Creativity Central [Marty Baker]

The Window.

Think of it as a graphic that illustrates your ability to absorb and evaluate new information.  It is likely to be as mercurial and complicated as the Dow Jones Average.

I first noticed The Window when I gave a presentation on innovation a few years ago in to an academic committee.  50% of the group was engaged.  25% were neutral.  And 25% were seemingly disengaged.  Curiously, this may be a Newtonian-like constant recognized by teachers and presenters everywhere.

The presentation, no matter how provocative, simply wasn’t relevant to that 25% at that moment in time.   We’ve all been there.

Contrast this to the work I’ve done with Gerald Haman at the Thinkubator in Chicago.  The group was nearly 100% engaged.  The difference was 1) they invested money in the accelerated innovation workshop 2) they made a commitment to the process and 3) they were highly motivated and receptive to the information.

David Allen, the creator of Getting Things Done (GTD) asks a critical question, “What do you have your attention on?”  You may be physically present in a meeting, but your head may be swimming with other commitments.

He writes in his new book Making It All Work. “Time is what creates the awareness of constraint, which then forces the real issue, which includes where and when you allocate your (mental) resources.”

So how do you engage when there’s a sense of urgency of other commitments – even if they do not rise to the level of truly urgent and important?

I think The Window is a creative solution.  It is a commitment to being actively present for at least 15 minutes.  It is what psychotherapists attempt do everyday.  When they mentally drift – it is often because the patient isn’t being emotionally authentic.  As one psychologist said to me, “not every moment is an epiphany.”

15 minutes is arbitrary but it seems to be a threshold of active engagement on subjects that aren’t immediately relevant.  The creative solution is to clear your mind of other commitments and to habitually open a window of receptivity.  Make that the overriding commitment.

Not every presentation is going to resonate.  Not every meeting is going to be engaging.  Not every interaction is going to be life-altering.  But if we open even the smallest of windows, the winds of receptivity may take us places we haven’t imagined before.