Idea Surplus Disorder #92

Ever feel like you’re chasing old joys instead of discovering new ones? Or saying yes to opportunities that look better on paper than in reality? This week, we dive into smart decision-making, the 70% rule, and why embracing subjectivity is key to creative success. Plus, SuperCollider Friday and a simple coaching trick to spark action in under 10 seconds.

I'm Matt Homann, and I'm glad you're here!

Work and Learn with Filament this Friday

Join us Friday morning at Filament for New Skills for Work and stick around for SuperCollider. This year, we're making room for solo attendees, though if you bring a team, you'll be able to grab some dedicated space upstairs from our friends at CIC. See you later this week!

Ideas + Insights

How do we know any idea is the right one?

To be ridiculously clear, I am talking mostly about the stages before ideas are alive in the world and measured in some fashion. Those earlier months, or even years of conjecture and proposition are the distillation of business issues to strategic insights into initial creative presentations. I’m talking about the space when, quite honestly, no one really knows.

This is the period when the most important thing to do is embrace subjectivity. To acknowledge subjectivity is natural, structural, and indelible to the businesses within Creativity. We will be both wrong and right. That it is part of our communal roles, and it is fundamental to our processes.

Before you say yes to that "amazing" opportunity ...

Assume this opportunity takes twice as long and is half as rewarding and/or profitable than you expect it to be, would you still want to do it? We tend to be overly optimistic when taking on something new. Force a degree of rationality into the decision. If the answer is no, say no. If the answer is yes, take it on.

 How to get your joy back: 

When I say you’re not getting your joy back, I mean that you’re looking in the wrong direction. What brought you joy in the past might not be what brings you joy in the future. And looking to recreate the past holds the risk of speedrunning you right back to the present. So when you say that you now loathe what you used to love that might be your body telling you 'hey, can we not do that again, please!'

The 70 Percent Rule sounds about right.

If you’re roughly 70% happy with a piece of writing you’ve produced, you should publish it. If you’re 70% satisfied with a product you’ve created, launch it. If you’re 70% sure a decision is the right one, implement it. And if you’re 70% confident you’ve got what it takes to do something that might make a positive difference to the increasingly alarming era we seem to inhabit? Go ahead and do that thing. (Please!)

Every coach, manager, and parent should keep this list of nineteen things you can say to people in ten seconds handy:

• Yeah, someone *should* do that. Why not you?
• Is there something you could do about that problem in the next five minutes?
• That's a great thought - have you written it up somewhere? I'd be excited to share it if so.
• Do you want me to ask in a week/month if you've done that or how it's going?
• What's the twenty-minute version of accomplishing this overwhelming-feeling thing?
• Do you know anyone else who might have struggled with or succeeded at that? Have you talked to them about it?

Doing strategic planning but worried that not every key voice is in the room? Engage Real-Time Reactors:

I commonly have the strategic planning group prepare a one- or two-page summary of its work so far in a session and post it online at a predetermined time (i.e., during the lunch break). This summary is also quite useful for them as it highlights the progress made so far.

Reactors—who are instructed when and where to go online—review the output and respond to specific questions the group poses (usually a combo of a few polling questions and a few open-ended feedback questions). To facilitate the group’s development of these questions I use this prompt: What real-time feedback on draft output would be most helpful to produce the most strategic direction and decisions?

Fun Finds

• MusicLeague is a playlist-centered competition with friends.
• The strange power of laughter.
• I Don't Have Spotify helps you find alternative sources for online music.
• RiverRunner lets you place a drop of rain anywhere on the globe and visualize its progress to the ocean. Weirdly hypnotic.
• I dare you to watch this and not smile.

Words of Wisdom

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. – Marie Curie

The best asset one can possess is humility in the presence of a good idea. – Albert Lasker

You can't change the way people think, all you can do is give them a tool, the use of which will change their thinking. – Buckminster Fuller

Every fear hides a wish. – David Mamet

My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations. – Michael J. Fox

Success is being excited to go to work and being excited to come home. – Will Ahmed

The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist." – Maria Montessori