The following “conversation” between Ana, Michelle and Dave appeared on one of the whiteboards in my office:

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary”

-Pablo Picasso

“Do not fear mistakes – there are none. ”

“You have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.”

-Miles Davis

From Ana:
I was listening to this over the weekend and thought of ‘splat’. One of my take-aways from this was the distinction between something being a mistake and being an opportunity comes not just from how the person uses/perceives it, but how it is received by others (in this case, the other musicians). Worth thinking about how we say ‘yes, and…’ to each other’s mistakes, transforming them.

You can listen to the full Radio Hour episode with other stories on mistakes here.

From Dave:
YES. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this one before. It’s great. The sophistication of Miles Davis and other virtuosos is so brilliantly advanced that they often purposefully put themselves in predicaments to find a way out of- be they harmonic (notes) or rhythmic. The genius of improvisation is this balance between countless hours of study and then throwing the rules out. The combination of the two can make for an original voice or style. I could talk about this all day! And yes, I think that these notions and philosophies can be applied to other professions and trades and parenthood and being human. After all, every day, all of us takes what we know, we apply it, and we encounter something unplanned which is a challenge to face. Hopefully we discover new things and turn ugly wrong notes into beautiful new undiscovered roads to success. ART. Thanks for this.

So where in our teaching and in our classrooms do we create the space for this mistake-making and improvisation? Where is your “splat?”