Alex Alvis Art

Setting Yourself Up for Creativity - End

Because, believe me - no one appreciates better than I do - what trouble creative people are.  And how they stop decisive, hard-nosed bastards like us from running businesses efficiently.

I mean - we all know...if we encourage someone to be creative - the next thing is - they're rocking the boat...coming up with ideas...and asking us questions!

So!  Here's how to stamp out creativity in the rest of the organization and get a bit of respect going:

One.  Allow subordinates no humor!  It threatens your self-importance - especially your omniscience.  Treat all humor as frivolous or subversive.

Because subversive - is of course - what humor will be in your setup.  As it's the only way that people can express their opposition, since - if they express it openly - you're down on them like a ton of bricks!

So let's get this clear!  Blame humor for the resistance that your way of working creates. Then you don't have to blame your way of working. This is important. And I mean that solemnly. Your dignity is no laughing matter...

Second.  Keeping ourselves feeling irreplaceable involves cutting everybody else down to size.  So!  Don't miss an opportunity to undermine your employees' confidence.

A perfect opportunity comes when you're reviewing work that they've done. Use your authority to zero in immediately on all the things you can find wrong. Never never balance the negatives with the positives; only criticize - just as your school teachers did.

Always remember!  Praise Makes People Uppity!

Third.  Demand that people should always be actively doing things. If you catch anyone pondering - accuse them of laziness and/or indecision.  This is to starve employees of thinking time...because that leads to creativity and insurrection.

In a phrase - Keep That Mode Closed!

In this way - we no-nonsense types can be sure that the tiny, tiny, microscopic quantity of creativity in our organization will all be ours!

But! Let your vigilance slip for one moment, and you could find yourself surrounded by happy, enthusiastic, and creative people whom you might never be able completely to control - ever again!

So be careful!

Thank you.  And....good night.

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Labels: Alex Alvis Sculpture, how to be creative, humor, John Cleese on Creativity

Setting Yourself Up for Creativity - Pt. 8

Four minutes left…

Ah!  How many Irish-- sorry, sorry

Well, look, the very last thing that I can say about creativity is this: it's like humor. In a joke - the laugh comes at a moment when you connect two different frameworks of reference in a new way.

Example.  There's the old story about a woman doing a survey into sexual attitudes who stops an airline pilot and asks him - amongst other things - when he last had sexual intercourse.

We laugh -eventually - at the moment of contact between two frameworks of reference: the way we express what year it is and the 24-hour clock.

Now, having an idea - a new idea - is exactly the same thing. It's connecting two hitherto separate ideas in a way that generates new meaning.

Now.  Connecting different ideas isn't difficult.  You can connect cheese with motorcycles or moral courage with light green, or bananas with international co-operation. You can get any computer to make a billion random connections for you, but these new connections or juxtapositions are significant only if they generate new meaning.

So as you play, you can deliberately try inventing these random juxtapositions, and then use your intuition to tell you whether any of them seem to have significance for you.

That's the bit the computer can't do. It can produce millions of new connections, but it can't tell which one of them smells interesting.

And, of course, you'll produce some juxtapositions which are absolutely ridiculous, absurd. Good for you!

Because Edward de Bono (who invented the notion of lateral thinking) specifically suggests in his book PO: Beyond Yes and No that you can try loosening up your assumptions by playing with deliberately crazy connections. He calls such absurd ideas "Intermediate Impossibles."

And he points out the use of an "Intermediate Impossible" is completely contrary to ordinary logical thinking in which you have to be right at each stage.

It doesn't matter if the "Intermediate Impossible" is right or absurd, it can nevertheless be used as a stepping stone to another idea that is right.

Another example of how, when you're playing, nothing is wrong.

So, to summarize.  If you really don't know how to start - or if you got stuck - start generating random connections and allow your intuition to tell you if one might lead somewhere interesting.

Well, that really is all I can tell you that won't help you to be creative.

 Everything.

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Labels: creating art, Dada, How Many does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?, humor, John Cleese on Creativity

Setting Yourself Up for Creativity - Pt. 7

Humor is an essential part of spontaneity, an essential part of playfulness, an essential part of the creativity that we need to solve problems, no matter how 'serious' they may be.

So when you set up a space/time oasis, giggle all you want.

And there, ladies and gentlemen, are the five factors which you can arrange to make your lives more creative:

Space, Time, Time, Confidence, and Lord Jeffrey Archer.

So, now you know how to get into the Open Mode. 

You'll daydream, of course.  But, you just keep bringing your mind back, just like with meditation. Because - and this is the extraordinary thing about creativity - if you just keep your mind resting against the subject - in a friendly but persistent way - sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious...probably in the shower later....or at breakfast the next morning.  

So, how many Cecil Parkinsons does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: two, one to screw it in, one to screw it up.

