Book A Think Week

In a fabulous conversation with Adam Grant, Lin-Manuel Miranda shared a key insight his wife derived having observed his process of writing Hamilton up close: "Life is always going to present distractions. The best idea you had (the idea to make a musical Hamilton) actually happened when we were on vacation -- on a pool float with a margarita in your hand -- and you had a moment when your brain could kind of unplug from your day-to-day concerns and really drift."

Rather than allow that to be a loose observation without implications in their lives, they operationalized the insight into a tactic to fuel further creativity in the future: "So she just started booking us vacations. We would borrow a friend's house out of town. She'd stay the first week with me and leave me alone for a week... To me, the creativity part doesn't happen without daydreaming. In my line of work, I need to daydream."

It's easy to dismiss the tactics of wildly creative and inventive individuals (yes, the "Father of Information Theory" would juggle on a unicycle when confronted with a wicked challenge), but in so doing, we fail to harness the very tools that could set us on an unexpectedly fruitful path. For all the flack thinking gets, yet it’s never been more critical to create the space we need.

Bill Gates famously takes "Think Weeks" twice a year which have led to some spectacular advances, like Internet Explorer (I know, I know, “spectacular???” You get my point - it was indeed a timely innovation). Jeff Bezos borrowed Gates’ tactic and ended up formulating a radical new organizational model. Why not steal the strategy ourselves?

The fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda has wielded the same tool deliberately only serves to reinforce the importance of such seasons in providing perspective and space to explore new territory. Maybe start with one day per week, and work your way up to a "Think Week." I, for one, feel the need myself!

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