Be Foolish. Break the rules. Be impractical. Get out of your box. Look for "wrong" answers. Seek ambiguity. Make mistakes ... and set your creative self free.
These are the first words on the blurb on the back of A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech.
The book comes with a deck of cards with inspirational wisdoms to answer the question: What should I do? How do I solve this? What are my options?
This is a book I've returned to time and again when turmoil and disquiet takes over me - my mind, my life, me and I feel alone and no one can advise me.
Sure it's nice to seek out ritual and familiarity in such circumstances.
My life - like most people's existence - is dominated by ritual as rigid as a Japanese tea ceremony.
But one of the mainstays is to seek out a "Whack in the Head" inspiration when I feel like a sea snail in a desert.
When life is staid - or stayed - there's an inkling that starts whispering and ends up screaming "GET OUT of the BOX!"
It only seems sudden, when I stop - maybe in a fit of anger, maybe in a torrent of tears, maybe just numb and exhausted or depressed.
So then I ask ME - "What do you want me to do differently? This is what is. What more do you need?"
And me tells ME get me: new pair of sneakers, a new TV, an overseas trip, a new program, a new swimsuit...bla-bla-bla-bla-bla...
"NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...
Try "Po". I learned today about Edward de Bono's idea of Po.
Po glistens in the sunlight like the sun on water where a silver fish jumps.
It's cheeky. It's dangerous. It's so full of potential.
It's an alternative answer. Instead of "no" and instead of "yes" - choose "Po", create a new idea.
It's the same reason, I think, that I'm now hooked on Julien Smith's blog http://inoveryourhead.net/ (In Over Your Head)
In today's blog ( http://inoveryourhead.net/becoming-child-like/ ) he writes about creativity training and developing a management concept of rewarding adaptability in employees.
He sees merit in having childlike thinking... and he thinks it's something important enough to debate.
He thinks it would help society in so many ways if companies rewarded adaptability and creativity in employees.
I don't know much about management theory and practice but I do believe that there's a galaxy separating it from creativity and adaptability - and that is why whole industries and dare I say civilizations are struggling today.
Was there ever a time in history when conformity was not the "normal", "expected", "rewarded" behaviour of our race?
As my father drummed into my head from birth: "Some people are followers and some people are leaders - you can't change that, it's human nature."
Take that a step further. Leadership is about "power".
"POWER" requires structure, structure requires conformity: hence religion, sports leagues, governments, families, gangs and companies.
This is the way I understand how society is managed - our civilization is being challenged today. And I don't think people recognise it.
Our education systems aren't adapting, families aren't adapting, companies aren't adapting...
It's been a while since I read Bertrand Russell's "Education and the Social Order" but what I remember goes like this:
"Education" is about making good citizens: kind of like training good soldiers, follow orders, be efficient, get the job done, don't stir the pot...
The other side of "Education" pitches a flipside: reach your full potential, explore ideas and be creative...
PO!
Doesn't that actually require people to think for themselves, be creative and adapt?
I think we need a social compact - for everyone from the retirement home to the cradle.
For the elderly: "My Life's a 21st Century Adaptation".
For the middle aged: "Work in Progress".
For youngsters: "Evolve with me" - or something.
I firmly believe that you can not change people - people are whatever they are - you can only try to win them over or retreat.
Only they can decide to change.
So ... "Po" people ... are we Po people? I think we just dream about being Po People.
We make movies about this all the time: A Bug's Life, It's a Wonderful Life... didn't Charles Darwin base his whole thesis of evolution on it?
I love nonsensical thinking -There's improvising, there's creativity - and then there's ethics ... What's fair? It's a leadership issue.
If we're all out of our depth here then who's the Atticus? He's the wise man in the Pulitzer Prize winning book To Kill A Mockingbird.
When Scout (a little girl of 10) stands on Boo Radley's porch and sees things for the first time the way he sees things in the street where they live, tears spring to my eyes every time:
"I had never seen our neighbourhood from this angle. There was Miss Maudie's, Miss Stephanie's - there was our house...
"Daylight...in my mind, the night faded...A boy trudged down the sidewalk dragging a fishing pole behind him. A man stood waiting with his hands on his hips.
"Summertime, and his children played in the front yard with their friend ...
"It was Fall, and his children fought on the sidewalk, Fall and his children trotted to and fro around the corner, the day's woes and triumphs on their faces.
"Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate silhouetted against a blazing house. . . Summer, and he watched his children's hearts break.
"Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.
"Just standing on the Radley porch was enough. """
Everyone MUST have an Atticus in their life - every life depends upon just one person like Atticus being there for us.
If there's a community - how wonderful?
And sometimes, even a book will do.
I always feel like Scout standing on that porch seeing it for the first time...