Been there,seen it, done it…
I once worked with a lady who had a favorite saying when confronted with people who ‘knew it all’.
She used to say , ‘ there is the arrogance of ignorance!’ We both worked in a situation where other people thought they had the license to comment and criticize your efforts regardless of their own skills and the merits of their observations.
So, this is true for many of us because we all , to some degree, believe we see things better than those around us. This is not always a bad trait as it is this drive and intensity which produces breakthroughs and innovations.
People often ask how they should develop creativity and the ability to continually deliver fresh ideas…as if there is some magic secret formula!
When seeking inspiration we should do things which will set the environment to be conducive , to eliminate forces which detract from free thinking and importantly things which allow us to reflect. Reflection is a lost art in many work environments today, the ability to ‘chew the fat’ is key to exploring ideas with others.
The terms, ‘chew the fat’ and ‘bringing home the bacon’ both stem from similar times in history when the mark of success was far different from today. In a wonderful book called ‘Liverpool 800’ which celebrates the 800th birthday of Liverpool in 2007 there are several essays detailing life in those times and the growth of an insignificant riverside community into the world’s most potent and influential port of the 18th century. The phrase ‘bringing home the bacon’ alludes to someone providing money for a family, originally it was literally what it said. It was seen as a great sign of success to be able to have a side of pig hanging in the house from which the family would be fed. In the evenings, the men of the house would visit each other and ‘chew the fat’ which was when they cut strips of cured ham off the carcass and chewed it much as we do today with our processed versions of preserved meats. Under such circumstances the world was put to rights and ideas were refined in a collaborative manner.
In creative environments, which by definition, change regularly we must take time to nurture the people doing the work and we must value the diversity of human thought needed to develop innovative ideas. Money and bonuses do not signify nurturing, despite our love of ever increasing monetary recompense, it is not money that keeps us going. I have had jobs where no amount of money would have kept me there, we all know this situation to be true. People make a workplace what it is and it is people who either protect it or destroy it.
Watch this guest video 3rd Planet contributed to Video Creators TV
Let history be our collaborator, there is little in existence today which has not , in essence, been thought of before. Take time to relax, reflect and respond to our diverse thinking. At the end of that process we will find innovation.
see you on the long and winding road….. Patrick