The Accidental Creative with Todd Henry

You've likely heard the old advice "you can't change other people." Today's guest would beg to differ. Through decades of coaching, he's developed a method to help you help other people change and achieve the results that they want. Peter Bregman is the author of the new book You Can Change Other People.

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When I ask "what is the one thing that stands in the way of your productivity?" the most common answer get is "I don't have enough time!" But...really? We each have the same amount of time - 168 hours a week. It's not so much about the quantity of time as it is about how we choose to leverage it.

In this episode, I share three big time blocking strategies that you can implement to help you produce better creative work in 2022.

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Albert Einstein once wrote “The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them.” In order to go to new places in life and work, we need to expand our thinking beyond the confines of our assumptions.

But how do we do that?

This week’s podcast episode features Ozan Varol, who has just released a book called Think Like A Rocket Scientist. In it, he articulates several strategies for breaking through assumptive ruts and taking your work to a new level. Here are a few of my takeaways from the conversation:

You Must Question Your Assumptions

In the past, I’ve frustrated many managers and peers for my annoying tendency to ask lots of “why?” questions. I’ve never been able to simply accept the way things are, and that can be very inconvenient when you’re trying to make quick progress on a project. However, this tendency has also served me well, because it’s frequently allowed me to circumvent norms that are preventing others from seeing possibilities.

As you think about your current situation, your work, your life goals, what you are pursuing, are there assumptions that need to be challenged? They are often guidelines that have been in place for a number of years, or industry norms that others assume are hard and fast rules. Spend a bit of time this week challenging an assumption or two, and see where your thoughts lead you. Ask “What if...?”

Return To First Principles

Over time, it’s easy to get distracted with tactics and to forget what you’re actually trying to do. In the interview, Ozan shared the story of Steve Martin, who challenged the very conventions of what it means to be a comedian. In traditional comedy, the comedian will create tension and then relieve it by delivering a punchline, hopefully generating a laugh. Martin, however, wasn’t distracted by the tactics, and instead realized that the first principle was simply to make people laugh. He would create tension, but not relieve it with a punchline. At first, critics were apalled by his strategy, but audiences warmed up to it, and he became one of the most popular acts in the world, selling out arenas wherever he performed.

What are the first principles of your work? What are you really trying to do, and how can you return to them and develop new tactics for accomplishing your goals?

Have A Moonshot

Right now, many people are simply focused on survival. I understand this necessity. However, I also think this is the perfect time to begin working on your personal “moonshot”, or the idea so big that no one else would dare try to compete with you. Physicist Max Planck once said, “At the initial stages of idea formation, the pure rationalist has no place.” Many of the world’s greatest accomplishments were met with skepticism and scorn at their inception, only to be accepted later.

What is your personal moonshot? What could you aim for that seems scarily big to you, but that would completely change the trajectory of your life and work?

To make progress on the other side of the pandemic, we will need to think in new ways. I hope this interview and Ozan’s book will expand your perspective and grant you a renewed enthusiasm for what’s possible.

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This week’s Accidental Creative podcast features Michael Bungay Stanier discussing his book The Advice Trap.

Have you ever been in a situation where someone offered unsolicited advice?

“Let me tell you what you need to do...”

How did it feel? If you’re like me, you were probably grateful that they wanted to help, but it put you in the awkward position of either refusing their advice or, if they were your manager, acting on it just to avoid offending them in spite of your better instincts.

It’s tempting to fall into the “advice trap”, which is when we lead with advice-giving instead of pausing to listen to the other person, to consider what they really need, and to ask questions that help them arrive at the answer on their own. Not only is this a better way to ensure that we are truly helping the other person, but it’s also the best way to help them learn to solve problems on their own. Here are a few things I took away from my chat with Michael:

Lead With Curiosity

Ask a lot of questions. You should lead with your curiosity, not your advice. By asking a lot of questions, you will not only better understand what’s truly going on, but you will also help the other person learn to think through their problems in a more guided way. This is how a great manager (or peer) can build into team members in a lasting manner.

Ask questions first, and let the other person sort through the problem in conversation with you.

Release The Control

One of the biggest temptations of a manager is to clamp down and attempt to control the output of the team. Brilliant, driven creative pros need freedom to think for themselves and to try new methods for accomplishing their work. When you control your team, the work shrinks until it’s only as big as your personal sphere of attention can bear. Instead, you should aim to allow your team freedom to operate within clear principles and boundaries that guide their decisions.

Lead with influence, not control.

Give Empathetic Advice

The worst advice is always the “if I were you, this is what I’d do” type. Why? Because you are filtering your advice through your own lens, not the world of the other person. Instead, when you do give advice first put yourself in the other person’s position and try to imagine how it would feel to be in their shoes. How might their feelings and concerns differ from what you’d be experiencing if you were in their situation?

Before giving advice, imagine that you’re in the other person’s situtation.

Once you learn to temper the “advice monster”, you’ll become the manager (or the peer) that everyone wants to work with.

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Is the grass truly greener on the other side of the fence? Many creative pros spend their career wondering if there is a better path for them, or whether they’re missing out on something that everyone else knows about. This can result in hopping from job to job, or never really fully embracing the opportunities in front of you because you’re always “hedging your bets” and looking for a better option. Patrick McGinnis coined the phrase Fear Of Missing Out in a college paper several years ago, and he’s just released a book by the same title to help us work through our anxiety about forgoing opportunities.

Here are a few key ideas to help us avoid FOMO:

Move Toward, Not Away From

I’ve had many conversations with people who never seem to be satisfied with their job. They hop from company to company thinking that there has to be some place that will better mesh with what they’re looking for. The problem is that these people are often chasing vapor. They are perpetually moving away from something they dislike, not something they aspire toward. People who thrive learn to move toward their ambitions and goals, not just away from discomfort.

Is there any area of your life or career where you are simply moving away from discomfort rather than toward your goals?

Be Decisive

Another hallmark of thriving professionals is that they are willing to be decisive in the face of uncertainty. That doesn’t mean that they make foolish or rash decisions, however they don’t wait for absolute certainty before moving forward. Instead, they make decisions with the best information they have knowing that if they make a mistake they can typically navigate back on course.

Is there an area where you are paralyzed because you are being indecisive? What decision do you need to make?

Don’t Compare, Except To Improve

There are two kinds of comparison, and one is harmful and one is beneficial. The beneficial kind of comparison is when we look at someone else’s performance in order to gain insights into how we can improve our own skills. By studying those who are great at their craft, we can see where we are deficient and establish a course of action to help us improve. The harmful kind of comparison is when we become envious about what someone else has, or fear that we are being “robbed” of opportunity because another person possesses something that we want. This can lead to bitterness, self-destruction, and eventual hopelessness.

Compare yourself to others in order to improve, not to stew about what you’re missing out on.

Don’t worry about what’s “out there”. Be present this week and tackle the opportunities in front of you.

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