Category: K.E.E.N. skills

5 Conditions that Foster Your Creative Mood

Coming back to John Cleese take on creativity, let’s dwell a little bit on his 5 conditions that make it easier to reach an open mode, which enables creativity:

  • John CleeseSpace (quiet space – isolation of usual pressures and demands)
  • Time (create space for a specific period of time where normal life stops) – create also boundaries of time to stop!
  • Time (sleep on it – leave time to mature the solutions you’ve found – even several days)
  • Confidence (which is required for playfulness – be free to play and look at the unexpected). When you’re being creative nothing is wrong!
  • Humor – gets from the “closed” to the “open” mindset mode the quickest

Further more, John Cleese emphasizes that even if encounters and discussions are great to create new ideas through the encounter of two different frameworks, isolation and time are also needed to mature them.

Once again we find creativity at the contact point of a contradiction between social encounter and personal reflection. Creativity needs both in harmony and not in conflict.

If you are outgoing, do you also take enough quiet time? If you are introvert, do you socialize enough? Balance is the key to exploiting these apparent contradictions!

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Creativity is not a talent – it is a way of operating. Practice your Open Mood!

If you are intrigued by the mysteries of Creativity like I am, you need to watch this video of a speech by John Cleese on the subject.

Click here if you can’t see the video.

John Cleese is obviously a Master Creator full of weird ideas. In this video he explains how it is important to practice a creative mindset – “A mood – an ability to play – the most creative were in this mood as being child-like”, an “Open mood” -relaxed, expansive, less purposeful mode in which we are more contemplative, more attuned to humour and consequently more playful versus our usual “Closed mood” mode.

Furthermore John Cleese goes on to explain how it is vital to practice this open mood even if the result is not great every time.

Creativity is thus the result of the practice of an open mindset. When do you start practicing?

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When you most feel like giving up… what should you do?

There is an interesting statement by Robin Sharma:

When you most feel like giving up is when you most need to be keeping on
Are you keeping on?

“When you most feel like giving up is when you most need to be keeping on“. How much is that applicable?

The need to be persistent is a mantra of self-development books. And indeed, it is a very important parameters to beat the Resistance that tries to prevent us from creating anything new (re-read the “War of Art” blog post and the “The War of Art” book if you’re not sure any more about what is Resistance).

I have experienced it first hand in my entrepreneurial venture. I have decided to give it 2 years before deciding to continue or ditch it. And when I feel miserable, stressed and depressed I remember this (or my wife does remind me), which gets me back on track.

There are some instances, though, where it might be better to stop and start something new. They are rare. It is very difficult to identify these rare instances because Resistance tricks us into believing that any difficulty is candidate for stopping. To get a full review of this important issue, re-read “The Dip” by Seth Godin. From a practical perspective, here’s a useful and simple process:

  • define first some “breaking parameters and criteria” and write them down
  • Decide that you will stop if you reach those breaking parameters
  • Be very strict that you apply the exact parameters and criteria that you had written down a few months earlier

Be persistent. And know what are the rare instances where not to be.

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What really is stardom nowadays? Can’t you just be the star of your tribe?

In the article “How the internet killed Carly Rae Jepsen” on MTV hive, the author explains how Carly’s new album is (relatively) a flop. Is that contradictory with our recent post on her incredible viral summer success ‘Call me maybe?’ (“Done! The Fourth Revolution put the music industry upside-down!“?)

Carly Rae JepsenI would like to argue that it is not because her album has a slow start start it does not mean that she will not succeed on the long term as a noticeable artist. Anyway she is now geared to participate to Justin Bieber’s concerts for the next few months. She is releasing videos and continuing promoting her work.

But the most important thing is that the internet / social network age is all about tribes, and not necessarily mass consumption. Stardom in the industrial age was necessarily at the level of the entire population, of an entire country: you could not so much have several products competing for different sections of the population. Following country-level sales made sense. With the Fourth Revolution, this kind of stardom is doomed to extinction, or will at least be less important. Stars will be stars of smaller global tribes of a few million people scattered over the world. These tribes will often not be defined geographically but more by taste and lifestyle. A star’s influence can be greater through a tighter connection will less people than with a looser connection to everybody.

In any case Carly sold more than 100,000 albums – how many would-be singers would kill to achieve that? She might not be on the road to become a global star, but she certainly is building a strong base for success, within a certain tribe on which she will have a great influence. Will she manage to establish herself as a star for her tribe? Time will tell!

Hat tip to Laurent Riesterer for the link to the MTV hive article.

