I Have Always Been a Woman Who Arranges Things

For the musical theatre buffs among you, you may recall this famous line from Hello Dolly- "I have always been a woman who arranges things, for the pleasure and the profit it derives." Cue Carol Channing.  This morning,  I sat by my fish pond looking at my hillside garden and all of the garden art that I have collected over the years. I sat there pondering how I could rearrange it.   I was considering whether the frogs that sit above the pond should be moved closer or whether the garden angel that I bought so many years ago in Mendocino is in just the right spot.  Then there is the ceramic art piece that I bought in Mexico many years ago.  It featured a circle of women arm in arm around a center where a candle sits.  I bought this treasure to remind me of my dear girlfriends and our special circle of friendship.  Sadly, this piece took a spill the other day and is now in smaller pieces.  But I couldn't part with them so I found them each their own special spot in the garden.  Are they where they belong?

I like rearranging furniture too.  There is something therapeutic about it for me.  It helps me see things in a new way.  It's hard to believe, but I have been known to move entire living rooms all by myself.  This desire to move things around, to rearrange them, strikes me quite often.

At my company, we had a standing meeting every Monday morning for our management team.  For many of these meetings, each person had their requisite place at the table.  Likewise, when my marketing team gathered each week, we would find ourselves drifting to the same spot.  But unlike some folks who like things to be orderly and predictable, I actually like it when things get shaken up a bit.  I observe that some people are much more creative when they sit in a different seat.

I heard a fabulous keynote speech earlier this summer at a tech conference in Boston.  The keynote was delivered by Diane Hessan who is now the CEO of the Startup Institute.  Diane has had a stellar career and her message on that day was about diversity, about bringing different points of view to the table.  If you are in an early stage company and everyone around the table looks like you, you are not optimized for success.  You need people who see things differently.  You need to rearrange the room.

This technique of purposefully shaking things up can be a powerful tool in a number of settings.  School teachers have used it with great success.  If there are a couple of rabble-rousers clustered together in one corner of the room, move them around.  Give them a new point of view and some new neighbors.  What about in the garden?  If the tomatoes were not very happy last summer, try them in a different spot next to the snapdragons and see what happens. Or on the soccer field.  Why not try your players in different positions? You might see a whole new set of skills and strengths emerge.

If the configuration and layout of the office is not encouraging idea-sharing, then change it up.  See what happens.  If you are casting a play and there is a casting choice that feels a little bold and out of the box, go for it.  Often these moments are when true creativity is born.

So I will sit a bit longer looking at my garden and I will try to see it in a new way.   I will encourage my colleagues and friends to do the same with whatever it is that they like to observe and admire. What's the worse thing that can happen?  Probably not very much.  Places please!