Delivery focus versus creative slack

I made a presentation on scrum today in which I first presented a generic agile framework, to then present scrum within that agile framework. Although I had not planned it, I found myself emphasizing the need to focus on delivery in order to make time available, what I call slack time, to be creative and bring your development up to a new level. One can compare agility and running hedge funds: management and product development processes share much with how one maximizes a portfolio. The key learning is that you cannot afford to waste time when you are squeezed by your boss, by your investors, or even by the market! Agility from this view is much about maximizing your productivity while reserving time to ensure growth. That is the notion of focusing on delivery and on your client, and yet still have time (and space) to tackle the hard problems! You need time to reinvent yourself as you progress. That is the notion of making space for slack time. Make sure you accumulate enough of it and then invest it wisely. Your focus needs to be breakthrough, nothing else; keep your "normal" efforts on delivery effort. For the slack time you need to try to be extraordinary because it will change you or your company and may well give you a chance of new futures that would not exist without that special effort.