ARTISTS AND CHEFS

When I was growing up, there was a phrase that I kept hearing:

"He/she who gets the vision gets the job."

In other words, if you had a great idea, it was expected that you should be the person to do it. The phrase (a staple of church meetings, particularly) was usually followed by embarrassed laughter and a sort of "Oh alright then" equilibrium, as though the person had to pretend that they weren't secretly pleased.

Stop.

Is that really the best way? I'm starting to wonder these days. I'm also starting to wonder whether that kind of thinking actually creates experts and silos rather than teams and collaborations. In fact, I think it might even be working against us, preventing us from inspiring, sparking, empowering and motivating each other.

After all, are we all great at thinking up ideas? Are we all great at vision? Are we all good at running things? Are we all great at completing them?

Probably not - we need each other, and we need each other to own the things that are important to us. Plus I think there ought to be room for accountability, and it's harder to be accountable for something if you're the only person who cares about it succeeding.

It's an interesting road, this way of thinking - especially to me. I like ideas and I love the creative process of making them happen - and I don't mean this to sound pretentious, but I think it's because I'm an artist.

Artists get ideas, then they set up the canvas, then they do the work and wait for the masterpiece to fall out of their paintbrushes.

He who gets the vision gets the job.

Well anyway, while art is wonderful, not all of life is like that. Sometimes we get brilliant ideas that we're just not able to carry out ourselves. What should we do? Keep it to ourselves until we have time, ability?

My guess is that the next person along who has a similar idea (or the other half of yours), or oodles of time for some reason, or whatever else is required to make it happen... might feel a bit differently. And what an opportunity might be missed!

And this leads me (nervously chewing on the end of my paintbrush) to one scary conclusion:

Sometimes the best way to make your project succeed might be to be less involved with it than you would like.

Gosh. What if that thing I care about so much is actually better off without me in it? What if that were the only way to make it succeed? Would I be okay with that?

Gulp.

I'll be honest - I'm not sure. And the fact that I'm not sure points me firmly towards the next logical destination on the road... that there is clearly still a lot of pride and a lot of control in me. And I think those things are the things that eat away at us from the inside if we're not careful.

I'm not suggesting that it's best to launch ideas like paper boats on the pond and hope someone fishes them out.

I think there are stages of development, and I think that it's much more about shepherding a good idea and allowing other people to have fun crafting it, in a way that makes them feel empowered.

In that sense, I think I'd like to be more like a chef - dreaming up ideas for a fantastic food experience, but not necessarily chopping potatoes while welcoming customers at the door with a menu. I think restaurateurs know how to delegate and they have to configure themselves into a team to make things happen.

In fact, I think they delegate quickly - perhaps before the idea  (or vision) is fully formed at all! Why not? Who says one person gets the complete vision from the start anyway? Why can't you get a glimpse of a great idea and then immediately start thrashing it out with other passionate, creative people? Let it go, let it flow, let it grow.

So, perhaps 'he/she who gets the vision gets the job' is sort of right. It's just that that the 'he/she' is really 'we', and part of the 'job' is always building people around the project.

So this is where I've landed today - right in the gap between the spark and the engine. The artist in me wants to just get on with it myself, plan it out and then tell everyone what to do. The chef in me knows he doesn't know how to write a menu, plan tables or design a website but he does know how to make food delicious, and he needs help with the rest.

And I think that's where collaboration, delegation, working together, arguing and having a lot of fun begin - long before you've figured it all out by yourself. You have to admit, it sounds much better than being in a team where the great artist has taught you all exactly how to do everything and gets quietly mad when you wander off-piste.

So I intend to capture those sparks of inspiration and find people who've done the same, before I've planned out what to do with it, before my heart has decided on making it happen a certain way and before I'm certain I'm right about the picture in my head. And even if I do have that fluttering image, I'd like to be able to let it fly, in the heart and the hands of an inspired team. Let it go, let it flow, let it grow, I think I said earlier. After all...

We who get the vision, get to build the job together.

And that is awesome.