When One Becomes the "Powers of Two": The Art of Becoming Your Own Creative Partner – Essay & Resiliency Rap

The Stress Doc explores how his new poem/“Resiliency Rap” – “The Gift of Writing” (below) – evolved from, for him, a novel process of dissatisfaction, honesty, discovery, engagement, frustration and, ultimately, synthesis.  The existential question:  at times, is it possible to be your own creative partner?  And if so, what does it take?  Read on.

When One Becomes the Powers of Two:  The Art of Becoming Your Own Creative Partner –  Essay & Resiliency Rap

Joshua Shenk’s thesis in the thought-provoking Powers of Two:  Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), is clear:  innovation is powered by the creative tension between individuals in great dyads who are both very much different and very much alike.  Think John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Shenk’s prototypic example.  Both driven musical geniuses (who lost mothers in their teen years), Lennon tempered McCartney’s tendency for soppy romanticism, while McCartney helped soften Lennon’s angry, hard-edge.  Shenk adds: “The heart of creative connection is the felicitous and complementary combination of the familiar and the strange.  These simultaneous extremes generate the deep rapport and energizing friction that defines a creative pair.”  I particularly like this line from Shenk:  We need similarities to give us ballast and differences to make us move.

Alas, what happens when a creative partner is not on the scene?  Are you consigned to creative impotence, or can you improvise?  (I suppose one analogy at hand is settling for self-stimulating pleasures instead of the real thing.  Hey, sometimes second best isn’t so bad; and, when on auto-pilot, the imagination can run a little wild.) 😉  But seriously, I may have discovered another option.

The Pass in the Impasse

Recently, I have been reviewing poems and “Resiliency Raps” ™ penned two and three years ago.  The motive:  I had begun to sharpen my Seussian voice – tackling deep, often complex themes with accessible language, graspable and memorable images, as well as fast, feisty, and fun rhyme schemes.  And, as suspected, a number of the earlier works, especially the longer pieces, are more abstract and less clear, even to the author’s mind.  (Of course, as I continue to age, I do become a little more demented.)

In the early stages of this operational procedure, it dawns on me: in paradoxical fashion, I am in the arena of creative opposition…between my past and present selves! And Shenk’s dyadic proposition may well apply. For as I’m rethinking the early works, it’s not just a matter of substituting a word, phrase or image, here and there. Not only am I seriously streamlining the longer pieces but, within a story-like format, making more tangible and mythical the imagery and references. Bringing an evolved mindset to the remake, I’m separating the poetic – verbal and visual – wheat from chaff; there are original images and ideas waiting to be utilized anew.

A significantly different structure is also emerging.  For example, in the poem immediately below, there are shorter stanzas broken up by a repeating chorus.  In addition, what was a one-time only opening line – I write; therefore, I am – now becomes an opening variation for each poetic section, e.g., I write; therefore, I am memory.  “Memory” becomes the organizing theme for the short segment.

Danger and Opportunity

The challenge of this surgical procedure is as much egotistical as it is operational:  accepting that my earlier work was significantly flawed.  It wasn’t as wonderful as I previously believed.  To my credit, I was experimenting with new poetic formats.  A memorable poem, like a classic city, isn’t built in a day.  For original production, the courage to take an honest look in the mirror, to recognize the circuitous process, perhaps time wandering in the proverbial desert, the opportunity for noodling and trial and error experimentation which allows, finally, the return to familiar territory with a fresh mindset, ready to seek feedback, if not a partnership, is a growing sign of personal-professional maturity that should not be minimized.

Actually, it’s not unlike the “step” work I’m doing.  Areas in my life that seemed “settled,” are presently being exposed as sources of defect and dysfunction (“d and d”).  But instead of being immobilized by feelings of shame, as I may have in the past, or denying the issues altogether, I’m more challenged to wrestle with d and d, in group meetings as well as alone and with one or two fellow “steppers.”  (There’s that “power of two” theme, again.)  So let’s add two “d”s:  new direction and determination!

And “constructive discontent” is often the starting point for creative problem-solving, whatever the generative or innovative domain.  One might say, doing a fierce and fearless, overall life/moral inventory regarding emotional beliefs, behaviors, and relations (the “12-step” forest) is facilitating this poetic reappraisal and risk-taking (of the “word artist” trees).

