Friday 8 January 2016

Diary of a creative person: day 4

Balancing predictability and unpredictability

Marc's compositions balance predictability with unpredictability. The lines or parts of his music are each skilfully and carefully written but then combined asynchronously; they do not stack together like bricks in mortar; they layer and move like oil on water.    

We all need to do things that make us predictable. We all need to do things that lead to predictable outcomes. Being predictable reassures, promotes trust and builds confidence. 

Being creative, however, demands that we embrace a meaningful measure of unpredictability: a willingness to take risks and trust in processes (and people) that are not completely within our control.

Use the trust you have built up through your predictability as capital to support innovative risk taking. Let others play with your ideas and use and develop them in their own ways according to their own needs. Bring a diverse range of people with predictable but different outlooks, expertise and experiences together (as happens at the Unusual Suspects Festival) and encourage them to slip and slide against each other and mingle and merge in unexpected ways. Add a little randomness to your thinking to gain unpredictably useful insights and solutions (perhaps use the Random Stimuli approach).



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