Last time, I talked in "fluffy terms" about process control and bottom-up self management. There was struggle and inner strength. One might also view the problem as the age-old: do you as a writer have more discipline, or more creativity? The "consensus out there" seems to be you can be strong only in one. You have to shore up the weaker process.
It would seem from the weight of my discussions on process, is that I struggle with discipline, and hence am always trying to control my unruly Rottweilers. This might mean that I am very creative according to the "consensus out there". Which is partially true. In my previous day job, I had so many great ideas, but was not able to always quickly implement them. If I am honest, most of the lack of implementation wasn't because I wasn't supported by my boss or the organization... It's just that I lacked the discipline to see them through to completion. I often caved in to pressure and let it slide when things didn't work out initially as I had planned, and caved in to negative feedback even though I was once upon at time sure that my theory or idea would work. I lost faith in the process and the control of the process. I lost the faith in the discipline it takes to get a group or process under my control. I lost faith in group dynamics and motivation of my fellow team members (management speak).
Strange, eh? I am the custom department though, I am the maverick. I am no longer interested in group dynamics or people control. With the way the world is, crowd control would be a good field to get into if you are so inclined. I am not. I'll just work on my own control processes, thank You!
I said above that I should be very creative, was only partially true. The struggle for ideas sometimes leads me to believe that I am not creative. This is negative feedback. I have to stop this process stream in its tracks. The ideas are there, they are just not in the proper state to flow. Think solid versus liquid. The water is still there, but sometimes some thing needs to be done to get the liquid to flow again. My ideas are like water (or the unnamed non-Newtonian liquid I talked about before). The things I need to do (plan to do, i.e. discipline) to start-up are meant to get the liquid to flow again. Therefore, one can not have creativity in a vacuum, or discipline in a vacuum. You have to have both and be "good" at both at some level or time in the systems, processes or streams. Whatever you want to call it at this point.
I've always liked fluid dynamics on the theoretical level (micro and macro) and not so much in real life. Real life is always so much more messy. Think polymers, and oil (both the heating kind and the eating kind :-)) I see it everywhere, Newtonian motion, non-Newtonian flow, creep, all those things I studied once upon a time.
In my process control mind, I am the nice wonderful non-Newtonian fluid (far from ideal ;-) ). So it requires some creativity on how to discipline it and get my great ideas implemented quickly. How do I make my systems and processes (start-up, maintenance, shutdown) from being slow and inconsistent like honey to quick and replicable/sustainable like mercury. (without turning a sweet into poison!!)?
This is my challenge now. One day at a time!!!
