The Accidental Creative

by Todd Henry

  • A circle of visual artists who gather to share their latest creations and discuss their ideas. Artists often struggle to find good feedback for their work, and I’ve frequently seen artists go into especially productive periods upon finding a circle of likeminded peers to bounce things off of.

  • A circle of creative pros who gather to talk about the pressures they’re facing in their professional life and to talk about productivity tips and cultural trends they’re noticing.

  These are just a few examples. I’m certain that you can think of a few types of circles that could benefit your work. Though they are designed to be social gatherings, these circles facilitate the sharing of insights; they aren’t just about getting together for drinks and a chat.

  If you are organizing a circle, you should invite members you think will inspire you with their vision, their strategic thinking, and their track record of executing great ideas. Your group can gather anywhere, of course, but ideally choose a place offering quiet and privacy—the back corner of a coffee shop, someone’s deck, a small studio space, a living room. You’re looking for a place that affords space, comfort, and intimacy. (If you are looking for a tool to help you find other likeminded people, we’ve created a way on our website to form a circle with other creative pros in your city. For more information, visit AccidentalCreative .com/circles.)

  Your circle get-together will revolve around each member answering three questions. In the first few meetings, someone in the group should play moderator, but as your circle grows more comfortable, there will be less need for directed conversation, and gatherings will likely flow much more smoothly. Here are the three questions:

  ▶ WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?

  In other words, with regard to your work, what is at the top of your mind right now? The answer to this question will give everyone in the group a sense of the scope and nature of the work each is presently charged with. It also provides context for the rest of the conversation and may yield relevant creative insights from the group. Granted, there are always certain confidential matters that can’t be discussed outside work, but it’s usually possible to speak in generalities to get at the heart of the creative problem.

  This question doesn’t apply only to our on-demand work. These small groups are a great place to find inspiration for our personal projects. We should also share initiatives related to our passions and hobbies because it’s a great way to gain accountability and creative traction on them. If you have a personal creative project that you’ve been toying with, or something that you’ve wanted to do for a while but aren’t sure how to approach, your small group time is a fantastic way to get motivation and ideas for first steps.

  Sometimes others can give you perspective on projects or show you potential solutions that you’ve overlooked. You may have blind spots due to a strangling degree of complexity or because you’re simply too immersed in the work to see the obvious. Simply describing your work and the challenges you’re facing to others who aren’t immersed in the same level of intricate detail can often offer obvious new paths to explore.

  Sometimes others can give you perspective on projects or show you potential solutions that you’ve overlooked.

  In his book A Whack on the Side of the Head, Roger von Oech shares a proverbial story about a Native American medicine man. Whenever the tribe was having difficulty finding new game, he would take a dried animal skin, crinkle it until deep lines appeared, then mark it with some reference points to orient them. He would tell the hunting party that this was an ancient tribal hunting map, and that the crinkled lines were the ancient game trails. Armed with this new map, the hunting party would set out on a new expedition, which, surprisingly, would lead to an abundant capture of game.

  The map was nothing but randomly created lines on a dried animal skin—why did it lead the hunters to success? The answer is that it forced them to look in places they had unknowingly left unexplored. It got them out of their rut. This is just like the power of community when it comes to your creating. Your circle can give you perspectives and insights that are akin to the lines on a crumpled animal hide, pushing you to look in places you may otherwise miss.

  ▶ WHAT IS INSPIRING YOU?

  This second question is valuable in any conversation, but it can be transformative in a small group. I find it incredibly enlightening to hear what is inspiring the hearts and minds of those I admire; this question is the one that generates the most additions to my list of items to read or experience, because each time I ask it I end up with at least a few (or a few dozen!) books, magazine articles, or movies to experience.

  When you explore inspiration in the context of community, you get not only to see what influences the creative decisions of others but also to explore the mechanics of how others bring their inspiration to life. This can be valuable in helping you find new methods of approaching your own work and in ensuring that you’re not falling into overly familiar and stale patterns. It’s always encouraging to hear the stories of those who are getting things done. It kindles the fire we feel for our own work. There are many times when I’ve been itching to get out of a group meeting just so I can go home and get started on an idea that arose as a result of the conversation.

  Often you will hear someone acknowledge that they read a particular book and then applied some of their newfound knowledge to a project. This is a powerful reminder that the best work we accomplish is frequently a result of being inspired by someone else. You shouldn’t be ashamed of drawing inspiration from other sources and applying them to your own work. At the heart of it, that’s the crux of innovation. Innovation is the collective grasp for “next,” and it’s always built on the work of those who went before. At the same time, you should have some ground rules in your circle that there will be an overall respect for the ideas of others, and that it’s a safe place to share newborn ideas without the fear that they’ll be hijacked by someone else. Group accountability can be a powerful motivator to keep everyone honest, especially in circles where there are only loose previous relationships.

