Take "the beast" to play
In today’s society, people are driven to keep high levels of performance as organizations navigate between efficiency and innovation.
To gain an innovative edge, failure needs to happen. The way science research moves us forward is by systematically investigating theories and hypothesis and checking for accuracy. A similar experimental approach has expanded to all types of disciplines and industries, including businesses and sports. A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to see the American retired soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women's World Cup champion, Abby Wambach talk about her career insights and her book Wolfpack. She promoted leveraging the strengths of others to thrive as a collective. She described how failure acts as fuel to propel us towards the next big thing.
Making people feel at ease with failure and encouraging it as a learning mechanism can be a challenge. Failure allows us to change gears when something does not work the way we expected and we need to try something different. The level of “accepted” risk every person can take may vary depending on their responsibilities and context. A mistake can expose us and have consequences for ourselves and others. Creating boundaries for people can help ease the pressure some might feel and allow for mistakes to happen. When people understand better how far they can go, they will be more likely to take more chances.
Innovation is hard to sustain in a business context when resources are limited. Allowing for things to go wrong puts short term success at risk. Ed Catmull speaks on Creativity.Inc about a phenomenon Pixar went through when they started being successful. Increasing production started taking over as the ultimate organizational goal, and efficiency and consistency did not afford enough attention to new ideas. He calls it “feeding the beast”. A similar beast occasionally affects us as individuals, when we obsess over a problem we are trying to solve and figuratively bang our head against it for hours without moving forward.
How do we stop these beasts from draining our productivity and creativity? We can take them to play. In “Extreme productivity: Boost your results, reduce your hours”, Senior MIT lecturer Bob Pozen describes how taking regular breaks can help us refresh our focus and get more done. On numerous occasions, I have been inspired by a trivial game or conversation with no objective or intention. Don’t get me wrong, I believe process has its place for us to be efficient and achieve our goals. At an individual level, people typically appreciate when we are clear about our intentions up front. At the organizational level, processes can help us work more efficiently together. Process is also necessary to drive innovation. In his HBR article “The Hard Truth about Innovative Cultures”, Gary P. Pisano emphasizes the importance of disciplined experimentation to evaluate value add and drive results.
It is healthy and necessary to time out and play so we can regain perspective and inspiration when we get stuck. Vacations allow us that space to recharge. It is also possible to take quick breaks in our day to day lives to do the same. My favorite daily getaway is a quick walk to the park, a waterfront or a cafe. A notebook, a pen and sometimes a book is all I need to get the creative juices going.
If we are more self aware about the delicate and complex balancing act between discipline and creativity and we are provided with some guidelines on how much risk we can take, we’ll be able to achieve more.
How do you recharge and promote creativity around you? What’s the last thing you learnt from failure?