Chris Corrigan

Chris Corrigan is a principal partner of Harvest Moon Consultants, specializing in participatory process, international facilitation, and strategic thinking in support of organizations and communities tackling complex challenges.

Corrigan's formal bio includes info about decades of experience working with governments, not for profits, indigenous communities, and social enterprises, creative dialogue-based tools and processes informed by complexity theory to help leaders and teams make decisions in uncertain contexts. But mostly Chris Corrigan is just a person who would like to share a pesto recipe with you: 

Take a bunch of basil, destem it, place it into a mortar with a few pinches of coarse salt and a couple of peeled garlic cloves and begin grinding it into a paste. When the leaves are all broken down, add some pine nuts and gently pour in a really good olive oil until the paste has the consistency you’re looking for. Add a pinch of chilli flakes for a subtle feeling of heat. That’s the secret. Purists will object, but I’m telling you, give it a try.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
Making things I guess. It's certainly what I have done from a very small age, made drawings, and songs and poems and games and all kinds of things. These days I make conversations and community and I try to make a difference by doing things that have never been done before. It is all creative.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
In a few places: the early morning, or being with others. I am an improviser at heart and so I work with offers all around me and when I am creating with others I feel like I'm always at my best.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
Pay more attention to what you have just done. Try to remember the feelings of sweetness and despair instead of just moving on to the next thing. There are so many experiences I've forgotten about because they seemed so fleeting at the time, and now I wish I could remember who was there with me and what we actually did.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Have you ever had any children speak? Would you dare turn the mic over to a 12 year old child? A twelve year old girl ready to kick ass and take names would be an amazing thing to see.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Quit a full time government job with a baby at home to become a consultant.

What did you learn from your most memorable creative failure?
Usually no one gets hurt.

What are you reading these days?
Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan, What The Mystics Know by Richard Rohr, Trickster Drift, Eden Robinson

What fact about you would surprise people?
I am a practicing contemplative Christian.

How does your life and career compare to what you envisioned for your future when you were a sixth grader?
At no point did I ever play on the blue line for the Toronto Maple Leafs, so nothing has really worked out. I also didn't start a band with Brian May and Freddy Mercury.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?
I help people work together to figure out what to do when they are stuck so that we can make the world a more just place.

What's the most recent thing you learned (big or small)?
How to move between an Eb melodic minor and a Bb major scale in the same position so as to find some compact soloing lines on A Child is Born.

If you could open a door and go anywhere where would that be?
Right now, it would probably be to the Grey Bruce Highlands in southern Ontario to visit my family.

What keeps you awake at night?
Barred owls on the hunt beneath a full moon and a Pineapple Express lashing the front of my house.

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?
There are no myths about creativity. It's all true. Even the myths. Especially the myths.

Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you?
My partner Caitlin. She continually teaches me how to not lose my shit and succumb to anxiety and fear. And every day she reminds me that I am loved.

What are you proudest of in your life?
My two kids, who are young adults now and making their way in a weird world. They love each other and my heart bursts through my chest every time I think about them.

If you could do anything now, what would you do?
End patriarchy, capitalism, and settler-colonialism and watch SOOOO many of my friends fulfill their potential and make the world a better place.

Where was the last place you travelled?
Last air travel was in February 2020 and was a three point tour to Ontario, Columbus Ohio, and Minneapolis, to teach the Art of Hosting and complexity skills to doctors in Ohio and social change activists in the Twin Cities. And to drink whisky with my dad for his birthday.

What music are you listening to these days?*
Lots of jazz standards played on guitar and especially diving into the work of Reg Schwager.

What was the best surprise you’ve experienced so far in life?
Realizing in an instant that I am unconditionally loved.

Where is your favourite place to escape?
There are a few places on Bowen Island, where I live, that are absolutely precious to me.

What was the best advice you were ever given?
If you talk to people about what they know about, they will always tell you the truth. I heard that from Utah Phillips at the Vancouver Folk Festival in 1997 and it fundamentally changed my facilitation practice.

What books made a difference in your life and why?
Not just books? There are many creative artifacts that have been influential in my life. The Tao te Ching was super influential. A painting by Carl Beam called "Columbus Chronicles", John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," Irish whistle player Mary Bergin's album "Feadóga Stain," the midfield prowess of Glenn Hoddle, Nathanial Mackey's Bedouhin Hornbook. The Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision Making by Sam Kaner. News of the World by Queen. Between the Breaks by Stan Rogers. Leadership and the New Science by Meg Wheatley. The Rez Sisters by Thomson Highway. The Sacrifice by Andrei Tarkovsky. Tsawalk by Umeek. The tifo and creative support of the Vancouver Southsiders and the Swanguardians. Listening for the Heartbeat of God by J. Phillip Newell, Anam Cara by John O'Donohue, Loving What Is by Byron Katie, the leadership artistry of Khelsilem. Each of these, among many others, have ushered my over various thresholds in my life. They are all creative works, some are creative re-imaginings of spirituality, process work, and ways of living.

What practises, rituals, or habits contribute to your creative work?
It's a combination of the openness and rest that is offered by my meditation practice and the rigour of playing scales on the guitar or forcing myself to write despite my mind's resistance to being "productive" when I'm feeling dry.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck?
Go for a walk.

If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them?
Lie on my back, close my eyes and listen to three pieces of very good music.

What has been one of your biggest Aha! moments in life?
The first time I witnessed a meeting held in Open Space, with 400 people in a room in Whistler in 1995. It completely transformed my facilitation and leadership practice, knowing that a group of people can self-organize action around issues that they care about. I've never looked back.

What object would you put in a time capsule that best represents who you are today?
My music library.

What is the one movie or book every creative must see/read?
You should read a book or seek out the traditional teachings of your place, of where you live, of the traditional territory you inhabit. Those aren't always written down, but I feel that it is so important to know your place because if you create things that run counter to the place you are living you can perpetuate patterns of harm. Understand who you are, where you are and why you are there.