Corporate work and creating skirts

After taking a look at my blogging for the last 3 weeks, I realized that there are 2 major parts of my life that I only mention in passing - my job and my kids. My kids are personal. They are also young men who are likely to feel embarrassed or betrayed by my analytical view of their behavior being shared with the world. My job, however, is an entirely different story.

I recently heard a jazz musician say that she was told at a young age to memorize other musicians' jazz solos. She would lock herself into a practice room with their recordings and learn them note for note. The point, she said, was to have all of that music filed away at a subconscious level. That way, when she records, she says what she wants to say using language that is informed by the masters.

In my own way, I began using this approach with my work life in 2001. I researched cross generational team functionality, problem solving ideas, methods and means, strategies and stratagems. I trained myself to observe individuals and groups in order to identify compatible strengths and potential points for compounding results. I developed theories, observed experiments (both my own deliberate ones and the intentional or unintentional tests of colleagues), tallied results and revised my theories. I have investigated this world through 3 roles at 2 companies that could not have been more different. I believe that I'm starting to understand these corporate entities, but that isn't why I've done it.

My intention in all of this has been to create a space where business can be done my way - efficiently and effectively while feeding and developing unique individuals. That sounds like it could be a rather idealistic corporate mission statement. For a lot of reasons, however, corporations find it impractical to actually work this way.

This is not a revelation to me and even writing it all out here doesn't change much. But, during the course of this day, these last few paragraphs have changed direction quite a bit. That is in large part due to my sister, V, and her creating skirt.

V created a creating skirt today. It is to help her feel at home in her own creative life again. It is of her own, very V design made of very V bits of fabric in her own V creating space. When she put it on, she could see how to solve problems in an entirely different way. She even had a solution for this one. I'm not sure that I will take it, but I will apply her creating skirt idea to this.

In other words, I have decided to take my boss' offer and work entirely from home. Since the team I support is in the UK, it will be no change for them. But I will be able to approach my conflict from my own space, in my favorite clothes with my very own coffee. In itself, this will not resolve the tension that I feel, but at least I will be able to give it my best shot. As V said, there is no problem that can't be solved in a creating skirt!

Creativity

All arrows are pointing to creativity for the last few days, so it must be time to talk about that!

In part, this blog started because of Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life. I haven't even finished the book yet, but I really like it because her theory about creativity is very similar to my explanation for getting a physics degree. In a nutshell, there are naturally brilliant people and there a stubborn people. The brilliant people have to work to get to the goal and the stubborn people have to work a little more to get to the goal. In both cases, I am in the stubborn category but I have worked with a few brilliant people. We all have to devote the time to it every day to make it through.

In college or in the working world, no matter what the field, we are required to regularly perform the work that needs to be done or risk the consequences. There are assignments and deadlines, project plans and performance reviews. Keeping up with it all, especially in these times of lean staffing, requires good habits. We develop patterns of behavior that help us behave efficiently and effectivly – time or priority management systems, tools and tricks that we can use as needed, anything at all that helps us get to where we want to be.

Most of us, however, don’t think of creative work that way. We like to believe in the fairy tale of inspiration striking us square between the eyes. Twyla Tharp says that it isn’t necessarily that way. Yes, there is that moment when things just float into place. But it only comes if we are in the habit of putting ourselves in the right place to intercept it.

One of the other arrows pointing to creativity comes from this blog post.
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/mini-session-3-five-things-about-creativity/ I won’t re-list his 5 items here, but they are short folks, just go read ‘em. Mark McGuiness speaks from the perspective of a coach for creative professionals, but the principles behind this 5 things list seem to be similar to Twyla Tharp’s ideas. Creativity has to be worked at an managed. It is not an event that occurs.

It is possible that recently finding these and many other similar sources is just an example of confirmation bias. The this thought process about creativity is consistent with my world view, so I trust it - but I could be wrong. It could be that these are just examples of modern day myths trying to explain one of the few mysteries left to mankind. We may all be as confused as any ancients talking about thunder gods.

On the other hand, making creativity a habitual and managed part of my life will only cost me a few hours a week and some frustration figuring out how to format pictures the way I want. It is a small price to pay for such potential benefit.

So, sister of mine, to answer your question – I’m doing this every work day so that I can develop a habit. It may or may not work, but some pretty impressive people say that it is a good idea. If nothing else, it will be quite an experiment!