Create the Setting for Creativity
We can lure thoughts from the perimeter.
My usual habit, shared by many I am sure, is to have paper and pen nearby whenever I go to bed. This has come about because of the hard realization that if a great idea arrives in the middle of the night, the sort of brilliant idea that is potentially life changing, I can count on one thing by the time I get up.
I will have forgotten it.
As in completely forgotten. No traces. No hints.
I now jot things down. This doesn’t mean that the morning review of my notes will concur with the midnight musings. I’ve read some of those cryptic scrawls and have wondered if they were sort of a Rosetta Stone in reverse.
Most of the time, however, they have merit; so much so, in fact, that I’m rarely without some index cards or small tablet to capture thoughts as they occur no matter where I happen to be.
Because thoughts have a habit of following their own schedule.
We’ve all noticed how those unrelated but important thoughts often arrive while we’re taking walks and showers, bicycling, gardening, mowing the lawn, watching a ballgame, listening to Beethoven, slowly reading some unrelated subjects, or even playing Sherlock Holmes and seeing how much we can observe in a brief period – all are ways to lure thoughts in from the perimeters.
In other words, we back away from a subject and engage in another activity so that what was our original focal point becomes a new and tempting distraction.
Perhaps we have a natural tendency to goof off or perhaps our initial focus is too tight and is blocking originality, but creating the setting for creativity is important.
This resembles the strategies for battling insomnia. The more you try to go to sleep, the harder it becomes, but if you stop fighting and instead shift your attention to reading, housework, shining shoes or whatever, then sleep often becomes the new desirable distraction.
[Not always, of course. With age, you discover that sleep problems become a common conversation topic. Once again, setting the stage for a sound night’s sleep is vital. The best strategies I’ve heard of, and use involve a series of “thou shalt not” steps that begin around 3:00 P.M. Those teenager days of being able to get a full and sound night’s sleep starting shortly after “head hits pillow” are long gone for most of us.]
The importance of creating the environment for certain activities is beginning to get more attention. You may have heard of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s practice of beginning decision-making sessions by having all of the participants spend the first ten minutes reading a relevant decision paper before the agenda is opened for discussion.
That’s a direct and effective way of ensuring that all of the minds are in the right place.
More indirect approaches would include those corporate programs where management or production teams go canoeing, orienteering, or treasure-hunting to hone team skills while also, no doubt, seeing whether the distracting process invites any new ideas to drift in.
One of my public sector clients recently moved into a large building specifically built and designed for them. Their engineering team cleverly put paths within the building so people, regardless of the weather, can easily make a habit of walking a few miles every day while thinking things through. They can both decompress and get fit.
Another organization has silent rooms: little in-door escape areas where people go to think and where a vow of silence is honored.
All of this recognizes the power of the inadvertent. The most direct route is not always the most efficient.
It can, in fact, have thickets.