The decision to set up my own business was probably one of the best that I’ve ever made. I’ve found the past two and a half years deeply rewarding. I have a broad range of exciting clients, and I’m rather proud of the work I’ve been asked to do for them. Have there been stumbles, trip-ups and moments of uncertainty? Yes, of course. There have been darker moments. But on the whole, it has been a thoroughly enjoyable journey. Now it’s time to bring on the office for creative intelligence.
Stop. Pivot time: Office for Creative Intelligence Office.
One of the major stumbling blocks has been to explain what it is I do adequately: you’ll get 20 different answers from my clients if you asked them what I’ve done for them. This isn’t because I can’t make up my mind. It’s simply because I’m in the fortunate position where I’m asked to come up with answers to a multitude of questions. This is hugely rewarding, but it felt like I needed to work harder on finding out what that means. So I spent a day in Berlin, locked in a room with a wickedly strict individual who helped me understand what MJHB, as a business, had become.
Office for Creative Intelligence: Finding answers to other people’s questions.
Without really noticing it, I’d been using a way of working that has slowly, but surely, evolved into something that looks very much like a process, and I use it to find answers to other people’s questions. That’s what I do: I use a method of working that is usually associated with the creative process to find answers to questions being asked in a business setting, and nearly all of the answers to these questions involve some aspect of our increasingly digitalised lives. This process is something that I call Creative Intelligence.
I find this shift of focus exciting and over the course of the coming months, I’ll be sharing more about this way of working, how each step of the process works and why Creative Intelligence is the way of finding answers in an ever-changing world.
Have a wonderful 2017.
MJHB
Photo Credit: Raimund Verspohl.