Reading this title, bet you’re thinking it’s about Take That.
Sorry to disappoint you more than Ticketmaster on their live tour launch date, but this post is about Charles Darwin. author of the Origin of the Species…..
Great album cover though boys…
We live at present, in a world of immediacy…..
Everything seems to be geared towards faster.
If I put 274 minute read on this post, you would chuck it in the bin faster than Donald Trump with a visa application.
- Give me just five minutes of your time and I will make you happier than Pharell Williams
- Get Abs like Peter Andre with the 7 minute Bullshit 100 machine
- Earn £10k per month for 30 minutes a day lying on a Unicorn li-lo
- How I won Olympic gold in 4 weeks whilst partying hard in Ibiza
Guess what… None of it works. I know, because I have tried them all.
I am not advocating a slow down in progress, speed or agility. These will be primary factors of successful organisations, as we enter the 4th Industrial revolution. What I would like you to consider is to review the need for speed to the quality of the output.
Here’s an example from the 80’s. The Polaroid Camera
Second only to the Sodastream, the pride people had in this little piece of nostalgia, far outweighed what it actually delivered.
Yes, a quick shake and you got a picture a minute after you had taken it, but it had a border around it that required you to show your passport, and the picture was as clear as Boris Johnson on a Brexit Tour Bus.
In essence, I GET THE JOB DONE, BUT I’M A BIT SHIT!
Right, let’s get to the point… Charles Darwin…
Charles Darwin 1809-1892 was a naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his published work ‘on the origin of the species’, a seminal work on evolution.
There is a somewhat tall story that Darwin had a Eureka moment in October 1838. After reading something Thomas Malthus had written about population, the basic concept of natural selection just pop-tarted into his head in an instant – like a WhatsApp message. Darwinism was apparently created quicker than shaking it like a polaroid picture.
This was actually a myth, and builds on the core point of this post. Let me tell you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…
Darwin was famed for taking copious notes. When he died, a researcher called Howard Gruber was allowed access to all his notebooks… Upon reviewing the dates of all these notes, Gruber deduced the following revelation…
The notebooks revealed that Darwin had a firm grasp on the concept of his publication, but it took further time to become the ‘great idea’
This reality is best termed by the phrase ‘slow hunch’. There is much evidence that this is where amazing ideas grow from. Not from instant moments of enlightenment, sent straight from the god Thor.
This is most people’s approach to creativity / problem solving…
Here is how the creative process actually works….
Have a think about how you deal with finding solutions to your challenges!
Sometimes, it is ok to let it drift like David Banner on a dusty road, and Hulk Smash when you’re ready.
Here are a couple of tips I use when supporting teams to build their capability
- When something is new, I encourage the team to ‘start badly.’ Starting badly is better than not starting at all. Is anyone gonna be at their best the first time they do it? No chance! The term ‘start badly’ allows to team to understand it is a process, and focus on better without getting despondent.
- I want my team to leave the meeting confused.com. Most meetings aim is to provide clarity. If you are delivering a What, that’s fine, but people need to connect with a Why and a How for behaviour to change. Ever seen this approach in a meeting. Let’s spend 30 minutes flipping it up and present back. Great world poverty is now fixed. Collect up the flips and we will take them away. Where on earth do all these flip charts live? I always tell my team I want them to leave the meeting confused. They are clear on the objectives, but not the solution. That is worked on later. If you don’t, the likelihood is they will walk through the doorway of death and nowt will change.
