Data overwhelms almost every industry and sector today. Our collective inability to see through this “fog” of over analysis has created a kind of creative paralysis. The need has never been greater to ask ourselves are we disagreeing with the individual or the idea? Are we open to learning from other experiences and professions or are we resolute in our process and job title?
We huddle up in scrums through Agile, trim the fat in UX approaches in Lean UX, and some still believe in the hierarchical waterfall to get work done. But in an era of never ending wind-sprints focusing who can be first I will demonstrate through stories of other creatives – and my own experiences in the health care and IT communities – this essential human need to not just create but to engage in the creative process every day.
Drawing on the stories of children’s TV producer Bruktawit Tagabu in Ethiopia, authors Ayn Rand, Austin Kleon, IBM, Jon Cleese, and the Canadian rock band Rush I will illustrate this need to focus more on the creative process in our professional endeavours – imagining what is possible rather than justifying what is not.