What is the secret to Sensemaking (and Creative idiosyncratic) ?
How to be more creative with forming associations, qualitatively assessing and letting emotions run it’s judgement
Creativity lies at the cusp of subjects, already-built and the unknowns. It takes a qualitative mixologist to shake up arenas and expertise to create something new. Often it takes courage and the belief in the unchartered territories. More in magic and mystical than in logic.
Many of the mankind’s sense of wonder and sensuality has been lost by the tight embrace to science and technology. We have been hardwired to think through proof and scientific theories. But what makes a person creative and unusual is their uncanny sense of emerging patterns and undercurrent movements. These patterns cannot be read on mass media of Forbes, Fortune and Harvard Business Review but at the edges and the blending of Nietzsche’s theory of übermensch, contextual sensory, human stories, letting go of our ego and rising above what has been already accepted as Value.
What is the Value of wearing Jewellery ?
But someone took the raw element from Earth and turned it into a value. I assume that this someone very well knew about the flattering emotion of Ego and feeling “above all” — and crafted a piece with aesthetic consumption in mind — to what formed as Jewellery.
Creativity at the hand of competition. Competition is incremental, measured and monitored. But breakthrough to happen there must not lie any scale for it. Thus Creative Idiosyncratic lie where no one is looking. And I dare not say that it often lies in between blurry areas of subjects, blending of different ideologies and sometime through epiphanic Associations.
You might be asking — What makes a Creative Idiosyncratic ? Here are my few pointers.
Curiosity into the Humanities
In today’s world of algorithms and data we have forgotten the beauty of humanities. The world painted with colours, emotions and sensuality — allow us to experience and comprehend the social world. Without humanities we become reductionist, who cannot comprehend the most exciting and underlying emerging patterns.
For a phenomenon, to be questioned, studied and comprehend a certain sense of the creative minds need to play. This mind has more autonomy over the analytical mind which makes connection with logic and the knowns.
We need to have more nuanced and deep connection with art, culture, history and creative explorations. This develops our art of “Sensemaking”, as coined by ReD Associates’ US Director, Christian Madsbjerg.
How is Sensemaking different than Algorithmic Thinking ?
Sensemaking is quiet opposite to Algorithmic thinking. It lies in the phronesis, extracting meaning of the contextual and historical. Sensemaking is not in the 4-step framework or the 5 steps process — but in the rigour. It is a demanding form of engagement which needs dots of contexts and information from various places like music, philosophical theories, psychology principles and eventually mesh it up to emerge a meaning out of it. It’s more art and engagement of the senses than science.
How can one Develop Sensemaking abilities ?
1. Variety, Divergent
Taking interest in various pursuits, beyond our work makes our life more lateral, vibrant and diversified. It becomes our colourful knowledge box, with which we can delve our divergent thinking. The more lateral we can go, the more range we would have.
2. Engage senses, Qualitative analysis
To feel, sense and awaken the gifted body to feel knowledge and information.
How does an Ice Cream company creates its jingle or reaches to it’s audience, has to do more with breaking open human psychology, entering with the economic system in place and create value to extract revenue out of its consumer.
How can I take a piece of poem, diverge into inspirational phrases, create a moodboard, analyse the motion, the tension, the protagonist, what the writer wanted to achieve and eventually inspire the next feature for the digital app I am working on.
We cannot do this inspired work without embodying our inner child, senses, curiosity and believing in the creative intelligence of our mind.
3. Diverge, be inspired and draw patterns
Once we have analysed a piece with all our senses — our mind starts to form patterns with it’s own deep seeded intelligence. We have to let our logical mind to shut down and let emotive qualitative mind run loose with intricate colours and silhouette. It will show it’s pattern to you. If you cannot — best is draw an essence of the information and apply analogy thinking.
4. Be inspired, don’t be scared
One last thing, is not to be afraid. More often than not we are scared to think imaginatively as it does not conform to an already existing form, framework or thought pattern. But that’s the good thing — it should not have already existed, thus no need to conform.
I hope with this initial baby steps and (and pre-cursor of knowing that our gifted senses carries information) — we can start making senses, create associations and be little creative with our endeavours.
I am Debarati Rakshit, who loves to think about different existential questions, norms and patterns. I am currently working as a Product Manager by day and learning to have a passion outside too.
