Exploring Your Creative Genius: Episode 57
In the previous episode of ‘Exploring your Creative Genius’ we heard from Sean Meyer, the COO of Durham-based Windlift, a company “on a mission to create energy for a sustainable civilization by re-imagining offshore wind.”
Prior to joining Windlift Sean was out in Napa helping vineyard owners develop their businesses with a special emphasis on designing experiences that helped customers build personal narratives for their favorite wines.
One of the creative concepts that emerged from our discussion was ‘Open ended-ness.’ It’s a favorite of mine because it’s underlying premise is that others usually have more to offer than I could imagine asking for. In Sean’s application the guest wasn’t told how to appreciate a new wine but rather invited to think of situations they would like to commemorate with a particular wine, for instance.
Another example of how open ended-ness engages us occurred when I was a partner at FGI, a successful marketing company filled with creative Chapel Hillians. This was in the pre-digital days, when an art director’s work-in-progress ad layout would have a pencil sketch outlining, suggesting, what the final image would be.
It might have been 100% of the time that no matter how well designed the final image was—and our art directors were world-class talents—I preferred the pencil sketch. At the time I found that interesting but didn’t explore the reason behind my response until I began studying my creative experiences to help others learn and realized that the incomplete sketches were calling me to complete them in my imagination which drew me into the image; I became invested in it so that I could complete it. That wasn’t needed when the photo or drawing was complete.
Whatever the project, the task, the important challenge, allowing others to bring their personal formulations, without predetermined limits or boundaries, invites our full participation rather than limiting it to passive observation.
Perhaps this is a leadership insight that can impact the oh-so-very sad survey results Gallup has been finding for years when they do their annual review of Employee Engagement at US companies and find that employees’ self-assessment of their behavior at work finds only +/- 33% are Engaged in the business. Experience has shown that when employees are allowed to have more control over how they get their work done, their engagement and their enthusiasm and their fun — and their productivity — increases.
And for sure all you parents out there, provide your children with lots of opportunities for open ended play, where they get to create their games as they play them. Filling that open space calls upon both their imaginations and their discipline.
“Exploring Your Creative Genius” takes an expansive view on what it means to be creative and entrepreneurial in an ongoing conversation led by Carl Nordgren — entrepreneur, novelist, and lifelong student with decades of experience growing his own creative capacity and assisting others to do the same in exciting new ways!
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