Naturally, there is risk tearing down an existing structure; one that I’m defining as outdated, of insufficient quality.  Will I be able to construct a worthy replacement?  An image of buildings inadequately designed to withstand earthquake tremors comes to mind.  And after such a trauma, hopefully you are motivated to rebuild with stronger materials and sounder blueprints.  Perhaps I’m in a period of psychic quaking, as it were.  A courageous second look allows for assessing strengths and gaps.  Now there is opportunity for rejuvenating poetic form and function that is both firmer and more fluid.  Hopefully, your work can sway and withstand natural tremors along with human slings and arrows.  (Ultimately, you, reader, will be the building inspector 😉 .)

Closing

A question comes to mind:  do you have other projects (not necessarily involving poetry or even writing, for that matter), that might warrant a second look?  Are you ready to explore the “Powers of Two,” ideally with a partner?  But if one isn’t on the horizon, can you turn your former self or an old work into a provocative antagonist, perhaps an arena where thesis and antithesis do battle.  It just may be time for new creative synthesis.  To good adventures.  MG

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The Gift of Writing

I write; therefore, I am

Hey, Rene, ** this is no scam

It’s in the stars of this Aries ram.

Head in the clouds; mind on the lam

Still head-butting that nightmare exam.

I write; therefore, I am memory

Ghost voices smolder in purgatory

Smoke signal secrets of the family:

That “don’t talk, don’t trust, don’t feel” litany

May one scratch history from jaws of mystery?

Writing, Writing

The art of inner fighting

Writing, Writing

Are you still deciding?

I write; therefore, I have a brain

Word Legos helps design the sane

Till mind meets wall…there’s no more to gain

But REM sleep drama for all the pain.

Red morning eyes know the Sisyphus ** strain:

It’s in your blood…Up the mountain again!

I write; therefore, I have a role

9-5…just not how I roll.

Why do they scoff?  Some try to cajole…

Don’t make me laugh: “Just set a goal.”

For fiery dreams that still burn a hole

Plug in…compose:  lay bare Shadow Soul.

Writing, Writing

A knack for in-sighting

Writing, Writing

No more closet hiding.

I write; therefore, I am not null

All in my head; perhaps full of bull?

Whatever is said, at least I’m not dull.

Seuss-lite illumes the jet-black tunnel…

Rising from ashes – a Phoenix role model:

A keyboard with wings – new mythic seagull.

I write; therefore, I have an image

Is it true vision or just a mirage?

Trapped in a maze or safe passage for rage?

But one way to know…leap to the stage!

Who knows where you’ll go on a blank screen or page!

Writing, Writing

When spirit starts igniting

Writing, Writing

No more simply gliding.

Writing, Writing

Like thunder and lightning

Writing, Writing

On Pegasus **…start riding.

**  Rene Descartes (1596–1650), French philosopher, mathematician, and man of science. He concluded that everything was open to doubt except conscious experience and existence as a necessary condition of this: “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am).  In mathematics, he developed the use of coordinates to locate a point in two or three dimensions. The Cartesian coordinate system is named in his honor. (Oxford Dictionaries)

**  In Greek mythology Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him, repeating this action for eternity. Through the classical influence on modern culture, tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean.  (Wikipedia)

** Pegasus, in Greek mythology, a winged horse that sprang from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa as she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. With Athena’s (or Poseidon’s) help, another Greek hero, Bellerophon, captured Pegasus and rode him first in his fight with the Chimera and later while he was taking vengeance on Stheneboea (Anteia), who had falsely accused Bellerophon. Subsequently Bellerophon attempted to fly with Pegasus to heaven but was unseated and killed or, by some accounts, lamed. The winged horse became a constellation and the servant of Zeus. The spring Hippocrene on Mount Helicon was believed to have been created when the hoof of Pegasus struck a rock.

In late antiquity, Pegasus’s soaring flight was interpreted as an allegory of the soul’s immortality; in modern times, it has been regarded as a symbol of poetic inspiration.  (Encyclopedia Britannica).

