Go with Your Gut!

Well over ten years ago I was walking our dog Jasper when I noticed a pair of shoes, abandoned, placed side by side as if their owner had been taken up in the rapture. That was the story I told myself. I took a photograph and posted it on Instagram for fun. From then on, I kept noticing more abandoned shoes. Sometimes one, sometimes a pair. Always curious to me. I wondered about their stories: Why were they left? What happened to the owner? I photographed them and shared the images with my friends. There wasn’t really a point to taking the photos other than it amused me. It seemed to amuse my friends too. They would chip in on the story behind the photo. I would occasionally get sent an image of an abandoned shoe with a note, ‘Saw this and thought of you.’ (Now that you are reading this, you will start noticing abandoned shoes too!) 

A couple of weeks ago I published a small book of these images. After many years sitting on my phone they finally found a purpose: they are collected together to act as a series of writing prompts. It struck me that if their stories were intriguing to me, they might also be to others. The book contains 20 photographs of abandoned shoes with empty space below for people to write. It also has a short explanation of how to construct haiku poetry and questions to kickstart people’s writing so they can dig in to different creative ideas around the images. The book is called Abandoned Shoe Haiku but encourages all types of creative writing. 

Why is this a blog post? One reason is that I want to celebrate the publishing of this little book and let as many people know about it as possible. Here’s the link – www.benchpressbooks.com. The other reason is to communicate that it is fine, good even, to pursue a creative impulse even though you don’t know where it is going to lead. Maybe you feel like you want to review a policy or a process even though nobody is complaining about it. Maybe you want to make a presentation deck about something even though no-one has asked for one. Maybe you have the urge to learn something new because you think it might be interesting rather than because you need to. Do it. Go with your gut. At the least you will be satisfied in the moment and you will learn something or get better at something. But more likely, it will be a stepping stone to something else. The experience you gain may be directly applicable or even find use in a totally unrelated area.

And yes, you are welcome to send me pictures of abandoned shoes, or, even better, include some creative writing with that photograph.

5 Tips from a Creative Team

Near the end of 2015 a friend of mine embarked on what could be considered a crazy venture. He decided to enter the 48 Hour Film Project. It’s a global competition where people write, film and edit a short movie in just 48 hours. The photo above shows the director, cameraman and some of the actors getting ready for filming.

I was lucky enough to be welcomed on the filming day to take a few photographs and generally hang out and observe. What I saw that day and what I observed in the weeks after really made me reflect on successful teams and what makes things work. There are a few of the things you would expect from any advice on how to build a successful team, but what stood out for me was something I’ve learned from practitioners of improv that made a massive difference to this team.  Here are five things to remember the next time you are in a team.

1.      Have a common goal that everyone is subscribed to – We always hear this, and that’s because it’s true. This team knew exactly what needed to be done. In 48 hours a film had to be made. (You might be wondering how the organisers can ensure it all happens in the 48 hours allocated. Well, each team is only given the character, line of dialogue, prop and genre they must use once the clock starts ticking.)

2.      Have the right people doing the right jobs – And don’t be afraid to reach out to experts. The director gathered excellent people around him for this project, including people he’d never met before. He wasn’t afraid to draw the right people in to give the project the best chance of success. Consequently, there were professional engaged people in all areas - actors, camera crew, sound, and editing.

3.      Have clear direction but allow some autonomy – The director had the story and a clear idea of how he wanted the overall film to look and feel. But he kept the script flexible, allowed input from the actors on how they felt things could work better, collaborated closely with the cameraman on designing the scenes. I’m sure everyone felt respected and listened to, and that their own expertise was valued.

4.      Don’t waste people’s time – People were only involved when they were needed. The actors weren’t needed to help write the story on the first night of the project, so they weren’t there. Some were only needed for a particular scene and could only carve out a small amount of time in their day. They were still able to contribute effectively. The editing team were only needed at the end. This makes perfect sense, but how often do team members waste time attending meetings they add no value to?

5.      Make your teammates look good – This is the big one for me. This is what improv practitioners strive for all the time. And this happened a lot in this production. The actors worked hard to support each other and make all of their characters look good. They supported the feel of the film, and the director, by making suggestions that would improve the final cut. The cameraman, director and sound guy discussed ways to get the vibe they wanted and the best out of the filming location. Importantly, there were no egos. I think the director signaled this early on by inviting people to join Team Zissou rather than to help him make a film – his name isn’t Zissou. Everyone worked to make everyone else shine.

A week after the film had been submitted, there was a screening of all 42 films from Singapore, and then an awards ceremony. I liked the fact that the two people that had probably had the most input (writer/director and cameraman) couldn’t make it and were happy for other members to represent Team Zissou. Like I said, no egos.

You could say this team was successful because of the way they worked together, and I would agree with that. The mark of a great team however, means that they function well and also achieve what they set out to do. They made a film in 48 hours! Great. They didn’t fall out with each other. Great. And then, they won the competition!  

Below is the six-minute film, which, having won the Singapore event, has been sent off to compete against all the other international winners at Filmapalooza in Atlanta, USA. Well done Team Zissou!

Innovation From Another Perspective

As a three-day photographic project I decided to shoot an old shopping mall. After two long and productive days I felt like I had got all the images I could possibly have taken. I was done. My mentor encouraged me to go back though. Unmotivated, I did, and as I followed my now familiar path up and down the staircases and escalators I suddenly stopped dead, shocked at my unexpected inspiration. I would turn around and walk in the opposite direction. And just like that everything looked new and interesting again.

It is so easy for us to get into a rut, to follow the same path every day. It’s the path of least resistance, the one that makes us feel comfortable. But innovation is about change and innovative thoughts require us to think differently than we normally would. So, do you want to think more innovatively on a regular basis? Do you want to think differently to solve a problem? Do you need to come up with a new idea? Then you need some practical thinking tools and maybe a few little lifestyle changes to lift you out of your comfort zone.

When I work with people on their innovative thinking we push ourselves really hard to approach problems in ways we normally wouldn't. There are lots of great tools you can apply, but one of my favourites is to start by trying to walk in the opposite direction and brainstorm the total opposite of what you are trying to achieve. So, if we wanted to improve communication in our company, we’d start by thinking how we could ruin communication in our company. The freedom this gives your brain is amazing and the radical ideas come much more easily. It’s then a couple more simple steps to turn these new ideas into something useful and, most importantly, different.

You can change your own perspective too, to stimulate your brain and get it out of that rut. Try travelling a different route to work listening to something new - a podcast instead of music, or vice versa. Or eating a different lunch, in a different location, with a different person. Anything that changes your perspective. Rather than say ‘How do we fix this problem?’ try ‘What’s great about this problem?’ There are lots of ways to think differently. Try something new today and see how it stimulates your brain.

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Does the photo stimulate your thinking in a different way? What have you tried to stimulate innovative thinking?

To see more of the images from this shoot you can look at Ming Arcade.