What Will You Plant?
I had a conversation this week that has become a seed. But creative seeds resemble the seeds from my grandfather’s shed.
I grew up in a farming community, though my family didn’t farm. Farmers surrounded us, and both my grandparents kept extensive gardens. Much of what I’ve learned about creativity has its roots (yes, go ahead and groan) in insights from farming—things like the need to separate the creative act of writing (planting seeds) from the necessary act of editing (culling and pruning).
Though it happened years ago, I still remember going through my grandfather’s shed after he died. He had a utility drawer set that probably began life as storage for various screws, nail, bolts, and nuts. He used it for storing seeds. Remnants of tattered paper and bits of glue suggested he had labeled the little bins at some point to indicate the type of seed stored within each. The paper had long since faded and disintegrated, and he had never relabeled them. By the time the labels had gone the way of mortal life, he knew what each bin contained—why go to the trouble and expense of new labels?
To find out what the seeds were required planting them. Sometimes, you just have to try things to see what comes up. (Scientists do this same thing, although at a higher level of tech.)
Conversations drive creativity if you’re paying attention. That’s one reason to have apparently frivolous conversations with friends over coffee. (It’s also a reason to read blogs and newsletters, which are kinds of conversations.)
I’m planting a seed from the conversation I had this week to see what comes up.
We’ve talked before about a community I’m part of, the Go-Giver Success Alliance. We have Coffee and Conversation with Bob Burg twice most weeks.
I was in a breakout room with two people, both of whom are in people-facing roles (i.e., sales and marketing) within a highly technological business. They had made a couple of comments about bosses who appreciated them vs. other bosses who did not.
I asked, “Do you find that the techy people up the food chain are more likely to appreciate what you do because they don’t understand it? Or are they more likely to discount it because they don’t understand it?”
We ultimately decided it depended on whether the boss had had an experience that helped them realize the “people-people” knew something the boss did not. Not only that, but that an attitude of “I know everything I need to know” from the engineering types came not from egotism, but from a sort of blindness. It’s like people who are color blind, who get the sense that other people see things they don’t but do not know what it’s like until someone gives them one of those special sets of glasses that let them see it for the first time. (You’ve probably seen those videos, but just in case, look at the emotion of the 66-year-old tough guy bodybuilder seeing color for the first time.)
I’m not yet sure how this will figure in, but this will probably become a subplot in the next book in the Sparklight Chronicles that will follow The Way of the Three-Year-Old Why. It will focus on a manager who is blind to human communication, a “just the facts” person who considers relationship building fluff. It might form the basis of a whole separate book, but I’m leaning toward the subplot approach.
I won’t know until I write it, although I have asked some trusted friends to share insights and opinions. Frankly, I had thought The Way of the Three-Year-Old Why would be a one-off, and didn’t realize that the mentor character had more to say. It’s sort of the “discovery” part of discovery writing.
So, dear Reader, I would encourage you to look at the seeds in your life. They’re probably not labeled either. You must plant them to find out what they are. If they turn out to be something you don’t want to keep, you can always uproot them later.
Sometimes, you don’t want to keep what comes up. But until you know what it is, you can’t decide that.
The Way of the Three-Year-Old Why is a business fable. Some business fables are really engaging, and some are not. You can sample the writing style with Brewing Inspiration: Benjamin Franklin's Coffeehouse Awakening, a short story in the same narrative universe. It’s free! Fringe benefit: spot the Easter eggs that connect it to the rest of the Sparklight Chronicles.
You know someone who could use this encouragement. Share it now while you’re thinking about it. They will thank you, and you will feel good for helping someone.
Get on the list for the first info about The Way of the Three-Year-Old Why and the whole Sparklight Chronicles series. No worries, it’s easy to leave if it turns out to not be a good fit. Who knows, though, this might be your seed!