It happened! I watched an idea arrive. But, it wasn’t smooth or automatic like I described in post 20, Thinking With Muscles. Ok Ok, to be honest, I only noticed it arrived after I had looked away for a fraction of a second after constantly wondering why it hadn’t shown up yet.
For those who are new to The Creativity Algorithm, I have talked about the theory of a good idea being assembled by the subconscious and delivered to the conscious mind. That happens through a process of relaxed engagement. It was pretty cool to see it and I am struggling for a metaphor to use to describe it.
To recap, through some yet-to-be-explored processes, the subconscious will assemble bits of accumulated knowledge into a good idea. But that will usually only happen when certain criteria are met.
- There must be the right number of and the right type of knowledge pieces in the subconscious.
- There should be an existing, good relationship between the subconscious mind and the conscious mind
- The conscious mind must be relaxed and engaged in a non-stressful task.
I had met all of the criteria. I had certainly read quite a bit about psychology, the mind, and creativity, so the first part was taken care of. As a life-long “imaginer” and as someone who has practiced self-hypnosis, I think I had the second part done. The third part was a slam dunk. So why did it take so long?
I had spent the day doing yardwork. Something I had done countless times. Specifically, I was mulching flower beds around the house. I could have paid someone to do it, there is the “time-value” of money to think about. But, call it tradition, call it stubbornness, or maybe I just couldn’t overcome the inertia of doing it the same way every year. It was a beautiful May day, low 70’s, slight breeze, and no humidity. I did a total of 30 bags of mulch and wasn’t in a hurry. I alternated between listening to an audiobook via headphones, blasting music via a portable speaker, and listening to nothing and just letting my wander. So, I was relaxed and I was engaged.
The only stressful thing I had was that I was puzzled and disappointed that a good idea hadn’t happened yet. I had actually expected it because going into an hours-long, no-stress, mindless project, I was sure a good idea or a few would arrive.
But it was late afternoon and… nothing. I was careful to shrug it off and redirect my thoughts to the possibility that tomorrow or the next day were just as good as today for a good idea to arrive. I knew that if I got frustrated or tried too hard, I would likely chase the good idea away.
I don’t know if it was on mulch bag 25, 26, or 27. As I was shoveling and scooping with my hands, I saw small weeds just getting started in their spring bloom. I didn’t even pluck them. I just buried them in a few inches of mulch. As I did, I doubted myself. I wondered if I took the easy way out by not plucking the weeds. I probably should have done it right, picked the weeds, and then spread the mulch. But I was tired.
As the green shoots disappeared under the blanket of mulch, I wondered if they would ever break through to see the light again. Bam, there it was. The shoots were the idea, the mulch was my expectation, stress, or some unknown barrier. Would that simple metaphor have happened if I wasn’t trying or did it happen because, for a second, I got distracted and thought about the weeds?
Not for the first time do I wish I had a clone. The obvious reason would be for one of me to do the mulching while the other of me got to do something more enjoyable. (Note: Mulching itself, much like homework or any other chore is not inherently unpleasant. In fact, once a person starts it, they often resist stopping and resent interruptions. In short, they have found a flow state doing a task they originally thought they wouldn’t enjoy. More on this in a future post.)
What does this have to do with helping sales managers help themselves and their employees find balance and purpose?
Let’s answer that with a question. If you are a manager, are you the mulch? Of course, you might think that your management style, protocols, and procedures are necessary to keep the pesky weeds of inefficiency from sprouting through. If you are an employee who is indignant and certain that if “they” would just listen to you, you could help the business, ask yourself how you are differentiating yourself from an unwanted ‘weed?’
If that is too management-specific, let’s pull back a little bit and explore the metaphor that the weeds are intrusive thoughts and the mulch is one’s conscious mind. The conscious mind’s job therefore is to try to keep the garden of the mind tidy, organized, and attractive.
So, you can see the quandary (pardon me for using one of my favorite words) Do we want an orderly, structured garden where we know where things are planted, what will blume, and when it will blume? Or… Do we want a garden that is full of surprises?
Obviously, this is a false, binary choice. We can have both. We can have both simultaneously. Please see blog post 10, Plant Another Garden for more details. Even if you, I, or anyone wanted to have a perfectly manicured garden of a mind, our mind wouldn’t allow such structure and confinement. To continue with that metaphor, Mother Nature does not like homogeneity. Every single person who has ever wanted a weed-free lawn or garden must contend with wind-blown seeds, squirrels burying nuts, and deer pooping out undigested seeds. Maybe, just maybe for a brief moment in time a lawn, garden, or mind could be completely blemish-free. But, to want that moment to continue would be to wish the stream of consciousness to freeze over. The mind is not made to be still (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008).
Similarly, what if a person wanted a completely unrestrained mind, where ideas arrive like debris in a tornado? Exciting, fast-moving, and unpredictable seem to mesh with the common idea of a creative mind. Well, of course, we can see that such an extreme does not allow for rapidly arriving ideas to be played with and developed (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008).
So like the Greek Poet Hesiod said, ‘moderation is best in all things.’ (Moderation in All Things, 2023) Too much mulch or management will prevent new growth. Too little mulch or management will allow for a garden that is out of control. (Note: Of course, Oscar Wilde is rumored to have said ‘moderation in all things, including moderation.’) Try as I might, I can’t figure out a way to weave that into this post. That is the first sophism of this week. Try to find an exception to Oscar Wilde’s idea that it is best to have moderation in all things, including moderation.
The second sophism is to try to figure out how much mulch you need. At first glance that might seem like an overly simplistic metaphorical question. But, let’s dig into it. (see what I did there, mulch, dig) Let’s assume you had to much a certain number of gardens. How much mulch would you buy? Which process would you use to calculate that? Now that we have expanded the metaphor, let’s ask what the gardens represent. Is one garden your family life? Did you want to block a certain amount of recurring weeds from interfering with your family life? Is one garden your social life? Would too much mulch prevent new opportunities? You get the idea. So the third sophism is to future out which gardens in your life need tending.
Take Away: As we saw earlier, we should be aware of simplistic ‘either or questions’, though that shouldn’t stop us from posing simple questions to others as conversation starters. Let’s be more precise and nuanced for this takeaway. Let’s assume different gardens need different amounts of mulch. Give yourself permission to make time for yourself. Use that time to relax into a nice, groovy alpha state. Then, reflect on the right amount of mulch for the various gardens in your life. As part of that reflection, plan strategies that will allow you to add more or even remove some.
Spreading the Thoughts: Ask a family member if they had to choose, would they rather have a mind that never had a stray thought like a garden that never had one weed? Or, would they rather have a chaotic garden that had beautiful flowers that had to constantly compete with weeds and stray ideas that arrived at unpredictable times?
Next Post: Bad Cut of Meat
For more information on how to help yourself and people in your organization learn how to access solutions more regularly, please go to:
Website: joeswope-publicspeaker.com
Youtube: youtube.com/@joeswope-publicspeaker
Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joe-swope
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/joe-swope-speaker
References
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. HarperCollins.
Moderation in all things. (n.d.). Oxford Reference. Retrieved May 29, 2023, from https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110810105420435;jsessionid=10EE8564AC7E835723861BDED7933358
The Creativity Algorithm 
Leave a comment