2023 has whooshed by and Christmas is just around the corner. We never know what a year may bring. What we do know is that our world is dynamic, ever changing and presents many opportunities and challenges. We’re certainly witnessing that locally and globally. On a personal level I feel grateful for what has unfolded this year. I’ve created and responded to the opportunities and challenges that have presented. I’ve connected with new people and new clients and deepened working relationships with others.

Here’s a few highlights over the past couple of months.

 Contributing to Inertia Engineering’s regular Elevate sessions and the second Inertia Connect day which is a highlight in my work calendar. This year we headed to the iconic Old Museum to have quality time together and experience creative challenges by communicating and creating in different modalities. It’s too easy to keep on doing the same things. Innovation requires us to see and do things differently. We listened to jazz as an improvisational prompt. Maverick Minds worked with Simon Hewett the Queensland Youth Orchestra’s Director of Music to open people’s minds to the idea of communicating as an ensemble, using orchestral instruments. We cast ourselves away on a desert island to get to know each other’s strengths in a unique way and found out what our desert island luxuries would be. We sketched, worked with images, discussed, and expressed Inertia’s values, ultimately with Inertian’s bringing them to life in a series of painted canvases. These immersive experiences deepen engagement, engage our senses, amplify connection, and enhance learning. They look fabulous in their office board room.

Managing Director Scott Clements says “Inertia Connect is all about bringing our team together, away from the office, discussing our organisation, our future and the plans that we have in place for Inertia and our Inertians. Days like this are really important to us; it is an opportunity for us to spend quality time together – something that often gets lost in the bustle of the day-to-day – to get to know each other’s strengths, personalities, and values, and to be pushed outside our comfort zones, increasing our bonds as a team, meaning we can be more effective in support of each other, our partners, our clients and their projects.

 Zonta Club of Brisbane Board Development – With the appointment of new board members it was the perfect time for the Zontian board to step back, deepen connections and appreciate the depth of experience, strengths, leadership of the new board. What emerged was a stronger sense of belonging. These sessions took place prior to the board meeting which provided a fruitful and effective time which led well into their board discussions and decision-making.

Zonta Club of Brisbane’s President Sandra McLean said, “I feel strongly that you need to give extra support to the board that are volunteering their time and skills to a not for profit – so it was wonderful to have Cathryn work with us over two amazing sessions using her insight, creativity and calm to guide us through this sometimes complex conversation. It feels more cohesive and trusting now for us to work together as a board to build a better world for women and girls. Thank you, Cathryn”.

I believe board development is an area which needs more focus. I’m convinced we would see an improvement in board procedures if boards engaged in regular professional development and reflection. If you have a sense your board could benefit from board development, I invite you to get in touch.

 Esri Australia / Boustead Geospatial Group – this was such an interesting engagement and gave me a fascinating insight into the world of Geographic Information Systems. Together we took a very tight and busy agenda, re-framed and facilitated it through a creative and systems thinking approach.

Queensland Ambulance Service – an organisation that is held in high regard by the community and one I have worked with previously. Change is inevitable, organisations need to adapt and be proactive. Drawing and interpreting visually rich pictures the team mapped their current situation, gained new perspectives and insights, and began the process of mapping the future. Change is always work in progress. I look forward to continuing this valuable work.

Australian Chapter of the International Association of Facilitiators (IAF) – Ths year  I joined the committee of the IAF. We have a planning meeting set for February 2024. I’m looking forward to working with a great team of people committed to contributing positively to the practice of facilitation.

It’s clearer than evert that we need to be able to adapt to the reality of what presents personally, professionally and organisationally. How we frame and reframe situations and circumstances will determine how we approach it. Creative thinking and experimentation play an enormous role.

As a final closing for the year, I encourage you to reflect on what you are grateful for and share it with others. Try it with your friends, family and colleagues and ask them what they are grateful for. We can fall into the trap of seeing what’s not working rather than what is working.

I was invited to my first thanksgiving gathering this year and shared this experience with people I’d not met previously. It was wonderful to hear what people are thankful for. They are powerful reminders for what is really important. What is clear is that people value their health, family and friends, this beautiful planet we call home and that we share a unique human experience.

For those I’ve worked and connected with throughout the year, thank you. For those I’ve yet to work with, here lies an opportunity. If you would like to collaborate and co-create on your projects in 2024 let’s arrange a time to explore where that opportunity is. I love hearing what people are up to and how Maverick Minds can add value to your endeavour.

