Consider This …

Dr. Ken Hudson offers up a nice couple of paragraphs in his blog today about making improvements.  He notes that usually one improves something incrementally, using an additive method of modification.  But the other approach he suggests involves starting not with what you already have, but with an entirely new idea.  You work subtractively to proceed from your ideal new product to what is possible right now.

This brave approach requires skill in visioning.  Our education seldom promotes the development of creative vision, so few people practice it.  How often do you spend more than a second with a crazy new idea?  How often do you allow yourself to daydream in detail?  How open are you to the possibility of perfection, the realization of your dreams?

To envision means to open the door to a bit of chaos and lunacy.  It means to trust the process enough to actually dedicate some time to it.  It means to believe in and work seriously at creating a better world. 

Most of us are so oppressed that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to daydream.  If you want to rectify this situation, if you want to reawaken your dreaming capabilities, one way to start is by doodling.  While on the phone, or waiting for downloads, or at the doctor’s office, let your hand move a pen or pencil around a little piece of paper.  Don’t try to draw anything, just let the instrument make marks.  Follow your impulses with simple curiosity, and keep the pen moving without intellectual involvement. 

What does this exercise have to do with envisioning?  The successful dreamer has learned to allow and track the free flow of impulse.  Doodling can get you started.

After discovering that my keyboard had stopped working this morning, and terribly worried about disappointed all two of my adoring readers, I find myself thinking about creativity and control.

In a way, developing creative business structures and creative personal viewpoints is an attempt to regain control over individual and social potentials, to become liberated from the shackles of fear and ignorance.  On the other hand, in the process of cultivating creativity, we become aware of the benefits of relinquishing control; we even willingly abdicate control so that we may become more open to possibilities.

How about this little anecdote from Australian creativity guru, Dr. Ken Hudson: 

“I once worked with a large bank and i thought the strategy session that i was facilitating was on the verge of a tremendous new direction when the leader stopped the session and wanted to know why i was allowing so much laughter in the room. What did you want me to do i asked? Curtail it was his reply. When I explained why i thought that was a bad idea he insisted. I left it to him to tell the group. As expected, all the creative energy was immediately sucked from the room.”

As with so many things in the creative life, it’s a delicate balance.  When we find ourselves grasping for control, we’ve tipped the scale.  When we feel at the mercy of outside forces, we’ve tipped it in the other direction.