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DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS64

arrange objects for a still-life drawing. The researchers noted that the
most creative students – identified as those who were most successful
seven years later – had played with more objects, studied them more
carefully and chosen the most unusual objects for their composition, in
comparison with their peers. In other words, the most creative students
did not start with a fixed idea of their drawing; their visual themes
emerged only as they actually handled the still-life objects.

The power of an open mind is not a new discovery. Over two centuries
ago, the German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller wrote to a
friend who had asked for advice on generating new ideas as follows:

‘The reason for your complaint lies, it seems to me, in the constraint which
your intellect imposes upon your imagination . . . Apparently it is not good –
and indeed it hinders the creative work of the mind – if the intellect
examines too closely the ideas already pouring in, as it were at the gates . . .
In the case of the creative mind, it seems to me, the intellect has withdrawn
its waiters from the gates, and the ideas rush in pell-mell, and only then
does it review and inspect the multitude. Your worthy critics, or whatever you
may call yourselves, are ashamed or afraid of the momentary and passing
madness which is found in all real creators . . . Hence your complaints of
unfruitfulness, for you reject too soon and discriminate too severely.’

deciding when to decide More recently, Karl Albrecht has

coined the term the ‘creative procrastination zone’ to describe an area
which you must learn to dominate, but where western action-oriented
management culture tends to make us uncomfortable.47 Albrecht
recognises that timing is everything – there is a right time for each
specific opportunity, neither too soon nor too late. The trick lies in
deciding when to decide. You need to judge how much time you can
give yourself to shape the opportunity before you start to risk paying a
penalty for delay. Jumping too soon in order to be ahead of the game,
but when the opportunity is still very fuzzy, is as dangerous as leaving
things too late, when you risk having only ‘me-too’ products with
which to react. The power of a decision deadline is that it allows you to
generate options and keep alternatives open rather than close them
earlier than you need to. Crucially, it maximises the amount of time for
you to suspend judgement.

Albrecht also highlights how the level of analysis undertaken in
shaping an opportunity is significant as well – being overly reflective
and analytical can waste time and energy in studying unnecessary