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How the Fourth Revolution transforms the market for work

Our Industrial Age world is apparently in a crisis – employment rates diminish currently for most generations, and those who are employed are increasingly so on a part-time basis. The proportion of salaries in the net national value creation is diminishing.

Contract work - the new work framework
Contract work – the new work framework?

Yes, the Industrial Age model of salaried work is in a crisis – not a crisis actually, but a transformation. Even the Harvard Business Review now blogs on “The Rise of the New Contract Worker”, or how increasingly people look for alternative forms of work. Not straightforward employment but rather innovative forms of work and compensation, which generally imply some sort of contracting or more or less informal grouping.

The portion of salaries in the economy will further diminish because more and more people will be contractors, on their own or in small ad-hoc companies. The inter-mediation cost has dropped dramatically with freelance platforms. When countries will give even more flexibility on such basic social services like health insurance, the proportion of freelance contract workers will only increase.

The salaried worker working exclusively for one single employer is dying. What will replace it might increase anxiousness for some because of the apparent risk and the need to market oneself; yet it will unleash the creativity of the world by making sure that all work that gets done really contributes to creating value.

An employment market crisis? Reframe it: it is just a deep transformation of the way we will get compensated for work! When do you start taking this opportunity?

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Creativity takes courage. Are you ready to test your courage?

Yep, real creativity takes courage.

creativity tales courage (Henri Matisse)
How courageous are you really?

Real creativity that is – creativity that is exposed to the looks, reactions and feedbacks of others. Being creative in one’s realm without sharing does not create anything for the world.

Are you really courageous? Ready to confront criticism and people making fun of you because you show them something which is outside the normal?

There’s just one way to know it. Create something and show it, publish it to the world. There you’ll know whether you can face your fears. You’ll know whether you’re courageous.

Be courageous. The world, your community, your family needs you to be.

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People are more engaged by things that are suggestive than by things that are crystal clear

I love this sentence, because it is so true: “People are more engaged by things that are suggestive than by things that are crystal clear” – David Sibbet in his book “Visual Meetings“.

sketch
Even with a few lines, our mind interprets the image into something clear. By this creative mechanism we are much more engaged with the picture!

This sentence expresses what I have felt for a while. And that’s why now, in situations where the aim to get people engaged like meetings and workshops, I aim to give only hints, feeble patterns, or outright metaphors but not so much direct description of the issue.

It engages us when we need to do the creative effort of filling in the picture. And by that process what we will produce will be better, and ours.

So next time when you want a group to engage, only suggest. Don’t explain too clearly! And let the participants engage around the mystery of creation!

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Why do we consider that people can’t change their mind?

Recently another perverse effect of the fixed mindset became obvious to me as I was in the US watching a presidential election debate (but this can be observed in any country).

presidential debateCommentators and debaters alike spent their time referring to positions, votes, declarations, papers, etc written by the candidates in the course of their career. They used these references – sometimes decades old- to pinpoint inconsistencies in the declarations of candidates.

A striking question that came to me is “why can’t people be allowed to change their mind?”. Why can’t we understand that in some instances, people do change their point of view? Of course you would not necessarily expect people to change fundamentally their values (or then very slowly). But on a number of issues, faced with new evidence and experience, people should be allowed to change their minds!

For example, a politician suddenly becoming president of a large, powerful country will certainly encounter experiences in this unique position that will lead him to reconsider certain of his beliefs or opinions. Still he/she is not to show any of this publicly. It is as if our society would not accept any growth and change from these people.

What is amazing is how difficult it is for us to accept that people can indeed change their mind on some fundamental issues. And this is probably caused by our ‘fixed mindset’ inheritance.

The next time someone you know dares say that he/she changed his/her mind on something important, support this person. It is tough to say this in our societies. Let change it and support growth and change. We collectively need it.

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Don’t wait to define precisely your Future Perfect to take action!

One of the most difficult tasks it seems is to define what your Purpose is. What is your goal in life, what is your vocation, what would your Future Perfect look like? It is difficult, and it is necessary if we want to drive our life towards what we dream of.

Still Dreaming by Marc Andamus
Still dreaming on your Future Perfect?

It is so overwhelmingly hard that most people just look at the task and declare it impossible. And it is indeed impossible – we’ll never know what our real vocation was before our last moment on Earth.

It seems a daunting task – to try to figure out where you passion really lies, what state you want to reach eventually. Don’t make it a quest in itself. It is perfectly alright – and perfectly normal – that your “Future Perfect” will evolve slowly over time and years, it will remain an objective you’ll never really reach, as you continuously grow and discover new perspectives on life.