I look forward to reconnecting with you in 2024. Oh, and next time you receive Maverick Minds newsletter you are likely to see a new look Maverick Minds website…exciting.

May your summer break be full of love, creativity, peace, and joy. 

Yours creatively
Cathryn

Things have taken shape and Maverick Minds Shift Your Thinking digital facilitation and coaching cards are a reality. I’ve been working with Founders Leonie Cutts and Craig Browne from CCS Corporation Pty Ltd over the past few months to bring Maverick Minds Shift Your Thinking images to life on their CCS VFE (Virtual Facilitation platform). They are now available for purchase.

Some of you know that throughout 2022 I created an artwork a day. These collage artworks are finding new life in different ways. One of them is Shift Your Thinking Facilitation and Coaching Cards.

If you are a coach, facilitator and run workshops both virtually and in person there are so many fabulous reasons to start using image cards in your work. They are a powerful resource and creative way to work with people. Images can be used for introductions and conversation starters, as provocations for creative thinking, visualisation, connection, problem-solving, working with conflict and various forms of expression. All you need do is apply your imagination which is what humans are great at for how you would like to work with them.

With the digital images the ease of distribution, economics, scale and capacity makes it a truly innovative approach. One of the great things (and there are many) about the CCS platform is that everyone receives the same virtual card deck for the time we work together. There are so many ways we can work with images to open our hearts and minds, inspire creativity, and create connection.

Maverick Minds Shift Your Thinking cards are now available for purchase.  They are hosted on the CCS digital platform (called, the CCS VFE). This is a game-changing desktop application, that gives you the power to give each of your workshop participants a Shift Your Thinking pack on their mobile device to use during a session and to display everyone’s choices and comments on one screen. Each time a participant joins one of your sessions, you will use up a Participant Pass (PP). It’s a tiny bit techy, but worth it!

To get started using my cards you need to purchase two things:

1. Purchase the CCS Cards VFE and install it on your Mac or PC.
2. Purchase the Shift Your Thinking pack.
3. Optional – you may also like to purchase some more Participant Passes (although you can do this anytime as you need them).

The people at CCS Corporation are always very helpful, so if you get stuck, just get in touch – and they will get you up and running. Also, if you are not already a CCS VFE user, be sure to check out the special bundle offer.

I’ll be offering a range of Shift Your Thinking virtual workshops in 2024. If you have something on the horizon that you would like to engage Maverick Minds for and think working with images is a valuable creative addition let’s have a conversation.

If you want to see the images in action, take a moment to watch the conversation between Leonie and me. You’ll get a sense for how we used them to introduce ourselves and reflect on the year ahead. If you would like to discuss anything about the cards and workshops get in touch.

Have you heard of Idea Spies? Lynn Wood Founder and Chief Idea Spy has created a social enterprise platform for clever ideas, new discoveries and original thinkers. Featuring simply written posts of 100 words or less, the stories aim to expand the mind and spark our imagination. Topics covered include artistic, wellbeing, AI, Business, Health to name a few.

Idea Spies is place where people, industries and governments can inspire action and shape their choices toward moving humanity forward in the right direction. I’m delighted to hear that A Maverick Minds at Work is currently the most popular Artistic idea over the past year.

While we need to be aware of what is happening in the world around us, too much negative news is not good for our wellbeing. Idea Spies looks for positive, news and stories with the idea of ‘cheerscrolling’, acknowledging people doing positive things in the world.

I’m delighted to step into the role of Idea Spies Wellbeing Editor. I’ll be keeping my eye out for creative wellbeing ideas. If you know of people, projects, ideas that are doing inspiring things in the wellbeing space let me know so we can cheer them on.

I thoroughly enjoyed attending and presenting at the IAF conference in Canberra. It was such a collegial atmosphere, and great to catch up with people I haven’t seen for a while, as well as meeting people I’ve spent the last few years getting to know virtually. Then there were the delightful people I didn’t know but got to know during the conference. I had the pleasure of hosting two experiential learning sessions; one with Steven McInnes from PiqueGlobal where we workshopped “Is your agenda still relevant? Creative ways to group agreement” and the other, an Open Space session with Graham Miller from Humans Being at Work. I loved working with these two people and the opportunity to collaborate, it’s a great way to grow knowledge and hone skills.

I’m a life-long learner and enjoy all sorts of learning experiences, which has resulted in two recent accreditation milestones.

Over the past few years, I’ve been deep in the world of team coaching and recently obtained accreditation from the EMCC Global Team Coaching Individual Accreditation (ITCA) and Professional Designation at Senior Practitioner level. It’s a wonderful acknowledgment for staying the course.

