Contradictions in Productivity - Part 2

Part 2: Pride vs Humility
 
Should we take pride in ourselves and our work or be humble? Is it possible to be both? I say yes, and that we should seamlessly shift from one position to the next.  Pride without humility makes one deaf to imported ideas and creates an offensive person to work with.  Humility without pride is self-deprecating; it closes doors before they open and prevents your work from being taken seriously. I believe that it is necessary to be both humble and proud, but the right approach must be used in the right situation.

Have you ever seen someone present their work and in the same breath apologize for its quality?
Examples include:

• Presenting technical information and saying something like "sorry about the small font on this chart" or "sorry about the resolution of this image".
• Playing a musical recording to your friend and pointing out the mistakes in the performance as they occur.
• Asking a colleague to read your draft article and saying "there are probably a bunch of typos" or "this is a real rough version".
• Sharing some art with a potential client and throwing in comments like "I'm not so sure about this part" or "the colors here didn't turn out the way I wanted" or "this is the best I could do in the time allotted". 
• A speaker stammering over a word and then pointing it out with a nervous chuckle and a phrase like "Gosh!  I just can't talk today".

These types of self-criticism (destructive humility) can distract from your message and color the audience's appreciation of your work. It's better to not call attention to your own imperfections before someone else does.  This undermines your work and highlights flaws that may otherwise go unnoticed.  Communicate that you are proud of what you've done.  The frightening thing is that people may come up with their own opinions and you must always produce to your own standards.

On the other side of the coin, we must be humble. When showing a draft to a colleague, mentor, or client we must be ready to take any constructive suggestions in stride.  It's pointless to try to invalidate someone else's criticism, even though we may not agree with it.  It's far better to validate the opinion of your boss or customer as opposed to making excuses.

Serve with your excellence and present it as such.  Take pride in your work and don't make excuses.  When others criticize your work (lovingly or otherwise) humbly discern what you need to learn in order to become an even more excellent servant.  Humbly pursue new skills and take pride knowing that it will pay off.

Time to turn in the homework

As promised, here's the music and animation that represents the creative project that I mentioned in last week's post:

 
I wrote this guitar piece about 10 years ago just after I moved into an apartment with some friends.  I was playing in a metal band at the time, so I didn't do much of anything at all with it until now.  I ended up making the audio recording in 2003.  My friend Joel, who ran the studio, wrote "Sam's Home" on the CD he gave me, so that name just kind of stuck.

I started aimlessly tinkering with the animated rhombuses several months ago, but didn't make much progress on it.  I firmly believe that having the deadline gave me the much needed push to produce this animation.  Now I have something that is among my best animation work.

What projects do you have lying around that need a deadline and an audience?  Set and communicate an appointed time and place to show your unfinished project.  Then, get to work.  Once that time arrives it's time to wrap up all of the loose ends and turn in your homework.

Initiate Launch Sequence

Do you have an unfinished creative project? A half-developed idea that you have lying around? An outline, sketch, riff, verse, program, design, note, problem, chapter, or melody? Is your brilliance gathering dust? One sure-fire way to get it off the ground is to assign to it a deadline. Broadcast this deadline to other people and then there's no turning back.

A deadline, when taken seriously and used appropriately, can bring tremendous stimulation to the creative process and yield thrusts of prolific output.

I've seen this principle in action many times at work; a huge developmental milestone in the team will occur when faced with a customer related deadline. It is during these times when entire systems get pulled together, problems get solved, decisions are made, synergies happen, teamwork blossoms, designs are finished, processes are streamlined, and ultimately projects get launched.

Your work needs to be launched. Start the countdown. Define a clear moment in time where all preparation ceases and the project is published, sent, shipped, mailed, handed off, shown, shared, recorded, posted, played, performed, displayed, or launched.

I'll call my own bluff. Today is 9/4/2011. In exactly one week I'll post a rather ambitious creative project here that I've neglected for quite some time. Now that I've said that, it's time to blow off the dust and get to work.

The Stars Need Not Be Aligned To Launch

Did you ever use the sun and a magnifying glass to burn your name into something?  Usually it was something precious like your 'lucky bat', because you wanted to mark it permanently.  In order for this process to work, everything seemed to have to come together perfectly:

-The right time -The right focus -The right medium -The right goal

(A sunny afternoon so the sun is bright and high... an aligned star) (The light and your attention had to be concentrated) (A metal bat wouldn't work, for instance) (Once you start burning, you can't erase... no 'second takes')

Indeed, some creative projects do require precise execution.  The stakes are raised even higher towards necessary perfection if the safety of others is involved (orchestrating a rocket launch, for instance).

However, I believe that the vast majority of creative projects thrive on imperfection.  Such work is a cycle of improvisation, observation, and distillation.  Once you have an idea:

• Start the work and chase the expression of your idea through improvisation.  Finish.
• Take as step back and see if what you made communicates your idea to yourself.  When it comes to your own work, you will have far greater powers of observation than anyone else.
• See what worked and what didn't.  Some parts can be thrown away, some kept, some refined.  However, don't get carried away with distillation.

Finally, break the cycle and launch.  Show it to the world.  Boldly place it high for all to see.  It's easy to get overwhelmed by perfection when it seems like our work is permanent.  However, most of the time our work is 'merely' a stepping stone to the next piece.  It may turn out that the most permanent thing is what you learned along the way.  Keep it up and eventually you'll launch your work into orbit.