It's when our emotional energy shifts
up to more rewarding territory, or down
to despair and mental anguish, that creativity comes more quickly. If you want
to explore the low end of the emotional
market, you have to get really down—just
being a bit glum won't get it. Even feeling
hopeless isn't enough. Melancholy works,
and deep depression can lead to some truly
inspiring insights, great art and legendary
breakthroughs. The problem is, obviously,
that it's a very rough way to live.
While the odds of doing innovative
work appear to be about the same at either
end of the spectrum, I'd rather be having a
great time while creating—bringing good
energy to my daily life, being in a setting in
which people feel empowered and optimistic
and excited about what's to come and what
they can do to help create it.
5. Do It: Moving from Insight to
Implementation
It's an interesting question to consider: How
much value does a creative thought have if
no one ever does anything with it? I'm going
to argue that an idea, left unimplemented,
has about the same value as a vegetable left
on the vine, or a book that's never read.
Clearly, it's far better to have them available
than not, but the benefit they actually bring
when they're unused remains next to nil.
Granted, we've learned that an idea unfinished in one area may later be picked up and
pushed forward by another, so there is some
merit, I suppose, in just having it handy. But
I would argue that the value is in making
ideas come alive.
While I try to appreciate each stage of
the process, the big achievement for me is
when we've successfully embedded the new
idea into our organizational culture. When
it has ongoing positive impact that no longer
requires me personally to push on it, then
I know that the idea has made a meaningful difference. For example, I love getting
new ideas from industry experts. Learning
about open-book finance from Jack Stack or
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