“The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra
We are in a period of massively disruptive and unprecedented change. One of the first victims of massive and disruptive change for many businesses today is certainty. There just doesn’t seem to be enough certainty left in the world to go around. More than ever before we are confronting uncertainty, and its two siblings ambiguity and contradiction.
You are probably thinking: “Wow, that is a lot of bad news all at once.” Well, I would encourage you to think again. Maybe, just maybe, we are entering a period of enormous opportunity, possibility and choice. Why? Because uncertainty, ambiguity, contradiction and chaos are the necessary ingredients for experimentation, innovation and creativity.
“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.” – Erich Fromm
“Uncertainty, ambiguity and contradiction are the fertile ground of creativity.” – Deepak Chopra
What are the 6 keys to creativity?
- Insight
- Intuition
- Imagination
- Intention
- Inspiration
- Choice making
How can you bring about a collective shift in thinking in your work place to move people to the new paradigm of abundant and unlimited creativity?
- Adapt endlessly. Become open to the unknown by suspending the need to know and the need for certainty. Experiment, explore, inquire and question the future.
- Get comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction. Become more mentality agile by re-framing the question, changing your mind and challenging your assumptions, values and beliefs.
- Start practicing “Intelligent Adjacency”. What are the logical extensions or possible connections that you can make? Where could adjacency-thinking lead you?
- Relinquish entitlement-based thinking. Stop trying to maintain the status quo. Forget about what you think you are entitled to. Let go of the past so that you can move into the future.
Take Away: Certainty -> Uncertainty. Uncertainty -> thinking creatively about the future you want to bring about. Uncertainty is the new Certainty
Question #1: Are you a ‘prisoner of the past’, a ‘victim of the present’ or someone who is creatively ‘shaping their future’?
Question #2: What are you doing to accelerate your personal and organisational creativity?
Hello David,
Good, intelligent ideas you keep coming out with.
Converging on the same topic, being of two sorts of intelligence, saying some of the same things in our own ways… Just put up my new conference highlights on my site, a video IN ENGLISH. It’s under “conferences” on the English side of things. Will be coming out with a blog in English this week. I guess all this is to insist that I’m finally re-balancing my communication after a heavy stint of FRENCH.
Best to you, James
David
It tooks me 10 years to have clients thinking that what i was offering them what really what they were expecting;it tooks them 8 years to understand, appreciate, and confirm that what i was offering ,was suitable to them !!It tooks us both, 3 years to agree that we should do it together, and since 3 years we are doing it and well doing it !!
Courage,perseverance and belief in oneself !! difficult exercise but may result !!
chers Emmanuel
David,
You are right. Why do we all want to refuse the obvious ? The world, the market place and we all are constantly changing, churning through turmoil towards a brighter future, or so we think. Life does not change : things keep it moving and changing. This is called progress through creativity. Old English expression : “Necessity is the mother of invention”.
All the best to you,
John.