Did you know that people are a lot more creative when they're in a messy room? The reason: cluttered, chaotic rooms invite people to take unconventional paths and gain unexpected insights. As Einstein already knew: The genius masters chaos.
A special species of these "creative chaotic people" are the so-called scanner personalities. This is the term used by U.S. author and coach Barbara Sher to describe people who are multi-talented and therefore have a correspondingly large number of interests, hobbies and skills, some of which are very different. For these people, it is torture to be bound by fixed structures or to have to follow a prefabricated time and action plan.
This means that creative lateral thinkers are actually excellently prepared for the future. Because the future will adhere less and less to any guidelines, plans or deadlines. With the increasing complexity of our environment, the multi-layered problems and the rising demands on productivity, innovativeness and out-of-the-box thinking, we are increasingly moving away from structure and planning. It's disruptive and unproductive to quietly develop the perfect solution to a challenge, only to discover that in the meantime, the challenge has become something else entirely. We must remain flexible. Scanners are naturally like that, they are at their best when they are free to get excited, to let loose, to throw themselves into things and to try things out. That's how they come up with solutions that may be crazy, but they work.
Please don't misunderstand: Focusing on a goal, on the ideal of a desired outcome, remains right and important. But what matters to me is not to put obstacles in the way of people getting there.
Remember that the next someone says to you: Focus! Follow the fixed structure and focus on your goal, then you will achieve it! In fact, this well-intentioned advice in itself means nothing other than: Create order and structure, make a plan and stick to it. Just ignore this suggestion for once and set out on your own.
Awaken the "scanner" in you.