How many account executives does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Answer: Can I get back to you on that?

How many Norwei--- Oh, sorry, how many Yugoslav--- how many Malt-- how many Dutch--- I'm out of jokes.

Oh! One thing!

I always find that if two (or more) of us throw ideas backwards and forwards - I get to more interesting and original places than I could have ever have gotten to on my own.

But there is a danger, a real danger!

So.  Always make sure your play friends are people that you like and trust.

And never say anything to squash them either!

"Would it be even better if…"

"I don't quite understand that, can you just explain it again?"

"Go on…"

"What if…?"

"Let's pretend…"

Try to establish as free an atmosphere as possible.

Sometimes I wonder if the success of the Japanese isn't partly due to their instinctive understanding of how to use groups creatively.

Westerners are often amazed at the unstructured nature of Japanese meetings but maybe it's just that very lack of structure, that absence of time pressure, that frees them to solve problems so creatively.

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Setting Yourself Up for Creativity - Pt.5

Now the next factor, number four - is Confidence.

When you are in your space/time oasis, getting into the Open Mode - nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.

Now if you think about play, you'll see why. To play is to experiment - "What happens if I do this? What would happen if we did that? What if…?"

The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen. The feeling that whatever happens, it's ok. So you cannot be playful if you're frightened that moving in some direction will be "wrong" -- something you "shouldn't have done."

Well, you're either free to play, or you're not.

As Alan Watts puts it, you can't be spontaneous within reason.

So you've got risk saying things that are silly and illogical and wrong, and the best way to get the confidence to do that is to know that while you're being creative, nothing is wrong. There's no such thing as a mistake, and any drivel may lead to the break-through.

And now, the last factor.  The fifth - Humor.

Well, I happen to think the main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.

I think we all know that laughter brings relaxation, and that humor makes us playful, yet how many times have important discussions been held where really original and creative ideas were desperately needed to solve important problems?...but where humor was taboo because the subject being discussed was "so serious"?

This attitude seems to me to stem from a very basic misunderstanding of the difference between 'serious' and 'solemn'.

Now I suggest to you that a group of us could be sitting around after dinner, discussing matters that were extremely serious like the education of our children, or our marriages, or the meaning of life (and I'm not talking about the film), and we could be laughing, and that would not make what we were discussing one bit less serious.

Solemnity, on the other hand… I don't know what it's for. I mean, what is the point of it?

But solemnity? It serves pomposity, and the self-important always know at some level of their consciousness that their egotism is going to be punctured by humor -- that's why they see it as a threat. And so dishonestly pretend that their deficiency makes their views more substantial, when it only makes them feel bigger.

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Labels: Alex Alvis Sculpture, art business, confidence, creating art, creativity, How Many Dogs does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?, how to be creative, humor, John Cleese on Creativity

Setting Yourself Up for Creativity - Pt.3

...and that's it.

Well…

....So, how many women's libbers does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer - 37, one to screw it in - and 36 to make a documentary about it.

....How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb? The answer - only one, but the lightbulb has really got to want to change....

Oh, there is one - just one - other thing that I can say about creativity.

There are certain conditions which do make it more likely that you'll get into the Open Mode, and that something creative will occur.

More likely… you can't guarantee anything will occur...you might sit around for hours as I did last Tuesday, and ...nothing.

Zilch...bupkis....Not a sausage.

Nevertheless, I can at least tell you how to get yourselves into the Open Mode. You need five things:

One - Space

Two - Time

Three - Time

Four - Confidence

and Five  - a 22 inch waist!

Sorry.  My mind was wondering...I'm getting into the open mode too quickly...

Instead of a 22 inch waist, we need Humor. I do beg your pardon.

Okay, so let's take Space first. 

You can't become playful and therefore creative if you're under your usual pressures, because to cope with them you've got to be in the Closed Mode, right?  So you have to create some space for yourself away from those demands. And that means sealing yourself off.

You must make a quiet space for yourself where you will be undisturbed.

Next - Time. It's not enough to create space, you have to create your space for a specific period of time. You have to know that your space will last until exactly  -say - 3:30 ...and that - at that moment - your normal life will start again.

And it's only by having a specific moment when your space starts, and an equally specific moment when your space stops, that you can seal yourself off from the everyday closed mode in which we all habitually operate.

And I'd never realized how vital this was until I read a historical study of play by a Dutch historian called Johan Huizinga and in it he says "Play is distinct from ordinary life, both as to locality and duration. This is its main characteristic: its secludedness, its limitedness. Play begins and then (at a certain moment) it is over. Otherwise, it's not play."

So.  Combining the first two factors we create an oasis of quiet for ourselves by setting boundaries of space and of time.

Now creativity can happen, because play is possible when we are separate from everyday life.

