John Hunt Observation No. 1 "You get SUNRISE or SUNSET people."

Yesterday I accidentally came across a video series from John Hunt and the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. Today I had some time during lunch to begin watching Hunt's multi-part discussion of concepts from his book, The Art of the Idea. I'm surprised he doesn't have more hits given the quality of the presentation (only 778 for part 1 at the time of writing, part 2 317 views, and part 3 240 views...).

The first observation he discusses touches on a concept I've been struggling to articulate, and that's the difference between positive and negative people in a creative environment. Hunt describes SUNRISE people as those who "think the world will be better tomorrow" and those who "radiate energy." Clearly there are people in every organization who suck energy from the room and only offer negative feedback (the SUNSET people). The problem is SUNSET people do have their place. I think Hunt is talking about essentially the same thing in his Observation No. 5 LOGIC is KRYPTONITE. As he says, logic has weight and mass, but in the idea business is applied too early and it kills the idea. "Logic is a nice ballast and filtering process, but not a catalyst for ideas...Apply logic at the end."

I often see the SUNRISE/SUNSET split in meetings between the emotional/logical people in the room. Perhaps, then, this is the real way to look at the difference...what filter does each person bring with them to the creative process? When I first looked at Hunt's observation written out, I thought he was going to discuss people who are better at the initiation of an idea versus those who can close on an idea and give it tangible form. My first reaction might not be too far away from the truth. Sunrise thinking is exuberant and energetic, providing the raw passion and drive to get a project moving. Sunset thinking is restrained and analytic, providing the contextual and concrete implementation of an idea. This also suggests a third kind of thinking, midday thinking where decisions are made in the full light of day but with the knowledge that an end will come all too soon.