  Innovation is the collective grasp for “next,” and it’s always built on the work of those who went before.

  ▶ WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE PROMPTING ON?

  This final question is designed to help you cultivate group accountability for the work you’re doing. It’s likely that each member of the circle has a few projects that they want to get moving on but can’t seem to find the requisite time or energy. Having a small group around to occasionally poke and prod us into action can be a really helpful tool to that end.

  It’s a good practice to end each small group session with a check-in on the projects that need action. These can be anything from an unwritten novel to an undeveloped business plan, but it should be something that you know you’d like to do and would like the group to help you stay focused on. Keep it simple, choosing one project that the group members will ask you about whenever they see you.

  “Hey—how’s that business plan coming?”

  “How are your new designs developing?”

  “Have you written the chapter outline for your novel yet?”

  When you have specific accountability it gets you moving on the things that may otherwise continue to sit on your back burner. Once you discuss an idea with others, it’s a lot more difficult to remain at a standstill. You feel the pressure to do something about it because you know you’re going to have to give a report of your progress next time.

  For example, one aspiring writer I met with was concerned that he wasn’t producing good enough work and that he was instead just cranking out drivel. As a result, he found that he wasn’t writing as often as he should have been, in spite of my advice to write no less than a thousand words per day, every day.

  When I confronted him about his lack of consistent writing, he expressed that he didn’t feel that his writing was good enough to be shared with others. “It doesn’t have to be,” I replied. “You just need to write until you come to the end of yourse
lf—your fear, your anxiety, your inhibitions. When you do, there may be two hundred words that are good enough to share. That’s fine. Job done. But you still have to write every day.” Having this kind of accountability in his life has helped him stay on track and grow as a writer.

  It’s likely that some critics in your group will shy away from this kind of accountability. They’ll say they don’t need the additional pressure. They’ll even tell you that the work itself suffers when subjected to this kind of pestering.

  What you’re hearing is a rationalization. These kinds of remarks are rooted in the critic’s own fear of being held accountable to produce something, not in a genuine concern for the quality of the work. It’s far better to have a mediocre outline of a novel or business plan that can be reworked later than a vague and flittering concept that is likely to fade away from sheer inertia. By acting, we make things concrete; action breeds motivation, not the other way around. We will often find inspiration only upon our first awkward attempt at progress. Having a small group to prompt you and hold you accountable to those first hesitant steps is like having a parent there to hold your hand when you’re learning to walk as a toddler. It makes the risk more bearable knowing that other people are on the journey with you.

  Be realistic in asking for accountability from the group, however. “I want to secure round-one funding for my start-up” might not be a reasonable first milestone, but “I want to sketch out a business model for my new boutique” is perfectly reasonable. It’s important for the group to call out a member who is being unrealistic in their goals and timing. This is part of the group dynamic that will serve everyone and help the group achieve its collective aspirations.

  Your circle could possibly be the biggest catalyst on your journey to experiencing regular and brilliant insights. Of all of the practices in this book, I’d encourage you to take this one most seriously. The sooner you leverage the power of interdependence, the sooner you will gain traction on the things that matter to you.

  Head-to-Heads

  We rise to the level of our competition. Athletes frequently talk about the importance of competitors who challenge them to push beyond to new levels of accomplishment. The same sentiments are often shared by business leaders and media personalities. Television personality Diane Sawyer is said to have remarked, “Competition is easier to accept if you realize it is not an act of oppression or abrasion—I’ve worked with my best friends in direct competition.” We need others in our life to help us stretch and grow. We need to be challenged.

  When you play one-on-one in basketball, you are competing head-to-head with another person. The same applies to running—many runners have experienced the benefit of having someone else alongside them to help them keep the pace. Simply knowing that slacking off means letting the other person down causes us to push ourselves to the limit and beyond. In essence, this kind of competition is not with the other person, but with yourself.

  But what about your creative life? Do you have anyone in your life who is helping you keep pace and stay on a trajectory of creative growth? One way to cultivate the benefits of friendly competition in your creative life is to establish the practice of head-to-heads.

  In a head-to-head meeting, two people get together, and each party is responsible for sharing new insights and new resources they’ve encountered since the last meeting. The discussion can be on any topic—a book you’re reading, a seminar you attended, something you made—but the idea is to share something that will be both intriguing and challenging to the other person and that will stimulate discussion. In some ways, the head-to-head provides accountability for you to maintain regular times of study and purposeful experience because you know that you will be required to share something you’ve done since the previous meeting.