So, you've arranged to take no calls, you've closed your door, you've sat down somewhere comfortable, you take a couple of deep breaths ...and if you're anything like me, after you've pondered some problem that you want to turn into an opportunity for about 90 seconds...you find yourself thinking:

 "Oh I forgot I've got to call Jim… oh!  And I must tell Tina that I need the report on Wednesday and not Thursday...which means I must move my lunch with Joe...

And Damn! I haven't called St. Paul's about getting Joe's daughter an interview...and I must pop out this afternoon to get Will's birthday present... 

...and those plants need watering and none of my pencils are sharpened and Right! I've got too much to do!

So!  I'm going to start by sorting out my paper clips and then I shall make 27 phone calls and I'll do some thinking tomorrow when I've got everything out of the way."

Because, as we all know, it's easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking.

And it's also easier to do little things we know we can do, than to start on big things that we're not so sure about.

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Labels: Alex Alvis Sculpture, art business, How Many Dogs does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?, John Cleese on Creativity, play, quiet spaces, undisturbed time

Setting Yourself Up For Creativity - Pt.2

Now, about this mood.

I'm working at the moment with Dr. Robin Skynner on a successor to our psychiatry book, Families and How To Survive Them, and we're comparing the ways in which psychologically healthy families function; the ways in which such families function (compared) with the ways in which the most successful corporations and organizations function.

We've become fascinated by the fact that we can usefully describe the way in which people function at work in terms of two modes: Open and Closed.

So what I can just add now is that creativity is not possible in the Closed Mode....

....ok, so

How many doorkeepers....

Closed Mode

By the Closed Mode I mean - the mode that we are in most of the time when at work.

We have inside us a feeling that there's lots to be done and we have to get on with it if we're going to get through it all.

It's an active, probably slightly anxious mode - although the anxiety can be exiting and pleasurable.

It's a mode which we're probably a little impatient, if only with ourselves.  It has a little tension in it...not much humor.

It's a mode in which we're very purposeful, and it's a mode in which we can get very stressed and even a bit manic.  But not creative.

Open Mode...by contrast, the Open Mode, is relaxed… expansive… a less purposeful… in which we're probably more contemplative, more inclined to humor - which always accompanies a wider perspective - and consequently, more playful.

It's a mood in which curiosity for its own sake can operate because we're not under pressure to get a specific thing done quickly. We can play, and that is what allows our natural creativity to surface.

And now, let me give you an example of what I mean:

When Alexander Fleming had the thought that led to the discovery of penicillin, he must have been in the Open Mode. 

The previous day he'd arranged a number of dishes so that culture would grow upon them. On the day in question he glanced at the dishes, and he discovered that on one of them - no culture had appeared. 

Now, if he'd been in the Closed Mode he would have been so focused upon his need for "dishes with cultures grown upon them" that when he saw that one dish was of no use to him for that purpose - he would quite simply have thrown it away.

But thank goodness, he was in the Open Mode...so he became curious about why the culture had not grown on this particular dish. And that curiosity, as the world knows, led him to the light bulb!

I'm sorry.

To...to... penicillin...

Now in the Closed Mode an uncultured dish is an irrelevance.

In the Open Mode, it's a clue. 

Now, one more example.  

At first, I was almost outraged, and then I discovered that he did this intentionally. He mistrusted working under pressure. He would say "We're pressing, we're pressing.  We're working too hard. Relax.  It will come." "

And, says the writer, "Of course it finally always did."

But let me make one thing quite clear.  We need to be in the Open Mode when we're pondering a problem.  BUT - once we come up with a solution, we must then switch to the Closed Mode to implement it.

Because once we've made a decision, we are efficient only if we go through with it decisively - undistracted by doubts about its correctness. 

For example, if you decide to leap a ravine the moment just before take-off is a bad time to start reviewing alternative strategies.

When you're attacking a machine-gun post you should not make a particular effort to see the funny side of what you're doing.

Humor is a natural concomitant in the Open Mode, but it's a luxury in the Closed one.

Now, once we've taken a decision - we should narrow our focus while we're implementing it.  And then after it's been carried out, we should once again switch back to the Open Mode to review the feedback rising from our action - in order to decide whether the course that we have taken is successful.

Or whether we should continue with the next stage of our plan:  whether we should create an alternative plan to correct any error we perceive (in Open Mode).  And then - back into the Closed Mode to implement that next stage, and so on.

In other words, to be at our most efficient - we need to be able to switch backwards and forwards between the two modes.

But. Here's the problem - we too often get stuck in the Closed Mode.

Under the pressures which are all too familiar to us - we tend to maintain tunnel vision at times when we really need to step back and contemplate the wider view.

This is particularly true, for example of politicians.

So, as I say.   Creativity is NOT possible in the Closed Mode.

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Labels: Alex Alvis Sculpture, art business, how to be creative, John Cleese on Creativity