News Beat
Time to do more nothing: the art of deep hanging out
Modern life can feel relentless, but for many leaders, making space for uncertainty fuels creativity and resilience. Writer and broadcaster Margaret Heffernan, a professor at the University of Bath whose Ted Talks have been viewed more than 15 million times, explains why sometimes it’s vital to do a little more nothing
When the filmmaker Mike Leigh finishes a shoot, the whole team is keen to know when the next one will start. But Leigh doesn’t share their eagerness to move straight on to the next movie. “It’s so important to have time to do nothing,” he tells Positive News. “I read all the time. I look at pictures, wander museums. I like being alone. You need time alone just to look, listen and sense: what’s going on, where are we right now?”
After 16 feature films, nine television plays and 21 theatre plays, you could hardly call Leigh unproductive. Rather the reverse: he’s known for his uncanny capacity to release films that reflect the need or mood of the times, almost as though by magic. But it isn’t magic. It derives from what anthropologist James Clifford calls ‘deep hanging out’: spending time in marginal, overlooked and underestimated places, with no more specific agenda than paying attention. Wandering and noticing. Picking up the vibe. Being where you are.
Deep hanging out is fundamental to creative thinking. A more intuitive form of data collection, it turns out to be a strangely pragmatic way of ensuring a well-stocked mind and, as such, a productive approach to uncertainty. In an age when it is so difficult to see what the future holds, hanging out enlarges our field of vision and educates our instincts. But while wandering, walking and reflecting on what one finds is native to almost all artists, its utility is by no means limited to them.
As chief economist at the Bank of England, Andy Haldane knew that data and models could never provide the depth of insight he needed for important decisions. So he made a point of walking the streets of the City of London, seeking conversations quite different from those available at the bank. Hanging out with community workers and faith groups offered insights he would never have had at his desk. “Trying to make sense of what I saw and heard, I found myself relying more on stories than statistics,” he says. “And the best way to understand the stories people were carrying around in their heads was to listen to what was on their minds.”
The wealth of observation from hanging out encouraged Haldane to experiment, bringing a multitude of different voices into the Bank of England to change some of its conversations. Bringing in such diverse names as Tamara Rojo from the English National Ballet, artist Grayson Perry, campaigner Doreen Lawrence, composer Stephen Hough, and musician Billy Bragg sparked very different conversations.
Spending time ‘deep hanging out’ with no agenda provides amore intuitive form of data collection and is fundamental to creative thinking, says Heffernan. Image: Khamkéo
Challenged as to what he would say to his visitors, Haldane was frank: “I would say I’ve no idea – that’s why I’m doing it. I want to live with the uncertainty. If I knew what Grayson Perry was going to say, he wouldn’t need to come.” Wildly popular, the talks reignited people’s natural curiosity, provoking conversations that rippled across the bank for years.
One benefIt of deep hanging out, in places and with people very different from ourselves, goes beyond gaining a broader perspective. Starting a meeting uncertain of its outcome, and leaving with a mind on fire with ways of thinking, is an emboldening experience. It may mean that I now dare to embrace an idea even when uncertain of where it will lead. That is how innovation begins: when the curiosity to wander produces the confIdence to start exploring uncertainty, instead of being made passive by it.
Authors as different as Lee Child and Haruki Murakami start their intricate novels without plans, not knowing where the plots will go or end up
Many of our most compelling writers know this – and practise it. Authors as different as LeeChild and Haruki Murakami start their intricate novels without plans, not knowing where the plots will go or end up. Part of their pleasure as writers– and ours as readers – derives from wandering with their characters and fInding out. Nobel prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk began her murder mystery novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead with no idea who the killer was: when, two-thirds of the way through, she discovered who it was, she was amazed.
That capacity to work through the uncertainty requires the curiosity to start hanging out and the discipline to keep going. I’d argue that these capabilities are central to dealing creatively with the challenges that uncertainty presents and may explain why now the World Economic Forum’s latest jobs report argues that creative thinking is essential for today’s businesses.
We may not know the future, but these habits of mind help us to invent it. Why are they not taken more seriously? Because they may not look or feel like work; they can look like nothing at all.But as Mike Leigh says to me of his own hanging out: “Nothing happening is something happening.” And it’s what the next movie springs from.
Margaret Heffernan’s new book Embracing Uncertainty: How Writers, Musicians and Artists Thrive in an Unpredictable World is out now, published by Policy Press
Main image: Lindsay Nicholson
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