Agile creativity is the sweet spot at the intersection of planning and improvising. I propose that’s the intersection from which skilled mediators work much of the time.
David Armano, whose influential marketing blog, Logic+Emotion, is a source of inspiration about creativity, design and user experience, says this about agile creativity:
Agile Creativity is about planning for a variety of scenarios—anticipating and developing a strategy, but not being so rigid as to lose the capacity to improvise when things don’t go as planned. In the overlap exists a state of agility, founded off a core set of guiding principles—yet flexible enough to adapt to changes in the creative ecosystem.
That’s apropos thinking about the art and craft of mediating, too. Skilled mediators are agile, able to anticipate, able to work from a plan of sorts, yet also able and willing to let go of that plan when it makes sense to do so. I say to my mediation students, “Hold on tightly and let go lightly.”
What does it take to become creatively agile? My list will never capture all the possiblities (so please leave a comment to add what I’ve missed), but these occur to me: Confidence balanced by humility. Knowing balanced by comfort with not knowing. Advanced skill balanced by the Zen-like beginner’s mind. Healthy comfort with stepping into the muck of a conflict balanced by a healthy respect for the power of conflict.
This post was originally written in November 2006 for the Mastering Mediation Blog.
Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.
Thanks for the dualisms. I’m playing Morrie in Tuesdays with Morrie, and he has some good combos in the playscript, in Mitch Albom’s book, and in Morrie in HIs Own Words by Morrie Schwartz. My favorite is “Be a witness to yourself. Act as an observer to your own physical, emotional, social, and spiritual states.” Do this while you are being present to others.
Also, he talks about letting yourself feel your anger, frustration, etc., while knowing that you can detach from it. “If you don’t let yourself really experience what’s going on, it won’t be clear what you’re detaching from.”
Hi, Ken – Really nice addition to the list. I think you’re right on the money that elegant mediators are able to self-observe without losing their ability to be fully present with their parties. The mediators I’ve taught who got to this stage did so with lots of practice, patience with themselves, and the decision to stop thinking the mediation was about them and their brilliance!
I appreciate you taking the time to comment and add to the conversation.