Book Review: Art Thinking; How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses

“Art Thinking is a meditation and a manual, a manifesto and a love story,

for how art—creativity writ large—and business go together.” 

                                                                            — from the Introduction

If you are a business owner, entrepreneur, expert, educator, or inventor, much of your work goes far beyond making to-do lists and checking off boxes. You aren’t simply going from point A to point B to get the job done, but instead, you are actually inventing point B.

How can we carve out the time in a busy work schedule to protect our space to explore? How can we carve out space to go from an inkling of an idea to successfully build a company? Launch a new project? Write and publish a book?

In her book Art Thinking; How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses, author Amy Whitaker lays out art thinking as a framework that protects space for these inquiries and exploration. She provides tools to use within the structure of business starting from where we are now—warts and all.

Whitaker examines 7 different ways to protect your time and space, wade through the unknowns, and to figure out and navigate your own creative space without a map. She sets down some basics and explains how to use various tools to get moving forward.

One trend that Whitaker describes that has emerged from various corporations is the idea of “studio time”— company policies that give employees a fraction of their working time to investigate projects of their own choosing. One way for us to get started on studio time is to choose an area of creative activity to focus on. It will most likely be something that you’re deeply interested in, or that you are already doing.

In one of the more famous examples of setting aside this 20% time, a Google engineer designed Gmail and then created AdSense to pay for it! Of course, there are no guarantees that something as interesting will show up during your studio time, but you’ve got to at least set aside a patch of time if you want to do creative work.

Beyond setting aside time, there are other tips Whitaker puts forth that protect, encourage, and sustain the work over time. One of my favorites, she calls “defining a grace period.” How do you know if the work is good or bad when you’re knee-deep in process, when you’re so close to it that it looks like a big blur? Whitaker suggests deferring judgment to the future. Whaaatt? This thing will never get done with that attitude!

Let’s face it, at some point, you will want to know if something is good or bad….But Whitaker suggests allowing yourself to do it later. Stretch out the making period by giving yourself a “grace” period. The truth is, most people who think they need to figure it out all at once, don’t. Give yourself time, time when you don’t need to judge, or to know the outcome. Instead, ask yourself what it is that you need to know to make a decision, and go about getting more information. There’s no need to jump immediately to the end. It’s more important to go through the process of dialogue and discovery. Sometimes you’ve got to leave the safety of shore for a long time…

Defining a grace period is complementary to the “minimum viable project” approach popularized by lean start-ups. The MVP is the scrappiest version of a project possible. (Author’s first drafts!) There may be rounds of testing and iteration, but it’s still best to defer judgment by moving your deadlines and giving yourself more space to experiment and learn.

As a writer and a book coach, I see how this approach can stave off a raft of ills: procrastination! writer’s block! crappy first-drafts! Simply sit in front of the computer and putter around…and defer judgment for later. Give yourself a grace period.

Another tool I like from Whitaker’s book is to define an animating question that pulls you toward possibility. She says these questions are like lighthouses. They take your basic questions and pull you forward through much broader possibility. Lighthouse questions hold space for belief when you have no proof the experiment will work, and they urge you forward.

Whitaker explains lighthouse questions like this: “A lighthouse questions is similar to the major dramatic question (MDQ) in a movie. The screenplay of a film has two guiding questions: a plot question and, underneath it, an MDQ. (In When Harry Met Sally….the plot question is, what will happen between Harry and Sally? The MDQ is, can men and women really be friends? In the Harry Potter films, the plot question is, will Harry vanquish Lord Voldemort? The MDQ is about whether good can triumph over both the celebrity and quiet banality of evil, and whether Harry can be ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.)"

The light from an actual, physical lighthouse is visible over a long distance. An MDQ in a movie is a powerful current underneath the surface. Your own lighthouse questions may also be buried, yet compelling you forward. And it’s the lighthouse questions that are probably the most powerful drivers—and most likely running the show. Bringing your sense of purpose into your awareness can give it even more power. Whether you acknowledge them or not, these questions can determine the story of your organization, project, or invention.

In Art Thinking, Whitaker includes a number of routes you can take to discover your own lighthouse questions to keep you moving. And her next tool is figuring out how to manage the risk of your questions in the context of your life and your life’s work.

If you feel stuck in place or hesitant to take on something new, I highly recommend reading books like this to gain insights, create a new mindset, improve on your personal skills, and build on your success.

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PLAN FOR SUCCESS!

Lindsay