Methods & Madness

My sister, Tessa, is a chef in Manhattan. Recently she created a series of culinary events she calls Methods & Madness.  The idea behind these events is for her to team up with a professional from another field and, based on what she learns, to create a menu inspired by the work that they do. She has so far partnered with a painter/illustrator, a perfumer, and a font designer for some truly memorable dinners served at communal tables in unique settings.

What I like about these dinners – besides the fantastic food – is the creativity and curiosity that are behind it. My sister is exploiting what we can all learn by stepping out of our routines, by getting curious, and by gaining inspiration from the most unexpected places.

It reminds me of a problem-solving technique I learned many years ago. In it, you put your challenge aside momentarily and you pick a completely random topic – like things related to the beach – and you brainstorm for a few minutes about that topic. So you’d list things like sand, shovel, waves, umbrella, etc. After you’d exhausted your ideas, you’d pull your original problem back out and see if anything on the beach list could inform your solution to your current problem.  So, if my original problem was say, dealing with a difficult co-worker, I’d think about how waves or an umbrella might help me. Maybe it just reminds me that relationships with colleagues move in waves and that when they are more violent, I need to just ride them or get out of the water. Or maybe it makes me think that possibly some sort of physical barrier, like an umbrella blocking the sun - or a closed office door - would help the situation. I always liked this technique for the same reasons I like the Methods and Madness dinners – it’s another example of stepping out of your current pattern of thinking to gain inspiration.

So how can I apply what I’ve learned from watching Tessa prepare for her Methods & Madness events?  I’m thinking about talking to people in other fields to find out how processes and tools they use might inspire me. There are even people in my own organization whose jobs I don’t understand, which, if I learned more about, might inform how I do mine. Even more, Tessa really creates beauty out of everyday life by turning what someone does routinely into delicious and beautiful dishes. She’s just reminded me of the importance of reaching out and getting curious in another arena and the tasty morsels that can come from that.

Enjoy!
~ Sophie

COACHING EXERCISES

Try some methods and madness experiments of your own. Here are some ideas. If you come up with other ones, please share.  

• Interview someone who does something different than you do: Ask to shadow them in their own setting, or take them out for coffee and really try to get a picture of the tools and methods they employ in their day-to-day work or lives.
• Try the problem-solving technique above with a challenge you are facing.
• Sign-up for a one-day course in a discipline you haven’t been exposed to – psychology, engineering, religion, gardening – and see how you can apply what you learn to those disciplines you do engage in.
• Talk to someone either very young or very old for a new perspective.  With either group, you can be quite up-front about what you are looking to change or to accomplish. Children will tell you straight-out what you should do; elderly people will usually be happy to share their experience or perspective.
• Request a job rotation or take on an internship in some tangential field to your own.

QUOTES I LIKE RIGHT NOW

This quote, which is actually a poem, has nothing to do with the theme of this post, but it does relate to several posts I have written in the past, about gratitude and about seeing the positive in a situation. This was shared at a conference I attended for hospice volunteers earlier this week.

The Uses of Sorrow

(In my sleep, I dreamed this poem)

Someone I loved once gave me

a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand

that this, too, was a gift.

~ Mary Oliver