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Step back a little for that spark of creativity

The creativity process, as put forward in 1926 by English psychologist Graham Wallas, consists of four phases: preparation, incubation, illumination or insight, and verification.
The incubation phase of the creativity process, according to Wallas, is mysterious - you prepare, then you stop and 'incubate,' which involves making no conscious effort to solve the problem immediately (just the intent and motivation to come back to it). It seems to go against the grain of action-oriented leadership. Or does it?
Just consider the number of times you have said out loud 'Let me sleep on it!' That's right - you have been intuitively practising incubation all this time. You have been unconsciously recognising a delay is needed and might bring you deeper or different insight.
The most imaginative leaders among us embrace this power of delay as a real opportunity to enhance divergent thinking. Here are some examples:
1. Frank Lloyd Wright was so late on an architectural commission that his patron insisted he produce a drawing on the spot. That drawing became Fallingwater, his masterpiece.
2. The screenwriter behind the popular US television series The West Wing, when asked about his reputation for putting off writing until the last minute, responded: 'You call it procrastination, I call it thinking.'
3. Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa from 1503 until 1519. Everyone thought he was wasting time, but in fact he was using the time, dabbling in optical experiments ­- the signature of the Mona Lisa today.
Do the above examples seem to be making a case for delay as ingenuity?
The following study may hold the key: In 1993 Deidre Barrett conducted a study called 'The Study of Dream Incubation for Problem Solving.' Seventy-six college students were asked to pick an objective problem they had been working on, and to try to solve it in a dream. Some chose homework, others chose problems from their everyday life. The students focused on the problem each night before going to bed. After one week, half the students had dreamed about their problem and about a quarter had dreamed a solution, which proves that our brains continue to work, even when we are asleep, on problems that baffle us during the day, and the right answer might come more easily after eight hours of rest.
The lesson from research is that sleeping is not a lifeless activity i.e. our dreams could rearrange beliefs, ask 'what ifs,' and solve problems every single night if given a chance.
I know this sounds too good to be true and makes a case for procrastination, but there is a difference between delay and procrastination (which, by the way, does not spark ingenuity). Procrastination, as we know it, is followed by rushed last-minute effort. In a study by renowned Wharton Professor Adam Grant, it was discovered that procrastination does not spark new insight. But methodical delay does, provided there is a desire to come back to the material/issue.
It took me four years to publish my first book, a photo book capturing the essence of our innate leadership through images of West Indian youth and accompanied by inspiring words. I wrote the introduction 'A Love Letter to a Leader of Tomorrow' (Appendix A) back in 2010, and even shot some initial test photography I had never used back then.
I was waiting for something to click on this project but, not sure what, I tucked it away at the back of my mind. I gave it my attention again in January 2014, when I shot the images in the book with David Lazar, a world-renowned Australian portrait photographer. I saw one of David's best-known photos on Facebook, Green Eyed Girl from Bangladesh, and sensed he was the type of photographer I would want to work with.
Who Will I Become was published in November 2015. The final product is breathtaking, more than I could ever have dreamed of back in 2014. It also allows readers access to some of the leadership lessons of my foundation.
Stepping away for a few years allowed me and the project to ripen.
What delay means for you and me is that in moments of uncertainty, or maybe too much certainty, where we may still have space to meet our commitments as leaders, stepping away even for short moments can spark our brains and make us better leaders. Allowing our minds to wander into the unexpected and the unusual gives them permission to play, tinker, make associations, and rearrange, which might just lead to that big 'aha' moment.
Sallyann Della Casa delivers 21st century skills through her edu-tech app, GLEAC