Shibumi was a 1979 best-selling spy novel by Trevanian, but it could also be the core of your business strategy, consultant Matthew May believes. The Japanese word has no direct English translation, but in Change This Manifesto, Mr. May says it "has come to denote those things that exhibit in paradox, and all at once, the very best of everything and nothing: Elegant simplicity. Effortless effectiveness. Understated excellence. Beautiful imperfection."
He outlines seven key concepts, which can bring Zen-inspired creativity to your organization:
KOKO
Austerity
Koko emphasizes the disciplines of restraint, exclusion, and omission. It urges you to be spare, even Spartan, and gives focus and clarity. Mr. May points to W.L. Gore and Associates, which does not give job titles and refrains from the typical corporate hierarchy in order to release the creativity of its staff employees.
Creativity habit 1: Refrain from adding what is not absolutely necessary in the first place.
KANSO
Simplicity
Keep things simple, rather than complicated or ornate, and you can impart a sense of fresh, clean, and neat. Google's home page and the Flip video camera hide their complexity behind a simple, user-friendly interface.
Creativity habit 2: Eliminate what doesn't matter to make more room for what does.
SHIZEN
Naturalness
This involves a balance between being of nature and apart from it - being without pretense and not forced, yet intentional rather than haphazard. His example is shared-space traffic design, which is based on the premise that the busier a street is the safer it is, and traffic controls rob motorists of their intelligence. Since it's not clear at intersections where you might drive, you must slow down, connect to others, and think.
Creativity habit 3: Before taking action, look for naturally occurring patterns, and construct your ideas to fit them.
YUGEN
Subtlety
Leonardo da Vinci displayed yugen when he left things open to interpretation in the Mona Lisa. "He knew that limiting information seduces the viewer. The reason the Mona Lisa looks different each time you look at her isn't because of some secret code or conspiracy. It's because he deliberately blurred the corners of her eyes and mouth, the two most expressive parts of the human face, thus leaving her look completely ambiguous, indistinct, and uncertain," Mr. May writes.
Creativity habit 4: Leave something to the imagination by limiting information.
FUKINSEI
Imperfection, symmetry
The goal is to convey the symmetrical harmony and beauty of nature through clearly asymmetrical and incomplete renderings, leaving the viewer to supply the missing symmetry and thus participate in the act of creation. The popular Sudoku puzzle, for example, involves leaving squares unfilled for adherents to complete.
Creativity habit 5: Appreciate the beauty of natural imperfection. Leave the door open for others to co-create with you.
SEIJAKU
Stillness, quietude, solitude
Silent pauses in music, as well as motionlessness in dance and theatre, illustrate the power of seijaku. "The idea here is this: doing something isn't always better than doing nothing. In other words, instead of 'don't just stand there, do something,' it's 'don't just do something, stand there,'" he observes.
Creativity habit 6: Learn to quiet your mind; designate a time and place for creative solitude.
DATSUZOKU
Break from routine
We need a freedom from routine and the commonplace, to unleash datsuzoku's pleasant surprise and unexpected amazement. And don't wait for the weekend or your vacation; try it throughout the day, by following the principles Tony Schwartz advocates in his books to thwart our loss of energy every 90 minutes.
Creativity habit 7: Re-energize your creativity by taking regular "timeouts" every 90 minutes.
