about

Who and What and How

Approach

Larger Mission. Dedicated to the emerging paradigm of creative work that serves the self, others, and the good of the whole. Our mission is to bring people, teams, and the organizations they work in into vibrant creative aliveness – to become engaged energized and connected – for greater enjoyment, meaning, empowerment, and impact. How. Comfort with change and unceratinty increases with practice entering unfamiliar territory in non-habitual ways. We synthesize different disciplines to help individuals, teams, and organizations thrive in a paradigm of innovation, invention, imagination, and expression. We use an integrative body of knowledge, tools, experiential wisdom, and our Creative Emergence Process. These combined processes accelerate learning and development by whole-brain, whole-person creating with a focus on inspired, practical results. Working at Intersections. Creativity happens at intersections. We work with you at the intersections of personal and organizational/business goals, what already is and what's emerging, your inner "landscape" and outer contribution, mind and heart, passion and purpose, reflection and action, ideation and embodiment, and the aspirational and the practical. Beyond Linear-only Thinking. Becoming innovative and change-centered is about imagining, experiencing, and embodying these ways of thinking, perceiving, creating, and being.
Integrated and Customized. Our process is informed by research and experience in the fields of creativity and innovation, depth and positive psychology, human and group dynamics, organizational development, complexity sciences, integral theory, archetypes, systems thinking, community building, appreciative and Socratic inquiry, somatic intelligence, improvisational theater, Playback theater, the expressive arts, accelerated learning, movement, applied storytelling, mythology and over two decades of real-time experience with thousands of participants. We integrate “left-brain” analytical methods with “right-brain” visual and kinesthetic approaches in all our highly experiential programs.

Core Values

From this...
To this...
Everyone is amazingly creative and has something unique to contribute
Everyone is creative and simply needs the right conditions to access and purposefully focus their creativity and actualize their imagination. Next-level solutions require new mindsets, heartsets, and skillsets – new ways of being and embodying as well as thinking. As people feel more creatively empowered and connected to purpose , they contribute more inspired, novel ideas, and solutions.
Co-creation is natural and leads to buy-in and bonding
With safe cocreating, a group collective intelligence takes over and the whole exceeds the sum of its parts. Also known as group flow, the co-created field becomes part of the creative process. It's in nature, and human nature, to consistantly co-create in an environment. We help create foundations and move through the blocks for nature to do its thing.
Holistic generativity
Our framework includes a focus on moving from compromise to co-creation: mutual generativity - good for self, others, and the whole; exponential "wins" across all levels. Building new patterns on what works, what's alive, and what's emerging instead of staying stuck in old patterns. It's generative creatively, financially, and meaningfully.
The integration of opposites: turning ORs into ANDs
Most "either/or's" can become "both/and's" at the next level of creativity and perspective. It often means zooming out to a new framework or way of perceiving the situation to see how two seemingly opposite functions, values, beliefs, or ways of seeing are really parts of an expanded larger whole. Most ORs are ANDs-in-waiting.
Pattern breaking for something new to emerge
The nature of creativity contains disrupting something current to add something new. From a small break in routine, to how a team works together, to the creation of a breakthrough technology or service, a pattern is broken to create room for the emergence. At the core of all our work is breaking patterns – with safety, full-on engagement, fun, and meaning.

Who We are

Michelle James

CEO, Chief Emergence Officer
Michelle is a pioneering creativity catalyst who has been using universal creative principles and the process of emergence as the basis for her work with thousands of people - individuals, corporations and communities - for over two decades. Michelle developed the Creative Emergence Process, Principles and Practices - which is both a framework and integrative approach for creatively unfolding what's next within an individual, team, or system. Known for her original and richly textured dynamic and imaginative learning environments, Michelle presents at learning and creativity events internationally. She is one of the pioneers in the fields of Applied Creativity, Applied Improvisation and Somatic (body-centered) Creativity. Michelle founded The Center for Creative Emergence based on her experiences with the natural creative emergence process that unfolded over time in her personal journey, as well as and years of work with and study of various facets of creative process. Also informing Michelle’s work is her experience and education in creative processes and techniques, brain research, organizational change, group process work, depth and somatic psychology, integral theory, emerging group/system dynamics approaches (such as holacracy, appreciative inquiry, world cafe, open space, futuresearch, polarities, psychodrama, dialogue, participative design, design thinking), accelerated learning, the arts, movement, bodywork, mythology, improv theater, systems thinking, consciousness studies, storytelling and the complexity sciences...and transformational experiences in her life.
Michelle performed full-length improvised plays with Precipice Improv for 10 years and currently performs Playback theater. She is an abstract painting artist and CoreSomatics™ Movement and Bodywork Master Practitioner. She founded Applied Creativity Network (now online), produced two sold-out Creativity in Business Conferences and a Creativity in Business Telesummit with an accompanying eBook. Her recent book on creativity facilitation, Pattern Breaks: A Facilitator's Guide for Cultivating Creativity, is now available for purchase on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3QDbZ65

Tya Bolton

Chief Strategy Officer
Tya is an entrepreneur, award-winng business leader, and event producer who also runs two successful businesses of her own - one focused on exceptional business solutions and one on events. She has been an invaluable part of our strategy and event production - on and offline - for over 15 years.

Cocreators and Collaborators

Our Cocreators and Collaborators have expertise and years of experience in a variety of disciplines including applied creativity, innovation, organizational development, organizational change, leadership development, expressive arts, visual communications, and neuroscience among others. The group consists of entrepreneurs, practitioners, leaders, and visionaries who own and operate successful businesses in their fields. Based on the scope and needs of your project, we assemble the team who can best serve you.