The busier people get, the more I hear about the need to “make time” for creative thinking. Nothing wrong with this – I’ve done it. Interestingly it didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped. Here’s why…
Things get tricky when I treat my own creative thinking as something that requires special external conditions — time, space, location, special coffee — in order to happen.
The truth is that human beings can have new thought anytime, anywhere and under any circumstances.
We have an unconditioned capacity for new thought.
So notions that certain circumstances are creative or not-creative, just haven’t proved to be true. But it took me a while to notice this.
I remember when this hit me. I was having an argument with someone. Not a cool-headed logical argument, but a highly emotional, slam-the-front-door-and-walk-out kind of argument.
In the middle of this, I had the following thought: “what you are about to say will make everything worse.” I knew this was true but said it anyway. And here’s the point…
After I made amends later, it occurred to me that I had shattered my own belief system. I was pretty convinced that in a situation like that, you’d have to wait for things to calm down before any such high-quality thinking could happen.
Clearly I was wrong. I’d had a wise, empathetic thought in the middle of the storm.
What this seemed to point to was the ever-present potential for a new thinking — in midst of arguments as readily as during hectic schedules, urgent meetings and times of distress.
It proved to me the truth of one of the insight principles: “the mind is built for success” and has an innate and unfettered capacity for fresh thinking (always working in our favor).
So maybe I’ll take a walk or set aside an hour for creative thinking time, but I now see these things are not the source of new thought. They’re just enjoyable things to do.
Equally if I can’t take my walk, or am feeling tired, there’s no impediment to new thought.
I think there are huge implications here for how we create and innovate.
But most of all, to me, it feels liberating.
About the author.
Elese Coit is a Large-Scale Change Consultant who helps organizations succeed at technical, system and process transformation. Elese Coit & Associates partners with companies undergoing change to build engagement and overcome resistance .
