot of vulnerability, but also it can open us up to, I think I'll definitely say different opportunities in terms of if we're not used to something, we may be weary of it, but as soon as we almost settle into that uncomfortability with certain things, I think it helps us not only understand understand ourselves as people, but also those around us.
Speaker 1:I really think it helps us understand people's behaviors more instead of going, for example, yeah, you know, if someone's not creative or not, how we perceive them to go to might say, oh, that's, they're not as creative or they're not creative one, when actually that's quite a general statement they are creative. They're just creative in different ways. But we may be taking it face value thing, but we haven't seen them be as creative, so that's why they're not creative, but that's actually, far from it.
Speaker 2:What I would pose to people having these like assumptions is it comes to the question what is creativity? Okay, so creativity for me, in the very simplest sense, is problem solving nice. Okay, breaking down problems yes so it could be um looking at a painting that I'm doing and thinking what don't I like about it? Like, what's the problem here? How am I going to fix it?
Speaker 1:the introspective angle of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and then, of course, you've got the workplace, which is about right. What's the problem? What's not working? What do we need to do better? Yes, how can we fix it? Yeah and if there isn't that mindset which is encouraged in these workplaces or these organizations, or like, if you're running a business, what's happening? It's like the life force of like heat, like healing itself, like the business being able to to be resilient, to be able to like pick itself up and fix itself. Yes, like that's, like a superpower can we not?
Speaker 2:embrace a bit more of that. Why is it seen as such a negative thing? But you've you've said something really, really key there, which is about like it's there's an element of vulnerability that I think people in general are very reluctant to tap into. It's uncomfortable. Yes, it's powerful and the more that people can embrace this and like step into a vulnerable, like authenticity and have the courage to speak up. Yeah, magic can happen.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's not a sign of weakness as well. Yes, yes, it's the opposite, it's the absolute opposite.
Speaker 2:Yes, I will be that person in the room who is like I will put myself out on a limb, I will step up and say the stupid questions. I don't care what people think. I've stopped over analyzing, uh, the noise of, oh, if I do this, what if I'm perceived like this? I know full well that, um, if I, I, if I need to say something, I will speak on it now, yeah, that is a lot of my own well-being is going over lots of conversations that I should have had and I never did have the courage to do that stuff. So it's I think it's really important that we build our confidence within ourselves, um, and have compassion for ourselves as well. Yes, knowing that, yeah, we may like step out, we may make things, make the wrong decisions, we may do things wrong, but it's not the end of the world. We can pick ourselves up and we can come back stronger and more learned learned from those mistakes that we're going through.
Speaker 2:I think they're crucial to growth, absolutely crucial and the other thing as well.
Speaker 1:In terms of the what if questions. We may find as well that the what if questions they may take up a lot of space, but it's actually not grounded in reality. It's actually grounded in um. It's fictional basically, isn't it? What if it's not real? But if we're giving so much power to the what if, then in a way it sounds a bit philosophical here, I think. But what is, you know, flipping it that way? So I think it's really important to not only um get the balance of that, but to understand, like actuality and reality, but also giving ourselves time to kind of be in the moment of what it. There's nothing wrong with um thinking about the what if or letting what it take existence, but also just knowing that what if isn't a reality. You know, we might have those inner insecurities and that's okay, but to make sure that it doesn't consume us entirely that what it becomes us?
Speaker 2:yeah, don't live there um like dance with it and and like move through it, but don't like sell residents treat it like a wave of like water. How water moves yes, yeah, yeah, be like water. Good, is that bruce?
Speaker 2:I think it's bruce, I think it is yes um, but absolutely um, I think you can overthink everything to the point of like, over analysis, paralysis, um, so I mean, that's a whole other topic as well, about like motivation and momentum and whatnot, but I've also found that, um, I did a coaching session yesterday and I reminded myself of this realization that I came to a few years ago and I still stand by it, and that is, um, everything is expectation, perspective or perception okay, and all of these things can be changed at any time yeah, you just need to have the right conversation, you need to have the right understanding okay and you can adjust.
Speaker 2:So when it comes to people saying I'm not creative, yes you know it's. You know this is a perspective that they have and a certain expectation, but you can change people's expectations.
Speaker 2:These are not like things that are set in stone yeah these are, you know, so to speak, these things over themselves in such a way I'm like, well, I'll take that challenge. Yes, send me that challenge, I will take you through that challenge. So, um, yeah, just wanted to share that as well. I think that that can be quite a game changer when you realize those things that's great.
Speaker 1:And if listeners remember just one aspect I know I'll be thinking about many aspects in this enlightened conversation, but if they could remember just one aspect from today's conversation, what would you like that to be? I can also add in many aspects, just for me anyway.
Speaker 2:I think the main thing is like the real importance of creativity. It's not just for kids doing finger paintings. It is a tool for us to understand ourselves and the world around us, and it is a conduit, conduit for us to grow. Um.
Speaker 2:So that's not just from a personal perspective it is from a business perspective as well, and I love that. Just it's so versatile and it is so applicable in for me. I can't find a walk in life that it's not applicable for and I just slapped my head for like, but so much of my life where I I would think about it in such a negative context, and one of the thing is every you can do it everywhere it is, it is a, an environment, it's, it is a mindset, um, and it is skills that can be cultivated and they can be grown and where can people connect with you or follow your work?
Speaker 2:okay, so, um, because of my well-being, it's, it's, I streamline it. So I've got my website, which is, uh, wwwthedpauk. So that's my website. I've also I'm on LinkedIn as well and I'm happy to connect if anybody wants to find me, donna Priest Jones in the DPA or the Dynamic Potential Academy.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Thank you so much, and thank you for joining us today on Open Comments. It's really been a very enlightened conversation, not only learning about psychological well-being, but also creativity on the whole, and I've really learned a lot just in terms of the process creativity, but also from your experiences and also sharing some my experience as well. So thank you so much for that and to all of our listeners out there, to our open comments community, thank you so much for tuning into this episode. We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we have and we look forward to bringing more episodes just like this one to you very soon. Thank you so much. Stay safe and happy listening.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
