Member - Roosevelt Finlayson

Roosevelt Finlayson is a catalyst for personal and organizational change based in The Bahamas.

The focus of Roosevelt’s work is the development and application of the Festival in the Workplace (FITW) transformation process.

 The basic aim of FITW is to develop and environment where people are stimulated and challenged to become their most creative, passionate, productive and complete selves.

FITW is based on lessons from festivals and the arts and the process serves as a catalyst for the development of a new organizational culture that ignites the creative spirit and passion for personal and organizational excellence. In such a culture, people experience joy, meaning & fulfillment.

 The idea of FITW was conceptualized in 1997 by Roosevelt. In 1999 Michael Diggiss joined Roosevelt as co-developer of FITW and a concept development team was established. FITW was first introduced in 2001 to clients and the general public .In 2004 the first local FITW conferences was held in Nassau, Bahamas and in 2005 and 2006 two international Dialogues on FITW were held in Nassau. Two organizations have applied an aspect of FITW: Radisson Cable Beach Resort ( Nassau, Bahamas) and the CARICOM Secretariat ( Georgetown, Guyana).

Roosevelt and Michael are completing a joint PhD in Organizational Psychology with Tilburg University in Holland. The development of FITW and its application in organizations is the focus of their thesis. The umbrella theory for their study is social constructionism. They have intentionally looked through the lens of management science, the social sciences and the arts. Their most interesting insights are coming from the work of anthropologists Victor Turner and Roberto Da Matta, psychologists Barbara L. Fredrickson, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Howard Gardner and Daniel Goleman and Barry Johnson, developer of Polarity Management.

Roosevelt and Michael have participated in and studied the Junkanoo Festival of The Bahamas and the Carnivals of Brazil and Trinidad. In their studies they are focused on understanding the creative process as a collaborative activity and distilling lessons from the festivals that can help us to understand new ways to facilitate personal and organizational transformation.

Roosevelt has presented on FITW at conferences throughout the Caribbean and globally. In 2005 he presented at the Society for Organizational Learning’s Global Forum in Vienna, Austria; The Taos Institute’s conference on Social Constructionism; Performing the World III, in New York and World Blu’s Forum on Organizational Democracy in Washington D.C. In 2006 he presented at The EuroGel Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Arts of Management Conference in Krakow, Poland

Roosevelt and Michael are in the final stages of establishing the FITW Institute which will be a non-profit, autonomous organization. The Institute will focus on action research and the development of a community of practioners, researchers, learners and consultants who are committed to developing FITW as a globally relevant transformation process.

While Roosevelt and Michael’s work focuses on improvements in public and private sector organizations, they also see themselves as playing a role in education, cultural tourism and the emerging creative economy.

Their vision is to contribute to The Bahamas becoming transformed into a globally recognized centre of arts based creativity.

Contact Information :

P.O. Box SS-5679

Nassau , Bahamas

Tel. 1(242)322-1605

Fax 1(242) 364-0171

E-Mail – mdr@coralwave.com

Junkanoo "Rush" at the end of the opening of the Second International Dialogue on Festival in the Workplace, held this past summer in Nassau, Bahamas.

a group of the participants from the Dialogue learning about the creative process in the Junkanoo "Shack" of One Love Soldiers.