Creator Kata
A simple framework for consistent, deliberate improvement in a direction.
“The Creator Kata is an experimental approach to learning applied to the creator journey.” — The Prolific Creator
Lasting improvement takes consistent, deliberate effort.
Sounds good on paper, right?
How do you actually DO it?
This is where creativity meets process and framework... the simple but effective kind. Creativity must be given room to flourish while providing useful constraints to focus it. Improvement requires regular experimentation and evaluation.
My favorite framework is called the Improvement Kata. It goes something like this:
Set a direction.
Grasp the current condition.
Establish the next target condition.
Get there with small experiments.
I first ran across this framework as a software developer. I find it equally useful with just about any kind of improvement. So why not apply it to the creator journey?
The result is something I call a Creator Kata. It adds two crucial steps:
5. Share the result and how you got there.
6. Reflect on what you learned.
Sharing yields community and a fresh perspective, both of which transform an obstacle to the way. Reflection maximizes learning and yields much needed wisdom for future action.
The Creator Kata is iterative or cyclical in nature. Each cycle is an incremental improvement in a direction. Course correction occurs frequently while the difference remains small.
Feedback is quick. One cycle informs the next with newly acquired wisdom. This is the essence of deliberate effort: informed, not arbitrary.
The step size is crucial. Leverage the The Goldilocks Principle to make it challenging but small. The goal here is a sustainable sequence of cycles that lead to consistency.
Now you have consistent, deliberate effort in a direction!
References:
The Improvement Kata + Starter Kata: The four-step model of scientific thinking with practice routines
🤔 Food for Thought:
What direction are you traveling in?
Can you identify your current condition?
What is one improvement you can make from where you stand in that direction?
⚙️ One Small Step:
If the Creator Kata feels a bit awkward at first, don’t let that stop you. Confidence builds with each cycle of learning. Much of the wisdom you must acquire to move in a direction requires action. And only action brings the clarity needed to see the way forward.
Keep a log of your katas:
Dates/Times
What is the direction or goal?
What is expected (with metric to measure)
What happened?
What did you learn?