Posts tagged "Creativity"
Wednesday, Jan 6th, 2010 ↓Moving back to move forward better. Is Apple about to go Yang?
Much feverish speculation that Apple will be bringing out a new Tablet computer (on 26th January. e.g. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/win-an-apple-tablet/). I hope they do!
A lot is made of their obsessive secrecy. Another way of looking at this is that they retreat into privacy whilst developing new products, become very visible when they launch, then disappear again.
You could look at Apple’s 2009 and read that as a period of consolidation, of deliberately drawing back from the public before launching into 2010. In 2009 the main outward signs of life were tweaks to the Mac OS, iPhone and iPod.
A sort of Yin and Yang thing. And Yin is not retreat or defeat. It’s a regrouping, refinding your balance, taking the measure of your oponent, scanning the environment, taking time to think, then springing forward with focus and energy.
Next time you have a tricky problem, try drawing back from it, get some perspective and - when you’re ready - move towards it with renewed energy.
At this time of year we get a lot of advice about setting personal goals, clarifying our vision and so on. For a lot of folk this creates a kind of performance anxiety - “I don’t know what my vision is”. Give yourself a break! It’ll come to you in time.
Got an idea? Great. Now sit on it!
I once read some advice on how to stop “shopping therapy” (~ buying stuff you don’t really need!). Keep a list on the fridge and add any “ooh, I must have that” stuff to the list. If you still want it in 30 days then get it.
For a lot if us, the problem is having too many ideas and wanting to do everything. TMI (http://www.tmiworld.com/tmi/site/Home/) advised always having a page for ideas in your Time Manager. Get ideas out of your head as soon as possible and review your list every now and then to see what grabs you.
This has resurfaced in Getting Things Done (GTD - http://www.gtdtimes.com/) as the “Someday/Maybe” list.
Try it yourself. At the very least you’ll keep a clear head, making way for new ideas to come along, and eliminating that heavy sense of too much to do - that stops you doing anything!
And you may find it helps you sift out and act on your best ideas.
How to brainstorm better?
As the seasons change our thoughts turn to …
In the last few weeks various folk have asked me if I could do something on this. Very humbling as they’re all people who I would consider very creative AND succesful in getting their ideas put into practice.
So, I’m mulling over what I might do (a seminar?) and cover. Any thoughts? Please say!
The road to hell is decorated with bad ideas
However good the intention, some ideas should never see the light of day.
It may seem strange that I say that. After all, my business (and personal buzz) is finding creative solutions to problems. And all ideas are good ideas, right?
No. Finding great ideas does involve coming up with some pretty wild ones. And, with the right care, some of the wildest ones become fantastic solutions.
But as well as exploring and generating new ideas you also need to sift and screen them to find the best ones. And that is often the trickiest bit. What criteria do we use to evaluate whether to adopt an idea? Typically, groups use feasibility and impact.
You might want to try testing ideas by considering the consequences. If we did this, what would happen? What would then be possible - or more difficult? Imagine you’re looking back 2 years from now: what has happened as a result of your decisions back then?
“The chief cause of problems is solutions.”
Getting new ideas is the easy bit
Few of the groups we work with need new ideas. Most are, if anything, overwhelmed by ideas – part of the magic that happens when people get together.
But what they do need is focus, and a process to work their way through the issues towards action, to listen to each other and to harvest the ideas that come up.
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in, at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.”
What’s the essential nature of the animal?
While learning to draw animals at London Zoo (highly recommended!) I discovered that, surprise, animals move. So, what I was taught was to try to quickly sketch the lines of the back, legs, forehead and so on.
And you know, after a while I found that this helped me to focus on the essential character of each animal, and I understood so much more about why each animal is the way it is - because of its environment, what it eats, its underlying bone structure and so on - than by trying to get every detail or, alternatively, giving only a brief glance and staring at my sketchbook.
Thinking about businesses and organisations, it’s very easy to either get bogged down in data and analysis or, at the other extreme, jump to conclusions, to think that, just because you have labels you actually understand the situation.
In the same way as you practice sketching so you can then reduce your picture to a few simple lines, It certainly helps to look at a lot of organisations and problems so you start to spot patterns - provided you look at what is really there and not your preconceptions.
And it can help understand problems and start towards solving them to find the essence and express it plainly and simply.
For example, some organisations have both R&D and ‘business as usual’ sales and production activities, and they spend a lot of time trying to integrate them. Well, they’re completely different animals. They have different goals, time horizons, types of people and so on. Recognise that, and you can stop wasting time on things that will never work and focus on the essential ‘must dos’.
Think about a work problem you have. Then take a mental step back and tap your intuition. What are the key lines of the situation? What are the two or three defining lines of the problem?
If everyone can be a leader, why aren’t they?
As I’ve written before, everyone is to some extent a leader, simply by the way they influence how those around them think and behave. Whether we choose to or not, we set an example - something our politicians seem to have forgotten!
Beyond this kind of baseline, default leadership there is the potential to consciously and purposefully lead others. If everyone has that potential then why don’t they fulfil it?
For many organisations, great cost and effort goes into “leadership development”. However, what tends to result is not leaders but better managers.
I wonder if that development effort is addressing the right thing. Let’s look at a similar question: how to develop creativity at work. You know, I’ve had lots of people say things like “I’m not a creative person” or “this is not a place that encourages or reacts well to new ideas”. I’ve never had someone say “I’m a creative person, and everyone here wants new ideas, but I just don’t know how to be creative”. Yet most creativity training and books address that ‘how to do it’. And don’t really change anything.
Likewise, leadership development tends to give people models or tools or, at best, lots of practice in coaching and facilitating others. All good stuff, but not enough.
In both cases, creativity and leadership, the missing pieces you have to address are:
- Does your environment really support and accept you sticking your head above the parapet - be it in putting forward new ideas or taking a stand or lead on something?
- Do you believe you can do it?
- Is there something you want to take the lead on? What are you passionate about?
“Ideas are like rabbits; you get some, learn how to handle them and before you know it, you’ll have a dozen bouncing about.”
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