In my prior post I spoke about the use of a Surrealist writing technique called automatic writing as a way of getting into cognitive flow states. The point is to write freely, without concern at all for how nonsensical the material you are producing is. Just let the thoughts flow and intertwine through associative connections, and observe what occurs as it’s happening. With practice you may be able to make the observer another one of the actors, so that there will be a self-correcting and evolutionary process that is wholly different from the way most of us think the majority of the time. You will have shaken off the critical voice and habitual constraints that produce normative results and will have, in the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, “taken a first step into a larger world.”
Now, some folks are going to ask what does this have to do with business solutions. And they’d be correct to ask that question, in regard to business solutions specifically, especially when it comes to developing a concrete and well-defined solution to either solve a particular problem, or to add value in some way to a particular context. What they might not be thinking, however, is that solutions of any sort come more often from people who have made a habit of thinking outside the ordinary constraints, to quote Yoda, this time, you need to “unlearn what you have learned.” The ability to unlearn the constraints that generally rule the context one is working in can derive from a number of different approaches as have been discussed in previous posts, i.e. observing one’s own thought process, as Steiner recommends, for instance, helps one to gain a meta perspective on the thoughts as they occur, as well as a view of one’s habits. From this viewpoint, you are more capable of making alternative choices on the direction you are moving, and short circuit habits that keep you looping through the same patterns. Automatic writing, because it relies on unconscious processes, frees up a large chunk of conscious awareness allowing one to practice observation. So along with being a way of tapping unconscious connections one may already have made, without being aware, it is way of taking baby steps toward something like a mindfulness practice.
Once you’ve gotten the hang of writing freely and without concern for results, it is time to begin focusing the process on an objective. You still write automatically, but begin to gravitate around a particular central theme. For instance, if you are working on a problem with the interface, in other words, it’s still okay to let thoughts flow about how the interface connects several planets and their inhabitants, and does so through the use of some sort of teleportation chewing gum, or any other absurdity that comes to your mind. You simply let that happen as you spiral in to what is most relevant to the conversation you are having with yourself, slowly working toward a useful outcome. Chances are, the ideas you generate, i.e. teleportation chewing gum, may contain metaphoric hints from your unconscious, or may evolve into something more practical, like the fact that chewing, which is in some ways like speaking, can move things from one place to another, without moving through the space in between and seemingly without observing the physical laws of motion, which is kind of what speaking does in regard to thoughts. In this case, the teleportation chewing gum may be your way of communicating with yourself that the interface requires wireless and satellite and/or internet communication between two or more remote locations, and you therefore need to format messages in a particular way, and manage them sequentially, in case they take different paths and arrive in a different sequence than they were sent.
Now, to take this kind of playfulness into a group setting will make you more powerful than you can ever imagine, but it takes a bit of courage, and an open-minded team, obviously. It’s also not something you just jump into, nor is it something you plan on your meeting agenda. You have to slowly train the people around you in a way that doesn’t seem like anything unusual is occurring. You make a joke now and then, just to lighten up to conversation. And jokes can be the source of ideas as well. But interweaving humor and play in through the entire conversation can be like giving it a spritz of WD40. Be careful, however, as you may get a reputation for being disorderly, irresponsible, unfocused and worst of all, disruptive.