Never discount the importance of slight changes

A fairly long time ago I studied musical composition. I remember my first lesson: my composition teacher looked at some of my work, thought for a while, looked at me and said, ‘You need to vary things a little more; start a few more phrases off the beat now and again.’

A little later I was writing a choral piece and the words I was setting demanded a sudden change from a heroic, heraldic sound to one that was soft and intimate. I struggled with this for some time and then made the smallest of changes: I asked singers to sing harmonies four notes apart during the heroic section and three notes apart during the softer, more intimate section that immediately followed it. It was a slight difference that made an immediate and effective change to the atmosphere of the music.

On one other occasion, I was listening to a brass band play a piece of music I had written for them. When they played the final climactic section, I felt that it did not sound quite right. After thinking about it for a while, I asked the conductor if he could take the section just a fraction slower. He did, and the section gained the rhythmic weight it needed to bring the piece to a satisfying conclusion.

Slight changes in music (whether they are rhythmic, harmonic or about varying the tempi) can make the difference between a piece of music that fails to engage and stimulate an audience and one that does.

Similarly, slightly varying the way we perceive and approach our challenges and problems can enhance our effectiveness in dealing with them (sometimes in unexpectedly significant ways).  

When addressing problems ask:

 

·       What insights you gain by looking at a problem from a slightly different angle (say from the viewpoint of a colleague, mentor or client)?

·       What advantages you gain by slightly changing your opinions about what a problem is and how it should be addressed?

·       What improvements you gain by slightly altering the way you are tackling a problem? For example, do you enhance your progress if you change the order of the tasks in front of you?

·       What advantages you gain by slightly altering the environment or context within which a problem exists?

·      What benefits you gain by slightly lengthening or slightly tightening deadlines?

 

If you occasionally do things a little differently, you may be delighted by the benefits you gain.

Godowski's challenge

Leopold Godowski was a man who liked a challenge, and it was a trait that contributed to him becoming one of the greatest pianists of his generation.

His ‘Studies on Chopin’s Etudes’ take Chopin’s music and make it even more demanding. Some of them transfer the difficult right hand parts to the left hand and others are rearranged for the left hand only. Some of the studies even interweave two etudes: one played by the left hand and the other by the right.

Many of us, having worked hard to reach a high level of achievement and success, can very easily become complacent and with this can come a staleness of mind that degrades our thinking and impedes our creativity and ability to innovate. This can sometimes be seen in people who have success early in life, when they subsequently find it difficult to motivate themselves onwards towards even greater achievements.

If we wish to maintain and develop our creativity and ability to innovate we need to find new challenges that will keep our thinking fresh and agile.

If you ever smell the stale whiff of complacency settling upon you think about the following types of questions:

• If you have had a great success how can you build upon it?
• If one of your ideas has been widely praised and implemented how can you enhance it and adapt it to more uses?
• How could you achieve the same outcome with only half the resources?
• How could you combine your idea with those of others to create something of more value than the sum of the parts?
• What is the next goal you could set yourself that would bridge the gap between very good and excellent?
• What is the one thing no one has tried because it is considered too complex and difficult and what small part of it could you to take on and overcome?

Take a minimalist approach

Subtle changes in the rhythm and structure of things can eventually prove to be very significant. There is a contemporary musical style known as Minimalism that illustrates this very well.

The main characteristic of Minimalist Music, as exemplified by the music of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams and Michael Nyman, is its repetitive, slowly evolving structure. On first hearing this type of music it seems as if the same notes and rhythms are being repeated over and over, but as the music progresses it gradually becomes clear that subtle changes are occurring.

Notes and rhythms are slowly altering, taking baby steps away from their original positions. This makes the musical rhythms and combinations of notes sound just that little bit different each time they are played. Over time the whole character of the music changes and by its end it may well have evolved into something that is very different in sound and character to its beginnings.

Sometimes, when dealing with complex issues, incremental rather than transformational change can work best. Taking small steps in the direction you want to go and making small alterations in the emphasis given to certain activities can prove more effective than grand, operatic set-piece initiatives.

