I’m still musing on the late, great Sinead O’Connor’s back catalogue. So many fantastic lyrics. But one stood out for me: It’s all been a gorgeous mistake.
I love the spirit behind that. That we get our biggest breakthroughs when we leave space for chance. For serendipity.
Or, more prosaically, not being so tied to the sheer greatness of our own brilliance that we’re closed to new insight from our customers, our suppliers, and our colleagues. Or even from the process itself.
Now, I’m as much a fan of structure and planning as the next person in what is arguably the industry that has the highest concentration of that end of the neurodiversity spectrum. But equally, I love the happy happenstance that unexpectedly turns the dial up a notch or five.
So while I might long for the illusion of certainty that detailed planning and fully elaborated designs give, I wouldn’t choose it as my only mode of operation. We all need space for those gorgeous mistakes.