Here we are in distance learning 2.0 in Northern California. One thing about home schooling is that the natural problem solving that happens in physical interaction with teachers and fellow students becomes constrained because of the screen. It just is that students are left to solve things on their own more than ever. Of course, I think this is simultaneously awesome and not. Awesome because it pushes kids to do the work to understand BEFORE they show up. Not because frustration leads to more frustration and a feeling of hopelessness.
One of the biggest factors is what my wife pointed out to my son as he struggled with his math. You cannot eat the whole sandwich at once, you have to take it in bites. When so much is available instantly, there is a huge push for the whole sandwich, to move faster and faster to the end. You would think that the pandemic would have slowed this energy since there are limitations everywhere, but in so many cases the opposite is true.
The allegory for creative business in today’s world is not lost on me at all. Take small bites, find like items and solve those, then the next and the next. Simple right? Except it is not because it requires two things: patience to go through each step and the ability to suspend the influence of the next step of the problem. Let us stick with a math problem. How do you reduce (-5x-2y)*(-2x3y-2)? Some of you can see the whole thing and just solve straight away. For the rest of us mere mortals, we have to break it down and first multiply the whole numbers (-5*-2=10), then x (add exponents 3+-2=1), then y (add exponents -2+1=-1), then know that a negative exponent is a positive exponent inverted to finally get the answer 10x/y.
Patience to solve each element in turn. How much work do you spend making sure issues belong where they belong? Really? If you have blamed your client for anything in the last six months, might I tell you that you have not worked hard enough. It is like blaming -5 for having an influence on y, when it really does not in and of itself. The pandemic and the unwillingness to truly slow down and analyze its effect on each element of your creative business sends you down the path of its them not you. We will just wait until this is over. Nope. All things have shifted — expectations, emotionality, deliverables and value. If you do not take the time to at least separate out each element then how can you really believe meaningful change will happen?
Suspending influence. Of course, -5 has an influence of y. It is just that until you do the work with -2 you do not know that the influence will be 10 not really -5. Once you have separated each element of your creative business you can work on it alone and then recombine it with everything once it has been contemplated. How about something so basic as presenting your idea? If you cannot meet in person, what happens now? What will you craft to make your presentation as compelling as possible? Now that you know what you have to do, how will you get paid for that presentation? Same goes for production and reveal. Now how to you put the pieces together?
And that is the problem with pivoting. Inevitably it means you are eating the whole sandwich as you do not know the impact of each piece. To which I say, slow the “F” down (yes, I owe my 9 year old a dime for the swear jar). You are intentionally guessing as what might work. Yes, a broken clock is right twice a day, does not mean I want to rely on it to give me meaningful information whenever I need it.
I get the pressure to perform, to create the Insta illusion that you have it all together. Please give up that ghost and slow down to do the deep work of investigation necessary for you to solve the entire puzzle, knowing that the solution is inevitably fleeting. And that is the whole point of the exercise. If you slow down to separate each piece of your creative business (break it down however you like — businessish: sales, marketing, operations, finance (yawn) or the 4 transitions — potential to actual client, idea to design, design to production, production to reveal, or your way, do not really care), and analyze each in turn, you will have insight into how to solve tomorrow’s puzzle. You likely will have to do each step again but you will have the tools to change the challenge but attack the problem in a similar way (or not).
I recently offered this advice to an interior design client as an example of all of the above. Their firm has a deep investment in managing production of their designs as do all designers. With the pressure to make it happen for clients in the time of COVID, how can managing production be reimagined as an intense marketing opportunity to demonstrate to clients the beauty of manifesting design? They are world famous for installations (read the principal designer frequently sets the stage for incredibly high end auctions). Sure all of the logistics and product management still exist, but does it have to be matter of fact or even painful? Is there any reason it cannot be something the client can look forward to hearing about on an ongoing basis? Can production not only sustain trust but truly set the stage for installation? The finale is ever more power if there is a sense of crescendo.
The beauty of the puzzle is that each piece matters even if the puzzle changes everyday. Racing to the mountaintop misses the point of savoring the moment for what it is. Fool’s gold.
