Mediocrity and creativity
I just saw an interesting post on the Soflow Creative Forum (subscription req’d) that made me think. The poster posited:
- There will always be the mediocre guy, right? The one with half-baked ideas and weak weltanschauung that invariably invites the roll of the eyes or the sailing of the palm over the head indicating “clueless”.
Does mediocrity play an important part by showing/reminding creatives “where not to go”? He’s the fall guy, the brunt of endless humor, the targeted laugh of the day.
Where would we be without the guy who does the boring stuff, the tedious busy work that no one wants to get stuck with?
Or where would we be without the lukewarm work of someone else?
If we were all instense, amazing, prolific and wonderful artists, then what?
Meeting planning to me seems like a mix of the creative and the prosaic—at least on the surface. But even the most prosaic parts, say, registration or bag-stuffing, also has lots of room for creativity (I was so proud of myself for coming up with a better way to stuff bags at our first annual Pharmaceutical Meeting Planners Forum). Is there a place in meeting planning for mediocrity, if for no other reason than to make the stars shine brighter? I understand the need for the “workhorses” who just get it done, but I’d argue that there really isn’t.
But I was surprised at the answers the original poster got, which ranged from “mediocrity is just a matter of semantics” to “in some organizations, it’s better to be ‘in the safe zone’ of mediocrity than to stick your neck out to try something different.” Is that why so many meetings are mediocre, because planners are afraid to step out of the safe zone for fear that the neck that sticks out gets chopped? Or is it just inertia, the “we’ve always done it that way so why mess with success” syndrome?
Related Topics: In my opinion
November 21st, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Studying mediocrity is important. As a speaker on innovative thinking, talking about “the opposite” is a great way to gain insights into your area of interest. For example, if you want to learn about capitalism, study Marxism.
Mediocrity is what is left when innovative thinking is missing — with one exception. Not every problem needs an innovative solution. Some just need to be improved.
However, where an opportunity exists to create an innovative solution that could really benefit the users of that idea and we decide on the easy option or the status quo option, the result is mediocrity. There is a great deal of mediocrity in many conference — events are planned without learning objectives, and people freely admit that they make notes and never look at them again. How bizarre when you think of it.
I would stay away from saying some people are ‘creatives’ and some are not. Creativity is something you earn with every decision, solution and action. Your job title does not make your creative!
I saw an advertisement that gives us a great perspective: Develop a pig headed resistance to mediocrity.
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