In sculpture, it’s the negative space – what isn’t there – that makes what IS there so powerful. Negative space, also known as white space, is where nothing appears to be.

In a positive focused society, we see what is, and rarely take the time to consider what isn’t. We focus on the solid and tangible, forgetting that it is the intangible compliment that completes the whole picture. Think yin yang. Positive and negative are rarely equal in size and shape, but always equal in importance.

In bonsai, it’s the space between the branches that creates a sense of movement.

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Creativity for some comes as a flash of inspiration or insight. For people who consistently generate creative ideas, that flash is no coincidence, but the result of an awareness of intersecting paths. By focusing our attention on information that does not fit accepted pattterns, we force our brain to lower its associative barriers and establish new meaning. In the process, new realms of possibilities unfold. 

In this second excerpt from Lea Redmond’s thesis, she reveals how the curious workings of presuppositional frameworks create these associative barriers. Their effect is illustrated with the story of the rice-boats from David Abram’s book, The Spell of the Sensuous. This example shows one way that presuppositions can be revealed and questioned. (See previous excerpt Mistakes and Possibilities).

A “strange incongruity” is a phenomenon that catches us off guard

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Think about the holes we dig ourselves into with the assumptions we make every day. In a rush to make timely decisions, meet inflexible deadlines, or conserve our limited time, we default to reliable decision-making patterns. The result is a failure to differentiate ourselves, our projects or our organizations. Our decisions follow a very calculated and very predictable course of action.

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I recently connected with Lea Redmond, the insightful writer/artist and founder of Leafcutter Designs. We share a common interest in David Abram's book, The Spell of the Sensuous. Abram succeeds in connecting the patterns of organic energy with speech, the alphabet, written language and scientific explanations. He weaves this incredible string into a rich path that includes anthropology, ecology, philosophy, mysticism and science. It is not a simple journey, but an enlightened one. The depth of his research and breadth of his references gives this book a magnitude of uncommon proportion.

"Our understandings rest upon our presuppositions which filter how we see the world," says Redmond. Abram's book begins with his surprising experience of an Indonesian ritual. Leaves are folded into little boats, filled with rice, and given to the "house spirits," (which end up being ants).  In Lea's thesis, she takes a close look at Abram's experience by considering the relationship between presuppositions and insights - mistakes and possibilities."

With her permission, I am including an excerpt from her thesis:

There is not a “right” and a “wrong” way to see because there are no neutral interpretive categories. This is because interpretation involves the projection of a certain range of possibilities that will cut off other possibilities.

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Read the summaries from 10 speakers at The Front End of Innovation - Europe. The conference was held 28-31 January, 2008 in Vienna, Austria.

Knowledge worker is a misleading term. When Peter Drucker first defined it, he elevated information and those who handle it to a new level of importance.

Knowledge implies value and validity. History provides dozens of examples of “knowledge” reduced to quaint anecdotes after innovative ideas have overturned how we interpret that knowledge.
Knowledge workers for the most part are baggage handlers, porting information from point to point with little comprehension of the contents of the baggage they handle. When tasked with thinking outside the box, few are comfortable or even capable of seeing beyond the surface of the knowledge which boxes their imaginations.

Knowledge is backward-facing information. The unfortunate fate of many organizations will be a lack of ability in combining knowledge with imagination to generate alternate scenarios and opportunities. Extracting concepts from existing knowledge and integrating it with information from diverse exterior sources is a vital to innovative thinking. Identifying unique alternatives for processes, products or services is the foundation of future competitive advantage.

Knowledge can blind people to alternate possibilities. Leveraging knowledge by challenging its value and validity can create opportunity. An organization that manages knowledge but fails to challenge the meaning is on a one-way trip to the walled space of mediocrity. Differentiation and competitive advantage will continue to remain beyond its grasp.

Burt Rutan cited crisis as the primary reason for U.S. successes in the space race of the 1960s and 70s. Fear that foreign satellites could control outer space created a sense of urgency that resulted in rapid and far reaching innovations. One out of every thousand U.S. patents belongs to NASA. The agency holds over 1,400 aeronautical patents alone. Innovations impacted society as a whole as consumer products adopted and integrated these patents.

Putting humans into space required broad design thinking – an ability to grok the entire issue and integrate diverse resources and processes into a single effective system. Success required far more than constructing a rocket. It involved innovation throughout the entire supply chain, ground support system, life support system, global tracking system, training system, public relations system and many others.

Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, Inc. and self-described radical industrialist, views global warming as a crisis of even greater proportion. But he sees it as an opportunity more than a crisis.

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