When I was 13, I tried to make wine. I don’t know why. Who knows why 13-year-olds do anything? I’d like to say it was because I had an early and respectable academic interest in chemistry. But, if you knew me back then, you’d laugh at that. I didn’t drink. Not at 13. So, why? It certainly wasn’t for a legitimate reason. Because well I certainly didn’t tell my parents and I was doing it in my bedroom closet.
I used the Encyclopedia Britannica. We had a whole set of them, even back then they were old. Literally, dust on top of them. I usually only used them the night before a school assignment was due. But, this time, I was going to plan ahead. I followed the directions, or at least my 13-year-old self thought I did.
I washed out a plastic milk jug. I crushed grapes. I used some of my mom’s sugar and some baker’s yeast, I screwed the cap on and waited. I was pretty sure I did everything right. I knew it would take some time. So I waited, which is hard for a 13-year-old. But I can proudly say, that I successfully waited. 24 whole hours. I checked. No wine. So I screwed the cap back on. Waited another 24 whole hours and checked again. I think I did this for 2 weeks.
Well, I’m no chemist, but I’m pretty sure that constantly opening it and exposing it to oxygen wasn’t good for the fermentation process. I’m also, no poet. So I can’t describe the unholy rotten vinegar with traces of unwashed-out milk residue that I tasted and then couldn’t spit out because I didn’t want my parents to smell it. The few seconds it took me to run to the bathroom to spit it out still make me shudder. Now you may be thinking why would I taste it? Didn’t I notice that it had gone bad? Sure I had. But I was 13. So I took a swig.
My point isn’t that I am a bad winemaker or even a bad 13-year-old. The point is that I ruined the process by being too impatient by constantly checking on what I wanted. Getting a good idea is like making wine. Gather the right ingredients, follow the process, and leave it alone until it is ready.
The ingredients are a good relationship with your subconscious that is built and strengthened by regularly taking time to relax and be engaged. It’s not enough to simply zone out after work because you’re too tired to think. That’s not engaged, that’s exhausted. If you have been following The Creativity Algorithm, I think you felt a bit of mental engagement from the sophisms. Those questions that had your unconscious poke its head out of its camouflage and take a step towards you. That’s the type of engagement we’re looking for.
My ill-fated wine-making attempt showed you how not to have a good idea. Let’s jump into getting a good idea. But, there’s a catch. Good ideas don’t follow the rules of other goals. Drive. Hard work. Long hours, Sacrifice. Those concepts don’t work with the unconscious anymore than trying to make a puppy bring you something by yelling at it.
So how can a story of a borderline delinquent 13-year-old help a Sales Manager?
I don’t have to tell anyone listening to or reading this that our culture, whether it is pop culture or business culture, is all about ‘right now.’ Too many business professionals are held hostage by the fear of a down quarter – even if it is by a fraction of a percent. It would be great if those we are accountable to, managers, boards, and shareholders would allow us to focus only on the long term. But, they have bosses too.
So our task is to focus on the near term and the long term. A true vintner focuses on the immediate concerns of health of the grapes as well as the long-term process of turning those grapes into wine. The pushback I get when I say things like this is that we are all only human. There are only so many hours in the day. Focusing on two processes and two goals just isn’t possible. One of the things I like to teach in my classes and when I am giving talks to sales teams is that the human mind cannot concentrate on two things at the same time. Oh sure, it can switch between tasks so rapidly that it makes it seem like the mind is doing two things
I agree that trying to think short-term and long-term at the same time is impossible, if you are thinking with your conscious mind. But your subconscious mind can easily, not just multitask, but multi-think. This is where the wine-making comes in metaphor and it is also a good sophism. Put the ingredients into the cask of your subconscious by thinking of the ‘what’ of your long-term goals. Then let your subconscious ferment the ‘what’ of your goal into the ‘how’ of your goal.
The two ingredients for your ‘conscious’ mind are trust and patience. Don’t be the eager 13-year-old who constantly checks by worrying about when and whether the solution will come. It will. It will in its own time.
Notice that we are not trying to make lightning strike or have a flash of inspiration. Those are quick fix mentality – like artificial wine produced by someone impatient to get drunk. What we are nurturing is the slow hunch as described by Steve Johnson in his book Where Good Ideas Come From. (Johnson, 2011) I came across the book after I had started The Creativity Algorithm. To be honest, I had an “Oh crap” moment. I worried that I was too late to the party and working with someone else’s idea. It is a great book. It focuses more on the sociological and anthropological criteria that allow creativity to flourish in a certain city or time frame.
Next sophism, how many good ideas can your subconscious work on simultaneously? Trick question, because if you were aware, it wouldn’t be in the subconscious. Similar to the previous post/episode, I am going to ask you to prove a negative. I want you to prove that your subconscious cannot think of an infinite number of things at the same time. That’s a real sophism.
Take Away: Get into a nice groovy alpha state. Maybe even by having one glass of wine. More than one glass and you might have trouble concentrating. I don’t want to advocate drinking, or edible use or anything like that. Still, in full disclosure, I love really hoppy beer, like IPA’s. But that’s about it. I don’t drink spirits or wine. Maybe it was the taste I had when I was 13. Alcohol can of course alter our consciousness. That is why people drink it. But there are better ways to do it. Both physical and cognitive exercise will do it. So once you are in your alpha state, reward yourself with this task. If we continue with the metaphor that good ideas are like wine, would they all taste the same? Would each idea have a subtle difference? Would work ideas be red wine and personal ideas be white wine? It is not necessarily the wine taste I want you to play with, it is trying to link something purely cognitive with something real, visceral such as the taste and bouquet. Using that link to something perceptual is a good way to help lever the idea out of the subconscious – but never before it is ready.
Spreading the Thoughts: Ask a friend how long wine takes to ferment. Then ask them how long an idea takes to form. Make sure they don’t confuse the idea’s arrival with the idea’s development. If they are confused, tell them about The Creativity Algorithm.
Next Post: Tomato Cage
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
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References
Johnson, S. (2011). Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. Penguin Publishing Group.
The Creativity Algorithm 
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