  I have multiple people in my life with whom I’ve practiced these head-to-heads. One of them, Keith, is a neuroscientist, and though both our jobs require us to travel, we try as often as possible to get together to share our latest insights about creativity, science, and the brain. I have had numerous eureka moments sitting on Keith’s porch as we shared what we were learning from the latest book we’d read, the latest research paper we’d seen, or the latest conversations we’d had with others in our network. Many of our conversations have been formative in how I understand the creative process and have helped me significantly in my day-to-day work.

  Here are some principles for effective head-to-heads:1. Set a time and be consistent. Agree to a date, time, meeting place, and frequency for the meetings with the other person. Choose someplace quiet and comfortable, and make it a priority on your calendar. Once a month is a good frequency because it leaves enough time between meetings for each of you to have experienced something new to share and to have generated a few fresh insights that would make for interesting conversation.

  2. Vary your subject matter. Don’t harp on about the same topic month after month. The idea is to challenge each other with new insights and to spark conversation about things that may otherwise never show up on the other person’s radar.

  3. Choose someone you respect and admire. Preferably someone within your area of expertise. This will enhance the conversation when you get together, leading to ideas and insights more appropriate to each person’s context. Ask yourself, “If I could see inside of anyone’s notebook right now, just to see what they’re currently thinking, who would it be?”

  4. Prepare about fifteen minutes of content. Don’t just show up with a sandwich. Spend time putting together materials to discuss. Build them around a topic or insight that you are presently working on or just fascinated by. Again, choose a topic of potential interest to both of you.

  What subjects should you address? That depends on you and your creative goals. Here are some questions that may help you determine appropriate topics: What are you currently interested in or curious about? What have you read or experienced recently that you think the other person knows very little about? What new insights or thoughts have you had that are ripe for application? These are all good topics for your head-to-head time.

  The idea behind these head-to-heads is to challenge and stimulate yourself with new thoughts and insights that could be useful in your life and work. Give your best to these relationships and you will get the most out of them. The best relationships are ones in which there is give and take, when both parties feel a sense of respect and admiration for the other. We want to root for the other person’s success even as we are competing against them to share the best or most thought-provoking insights.

  Establish a Core Team

  Do you have others in your life who help shape your decisions and career choices? That sounds like a strange question, right? We don’t like to think about the subject of authority because we are wired, and often told in many ways from our youth, that we need to question anyone in a position of power. This is unfortunate, because when we discount and distrust others in this way, we miss out on some of the key blessings that accompany putting ourselves in a position of learning and submission to others. We also lose the opportunity to allow others to help us navigate through difficult waters.

  In his book The Culture Code, psychologist and consultant Clotaire Rappaille argues that this deep bias toward rebellion is still at the heart of American culture and behavior.

  “The cultural reasons for this seem to be twofold,” argues Rappaille. “Partly it’s because we are an adolescent culture with an adolescent attitude. We don’t want people telling us what to do and holding us to their standards. We want to discover things and learn how to do things our own way.”

  It’s true that many of us like to do things our own way, making our own rules and following our own course. Many of the cultural icons we celebrate are “self-made” people who have achieved great things against the odds and without the help of others. These stories help us believe that we can, in fact, accomplish our goals if we persist over time. But sometimes these stories also reinforce a misperception that to submit
to authority or to closely follow the advice of others, especially when it goes against our instincts, is a form of weakness. Contrary to this cultural belief, to remain humble and curious and to bend our life to the advice of those further along the journey is actually a sign of strength.

  My children are currently studying the martial art Tae Kwon Do, and it strikes a special chord in my heart each time I hear them respond to their instructor with a hearty “Yes, Sir!” This sharp sign of respect tells me that they clearly understand who is the boss and that they are there to learn, not to lead. They couldn’t gain anything from the class if they weren’t willing to trust and submit to the greater experience and wisdom of Mr. Lewis, their instructor.

  Is there anyone in your life to whom you bend your life and choices, someone in front of whom you take the posture of student? Some of us think that our student days end when we leave school, but many of the most accomplished professionals have maintained this posture of lifelong learning at the feet of others. Some call this mentoring, but I’m often concerned that this word doesn’t communicate the weight of the other person’s role in my life. I’m not just there to learn some interesting tips and tricks, some of which I may apply and some not. I am there to submit to wisdom and practical advice from someone who is a little further down the path and much more likely to see things that I’m currently blind to.