The decisive moment.

I like to think that ability to 'see' and be aware of the situation determines our creative capacity.For it is impossible to contribute creatively to a problem we haven't perceived or considered in total. Composing a photo is an apt metaphor for this process. There must be foresight. You must anticipate how the elements of the photo come together. You must be ready and appreciative in the moment. You must retain your freshness for the unexpected; yet you must bring your experience, knowledge and well rehearsed routines to the fore. You must look beyond the concrete and explore the situation in all its dynamism, potential and meaning.

The title of this blog is proudly lifted from the writings of the photojournalist and artist, Henri Cartier-Bresson. There is tension in the decisive moment- you can never really capture the present, but it's all we've got. In photography, Cartier-Bresson explored the moment in its true depth of meaning.

"There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative...Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

You have two eyes, two hands and one fish.

Albert Einstein famously quipped that we can never solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used to create them. This has become a persistent refrain in my creativity research. Whilst business is said to be solution orientated, creative people spend time defining the problem. You could say that they love the problem. The learn to 'see' things differently. They see more than others, and they see it before others see it. Seeing, not just with the eyes, but will all the senses is critical to understanding the problem.

With this in mind, consider the following story recounted by Karl Weick.

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agessiz (1807-73) was a Swiss-born Americal zoologist and geologist who taught at Harvard. Imagine that you went to Louis Agassiz's laboratory as a student. Agassiz would place a small metal pan in front of you with a small fish and utter the stern requirement that you "should study it, but on no account talk to anyone concerning it, nor read anything related to fishes". As one student asked, what should I do? he said in effect, "Find out what you can without damaging the speciman; when I think you have done the work, I will question you". Students kept on telling Agissez what they had found and Agassiz kept saying "That is not right." This went on for 100 or more hours with the same now 'loathesome' fish. Agassiz would keep asking "What is it like?," "Do you see it yet?" and saying "You have not looked carefully" and "You have two eyes, two hands and one fish". Gradually, things would begin to change. One student replied to the professors query as to whether he had seen one of the most conspicuous features of the fish, the symmetrical sides with paired organs, "No, I have not seen it yet, but I see how little I saw before." Another student reported the following experience: "I pushed my finger down its throat to feel how sharp the teeth were. I began to count the scales in the different rows, until I was convinced that it was nonsense. At last a happy thought struck me - I would draw the fish; and now with great surprise I began to discover new features in that creature." Just then the professor returned. "That is right" he said. "A pencil is one of the best eyes".

Source: Karl Weick (2007). The Generative Properties of Richness. Academy of Management Journal. v50, n1, pp 14-19.

The Primacy of People

Ed Catmull is the president of Pixar studios. He is someone that should know a thing or two about how organisations succeed in creative industries. With this in mind, I want to share a few things he wrote about for the Harvard Business Review in September 2008.

The business strategy literature today is dominated by the resource based view of the firm. This view is based on the assumption that firms achieve different outcomes because of differences in the underlying resource configuration of the firm. What is the critical and necessary resource for a firm that must produce creative output? Ed Catmull leaves no doubt. It is good people. People with creative talent. Outstanding people.

"It's the primacy of people over ideas: if you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up; if you give a mediocre idea to a good team, they will either fix it or throw it away."

However, these resources must be utilized in order to competitive advantage to result. In the management literature, the ability to generate value from resources is called capabilities. Catmull has advice in this area as well. The key capabilities need to be able to manage this creative talent and be able to manage risk.

Catmull has some pointers here for those that must make use of such valuable resources. You have to make it safe to take risks. You must have a culture that values creativity. Not just at the level of the high concept, but in every step in the process.

"A movie contains literally tens of thousands of ideas. They're in the form of every sentence, in the performance of every line, in the design of characters, sets and backgrounds... every single member of the 200-250 person production group makes suggestions."

How do you utilize creative people? The key is to empower them, create the right culture and open up communication. To empower, really means just that. Don't get in the way and give them both leeway and support. Let the best talent available lead and provide the direction. Create a culture where these people are supported. Catmull calls this a peer culture; where people of all levels support each other. Where there is a particularly difficult problem, get the best minds together. Always allow and provide opportunities for peer feedback.

Achieving this is difficult. But the payoff for the organisation is a sustainable system of creative performance.