Nothing Can Hold You Back with Alastair Creamer
Episode Book Pairing
Each episode the The Gray Matters podcast is paired with a book that complements the episode’s subject matter. Alastair says “It’s a handbook on creativity from one discipline (dance) to all others.”
The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
by Twyla Tharp
One of the world’s leading creative artists, choreographers, and creator of the smash-hit Broadway show, Movin’ Out, shares her secrets for developing and honing your creative talents–at once prescriptive and inspirational, a book to stand alongside The Artist’s Way and Bird by Bird.
All it takes to make creativity a part of your life is the willingness to make it a habit. It is the product of preparation and effort, and is within reach of everyone. Whether you are a painter, musician, businessperson, or simply an individual yearning to put your creativity to use, The Creative Habit provides you with thirty-two practical exercises based on the lessons Twyla Tharp has learned in her remarkable thirty-five-year career.
In “Where’s Your Pencil?” Tharp reminds you to observe the world — and get it down on paper. In “Coins and Chaos,” she gives you an easy way to restore order and peace. In “Do a Verb,” she turns your mind and body into coworkers. In “Build a Bridge to the Next Day,” she shows you how to clean the clutter from your mind overnight.
Tharp leads you through the painful first steps of scratching for ideas, finding the spine of your work, and getting out of ruts and into productive grooves. The wide-open realm of possibilities can be energizing, and Twyla Tharp explains how to take a deep breath and begin…
Get your copy of The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life from Bookshop.org.
About Alastair Creamer
Alastair has been immersed in the world of business culture since 1990 when he joined the supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, in the UK. Up to this point he had run arts organizations. Later he was Dean of Faculty at the London College of Music and Media.
In 1999 he joined Unilever and created and ran Catalyst, an award-winning program, recognized internally and externally, winning a prestigious Arts & Business Award in 2004. It started as a 1-year integration project, helping create a culture that brought together two sides of the Unilever business in the UK. Catalyst grew to become a cultural change program that lasted 7 years, going beyond the initial merger to look at a central challenge of how to be more creative within a large FMCG environment. Unilever, at the time, was the second largest advertiser in the UK after the Government, the second largest storyteller.
After those 7 years, he saw the opportunity to continue this work for other organizations running his own consultancy. He has since worked with leaders, coaching individuals, taking teams through a process, and whole businesses on a journey of cultural change. This work has taken him across the world and taught him about the need to unlock more creativity within people in their work.
In 2012, he co-founded Eyes Wide Opened, a coaching program to support people who felt lost or were at a crossroads in their professional lives. Many of us take time to find our groove. Some people have quarter-life crises, while others reach their 50s with so much more to give. This work has fed into his understanding and experience of what it takes to help people adopt and adapt to change. Lately, he expanded the program to embrace the concept of finding your personal purpose.
Alastair is a creative soul. Having been a classical musician throughout his education, he has since turned his hand to writing, painting, ceramics, carpentry, and cooking. In 2023 he published a book of prose-poems about his long-distance relationship with his son, Ollie, who now lives in London. Now his great passion is his gardens and views gardening as one of his most creative pursuits yet.