© Mark Gorkin  2017

Shrink Rap ™ Productions

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a nationally acclaimed speaker -- on stress & burnout, performance-leadership and captivating communication -- as well as recognized authour, and "Psychohumorist" ™.  Mark is a founding partner and Stress Resilience and Trauma Debriefing Consultant for the Nepali Diaspora Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative and is a current Leadership Coach/Training Consultant for the international Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University at the Daytona, FL headquarters. A former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, he has led numerous Pre-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for the US Army. Presently Mark does Critical Incident Debriefing for organizational/corporate clients of Business Health Services. The Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress, The Four Faces of Anger, and Preserving Human Touch in a High-Tech World. Mark’s award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR). For more info, email: stressdoc@aol.com.

The Art of Letting Go: A CRE-iterative Process and Virtual Synergy Dynamic

Why should I be sending a streamlined version of my recent essay titled, Generating Virtual Synergy:  Turning the Iterative into the Creative?  Why the need to rework it?  To answer these questions, I must traverse the pragmatic to the psychological.  Hopefully such (psycho)-analysis will provide another window into the iterative process.

A concrete motivator was an editor of ORATE Speakers Bureau Website saying they are more carefully monitoring article length.  I was way over their new word ceiling, hence the “request”:  “We need you to reduce “Ten Tips” to “Five?”

The “Ten Tips” had generated some very positive feedback.  I even suggested dividing “Generating Virtual Synergy” into two parts.  The editor tactfully acknowledged this being a “wonderful idea”…but they still wanted a leaner version.

Okay, so my ego was a bit bruised.  You know the old adage:  Vanity thy name is Gorkin!  Actually, my two-part counter reflected a hard-earned understanding that major editing was not mere cosmetic surgery, a little nip and tuck.  And especially when enamored by almost all of my ideas and examples…which of the pearls must be grudgingly tossed back into the sea?  Yes, having to tear down and redesign one’s hand-crafted word artistry evoked a sense of loss – parts pride and artistic control – if not some short-lived grief.  (There’s a familiar voice inside:  C’mon get over it.)  And adding insult to injury…I was caught by my own recently coined maxim:  Keep It Short and Smart!

Stop Ruminating and Jump In

Not surprisingly, anticipation was worse than the actual “cut and paste” operation.  As the Ancient Roman poet and philosopher, Horace, avowed:  To begin is to be half done; dare to know – start!   The result of cutting and combining some of the ten steps and strategies as well as casting out several no-longer-so-precious-pearls…a more concentrated and punchy KISS!  In fact, tightening up the document led to tossing some abstract concepts while more concretely illustrating those left standing.

The trimmed down, “Five Steps and Strategies” version, was, IMHO, still a hearty spread, full of meaty chunks of ideas, learning points, and stories.  Was “Ten Tips” the equivalent of a belt-loosening ten-course oral orgy?  Ugh…anybody have some Alka-Seltzer?  If what was left out was truly essential, I could always write another essay; with the leftovers have another “food for thought” meal.  Right now, though, I’m feeling nicely sated!

Finally, I must recognize, with new-found humility, that the ORATE editor had extended and strengthened our iterative process and product – a sequence of operations yielding results successively closer to a desired result.  Please tell me your take:  IYHO, do we have a more efficient and hence effective, more synergistic outcome?

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The Stress Doc provides key steps, skills, and strategies for transforming a virtual problem-solving exchange into a CRE-iterative, synergy building and product-generating process.

Generating Virtual Synergy:  Turning the Iterative into the Creative

Key Steps and Strategies

Recently I met Dr. Terence Jackson, through a Linked-In intro.  Dr. J is an experienced Corporate Culture-Organizational Development-Business Strategist and Thought Leader.  While I’m a Motivational Speaker and Stress and Change Resilience, Anger and Conflict Management, and Team Building “Psychohumorist” ™, known as the “Stress Doc ™.  While Dr. Jackson lives in North Carolina and I'm based in Columbia, MD, we quickly began to virtually and conceptually groove. In fact, a fiery kindling of the minds soon sparked an “iterative process” through our dynamic exchange of emails and calls.  Our back-and-forth generation of content, suggested edits, encouragements, differences, resource links, etc., mirrored the Miriam-Webster Dictionary definition of iterative:  a procedure in which repetition of a sequence of operations yields results successively closer to a desired result...even, I would add, a divergent and unanticipated, if not novel, outcome or product.  In fact, our neologistic conceptual baby/program – Organizational Resilience & Rhythm:  Achieving High Tech & Human Touch Harmony (and Profitability) – was CRE-iterative!

