In the final part of our serialisation of Mess Theory, you can find out how to Unlock your creativity by exploring Possibility Thinking and What Ifs with the eight New Testament Saints of Creativity: Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, Maggie, Meg, Lynn and Joan.
Unlock Your Creativity
I have agreed to return to my day job and refrain from challenging the mid-ranking personnel powers any more than they’ve already been challenged. Back in the land of grey and pink that is the multinational global conglomerate Firm, the notion that everyone is now a Creative (or at least can demonstrate a modicum of creative genius) is now plât de jourand I have accepted that proposition with magnanimity. I have been instructed that part of my new role as Lead Creative is to be the Professional Mentor for my charges. Oh. My. God. This means enquiring their health, wealth and wellbeing and other distractions. I have to show a smidgeon of interest in someone else. For. Heaven. Sake. Would. You. Believe. It? Some things take the biscuit, and this one takes the biggest cookie of the lot.
Civilians say you should pray to St Anthony when you lose your keys. One word in Saint Tony’s ear and hey presto, love, your keys will miraculously appear in the place you least suspect them. You can presumably pray for a key to unlock your creativity, presuming you’ve lost that too. The new young recruits who lined up today for my course in ‘Unlock Your Creativity’ (the agreement I made with the Firm in order to keep my status as Lead Creative in aforesaid conglomerate) have clearly mislaid their creativity keys in a wide variety of hidey holes. They’re a motley crew of no-hopers, mis-placers and dead losses and quite how I am going to help unlock their creativity beggars the imagination. The line-up of the eight ‘Young Creatives (as they’ve been labelled) I’m facing is at best implausible, at worst, deluded.
But I shall do my best. Up to a point. Just in case any of these ne’er-do-wells have a smidgen of creativity locked away in their souls (assuming that’s where it’s been lost), then the last thing I need to do is open it up, cause further mayhem and inadvertently lose my job in the process. Unlocking creativity is much like shaking up a bottle of Coca Cola and then unscrewing the cap. Everyone gets very sticky very quickly and if you’re not careful the shirt on your back starts dissolving into a nasty brown fizzing mess. And some one usually pays the price.
So, I shall start slowly and carefully and keep an eye out for anyone who looks remotely creative. Everyone may well be creative these days if you believe the hype – but some are more creative than others and they’re the ones who’ll cause trouble for the rest of us.
Possibility thinking and what ifs.
Matthew Mark Luke and John, bless the bed that I lie on.
Maggie Meg Lynn and Joan, how can I get you all sent home?
The life of the Creative is not, contrary to misguided civilian opinion, all about making product, delivering services or filing a new patent every hour on the hour. Whilst I am fervently occupied much of the week in all those activities, the work of the true Creative is done in not the doing of things but being flat on one’s back, looking out the window and reflecting.
The eight ‘Young Creatives’ that have been foisted upon me by personnel bear an uncanny resemblance to various Old Testament figures who would be better off attempting to lead the Labour Party than they would trying to usurp me as The Creative for the multinational conglomerate Firm for which we all find ourselves sharing office sofas, laptops and broadband width. Quite how I am going to gainfully occupy them is anybody’s guess, so I am using the Lord’s Day to consider the possibilities and the what ifs: a useful tactic in the operational thinking armoury.
Whether you’re two or ninety-two years old, thinking through the possibilities is essential if you need to maintain your rightful place in your organisational food chain. Calculating the consequences of the ‘what ifs’ is also paramount if you want to ensure that you’re not deemed the cause of any unfortunate accident that might fall upon anyone else who might want to disrupt your place in that organisational food chain.
Mathew Mark Luke and John; how do I get you off my back?
Maggie Meg Lynn and Joan, how can I get you all the sack?
Want to find out how Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, Maggie, Meg, Lynn and Joan fare in the multinational conglomerate? Just check out the whole of Mess Theory here:
Mess Theory
Mess Theory has been inspired by my belief that creativity is dependent entirely on mess. We need scrap, junk or any old rubbish to exert our creative muscles and this book is no exception.
Mess Theory plays with the challenges of getting and securing gainful employment in the creative industries whilst providing an alternative insight into what that work can entail. ‘Creativity’ is one of …