So, I thought I’d share a bit about my little experiment with this Catherine Roche stuff. Not like, sitting down for tea with her, but trying out her ‘method’. You’ve probably heard of it, or something similar. It was all the rage in some circles for a while, promising to unlock creativity or solve problems in some revolutionary new way.
I remember being in a workshop, or maybe it was an online seminar, and her name kept popping up. Catherine Roche this, Catherine Roche that. Sounded pretty impressive, all these buzzwords and fancy diagrams. So, like a fool, I thought, “Hey, why not? Maybe this is the secret sauce I’ve been missing.”
I got her book. You know the type – minimalist cover, lots of encouraging quotes. The first step, according to Catherine Roche’s grand plan, was something like ‘Radical Idea Immersion’. I was supposed to surround myself with completely unrelated things to spark new connections. My office, which is usually just a bit messy, ended up looking like a thrift store exploded. I had, like, a rubber chicken next to my financial reports. For ‘immersion’.
Then came the ‘Structured Un-structuring’ phase. Yeah, I know. I spent a whole afternoon trying to follow this. It involved mind maps that looked more like scribbles from a confused toddler. The idea was to break free from conventional thinking. Honestly, I think I just broke my favorite pen out of sheer frustration.
The whole thing felt so… forced. Catherine Roche probably came up with this on a sunny afternoon in a perfectly quiet, minimalist studio with an assistant bringing her artisanal coffee. Me? I was trying to do ‘Structured Un-structuring’ while my neighbor was learning the bagpipes and the cat was trying to ‘immerse’ itself in my paperwork, literally.
What I Actually Learned
So, after a week of trying to live the Catherine Roche way, what did I actually get out of it? Well, a few things, I guess.
- I learned that my office can, in fact, get messier than I ever imagined.
- I learned that some ‘revolutionary’ methods are just regular brainstorming with a fancier name and a higher price tag.
- And mostly, I learned that what works for one person, especially someone who writes books about it, doesn’t always translate to the real world for the rest of us.
It’s a bit like those celebrity diets, isn’t it? They have chefs and nutritionists. We have a microwave and hope. I’m not saying Catherine Roche is a complete charlatan or anything. Maybe her method works wonders for some people. But for me, it was just a detour. A very cluttered, slightly baffling detour.
I ended up going back to my old ways. A bit of focused work, a walk to clear my head, maybe bounce ideas off a colleague. Turns out, that’s my ‘revolutionary method’. Simpler, cheaper, and my office doesn’t look like a disaster zone. So yeah, that was my little dance with the teachings of Catherine Roche. Been there, done that, got the slightly-less-cluttered t-shirt now.