The second accreditation is the Completion of the Opportunities-Obstacles Quotient (QO₂) Profile accreditation with Team Management Systems. This is a great profiling tool for individuals and teams to gain an insight into their Risk Orientation, which enables individuals to review their approach to work and improve both the way they seize opportunities and foresee obstacles. An overall score on the instrument is given together with data on the five subscales. It’s based on a rigorous methodology and measured on five sub-scales. It’s a valuable profile to use for:

• Personal development
• Team development
• Change management
• Conflict resolution
• Finding ways around obstacles
• Potential obstacle analysis

If you would like to know more about the profiling tools and how they can work for you and your organisation, please get in touch.

The artworks represent a daily response to the personal and global events that touched me in some way and likely others. They are based on observations, reflections, and conversations. At times the materials and mediums I worked with determined the look and feel of the artwork.

As time went on people asked if I would be exhibiting them and I held off making that decision until much later in the year. It had not been my initial intention. I always knew the images would be destined to be facilitation and coaching cards or decks. I am now using them in workshops and coaching sessions and have received a great response from people. The development of these cards is still a work in progress and I’ll have more to communicate about that in the coming months.

Given the amount of love and energy devoted to the project I’ve decided to have an exhibition at the gorgeous Scrumptious Reads Bookshop and Gallery at Red Hill, Brisbane in June. The artworks are currently being photographed so that I have a digital collection to draw on for books, prints, cards, workshops and presentations. I’ll provide more details about the exhibition in the coming weeks.

Finally, a few insights I can share with you so far from undertaking a year-long project

1. You never really know what’s involved until you get involved.
2. There is inspiration all around us, it’s a matter of perspective, and how we choose to see and respond to our environment.
3. Look for a few ways you that will make your commitment to your project achievable. There were three main creative hacks that helped me; (i) was to make the artworks the same size so I didn’t have to think about that each time (ii) regardless of how I felt, inspired or not, I showed up. It’s amazing what happens when you do that and (iii) be creative with time, with all the other commitments there were times I hardly had time, and then there were times of spaciousness, time is a construct we can play with, experiment and play with time.
4. Making a public declaration about your intention and communicating your progress can be a motivator. It was helpful to know people were on the journey with me.
5. Value your ideas, your creative time…regardless what others may think or say, hold on to your dreams, aspirations, projects. We must become our own greatest champion and guard ourselves from the naysayers and those who want to dampen our enthusiasm. Fortunatley I didn’t experience any of that externally.
6. Watch your own self talk, the inner critic, perfectionist, procrastinator and shadow self may arrive and try to talk you out of your creative project, don’t let them. Know they are there, and keep them at a distance.
7. To see any creative project to a completion requires a range of qualities like discipline, commitment and action.
8. A creative commitment and achievement needs elements of joy, meaning and celebration.

I hope you will come along to the exhibition, share the joy and help me celebrate a major achievement.

Rather than thinking in a linear fashion, replacing one thing with another, we have the chance to think systemically and holistically about our lives and workplaces. Rather than bouncing back to what was, or filling the space of what was with something ordinary, we have the opportunity to redesign and renovate the places we work to be extraordinary.

The genie is well out of the bottle regarding a hybrid working world; people want flexibility it is 2023. There are so many reasons to change our perspectives and patterns of behaviour about how and why we work and to question the current systems, structures and heuristics we have in place and the assumptions we hold.

One of those is the idea that “we’ve always done it this way”. We may think this consciously or not; the mindset of having always done something in a particular way can hold us in places that are no longer productive, helpful or meaningful. We’ve simply become creatures of habit, caught in a mindset trap.

Our greatest strength comes from being Human and our super-power is our creativity. It is our greatest natural resource, fully sustainable and renewable when given the right conditions. Strong technical skills are always needed that’s a given. We also know that many technical skills will be disrupted by artificial intelligence and technologies that can learn and do manual tasks and routine activities faster than humans. The areas that are increasingly needed are human skills and qualities like communication, learning, empathy, creativity, collaboration.

We have the ability to learn and adapt and apply our creative intelligence to the complex contexts and conundrums we face as individuals, communities and organisations.

When we invite and encourage people back into the workplace let’s ask for what reason? What’s our purpose? If we’re just asking people to sit at a desk, send emails and write reports those activities can be done from anywhere most of the time. Alternatively, we can be intentional about how we create our workplace environments to enable connection, serendipity, spontaneity, creativity, and improve communication, meaning, and wellbeing.