One of my favorite creativity books is "Orbiting the Giant Hairball" by the late Gordon MacKenzie. Here are some of his thoughts from a 1997 interview with Fast Company (a giant hairball is how he saw big corporations):
"What does it take to be an orbiter?
You have to find your creative genius in such a way that you still have a relationship with concrete, established norms but are not bound by them. In the Humor Workshop, we had 12 people -- with 12 projects and 12 bosses at any one time. In addition to taking assignments, we studied Hallmark's card line for gaps and came up with original product categories -- like holiday yard signs, which became a strong seller.
Where do you begin to find this originality?
By knowing yourself. I know that's not the answer people want to hear -- because that's not easy to do. But that is the answer.
What is the biggest obstacle to creativity?
Attachment to outcome. As soon as you become attached to a specific outcome, you feel compelled to control and manipulate what you're doing. And in the process you shut yourself off to other possibilities."
Last year designer Scott Hull distilled the book down to its core advice on his Visual Ambassador blog. Here are four of the lessons he discerned:
* Throughout our entire education and work careers, authority figures have worked to suppress our uniqueness and creativity. No authority figure will ever bless your own particular genius. Give up waiting for that to happen. Reject the status quo, embrace your creativity, be your own authority figure.
* Allow yourself to play and to fly off on tangents. Every tangent won’t pay off, but tangents are the only place where the creativity and innovation happen.
•Reject the busy man syndrome that measures importance and takes pride in how busy you can keep yourself. Reject seeking the stamp of approval you think you’ll achieve from your bosses and peers by being heroically overworked. Instead employ your skills to master your job and get it done faster and easier. Faster and smarter, not longer and harder.
* Have the courage to challenge boundaries and at the same time (and deeply intertwined with) have the courage to admit to idiocy, impasse and the need for help."
If you're ensnared in a giant hairball--whether corporate or one of your own making--this is a good time to plan to reach escape velocity! You can do it with my Writing Breakthrough Strategy Program--see www.jurgenwolff.com.
