Routine
By Peter LloydI, for one, find great comfort in mindless routine. Why rethink the way I brush my teeth? Or tie my shoes? Why change the path of my daily morning walk?
Routine suits me just fine, as long as I don't get stuck. My potential as an innovator or as a creative person isn't compromised, I don't think, by enjoying some of the comforts of routine. When a better way comes along, I hope I'm open-minded enough to give it a shot.
Trouble is, no matter how hard I try to keep an open mind, I keep sliding lazily back in to routine. And worse, I automatically resent deviation by anyone else.
I'm sorry but I actually stop at stop signs. So when the other guy goes gliding through one, it ticks me off. The clown with 13 items in the 12-item express lane annoys the heck out of me, because it's part of my routine to follow rules of courtesy.
In the park where I walk, people parallel park along the curb surrounding a grassy area. It's the way it's always been done, the way it's supposed to be done. Early one Sunday morning, the first car to arrive pulled up to the curb and parked nose-first.
"Who does this guy think he is," I thought. I could almost feel my knees jerk.
"But wait," I scolded myself. "He's on to something. This parking area is off the street. There's plenty of room. And if everybody parked this way, we could fit three times as many cars in here!"
So I pulled in, nose first, right along side the miscreant.
Without rule-breakers, we'd all get stuck in a rut. Without the rebellious stepping over the line, we'd never find out what's on the other side.
It's that first knee-jerk rejection to the unfamiliar you have to watch out for. Especially if you're in charge. Because once you've committed yourself to rejecting an idea, it's twice as hard to turn around and accept it.
And that spells disaster for invention, innovation, and creativity.
Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.