My friend Terry De Witte says that. I mean, he says “strategic first, creative when necessary, and always specific”.

 

The last time he said it, I said I planned to write a blog about it.

 

Now, the challenge is – I didn’t ask Terry to explain what he means when he says “strategic first, creative when necessary, and always specific”.

 

I intentionally didn’t ask him to explain what he meant because some thoughts came to mind quickly and I wanted to test if the initial thoughts I received were similar to or different from the message he was trying to deliver.

 

So, Terry will have the right to veto everything to follow.

 

OK Terry – how did I do?

 

Napoleon Hill: www.naphill.org

Seeking Simple: www.activestor.ca/post/2010/03/23/Seeking-Simple.aspx

Creativity: www.activestor.ca/post/2010/07/01/Innovation-Creativity.aspx

Creativity often does not survive addition.

 

That is – when we attempt to add one person’s creativity to another person’s creativity it is possible the sum of the parts is much less than the whole. In fact it may be less than either of the parts.

 

 

When one person’s creative gifts meet another person’s creative gifts in an effort to join to create greater things it is possible creativity shrinks rather than grows.

 

I think it is far more likely that creativity shrinks.

 

Truly creative people are able to keep their left brains* in the proper place…that is, they don’t just keep their left brains left of center where they belong but they also keep their left brains silent and minding their own business while their right brains fire away creatively.

 

For the truly creative person that just happens.

 

For everyone else it is a task…often a huge task. In fact, for most people keeping the left brain minding its own business so the right brain can perform at its best is such a huge task it is a full time job.

 

There is no room to add more work…like trying to keep someone else’s left brain where it ought to be.

 

Our left brains are so pervasive…it is like they are inclined to undo right brain stuff whenever they encounter it. So, despite our desire for creativity, we regularly see many left brains attacking the output of right brains…and the result is stifling experiences.

 

That’s often what happens, so:

 

*Footnote: This is not to say the workings of the human brain are actually so simple they can be defined in terms like right brains handle everything creative while left brains handle everything logical. On the other hand, to the extent this common wisdom may or may not be true…this contrarian thought may or may not be true.