It was October 2021. We were more than 18 months into the global pandemic, and the toll of on-again-off-again extended isolation was impacting mental health, team morale, social dynamics, and more. It was a rough time for many around the world.

Baxter & Woodman brought in Erin Mosley, Inc. (EMI) to deliver a full-day online young professionals leadership summit. Becca Chapman, an award-winning actor, theatre maker, and social entrepreneur, joined us to co-design a module we called the "Crea-tivity Ac-tivity." We improvised with ordinary objects sitting on our work-from-home desks, shared the results in groups, and held a fast and fierce innovation sprint to find out which group - in good fun of course - had put forth the most creative idea.*

The silly images above and below are actual screen captures from the event showing Becca and Erin (Pink) Mosley demonstrating the following activity instructions:

Choose any item from your desk or home office. Now discover something your object can do that it was not designed to do.

The items we chose for the demo were a desktop model of a small ship and the most tiresome and ubiquitous item of the time - the medical face mask.

EMI has had the incredible honor to work in close partnership with professional comedic performers who have credentials from the best schools and teachers in the world, such as The Second City Training Center in Chicago IL; Giovanni Fusetti in Boulder CO; Dell'Arte International in Blue Lake CA; Scuola Internazionale Dell’Attore Comico in Reggio Emilia Italy; and more.

We seek out these creative collaborations because they bring in essential leadership and innovation skills. Without mastering skills such as discovery, vulnerability, and laughter, we cannot navigate rough times or even fully appreciate it when things seem smoother.

So in honor of April starting with April Fools' Day in the U.S. and many parts of the world, we are going back in time even further -- deep into the archives to re-publish a blog post from April Fool's Day 2017 that celebrates the ridiculousness of being human and the insights you can only find when you take the foolishess seriously.

More links that you might like:

🔗 EMI's work with Baxter and Woodman

🔗 Our Teaching Collaborations

* And in case you were wondering: the winning idea developed and voted by the B&W participants in the Crea-tivity Ac-tivity was amplifying the sound of an ordinary nail file into a Foley-style sound effect for a horror movie.