Turning chaos into creativity

No.199: 3rd June 2024

Hi, it’s David here.

This week’s newsletter is written by Hannah Ray who celebrates the need to make a mess and step outside the rigid process as part of the creative process.

In a world of media deferring to algorithms, resulting in a sea of sameness and a race to the bottom, it's a pleasure to hear a real human’s story about how one creative strategist is connecting with other real human beings.

As always, we are curious to hear what you think.

David Alberts

Co-Founder and Chief Vision Officer at BeenThereDoneThat

Hi, it’s Hannah here.

Now, I’m going to start this with a warning to those with a penchant for detail and sumptuous perfection - not because I don’t love your work (because I fully appreciate the minute details that make something eye-wobblingly unique, mind-blowingly smart and totally exquisite) - but because this might bring up some unease.

I want to argue that our inner mess is where the juicy and creative stuff lies, share an example of why, and put forward some thoughts on how you can connect with it and use it.

It’s important to note that this is coming from someone who has struggled with messiness - so I’m not some seasoned, biassed, pro-mess person. Equally, I wouldn’t say I’m the type of perfectionist with an insatiable drive for attention to detail, but I am a perfectionist in the way that I will try my best to avoid something if I think that it’s going to mess things up or reduce the clarity of something. For example, as a colouring-in-books-loving child, I would only colour in the main characters of a drawing and never the background - because I worried that it might distract from the main focus and mess it up. I also believe in the concept of ‘tidy house, tidy mind’ (despite sometimes not putting laundry away for 2 weeks). 

My point in sharing this about myself is so that you know I’m a fair source. Messiness is not always easy for me, but the practice of allowing that has enriched my sense of creativity, confidence and resilience when I need to pivot or try new approaches to move conversations through stickiness, or continue generating ideas in order to move projects forward.

I think that a lot of messiness gets taken away in the agency world these days; or there is less space for or entertainment of it. Especially when timelines get shortened, Canva means that the most casual of decks have no excuse to not look impeccable, and AI can sometimes do an equally (or better?!) job.

We work in a world where we need to feel like a safe pair of hands with full, creative control - but that responsibility can sometimes be the precise dearouser of our creative juices.

Once we’ve got the brief nailed and agreed with our clients - take a breath - we all need to grant ourselves a window of complete and utter release of control of the outcome. 

Because, like a computer, we can only work with the information that exists in our system - but we have to trust that if we let go of the control, that the information will come out to play and organise itself around the objective that we’re working with.

For example, I teach yoga classes alongside my brand strategy and business coaching work. After becoming a little bored of teaching the same sequences and a few classes where the notes I’d previously made for a class didn’t seem to hit right, I challenged myself to NOT plan and just teach whatever came out.

This would require me to 1) read what was live in the room: how were people entering the class? What poses were they in whilst waiting for the class to start? How was I feeling today and what did I sense in the atmosphere? 2) Draw on my intuition and creativity to teach a class that would align with this: trusting my gut and opening the door for a flow state to take over; improvising and building on the live data I send out and receive.

It makes me feel highly uncomfortable at times. But… we have a structure: 1 hour with a beginning, a middle, a peak and an end. I’ve done my research to understand philosophy, poses, and bodies. I know the timings and where we should be when, and the point of each phase of the class. Within that, I’m there to teach people to connect with themselves right now and feel something from movement - which requires some vulnerability, some courage, and some heart.

The result has been classes that feel much more meaningful to my students (insight, purpose), that seem to make them all feel more connected to each other during the class (collaboration, connection), more feedback that ‘that was just what I needed’ (relevance), and, importantly (because business matters!), more regular students (effectiveness).

I wonder how much more effective, insightful and smooth the process of making and selling our work would be if we all brought a bit more of this practice of mess-acceptance to our business meetings, creative briefings, strategy presentations and ideation workshops. 

If you’d like to experiment with practical exercises to strengthen your inner mess muscle, check out ‘Improvisation for the Spirit’.

If you’d like to see the proof in the pudding and arm yourself with supporting evidence and studies, check out ‘The Power of Disorder To Transform Our Lives’ talk.

If you’d like to find weekly inspiration on how mess and failure can bring an even sweeter taste of success to your work and life, listen to any episode on ‘How To Fail with Elizabeth Day’ podcast.

Hannah Ray

Member of the BeenThereDoneThat Expert Network and Strategy Consultant | Coach + Founder, TAKE Coaching

Supporting Articles

1. Improvisation for the Spirit: Live a More Creative, Spontaneous, and Courageous Life Using the Tools of Improv Comedy

2. The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives | Tim Harford | RSA Replay

3. How to Fail with Elizabeth Day

4. I'm Hannah Ray, a life coach, career coach and business coachin Amsterdam or online

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