Rein In Time
Yellow Car with Antenna
I can still recall the first time I received a call from a mobile phone.
The small architectural office I worked in was located in a converted cottage at the city's edge. Still a student, one of my main clients was a famous and flamboyant retailer. He was one of the first people in Brisbane to have a car phone, taking up most of the boot in his Porsche, and with the amusing prefix 007.
There was a constant stream of new and renovated projects at the concept, design reviews, documentation, and construction stages. There were no set meeting times, just a phone call to summon me to his inner-city office to review the latest project. We didn't have a fax, and of course, email was years away. When he asked how that plan was progressing, the answer was always- Yes, it was finished. There was no rush. I would complete the project and make my way to the city by taxi or even a leisurely stroll.
He had the most unusual way of running meetings. I could wait in the reception for up to an hour, and then I would be invited to sit at a round table with three or four other people but was rarely introduced. He would run this continuous stream of overlapping meetings, moving from subject to subject at random, often asking for opinions from specific people. Eventually, someone would be dismissed, and another person would take their place.
One day I was at my desk, and I had a call from a client. "How was the latest project progressing?"
"All done."
"Great, I am in your driveway."
That was the fastest plan I had ever drawn in my life, making him wait for about 10 minutes while he chatted to the practice principal in the front office.
That was the beginning of a change in the way we worked. Gone were the days of flexible timing, when a project presentation was done via the post, which would always give a few extra days - using the same tactic clients used for delaying payment -it is in the mail. Or a meeting for most clients that was arranged days if not weeks ahead. The advent of technology, firstly the fax, then the mobile phone, email, and finally social media, has put pressure on the time we have available for the creative processes. Creativity, whether designing, writing, or creative strategy, takes time for thinking, mulling over ideas, and sometimes iteration around the table with random people. Deadlines are important, especially for self-directed work. Still, a deadline with no time for creative thinking will result in less than a creative solution.
So I always remember the day Diana died, and when I received my first mobile phone call, as it turns out, from a 911.
What goes around comes around. All in good time, but don’t allow your deadline to be reined in, at the expense of creativity.
I am a speaker, writer, artist, and recovering architect.
My latest talk is CREATIVE TORQUE.
Less tension, more creative torque.