I don’t know too much about Brian Eno, but he has produced and collaborated on some of my favourite music. The former keyboard player with Roxy Music has worked with truly great artists including David Bowie, U2, Coldplay and Talking Heads, with whom he produced Remain In Light, an album I absolutely love.
Yesterday, I listened to an interview with Eno where he was discussing the importance of ‘surrender’ in creating art. Most of our lives are focused on control, but art and music, along with sport and religion perhaps, are places where we surrender our control to go with the flow, enjoy the process and uncertainty of creativity and be transported somewhere else.
In business, control is critical. It ensures things get done in the right way to deliver meaningful results. Yet, all businesses, all products and all organisational approaches start off as an idea. And the best ideas originate from a creative process where we surrender control, ask ‘what if?’ and ignore our desire to control too much, too early.
Control takes up 90% – maybe 95% or even 99% – of a business leader’s time and focus. But it is 1% of time that is dedicated to creativity and where you surrender control, that produces the ideas and innovations that can make the biggest difference to organisational success.
How do you ensure that you are spending 1%, 5% or even 10% of your time surrendering control and engaging in the flow of creativity?
Off The Record: Spinning Away by John Cale and Brian Eno
On a hill, under a raven sky
I have no idea exactly what I’ve drawn
Some kind of change, some kind of spinning away
With every single line
Moving further out in time