The Mind- and Outcome-Expanding "Iterative" Process:  Five Key Steps and Strategies

What is it about the virtual-iterative experience that lends itself to all manner of problem-solving and product development?  If this question intrigues, get ready to discover how iterative arenas, pathways, and processes (“app”s, if you will) stimulate the Stress Doc’s enriched notion of “synergy”:  Not only will your product’s essence be greater than the sum of its parts…but parts just may magically transform into partners!

Consider these five key components of the back-and-forth electronic interplay of two individual and idiosyncratic minds:

1.  Division of Labor yet a Common Language.  From the outset, there was some role division:  Dr. J was more the conceptual generator, especially of macro- or systems-wide organizational issues, e.g. “Organizational Rhythm.” The Stress Doc was a writer-integrator weaving specific stress resilience-communication tools and concepts within the “big picture” framework.  One example, I added “Resilience” to Dr. J’s “Organizational Rhythm.”  To Dr. J’s emphasis on “Cultural Accountability” I amended “Authority” and “Autonomy,” i.e., yielding The Triple “A” – Authority, Autonomy and Accountability – of Organizational Responsibility and Resilience.  Our conceptual and experiential diversity, far from dividing us, increasingly vibrated a Yin/Yang sympathy.  A key factor:  we both spoke the language of “Emotional Intelligence.”  A common or complementary language means less time and energy is expended in “message sent equals message received.”  More important, it also facilitates the intuitive connection, that is, a capacity to quickly get the gist of what’s being expressed and/or to plumb unspoken or shadowy depths. Such a wavelength connection also generates an ability to listen and leap into analogical, mind-rippling, pathway-generating ideas and images

Of course, words and phrases may evoke multiple images and meaning.  When Dr. J talked “inclusion” his primary emphasis was maximizing the diverse talent, experience, and input among employees in the organization.  In contrast, my initial focus was more micro:  “inclusion” evoked the military phrase “helmets off,” that is, to hold a meeting where for a period of time there is no rank in the room; “right (or at least good reasoning) makes might,” and the Corporal gradually trusts that it’s safe to talk candidly even with the Colonel in view. 

2.  Evolve and Exchange Resources and a Working Goal.  Almost immediately Dr. J and I had a sense of the project – organizational development training/leadership retreat programs.  However, what a joint presentational system-program would look, sound, and taste like was still a mystery.  Early back and forth through email and an initial phone call definitely generated more questions than answers.  Finally, a phone dialogue was just the spark to grasp and grapple with Dr. J's purposeful concepts and passionate focus.  From “jazz riff rhythm” to “cultural accountability,” concepts had give-and-take resonance.  Of course, the speed at which information or links can be shared keeps the information sharing and idea swaying process fast if not furious.  And when a thesis is met by a counterpoint or antithesis…this often disturbs the status quo…and may motivate or set the stage for a concept-expanding synthesis.  A paradoxical challenge of this process:  fight for those issues or beliefs you believe critical yet be receptive to contradictory or challenging ideas; be willing to let go, at least temporarily.  (For example, a CEO once underscored his enigmatic learning-performance mantra:  Strive high and embrace failure!)  Conceding a battle does not mean the campaign is lost.  In similar fashion, alas, establishing a beachhead does not mean the island is conquered.  Sustaining a genuine back-and-forth, iterative process, just may determine the day!

3.  Vive la Difference!  I recall a late 20^th c. problem-solving study involving submarine personnel.  The most salient outcome:  the teams that had the most heterogeneous-culturally diverse groupings invariably came up with the most creative solutions.  While quick to achieve a solution, the homogeneous process-product tended toward the one-dimensional; agreement was reached too easily.  The more diverse teams had to grapple with difference and even conflict; they had to allow and learn from and reconcile divergent viewpoints and the competition of ideas.  While conflict-driven problem-solving requires greater time and energy, these groups produced a more truly collaborative, multifaceted, expansive, and effective problem-solving synthesis.  As John Dewey, the 19^th c. pragmatic philosopher and “Father of American Public Education” observed:

Conflict is the gadfly of thought.  It stirs us to observation and memory.  It shocks us out of sheep-like passivity.  It instigates to invention and sets us to noting and contriving.  Conflict is the sine qua non of reflection and ingenuity!

