Give It to the Night Workers
They can work while you sleep.
One of the things that made in-person workshops and courses so enjoyable was the breaks.
Not that running the sessions wasn’t stimulating in itself. No two were ever the same with plenty of opportunity for interaction and discussion.
But it was in the breaks, whether tea and coffee or lunch that you could chat and get to know the participants a little better. Subjects for conversation varied but often included topics related to the science leadership tools and approaches from a recent session.
One morning, in a large bright room overlooking a windswept East England coastline, I was in conversation about creative thinking with one of the scientists on the course .
“I liked the thinking tools you gave us yesterday and I can see how I will use them.”
“That’s great” I replied.
“But when I need some new ideas or have a difficult problem to resolve, I have another method.”
“What’s that?”
“I give it to the night workers. Before I go to sleep I describe it clearly and hand it over them so they can work while I sleep. When I wake up in the morning, there’s usually an answer waiting for me.”
The night workers! What a wonderful way to describe the mysterious workings of the unconscious. How powerful to enrol them in your cause!
I respond that I love her method and probe for some details. She has been using it for years and so doesn’t really think about it — just hands it over before going to sleep.
It reminded me of a scene from 2012 BBC Horizon Programme about the unconscious mind. Several neuroscientists (and surgeons) were given a large sheet of paper. They were asked to imagine that it represented all the human mind. And then to draw on it the portion represented by the conscious mind.
Their responses varied from a short line to a section less than 10% of the page. But the verdict was clear. They believed that the unconscious part of the mind was far larger than the conscious part.
Even if we can’t measure it precisely, clearly our unconscious mind is a big part of who we are. So how could we ‘consciously’ bring it more into play within the constraints of a working life?
How to work with your unconscious
Not everyone will want to go as far as my architecture flat mate at grad school in the USA to access his unconscious. He developed the practice of staying half-awake all night — by keeping the lights on and the radio playing, with a pen and paper at the ready. At breakfast the following morning he would regale me with the ideas that emerged — and then go off to sleep.
Here are three suggestions from my experience that work for me:
- Create space — in between times. The smart phone and social media have combined to squeeze into the little crevices of time which used to exist between meetings, on a journey to work, or waiting in line. Introduce a little more spaciousness into your day —have some phone-off time, increase a scheduled meeting times by 15 minutes to create a little gap, walk to an appointment. When I was a junior management consultant, I remember my line manager saying that if he had some difficult problems to think about, he would make sure he had some long train journeys arranged.
- Be ready for little prompts. Messages from your unconscious can be fleeting. Be prepared to catch them! My method of choice is a small paper pad and pen. Do whatever works for you.
- Try a physical routine. As Agatha Christie said “The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” I can remember driving a tractor to and fro across a field cultivating the soil in preparation for seeding. It was a repetitive task that would take a few hours. Once I had settled into the rhythm I would often find that I was getting into a kind of ‘flow’ state in which new ideas would emerge.
It felt as though my conscious mind being engaged with the task allowed my unconscious to be more apparent.
Now I have no more tractor driving to do, but am still drawn to work outdoors when I can — both for the physical exercise and the chance to encourage the night workers onto the day shift.
Think you’re not creative? Grab a friend and try this simple pencil and paper activity.
Peter Redstone and his artist wife live in South Devon, UK in a converted cowshed. Their 4 children all grew up on the farm before spreading their wings. Peter was a management consultant in the 1970’s, an organic dairy farmer and ice cream maker in the 1980’s and 90’s and now delivers science leadership training. He teaches creative thinking and admits to being a mind mapping missionary.