In themselves any small steps taken can seem insignificant, but if they are part of a greater plan or structure that has a strong momentum and clear direction, significant and lasting change can gradually be achieved.

This type of incremental or evolutionary change may, arguably, take more time to achieve, but because those involved have arrived at the required destination only ever having been asked to travel in small steps, it may not seem like that much of a change at all. In fact people may not even recognise that it has happened!

Radiate!

Gustav Holst’s The Planets Suite is a remarkable piece of music not only for its gigantic scope and excellent, colourful orchestration, but also for the way it encompasses two very different ways of perceiving music.

The music starts powerfully with ‘Mars the Bringer of War’ and travels outwards through each planet in turn, finally reaching the delicate and mysterious atmosphere of Neptune.

‘Mars the Bringer of War’ is a brutal onward march towards a terrifying climax. This forward movement, the feeling of being carried along a path that leads to some kind of inevitable destination, is typical of the very linear way in which most of us perceive and appreciate music.

‘Neptune the Mystic’ is very different. The music flows outwards rather than onwards. It seems to radiate from a central point, reaching further and further outwards in all directions until those listening can no longer discern its journey.

When thinking about problems we tend to comprehend them in a ‘Mars the Bringer of War’ way. We perceive them as developing in complex but essentially linear ways, one aspect leading to another and another and so on. Our minds create two-dimensional flow charts of our problems that progress in more or less predictable directions. We expect and therefore perceive that past causes have led to present difficulties and that these in turn will have future consequences.

To address problems creatively we need to start thinking about them in three dimensions, in a ‘Neptune the Mystic’ way rather than a ‘Mars the Bringer of War’ way. We need to start creating holograms rather than flow charts of our problems. We must place ourselves at the centres of these holograms and imagine our problems expanding and developing around us. We will then be able to raise our thinking up and away from the constricting tracks of linear thinking, gain access to new viewpoints and benefit from the valuable insights they enable us to see.

The next time the onward momentum associated with two-dimensional thinking is carrying you away from effectively addressing a problem try:

• Constructing a three-dimensional model of the problem or creating a physical prototype of a possible solution.
• Imagining yourself at the centre of the problem watching it develop and expand around you.
• Going to where the problem is, placing your self within it and experiencing it directly.
• Imagining the problem as cyclic rather than linear. As the problem repeatedly swirls around you which aspects seem to evolve and grow stronger?
• Identifying the energetic elements at the problem’s core that are continuing to power and develop it.
• Identifying the energy hungry ‘blacks holes’ at the heart of the problem that are sucking in and devouring your time and resources.
• Identifying those aspects of the problem that are expanding towards you and those that are shrinking away from you.
• Identifying those elements of the problem that seem to link, entangle, merge and coalesce. What is the effect of all this upon the rest of the problem and your relationship with it?

Energise!

Many years ago I witnessed the unique way that the famous cellist Paul Tortelier prepared himself for a performance.

As I was entering the foyer of the concert hall where Tortelier was imminently due to perform I was greeted by the sight of a strikingly tall man with angular features, hat and coat clutched firmly in hand, purposefully striding towards the exit. This man was none other than the great cellist himself!

I stared after him in surprise, thinking that perhaps the great virtuoso had experienced an attack of stage fright, or that someone or something had offended him so much that he had felt compelled to make a swift and dramatic exit.

The seasoned concert-goer accompanying me showed no such surprise. She simply watched the great man leave and nodded to herself knowingly. Then, after a short pause, she turned to me and said, ‘Don’t worry, he always does this before a performance. It is his way of managing his nerves and energising himself before going on stage to perform’.

And she was not wrong. Ten minutes later, with my friend and I seated and expectant in the concert hall, Paul Tortelier strode dynamically to the centre of the stage, grabbed his cello and began to perform. The effect was immediate. It was as if Tortelier had gathered up all the energy and momentum of his last minute walk and focused it all upon the one instant of time that was the opening of his performance.

