Where and how do we have our best ideas?
Archimedes famously had his eureka moment in the bath and then ran naked through ancient Syracuse. So perhaps the answer to the question is to have more baths and streak more often? Newton discovered gravity not in a laboratory but by sitting observing apples falling from a Lincolnshire tree. Maya Angelou said, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been”. Einstein advised that problem solving takes great patience. Anthony Sheldon the biographer of every Prime minister since John Major said that one thing, they all had in common was a shared regret about the lack of time spent thinking through what they were trying to achieve. But only in hindsight could they see this clearly.
What is negative capability?
The poet, John Keats defined negative capability in 1817 in a letter to his brother as;
“…when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason”
Negative capability is the ability to be comfortable with mystery, with not knowing. It is about being fully present in the moment without any preconceptions or judgments. It is the calm in the eye of a hurricane. Negative capability includes the ability to take some time to think about an issue or dilemma without leaping to conclusions or having a knee jerk reaction.
How can we cultivate patience, reflection and negative capability?
In the hectic digital world of modern organisational life, we really need to cultivate the virtues of patience, reflection and negative capability. Yet just when we require it the most the pace and demands of our working lives make it increasingly difficult to set aside time for reflection.
Reflective practice groups are a way of activating the intuitive and creative parts of ourselves. Attending a group provides a space and a fixed time to step back from the day to day and to engage with our experiences at work in a deeper way. When a reflective practice groups is working well participants spark off ideas in each other and solutions can be found to problems which previously seemed intractable.
If you think it might be helpful to find out more about reflective practice why not attend a free taster session or join a group