A Tensegrity of Creators
Build a group of about six creative people who can understand and support each other.
as World Creators taking the Design Initiative, we’ll often be engaged in the design process. While “design by committee” rarely results in good design, we’ll still need the support of others to do our best work.
When we’re creating something new, getting feedback from others can help us stay on track and fix errors before they cause too much trouble, but we’re our most creative when we believe that no one is watching.
One of the difficulties with taking chances and dealing with uncertainty is that we tend to shut down in the face of criticism. We feel much more capable of taking chances if we believe that no one is looking.
Criticism, however, is invaluable as you create your way through unfamiliar territory. This apparent dichotomy can be resolved by understanding that not all criticism is created equal. Criticism from friends or family, even when they have the best intentions, can be demoralizing because they don’t really understand what you’re doing and their criticism will reflect that.
What you need—and what is a lot less scary—is constructive criticism, the kind that comes from peers who understand what you’re trying to do and the challenges you face. You can also get constructive criticism from the people you’re creating for—your audience, or your “users”—but that is for another pattern.
So, you need at least one other person, and ideally a small group of between 4 and 6 people who can give you useful, constructive criticism. In the same spirit that someone decided that we should call a group of crows a “murder,” I call this kind of group a “tensegrity” because it’s a group of individuals supporting each other in the context of the tension that comes with the creative process. These kinds of groups are also known as “hives,” or “mastermind groups.”
You want to create or find a group with five properties:
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The group members are all actively creating at a similar level of commitment. You may all have different levels of success, fame, income and you may all have different levels of skill and talent, but you should all share a commitment to learn from each other, encourage risk and mistakes, and communicate meaningfully by giving and receiving constructive feedback. In addition, the members must be committed to transforming the group over time to make it stronger and more coherent. A group like this is not static. You must constantly be willing to recreate the group as members grow or change; otherwise, the members will eventually start to outgrow the group and it will fall apart.
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The group should be committed to following the [[ Infinite Path ]], at least in the context of the group. That means, in part, that there should be a commitment to openness and transparency about what you’re working on. As Buckminster Fuller implored, “Go to work, and above all co-operate and don’t hold back on one another or try to gain at the expense of another.” The win/lose dynamic of keeping secrets because you’re afraid someone will steal your idea will just stall the progress of everyone. And it limits the cross-pollination of ideas among members, one of the big benefits of a group like this.
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Another aspect of the infinite path, mentioned in Fuller’s quote, is that members should not try to gain at the expense of others. In more familiar terms, that means that you collectively need to be creating win/win solutions, both within the group and in the creative work you’re doing. Our world is moving away from “I win, you lose” situations, and we need to start modeling the alternative in our lives and in the communities and groups that we create.
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The group should be committed to supporting each other though all phases of the creative or design process. That means that the group can’t focus solely on idea generation or even the implementation of ideas, but must include prototyping and testing. The goal should be to create something meaningful that makes the world better, and that means encouraging members to build with the knowledge that the idea may fail, then be there to support them as they recover and begin the next iteration.
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Each member must be willing to play the role of a mentor, a hero or a champion to other members. Or they should help connect other members with mentors, heroes and champions. As much as a group like this can support a creator, there will still be a need for one-on-one collaboration and support. Outside of group gatherings, members should have a way to connect in groups of two as needed.
Therefore:
Build a group, a tensegrity, of no more than six other creative people who can support your efforts at your own level or higher—people you can trust and who understand the challenges around what you’re doing.
Keep the structure of the group decentralized— [[ Decentralized Control ]]—so that peer to peer relationships are maintained and the tone of the group can stay unaffected by the dark mood of any single member