As a creature of habit, I am usually quite content to maintain my routines, rituals, and best practices. At the same time, I deeply believe in the value of continuous improvement in everything from the ordinary (how do I fit more dishes in the dishwasher?) to the monumental (how do we re-envision systems to address harm that provide real safety in our communities?). While it can be uncomfortable to disrupt our patterns - especially those that seem to be working for us – there is tremendous possibility to uncover when we do.
At times, we don’t have a choice: we experience something that jolts us out of our norm and we have no choice but to adapt. The recent election results have likely left all of us in that place. For some, the stakes of this uncertainty are much higher and the level of adaptation that will be required is a terrifying prospect. Whatever the individual stakes are, this moment has been immensely destabilizing for vulnerable communities and among those invested in making this country truly equitable and just for all people.
What I have seen in moments of intense uncertainty is that creativity thrives. That is no silver lining when it’s born of fateful calculations and a lack of options – it is simply an observation. But I do believe creativity to be linked to resilience and that, for me at least, it will provide some grounding in the storm to come.
One of the sources of creative thinking that has inspired me is from facilitator Michelle James and her book, Pattern Breaks: A Facilitator’s Guide to Cultivating Creativity. While the book’s focus is on using creativity in facilitation, the potential applications are broad. James writes and speaks about how new life in nature comes after resistance is the highest: the moment when the chick hatches, when a bud breaks through, when a baby is born. It comes after the height of constraint.
James also offers a vast bank of principles and activities that help us practically embrace and nurture creativity. One of these is the principle of “Yes-And,” which will be familiar to anyone who has at least dipped their toe into the world of improv theater. The basic premise is that when someone offers an idea, even if it seems odd and your instinct is to say “no,” you should say “yes” and then build on it in some way. In my own limited experience with improv, I viewed this “Yes-And” principle as simply an appeal to be zany and go along with whatever your scene partners are doing. And while that has some value in-and-of-itself, I missed the heart of it - the and of it - that you can take what’s been given and add something to make it better and that your partners are all trying to do the same.
In an organizational setting, “Yes-And” provides an opportunity to truly cultivate collaboration. This goes beyond delegating responsibilities (ie, you do what you’re good at, I’ll do what I’m good at). It is also very different from the notion of compromise - that in groups we all have competing interests and preferences and the all we can hope for is the least objectionable solution to everyone. “Yes-And” suggests that when we consider and productively build on each others’ work and designs, we create something far more interesting or effective than any of us could do on our own.
At an upcoming brainstorm or visioning session, consider working within the constraint, as James invites us to do, of “yes-and-ing” every idea in the room. There will always be time later on to apply practical considerations, to bring it back down to earth, so to speak. But if we never lift off, we remove the opportunity to discover what new life could emerge.
We are going to need each other these next four years. We always have. In building on each other’s wisdom and resilience, we may find the creative energy to emerge from a narrow place.