Tortelier’s intention had not been to make a dramatic exit but a dramatic and memorable entrance. Having achieved this, he immediately and virtuosically built upon the initial energy he had created: one vibrant and dynamic moment led to and built upon the next to create some of the most exhilarating cello playing I had ever heard.

Tortelier’s method of energising himself can be applied more generally. If you want to approach your problems and challenges creatively, stimulate not only your mind but also your body. Create a sense of physical momentum and energy that you can carry with you into creative problem solving sessions and other demanding situations. Take a brisk walk or have a light workout in the gym before that important workshop or presentation. At the very least take a few deep long breaths before diving into the problems before you.

By giving yourself a physical run up to your problems and challenges you will maximise the energy that you can focus upon their effective resolution.

Elgar's owls

If you have a few moments do an Internet search and listen to "Owls: An Epitaph", a short piece for chamber choir by Edward Elgar.

It is a surprising piece; within a short space of time Elgar experiments with some very dissonant, other worldly harmonies and some halting, oddly unsettling rhythms.

By writing the piece Elgar disproves the most common of excuses given for not trying out new ideas and approaches: that it will take too long and use too many resources.

The next time you want to experiment with something new assume you can do it within a short space of time and with the minimum of resources: if you want to try out a new way of receiving customers do it for a couple of hours only and within just one or two areas; if you are thinking of creating a new form or questionnaire quickly brainstorm some key questions, order them into a list and try them out on a small number of volunteers; if you want to test the potential of a new on-line process use a simple and quickly drawn storyboard to explain it to a few people and facilitate their feedback.

If you assume that trying out new ideas will take less rather than more time and resources you will likely be pleasantly surprised by how much you can achieve and learn (and how innovative your ideas turn out to be).

Dance between your ideas

'Usually, I finish a project with much more done on the next one than I thought. That's why I've developed this procedure for having a bunch of notebooks around, so that I can keep my projects straight. Once some music gets started in my head, it's usually very clear what the piece is. I'll take a break from what I'm consciously doing at the moment and write something down in the right notebook.'

John Harbison from The Muse That Sings: Composers Speak about the Creative Process by Ann McCutchan

We seldom think about one thing for very long. We can be distracted from even the most attractive and captivating of ideas by something new, something unexpected, or simply something different.

Throughout our lives we are encouraged to fight distraction: to concentrate upon the task at hand and expel all errant thoughts.

This makes good sense: for driving, operating machinery, passing exams, brain surgery, stuff like that. None of us want to have a car accident or serious injury, or fail an important exam. Most of us most of the time do not wish to hurt anyone!

Our creativity, however, thrives upon distraction: upon the unexpected, upon the novel and the new. Distracted by the thought of a falling man Einstein eventually formulated his General Theory of Relativity. Distracted by a contaminated petri dish Alexander Fleming eventually discovered penicillin. Distracted by the cooking of waffles Bill Bowerman, quite quickly in comparison to the previous examples, invented the waffle trainer.

Distraction, in all its forms, is the life blood of creativity and innovation, so we need to learn how to embrace and use it to our advantage. We need to learn how to dance comfortably and enjoyably between the ideas that compete for our attention.

Dancing is fluid but formal; dancing is changeable but controlled. The best dancing, to my mind, has a simple and immediate effect upon those who dance and those who watch. 

John Harbison's method of capturing and working with his ideas achieves similar things. His notebook system is flexible enough to allow him to move between ideas (like moving between different dancing partners) but formal enough to ensure that he captures and develops his ideas accurately and methodically; his partner ideas may change but the steps of his dance do not. His system is also simple and straightforward, helping him to change the focus of his thoughts quickly: to easily and immediately dance with the distractions of new, unexpected and potentially valuable ideas.

So, when you next need to think creatively, try dancing with your ideas. Create a system similar to John Harbison's and balance the fluidity of distraction with the formality of focus. Then you can welcome distraction with open arms, safe in the knowledge that you will not lose your place within the overall dance of your thoughts.