We’ve all been on a journey, some people are enjoying the trip and other can’t wait to get there, and now would be better than later. Ever been in that situation where you can’t understand why some people can’t focus on what is happening right now or perhaps you are on the other side where you cant understand why people pay so much attention to what’s happening now and just don’t seem to understand that the future is where it’s at.
Either way you are not alone and there is a reason for this, some people understand that to get somewhere you have to go on a journey. Stopping at every gas station eating soggy sandwiches at every stop, while some see the journey as the tediously boring bit in between “having a great idea” and “it happening”. Either way everyone is in for a rough ride if they don’t find a way to drive together.
Understanding the strange symbiosis between what I like to call the Future Seekers and Active Creators might just make the drive a little easier.
Future seekers are the visionary, sometimes delusional, individuals who seem to unceremoniously barge in and plant a new idea in the middle of a well maintained garden, extremely disruptive and yet strangely exciting creatures who fuel the process of creativity, they get everyone to want to get into the car in the first place.
Active creators on the other hand are the focused, sometimes anal retentive, individuals who take a new idea and expand on it making it into a functional tangible object, or sometimes just debunking, scraping it, and moving on. They are the guys who make sure there is a road-map and enough toilet paper for the trip.
Historically these two creatures don’t play well with each other and requires some sort of buffering and translation work in between them just to get any sort of value out of a conversation. I have often times found myself in the tiresome role of translator turning a flat reactive ‘No’ into a statement of merit, or a ‘crazy babbling mess’ of a concept into a fluid organized conversation. Either way it’s not always pleasant and it always makes me ask the question why can’t we all just get along?
Planning a trip when you know the kids don’t get along? Bring lots of sandwiches, shiny things and toilet paper.
In reality its simple, opposites don’t attract, not here anyway. I have found that active creators posses a far deeper occupational empathy that future seekers. They understand every step of a journey and they sweat, cry and laugh through all of it. They build up a rapport with their team mates and function well under pressure. Sounds like the better of the two right? But I have too many times seen the active creators finish something and then ask, ‘uhm what now?’ At the root of the matter active creators are not the best new idea generators because they live in the here and now basing their effort off of a known plan that is going somewhere. Focusing on the what and letting the why slip away.
And this is why, regardless of your opinion, future seekers have a massive role to play. Someone has to scout ahead and find new grounds to turn, future seekers are great at this, if they understand their role and execute it well. They can spot diamonds in the rough without any idea of how to turn it into the next masterpiece of jewelry. But they can see it for what it is and they instinctively believe it can be so much more and that’s all that matters, the process doesn’t really matter just the potential end result. They are also key in reminding the active creators why they are creating in then first place.
OK so if both have a value to add why are there always such conflicts? Why can’t they all just get along? From my experience it’s a lack of respect and empathy for each other’s distinct roles and mentalities. Future seekers are rarely involved in the actual process of changing and idea into a reality, and as such have little to no concept of the complex nature of the process active creators suffer through, their process of discovery. Conversely active creators have no idea how much rejection, disappointment and sheer mental anguish takes place in the daily life of future seekers, their process of creation, due to failed attempts at unearthing new opportunity and here in lies the fundamental issue. We don’t understand the process each one goes through and as such we cannot empathize with each other, and yet we do a little of each in our daily climb.
A lack of empathy means simply we cannot accommodate the needs of everyone in the car. Don’t get me wrong this is not a hippie bus where we all drop acid and just sing “kumbaya” until we hit where we are going. Although there has been a lot of research done on LSD and Problem Solving this is another topic all together feel free to research it. I digress, floating back down into the car. Sometimes referencing back to the map to tell the future seekers how far away we are from the destination is good enough to keep them happy. Sometimes shutting your mouths and letting the active creators eat their soggy sandwich while starting at a rock on the road is all it takes to make the trip a little more comfortable for everyone. Simply put, a healthy scoop of interest in the other persons life goes a long way to building empathy. Radiating information and choosing when to inject your energy into a situation can make the difference between conflict and cohesion.
Every trip needs a day-walker, it could be you if this is something you are interested in, also you get to decide when we get the candy.
If you are lucky your trip will have a day-walker. Those of us who can fly in the stratosphere where the air is thin and the ideas insane, but oh so amazing and come right down and gracefully land smack into a trench, sweat in the grime of the creative process and make magic happen before your eyes, or at least lead others to do it. These are fairly rare individuals who are most often found in the corner of boardrooms asking poignant questions that make everyone stop and reconsider their positions, yes you have one just think hard enough. These are the people who can ask to see the map and where we are without people getting upset, they are the ones who can explain the meaning of the rock in the road to those who don’t understand it. Quite useful people to have in the car, if that isn’t you I assure you you have one they might just not know it yet.
I don’t know if day walkers are born or made, but I believe day walking is a skill and you can learn it. It all boils down to being able to step outside of the car, look into it, see what is happening and how you can make it more comfortable for everyone. Not everyone will be comfortable all the time, but if you can be comfortable sometimes its better than never being comfortable at all. It is a chameleon game, playing a part on all sides, learning about their lives and their motivators and learning to translate that between the different parties with empathy.
Mind, on the rocks?! 