01 ABOUT
A new, creativity-based educational method increases the ability to solve problems with young people, in the social field, or when building a team in the company
The Kinetic Method was developed by experts from 6 EU countries, who present it in the book The Kinetic Method – A Playbook for Solving Problems
Prague, on 24th August 2022 - In the 21st century, creativity is a key skill that people need in business, education and to develop companies. It helps to solve complex societal, social and environmental challenges – and to date, it has not been used enough. Therefore, an international team of experts from six European countries, led by the Czech team, has created a new, innovative method that changes existing procedures in problem-solving, education and teamwork. Called the Kinetic Method, it can be used by non-governmental organizations in youth work and adult education, or to explore solutions to social problems, such as racism or social exclusion. But it can also be used by companies for team building, or by universities.
The authors presented the results of their work in a new book: The Kinetic Method – A Playbook for Solving Problems. Developing this method took them 10 years of work, and the European Union Erasmus + programme financed the publication of their results.
The Kinetic Method can be used, for example, by the managers of social or educational organizations, social and youth workers, learning facilitators or coaches working in team building – anyone dealing with developing team performance, personal and professional development, and creativity for problem solving, innovation and resilience.
The Kinetic Method aims to become a well-used and sustainable tool. The authors state that this innovative framework will help to effectively and permanently increase the creative competence of individuals and organizations – and that this creativity can be learned. They view creativity as a learning outcome rather than a characteristic or personal trait.
“The Kinetic Method allows youth workers to support not only young people to develop their creativity so that they can more easily find a life path and a job. It boosts the development of creative skills and self-confidence, offers educators a way of reaching socially excluded young people, contributes to the preventing intolerance and fights against the radicalization current in Europe,” says co-author and senior trainer, consultant Zora Csalagovits from Hungary.
What makes the Kinetic Method and the book unique?
The Kinetic Method uses functional creativity to enable groups of people to work together while pursuing their goals and progress at work. It demonstrates how to increase the value of contributions in groups and boosts the ability to solve complex tasks. It consists of a set of practices related to skills, mindset and environment. It is not merely creativity itself, but creativity that is directed towards a common purpose or goal that is meaningful to society.
Whenever you are working on something that is important to you, you need to think creatively. "We have divided the approach to learning how to be creative into skills (the basic competencies that people use in creative tasks), mindsets (attitudes that are necessary for developing persistence and good habits in creative practice) and environment (the context of creativity), which can make or break our creative endeavours and our ability to collaborate creatively). In this way, we talk about embedding creativity in how we approach new things, how we think about ourselves and how we collaborate with others," Karolina Iwa from Poland, social innovator, intercultural psychologist and co-author, describes the method.
The book The Kinetic Method – A Playbook for Solving Problems summarizes the history of this methodology, a collection of methods and activities, and provides a description of methods in each of the nine chapters, with easy-to-follow instructions. This variety also reflects the different life experiences of the co-authors. One of the most difficult tasks was learning to ask good questions, which surprised the authors during their research. Often individuals are so driven by the search for answers that they forget the whole journey of the question itself, they say.
“This methodology supports creative action by building basic competencies in how to think and approach a problem right from the start, how to develop the necessary internal characteristics for building these skills and co-create an environment in which all participating members of the community can be creative,” confirms Mariana Marques, director of YUPI and trainer from Portugal.
Why is the method called Kinetic?
Kinetic means ‘relating to or resulting from motion’. “The word kinetic, for us, was about transforming people’s potential into a real action. Taking the creativity that is inside each of us, and finding a way to activate it. We wanted to think of creativity as something you can learn and also learn to direct or control when you need to,” explains american social scientist working in the UK, consultant and co-author Tracie Farrell. The authors, she says, wanted to demystify the idea of creativity as something that you are either born with or not, a talent you have or don’t have, and show people how it is really a collection of skills, mindsets and environmental features that make up creative action. “In a world full of very complex problems, we need everyone to contribute useful and interesting ideas. We wanted to help people gain the confidence to be able to do that,” says Tracie Farrell.
To develop the Kinetic Method, the authors collaborated with 100 users, one of whom was lecturer and manager Aneta Bednářová, director of the non-profit organization Genesis from the Czech Republic. "I have been training people who work with children and youth and management in the non-profit and private sector all over the world for many years. Their projects have a social impact. But they are often a group of enthusiasts who have not, however, mastered management or leadership skills. The Kinetic Method is an interactive form of informal education, which can be applied when working with children, team building, strengthening working relationships and solving personal problems. It binds the team together and clearly defines roles – and as a result, the team works more efficiently,” concludes Aneta Bednářová, who coordinated the entire project.
functional creativity
for advancing your purpose at work
02 PORTFOLIO
03 FOCUS AREAS
KINETIC is a transformative framework using functional creativity for expanding groups’ ability to engage with complexity for advancing their purpose at work.
It is composed of a set of practices around three FOCUS AREAS: Skills, Mindsets & Environment, with each moving through three components.
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Podcast
04 WHO WE ARE
Tracie Farrell PhD
Research Fellow at the Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University. Areas of study include online social harm (such as hateful speech and misinformation) and technology-enhanced learning.
2022 awardee of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, for research on queering AI and its subfields toward social justice. In her free time, plays boardgames, video games and enjoys the seaside with her dog.
