Embracing limitation

To unlock your organization’s creativity, separate constraining beliefs from true obstacles.

“Limitations aren’t the end of our potential—in fact, they’re merely the beginning,” said Phil Hansen, multimedia artist and co-founder of Phil in the Circle, Chanhassen, Minnesota. “We need to first be limited to become limitless.”

This is, perhaps, unintuitive advice; we’ve all been told that we must “think outside the box” to achieve creative, innovative solutions. But that boundless freedom can sometimes lead to paralysis when it comes time to take action.

Instead, suggested Hansen, credit unions might think “inside the box” to set realistic constraints to creativity.

During the first general session of Directors Conference in Hawaii last week, Hansen described the limitation that almost ended his artistic career: He developed a tremor in his drawing hand that made it impossible to produce the tiny but distinct dots that defined his pointillism art style.

 

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