4.  Allow Values-Driven Issues to Build Understanding and Trust.  In an iterative process, with two passionate- and purpose-driven individuals, it’s vital to distinguish when fighting for an idea is or is not critical.  It may be preferable to concede a battle to sustain iterative and integrative give-and-take.  Unless repeatedly hitting a negotiation wall, the goal is to continue as allies in the greater war/project effort. Retreating not only allows opportunity to lick wounds but may facilitate toughening a “thin skin”; most important, it also provides time and space for conceptual battle seeds to germinate in one or both parties’ minds.  I recall our exchanging messages about the recent NY Times report on the very demanding if not possibly corrosive workplace culture at Amazon.  It reminded me of the label for the 24/7, 6000 person workfloor at a US Postal Service Processing & Distribution Plant:  “The Postal Plantation.”  (I had been a USPS Stress & Violence Prevention Consultant in the ‘90s.)  Perhaps Amazon was now inviting its own sobriquet:  “The High Tech Plantation!”  Dr. J had a strong reaction to my provocative cultural metaphor:  “Nobody was losing their life at Amazon.  Folks could leave the Amazon plantation if they had enough.”  As an African-American he thought I was trivializing the horrific, culturally devastating, too often mind-body and family-crushing experience of slavery.

I was taken aback by the intense rejoinder while also questioning my own cultural sensitivity.  (Upon reflection, I certainly have a visceral reaction when believing the Jewish Holocaust of WWII is being trivialized.)  Though still somewhat enamored of the metaphoric marker, mulling over my own and my partner’s perspective, I emailed saying that I could let go of the terminology.  In turn, Dr. J indicated that wasn’t necessary.  He just wanted to affirm his cultural-historical vantage point, a value which touched his core.  In some ways, this exchange was a test of our willingness to give and take culturally.  In addition to the outcome of my more intimate understanding, I believe we both emerged with a greater sense of trust in both the person and the process.

5.  The Lennon-McCartney Effect.  Reading a biography of Paul McCartney of the Beatles is helping to shape my thinking on this essay.  John Lennon was often deep and dark, if not an angry and cynical hard rocker; Paul tended to be breezier, pop-friendly, and engaging.  Yet, Paul could profoundly touch your heart with such songs as “Yesterday” and ”Let It Be” while John could inspire with “Imagine” or “Give Peace a Chance.”  They were each other’s’ toughest critics when Paul’s lyrics were too sappy or John’s music was too grungy.  And despite their differences there were profound commonalities:  In addition to their idiosyncratic genius and being awash in both the musical culture of Liverpool and the African-American/Southern roots of US “Rock and Roll,” together they developed their musical chops by the rough and tumble Hamburg, Germany wharves.  In their own way, each was driven and ambitious, yet also possessed a sly sense of humor.  Perhaps most poignantly, they both had lost mothers during their teen years.  The bottom-line message is not that iteration requires genius, but that differences and commonalities, along with heart- and soul-shaping life experiences, all seed and spice the creative stew.  Steadily bring your full self to the give and take.  The “how to” lesson for this CRE-iterative essay:  play to your strengths, share resources, be flexible with roles and focus, and be open to and daring with new ideas and viewpoints.  Let conflict and criticism push your conceptual boundaries more than your emotionally charged buttons.  Gradually build trust.  Find an inquisitive and responsive partner who will provide the Stress Doc’s TLC:  Tender Loving Criticism and Tough Loving Care. 

Are you ready to find such a partner and go back and forth for it?

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a nationally acclaimed speaker, writer, and "Psychohumorist" ™, is a former psychotherapist and Stress & Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service.  The Doc is a Trauma Debriefing and Critical Incident Consultant for variety of organizations, including the national post-earthquake, Nepali Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative. He has led numerous transformative -- silo-breaking and communications bridge-building -- Pre-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for US Army Senior Officers and Sergeants.  He also provides international Stress Resilience and Burnout Recovery Phone-Skype Coaching.

The Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress:  Healing and Laughing in the Face of Stress, Burnout & Depression and The Four Faces of Anger:  Transforming Hostility and Rage into Assertion and Passion, and Resiliency Rap:  The Wit and Wisdom of the Stress Doc.  His award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  Email stressdoc@aol.com for more info.