Get Lost…Ignite Creativity

Ever been lost? Wandering around in some strange place without a clue how to get where you’d like to be? Those of you old enough to remember what it was like before Google Maps and GPS are no doubt cringing, remembering the queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach as you wandered around hoping to see a familiar landmark. Or perhaps you’re smiling, thinking about the time you found an unexpected pleasure along the way before finally reaching your goal.

I just completed an assignment leading a Board of Directors through a strategic planning meeting. On the return flight, as I reviewed the session and remembered how difficult it was to get them to open their minds to new and unusual ideas, it occurred to me that they don’t get lost enough…or perhaps at all. As I thought more about this, I realized this is the case with several of my recent clients. Thanks to technology, we’ve lost the ability to get lost, and that’s hurting us. Our reliance on tools, instead of our own wits, to get us physically to “the right place” seems to have left us incapable of finding our way out of mental jams and considering truly unique solutions.

I’m often asked where I get all my ideas. It seems I’m known for rapidly leaping to expansive and unusual solutions for seemingly insolvable issues. A large part of my ability to think in unconventional ways comes from travels to places where I am completely out of place, with no map or guide to tell me where I am or what to do. Wandering around in remote villages in Uganda or Cote d’Ivoire opens my mind and challenges my thinking with every step. In unchartered territory, your old and familiar ways of thinking won’t get you very far.

Once, while leaving Senegal I became intrigued by the myriad ways one semi-official person after another worked to get you to pay them to allow you to continue to your gate. Those who were helpless in the face of this unusual “custom” simply paid while I bantered with each gatekeeper and got away without paying. There was one enterprising fellow whose line I enjoyed. He spent quite a bit of time building up a good story about how mid-February was the season of gift giving and what a wonderful thing it is to give gifts. The humorous and philosophical conversation we had about this was well worth the small cost of the cup of coffee I decided to gift to him.

When we are lost, we wander. We explore paths never taken before. Without a laser focus on what that GPS voice is telling us to do, we can truly experience things we never encountered before. Inspiration and creativity come to us. They come whether our lostness occurs driving 50 miles from home, on the other side of the world, or while caught up in business problems we’ve never faced before.

We used to understand this well. Mazes were built hundreds of years ago to give people freedom to wander around lost and challenge their minds. We, well, men at least, kept this going with our infamous unwillingness to ask for directions when driving around lost—we were committed to proving our abilities to find our own way.

Then GPS ruined it all. We always know exactly where we are and how to get to wherever we’re going.  Gone is the queasiness of lostness. Also gone is the joy of figuring out how to reach your destination on your own, and doing it—often via some unknown trails that lead to unexpected and enlightening experiences. Most importantly, gone is the freedom of mind and creativity that comes from having to figure it out all by yourself.

Break free from the usual and free your ideas to soar. Get lost.