Creativity of Constraints Workshop: Unlock Creativity Through Limitations

The Creativity of Constraints

A collaborative workshop with Helen Callaghan and Helen Lisowski

Constraints are usually framed as obstacles.
Deadlines. Limited resources. Small teams. Competing priorities.

Yet, in practice, constraints are the conditions under which creativity actually appears.

This workshop explores that paradox
— through experience, not instruction.

What this workshop is about

This is not a lecture on creativity techniques.
It is an invitation to experience how limits sharpen thinking.

In this two-hour, hands-on session, participants explore how constraints:

• provoke invention rather than inhibit it
• focus attention and clarify decisions
• reveal different problem-solving styles
• create unexpected pathways to outcomes

Whether you are writing, designing, leading, teaching, or building systems, constraints are inevitable.

This workshop reframes them as generative forces.

The experience

We begin with a playful exploration of narrative structure
— how stories are shaped by limits and choices.

Participants then move through a series of timed creative challenges, each designed to surface different approaches to the same constraint.

Small-group sharing creates momentum, laughter, and recognition:
the same boundary produces radically different
— and equally valuable — solutions.

No writing experience is required.
This is about thinking, not literary craft.

Who this workshop is for

This workshop is designed for:

• individuals looking to strengthen creative and problem-solving capacity
• teams seeking shared energy, collaboration, and perspective
• organisations exploring innovation without performance theatre

It works particularly well for distributed teams, learning programmes, away days, and creative communities.

What participants leave with

Participants leave with:

• a reframed view of constraints as creative architecture
• insight into their own problem-solving tendencies
• appreciation for diverse thinking styles in a group
• a lightweight creative artefact (often the beginning of a story outline)

More importantly, they leave with language and lived experience that makes creativity tangible.

Format

• 2–3 hour interactive workshop
• 6–25 participants (minimum 4)
• Remote or in-person delivery
• Simple materials (pen and paper remotely; provided in-person)

Public sessions are occasionally offered alongside private team engagements.

About the collaborators

Helen Callaghan is a Sunday Times bestselling author whose novels include Dear Amy, Everything Is Lies, Night Falls, and The Drowning Girls. Alongside fiction, she writes technical documentation and explores research-driven storytelling, from medieval cookery to remote landscapes.

Helen Lisowski works with scaling organisations to navigate growth while preserving cultural integrity. She teaches pragmatic leadership, agile management, and employer brand design, and speaks regularly at conferences on organisational development and learning.

Cultivated is proud to host this collaboration as part of its Creativity collection.

A quiet premise

Creativity is rarely the product of unlimited freedom.
It emerges inside boundaries that focus attention and invite invention.

This workshop makes those dynamics visible
— so teams and individuals can use constraints intentionally, rather than resist them.

Enquiries

For upcoming public sessions, subscribe to the Meeting Notes newsletter or follow our Editor, Rob, on LinkedIn.
For team workshops and private sessions: info@cultivatedmanagement.com

Placement in the Cultivated Library

This workshop sits within the Creativity and Learning collections, aligned to the Creativity as Climate and Idea → Value systems.