Karolina Iwa
Social Innovator, Large Group Facilitator, Intercultural Psychologist, Theory U Practitioner.
Supports systems and individuals in societal transformation and complex challenges.
Member of many global OD communities driving positive change in the world. Co-Founder of Leadership Festival - a collective effort committed to co-emerging the new paradigm(s) of leadership.
Member of Advisory Board of the Global Learning & Exchange Network. Researcher & book author in the field of functional creativity.
In her free time - an avid mountaineer both in summer and winter, a sailor and an explorer of intergenerational narratives.
Zora Csalagovits
Senior trainer and consultant with a rich history of working in learning and development, especially in the field of international youth work.
Gestalt therapist. Skilled in individual coaching and working with groups, non-formal educational methodology, diversity & inclusion management, graphic recording.
Passionate about creativity and visualization as supporting tools in learning;
When free, enjoys fun (board)games and outdoor gatherings with friends & family.
05 STAY IN TOUCH
06 KINETIC@WORK
Kinetic@Work is a project funded by the Czech National Agency for the Erasmus + Youth under KA205 Strategic Partnerships for Youth, coordinated by Genesis (Czech Republic) in close partnership with TE IS Foundation (Hungary), Association YUPI (Portugal), Move & Develop (MODE) Foundation (Poland), Associazione Interculturale NUR (Italy) and Youth Garage e.V. (Germany) for a total of 36 months (ending on 31/08/2022).
Kinetic@work enables youth workers to support young people in developing their creativity skills, thanks to which they will better be able to find their own path and their place on the labour market of tomorrow: fit for the future. Besides the employability aspect, developing creative skills and a creative confidence gives youth workers and educators access to means to reach out and to approach
marginalized young people in a different way, to better contribute to the prevention of radicalization and intolerance among youth, thus fighting against contemporary radical tendencies in Europe.
The project involves 32 participants directly in the teaching and learning activities, and we aim a broader range of our target group through all activities designed for co-creating and testing the Assessment tool, visibility and dissemination, reaching 48 people in direct learning (an 8-day training course in the Czech Republic to pilot the tools created and improve youth work practices; and a 3-day
upskilling seminar and evidence collection in Poland for feedback and improvement on the outputs of the project).
The innovative framework we propose in this project combines the focus on individual creativity and innovation, or methodologies, such as design thinking and in addition, connects the success of creative behaviors with the success of learning behaviors. This innovative approach has more potential to efficiently raise the creative competence of individuals and organisations, sustainably over time and views creativity as a learning-based outcome, rather than a characteristic or personal trait. Creativity can be learnt and we aim to increase the quality of youth work and youth training activities in Europe by preparing a creative readiness assessment tool and a methodology framework for creative development step by step described in a book/guide (outcome of this project). All these intellectual outputs of the project will be explored and disseminated via a series of podcasts and an academic article to consolidate the findings and bring more content and hands-on material as well as inspiration for new comers in the creativity training process.
As a result of our long-term cooperation and work, we achieved concrete objectives such as:
1. Created one online creativity assessment tool for youth workers, youth leaders, trainers and young people to measure their creative readiness and provide a baseline for activities using Kinetic Creativity as a framework for creative development;
2. Created a practitioner-focused Book that summarizes and transfers the key messages from Kinetic Creativity, offers ready-to-use methodology for youth workers and to disseminate this to a wider audience than has been previously achieved;
3. Implemented and trained 20 new youth workers and trainers in a 8-day training course to use Kinetic methodology;
4. Organized an Upskilling and Evidence Collection seminar for 3 days with past participants and collaborators involved with creativity development;
5. Disseminated and informed about the Creativity Assessment Tool and the practitioner-focused Book via a series of 6 podcasts and an academic article (peer-reviewed) for the international community.
07 KINETIC ERASMUS+ Consortium
NGO, which emerged to provide creative and innovative solutions for societal problems by young people and for young people in the region of Thuringia and all across Europe. We believe that designing and providing non-formal education possibilities to the younger generations results in the change of attitude, acquisition of new skills and broadening the horizons, which in the end lead to the more tolerant and diverse European community.
NGO of 300 members under 30 years old with strong motivation to participate actively in the civic society and cooperate with our local community. Currently broadening our activities to an European dimension. The four main dimensions of YUPI’s work are:
1) Active participation and citizenship
2) Volunteering in the community
3) Mobility in Europe
4) Development of competences under non-formal education.
NGO acting at local and international level, run by volunteer board members, legally established in 2004.
TE IS aims to empower young citizens to be active in their local communities and to be involved in civic society, to raise awareness around common values like active citizenship, social inclusion, solidarity; to promote the idea of volunteerism, to foster partnership and international cooperation between groups of young people.
Non-profit NGO working with young people, children, people with disabilities and fewer opportunities. Genesis works in the fields of active citizenship, human rights, sustainable development and personal development of young people. Committed to enhancing leadership and managerial skills among young people, aiming to raise their employability. Core subjects: human rights, environmental issues, personal development.
Non-profit association active in the field of intercultural integration, promoting and realizing cultural events, training experiences and informative seminars for the youth in Sardinia. The association has been created by people motivated by a strong interest for culture and cultural differences.
Organisation focused on fostering mobility and education among young people and adults, with special focus on the preparation of the beneficiaries for the challenges of the labour market.
