The Space Between Us

Some conversations create more than conversation.

As I work out what comes next in my career, I've been having a lot of conversations. Former colleagues, clients, friends. People I haven't spoken to for years and people I've only just met or been introduced to.

And I've started noticing something. Some conversations generate a disproportionate number of ideas. I leave with something scribbled in my notebook. Maybe it's an idea (Social License anyone?) or research paper, a question I want to think about. Someone else I want to talk to. Something I want to write. And sometimes it has almost nothing to do with what we were talking about.

Where do ideas pop up in conversation and who with?

I've noticed the same thing at conferences and courses. I can spend a day learning about one subject and come home with six, seven, eight ideas. Some are related to the course. Quite a few aren't.

The course didn't give me those ideas. It created the space in which they could appear. I think some people do that too. So I've started playing with a little experiment.

Think about the people in your inner circle. Then the circle just outside it.

What happens to you when you spend time with them?

Do ideas appear? Do you make connections between things you already knew? Do you notice something differently? Does the conversation leave you with a question, an action, another conversation you want to have, or something you want to write?

And perhaps try the same experiment when you meet someone new.

Not: Are they useful? Are they impressive? Are they a good contact?

Just notice:

What happens to me when I spend time with this person?

I think there's an AI angle to this that I'm still thinking about.

As AI makes information, answers, summaries and increasingly competent ideas easier to access, perhaps one of the things we'll value more about the humans around us isn't simply what they know. It's what happens in us when we're with them.

So for the week ahead;

Who makes you more curious?

Who makes you notice?

Who makes you think?

Who creates the space in which something new can appear?