It is certainly a tough introversion to figure out what your Future Perfect would look like at a given moment, but don’t exaggerate the importance of it. What’s key here is to get a direction to go to – at the present moment.

So, don’t agonize on trying to figure out your Future Perfect. Have a general understanding of what resonates emotionally with you, and just move towards that direction. You’ll discover new landscapes, and possibly further even more your goals. That’s alright.

When do you start to take action to move towards your future perfect? Don’t waste a minute and just move! And of course, enjoy the journey!

Image by Marc Adamus. Many more great nature photos on Marc Adamus website.

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Can a national “growth mindset” make the difference?

In a previous post we explained Carol Dweck’s approach to “fixed” versus “growth” mindset. Carol Dweck’s considerations are at the personal level. But what about the national or collective mindset?

The Industrial Age mindset is very much a “fixed mindset”. This was clearly shown by the myth of the ‘fixed IQ’ (your intelligence is innate, you can’t change it); the Freudian approach of seeking what could have happened in your past that determines what you are today… and many institutions in several countries where one’s professional fate is essentially determined by one’s academic prowess.

Wen Jiabao wearing the Polytechnique hat
Wen Jiabao (China’s Premier) having fun wearing the Polytechnique hat during a visit to the French elite school

Still there were cultural differences in these instances, that originated from a distant cultural past. Some countries like France or China are very much “fixed mindset” – you intelligence is a given and expressed by the school you visited (and entered through a competitive examination); and that essentially determines your career and social status. Even when you are 50 or 60 years old people ask for your school studies to determine your social ranking! Other cultures like the British or the American appear to be much more of a “growth mindset” and it is usual to consider the present qualities, abilities and skills of people and not so much what they studied 20 years ago (albeit with some limitations in the upper ranks of society though).

As we step into the Collaborative Age we understand the tremendous damage that a “fixed mindset” can have on individuals and also on entire societies.

The solution to the crisis of the Western World, and to the transition in the Collaborative Age, is to adopt a “growth mindset”. Through learning, development and experiment can we all as a society reach a higher condition. Let’s switch our collective mindset to a clear, unequivocal “growth mindset”!

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Escape from the ‘Talent’ illusion: do you have a “fixed” or a “growth” mindset?

I read a great book lately: “Mindset” by Carol Dweck. She is a renowned researcher in the field of motivation. She explains that there is a significant difference between achievers and others: it all depends whether you have a “fixed mindset” or a “growth mindset”.

Mindset, a book by Carol Dweck
Carol Dweck

“Fixed mindset” people consider that talent is innate and you can’t just change it. They tend to avoid any situation of failure and consider that their talent is limited by their endowment at birth. “Growth mindset” people on the contrary consider that intelligence and talent develop through hard work and that difficulties are challenges are just obstacles that need to be overcome.

This seems quite straightforward but the book is backed up by decades or research and stunning experiments about the consequence of one’s mindset. And people seem to have generally one or the other.

If you want to know if you have a growth or fixed mindset? Just take the simple mindset test on the book’s website.

Did you test positive to the “fixed mindset”? Read on, a new life will start for you soon! The great thing is, you can change your mindset from “fixed” to “growth”. Even short term! And also on the longer term with some practice. And that’s what happened to the author, by the way. All it takes is the realization – the mindset – that talent is not innate but the result of great work.

Still hesitant? Observe around you how the really talented people are the result of years or decades of work. Grow and learn. And you can also change the world!

Here’s again the link to the book on Amazon.com: “Mindset” by Carol Dweck.

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Leadership is about Dealing with Conflict

As a follow-up of our post on Openness Alone Cannot Drive Change and the fantastic video by Margaret Heffernan, let’s reflect a bit about what this means for the leader in the Fourth Revolution context.

Head-in-Sand executive
Not the leader we need!

Indeed, as Margaret Heffernan explains, leadership is dealing with Conflict. Dealing with the information that is available and contradicts our usual vision of the world, or requires us to review our world-view.

It is so amazing to see all the time those situations where people don’t stand up to situations. Because that is hard and risky.

It is difficult to give feedback to someone who is creating anxiousness by their behavior, or who just plainly behaves in a way that is negative for himself and his environment. It entails creating a bit of conflict for the sake of resolving a much larger issue.

Wouldn’t the right definition of leadership be: being able to stand up, be assertive and courageous to address conflict in a constructive way  – or create the right amount of conflict at the right time ?

Not just addressing conflict in a destructive manner, but recognizing tensions and addressing them in a way that creates value. Addressing them in a way that cares and brings us to a better world.

Are you ready to look into the face of Conflict and lead us?

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