Draw A Picture

By Mike Wagner

David has invited me to be a guest blogger. Thanks, Dave for this opportunity and your encouragement. You can learn a bit more about me at www.OwnYourBrand.com.

She started crying. You don’t see that much in business seminars, but when I ask people in the marketplace to “draw a picture” it sometimes happens.

I have conducted this lesson with thousands of participants in settings ranging from 300 employees in the power industry to 35 CEOs in Palm Springs - who would rather have been golfing.

The exercise is a simple one and not original with me: I hand out a standard sheet of paper, on which is a large square, and the simple instruction, “Draw a picture.” After everyone has finished their drawing, one of the questions I always ask is, “What was your internal dialog? What did you say to yourself or mutter under your breath?”

It’s interesting as people “come clean” about what they thought and said. I want participants to see that in most cases they were self-censoring their creative ability. Many have significant “Aha!” moments as they realize how they’ve been building barriers between themselves and creative thinking.

Typical responses include…

“What does he want me to draw?” Translation: “What’s the ‘right answer’? What does it take to get an ‘A’ in this class?” It isn’t easy to find innovative solutions if there is only one right answer to a challenge.

“This is silly.” Translation: “I don’t want to look foolish. Since I don’t know what he wants from me, I’m going to look dumb and I can’t let that happen.” Conformity is a false sense of safety; assuring that no one looks the fool. Yet some of the most workable solutions start out as some of the wackiest.

“I’m not creative. I can’t do this. I can’t draw!”

The young woman sitting in front had said it loud enough for me to hear, “I’m not creative… My sister is the creative one… not me!”

I challenged her contention by asking her to do a little imagining with me, “Imagine you are a little girl again. You’re playing by yourself in the yard or living room. The adults in your life, mom, dad…guardians, are watching you as you play. Can you imagine them saying to each other, ‘Look at her. That’s so sad. Our little girl was born without creativity!’”

In a light-hearted way I was trying to show her it wasn’t true - she was, and is, creative, like all human beings. Instead it became a moment of self-awareness in which this accomplished professional discovered she had been telling herself a lie for a very long time. She began to weep at the realization.

We live everyday with the passive effects of the “I’m not creative” lie. It affects our business, our brands and our customers:

• Colleagues reluctant to appear foolish, add nothing to meetings and projects
• Customers leave without a word of feedback
• Co-workers settling for safe “sameness” rather than expressing “wild and crazy” ideas that just might work

There will never be a shortage of people willing to call creativity a “crock” and embracing your “bohemian self-expression” as a waste of time and money.

Don’t ratify their censorship of your creativity by telling yourself a lie. Sing your song, build your business, re-invent your industry… draw your picture.

Comments

[Tim Jackson]

David; Kudos to you for getting Mike in on this project.

Mike; Great post. Another one of your stunning parables. (When does the book come out?)

I saw the picture and thought to myself, "crap, what would I draw? How would I make myself look smart?"

Sad truth.

We all struggle with that from time to time. We want/ need/ desire to be accepted in those environments and thought of as one of the smart people in the room. I'd venture to bet that many of the people who got uncomfortable in the larger group setting would be far less uncomfortable in a one-on-one setting, though they'd still want YOU to think they were smart.

By the way; how many extra credit points do I get for crafting a drawing outside the box in the center of the page?

[DA]

Tim,

You are obviously unaware of this, but your comment has ensured that I will feature a guest from time to time. Not only is Mike's post insightful, but he and I had gentleman's agreement that I woul back off on the "guest" idea if no one commented on the content.

So back to Mike's post. What I really related to was how people react when asked to be "creative". Like the women who referred to her sister—they view creativity as a special gift or some kind of bohemian attitude. Talent can sometimes be a gift, but we can all be creative as Mike points out.

And creativity has many faces. Right now I'm working on a site for a video game company. Creative? You bet. I'm also working on a site for a B2B plumbing supplies company. Also creative and just as challenging.

Sometimes the pictures we draw serve different purposes. But that doesn't make them any less creative—just different.

Thanks Mike, for the story.

[Gavin Heaton]

Great story (as always), Mike. One time I was pitching for some work and the plan was to produce a "how to draw" interactive CD-ROM. We came prepared with the first lesson ready to go ... handed out crayons, grid paper and stepped our clients through the process. THEY LOVED IT!
What was expected to be a boring presentation turned into something that we all still talk about. More importantly, it unlocked the creativity in the room and we were all able to work more collaboratively (and openly) through the afternoon.
Creativity isn't about "drawing" it is about the process and about engagement. And it is about ideas that WORK.

[Susan Cergol]

I have been enjoying the ride Mike is taking me on as I follow his posts from site to site. Thanks for introducing me to yet another intriguing blog! I just finished the JASPER profiling test(http://my.monster.com/JobStrengthProfile/Intro.aspx), revealing that I'm a visionary with an innovative management style, rousing work personality, strong communication skills, and questioning work style. Yet despite all I do to push myself out of a comfort zone, I still can hear my own "you're not creative" voice whispering evil nothings in my ear from time to time. Thanks for the reminder, Mike.

[Monica Powers]

Mike, what a beautiful post. That experience really gets to the bottom of things--we waste a lot of energy trying to disassociate our great ideas from our creative selves to keep from looking foolish. I'm not sure when and why creativity became such a foul word in Western history.

[Adam C]

*Creativity* yet another orthodoxy.

Hardly as revolutionary as La Monte Young's: 'Draw a straight line and follow it.' is it?

[DA]

Oh my gosh Adam—that comment was especially thought provoking. I'm going to meditate on that one all day.

[Nick Rice]

I'm going to add this to my arsenal of consulting techniques. I think it's a great way for business clients to express how they currently and wish to see their brand. We've used questionaiires for a while now and they work, but this peels back new layers.

Thanks!

[Scott Weisbrod]

Draw a picture:
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Feels good, doesn't it!

Here's mine:
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=212570589&size=o