And Hugh McLeod (subscribe for free to receive a daily Gapingvoid cartoon and thought) captures it fantastically as usual in this cartoon.
Yep, to be creative you need to be some kind of a lone wolf. And choose not to be sheep. Are you really ready for it? The point of Hugh McLeod is very well made – you need to choose one or the other.
At any time, in any society, only a few people are ready for being lone wolves. They will be lonely, sometimes hungry, but they will change the world.
Will you be the sheep of the wolf? Time to choose!
Creativity has become a key concern. As measured by some standards our creativity seems to declibe. Yet globally creation has never been so buoyant. How can that be?
Following our blog post “the World Wants to Keep us Stupid“, a comment linked to this 2010 Newsweek paper “The Creativity Crisis”. Studies describe in this paper have measured that while IQ tends to increase from generation to generation, creativity tends to diminish since 1990 in the US – and in particular in younger children. When this paper came out it led to a number of reactions. The new Collaborative Age is the age of creativity! Is America losing the game? Are Western countries losing the game? Is the world losing the game?
Creativity in the corporation. A model that will disappear?
There is one big logic failure here however: creativity can be learnt and taught. It can be developed quickly through the proper exercise. It can be also unlearnt in our society like shown in this fantastic example quoted from the Creativity at Work Blog:
In 1968, George Land distributed among 1,600 5-year-olds a creativity test used by NASA to select innovative engineers and scientists. He re-tested the same children at 10 years of age, and again at 15 years of age.
Test results amongst 5 year olds: 98% Test results amongst 10 year olds: 30% Test results amongst 15 year olds: 12% Same test given to 280,000 adults: 2%
If you don’t understand why that happens in a conventional Industrial Age world, look at the cartoon!
So the result of tests on young children anyway does not predict their creativity as adults. It might be true that the modern kid might be enticed to do activities like video games and watching TV that do not develop as much creativity as figuring out how to play games with almost nothing – and I make sure my kids have moments where they need to be creative.
Yet the most important is also to make sure we train our creativity muscles during our entire life. And even atrophied creativity muscles can be trained back to be fit!
The Fourth Revolution shows us everyday how our collective creativity is increasing every day, both through the mating of ideas from the web, and the increasing emphasis on creativity as a key success factor. We can learn creativity. We need to practice creativity.
There is no creativity crisis. The only crisis is that the world might not be ready to welcome the wave of creativity that will change our societies beyond recognition.
Thanks to Julie Pigdon for the comment and reference that led to this post.
“A CEO of an organization should be the Chief Emotion Officer”
That’s a quote from Chip Conley, the curious leader of a very unconventional hotel chain in California. He wrote Emotional Equations, a book where he puts emotions in equations (which allow to play with the parameters): for example,
Happiness = Wanting what you love / Having what you want,
or
Despair = Suffering – Meaning
Here's your boss coming at you. How is your emotional state right now?
He just re-titled himself “Chief Emotion Officer”. In his mind, the CEO is the person that manages the organization’s general emotional status. Because it is the emotional atmosphere that defines whether people will really devote themselves to create a really exceptional organization. Because the CEO is ultimately responsible for this emotional status.
Because two-thirds of successful business leadership is about emotional intelligence.
Everyone is not a CEO, but we can also be the Chief Emotions Officer of our little world. Let’s do it, let’s increase dramatically happiness around us by modeling emotions and be more responsible about the emotions we create and spread.
When do you start?
PS: have a view of this video of Chip Conley to know more about this interesting personality and Emotional Equations
One of the key concepts explained in the book caught my eye and ignited my attention. The concept is simply Vuja Dé. The reverse of “Déja Vu” obviously, French for “seen already”. This concept implies the possibility to look at the same old things and redefine how we use them.
Or, like Proust, a famous French author of the beginning of the XXth century says in the quote, seeing the same thing with new eyes.
How can we redefine what seems to be an established practice, business, industry through the use of Vuja Dé? Not just improve, but redefine?
This is a word that has the power to change the world, because it names a concept which is truly useful in these times of change. A concept of rupture, of reinvention.
Ready to Vuja Dé your job? Your business? Your industry? Tell me how this word changes your mindset in the comments!
As I am struggling with some aspects of my new entrepreneur life, I was reading “Uncertainty: turning fear and doubt into brillance” by Jonathan Fields, an excellent book about what it takes to lean out of one’s comfort zone, and how to survive it. A quote struck me particularly:
“Risk of loss has to be there. You cannot create genius without having skin in the game. Kill the risk of loss and you destroy meaning and one of the core motivations for action” – Jonathan Fields
Right now I am facing activities which I must absolutely do for my new business to live further but that I don’t like doing: networking, meeting people to pitch products. I rather prefer to write clever reference documents and books in front of my computer! Still, that’s what I seek to learn; and because I now have skin in the game (the success of my venture, my family’s comfort, my money), I’ll force myself to do it. And I’ll do it for sure. That’s quite compelling in fact: if I don’t do it, no new business, no more adventure!
Having skin in the game... and what sometimes happens
Because I have skin in the game I’ll also probably get hurt some place down the way – or at least get some hard knocks. But that’s probably what’s going to teach me resilience and patience, two other important learning points for me.
Yes, definitely I have chose to have skin in the game. That’s tough, but three months down the road I am already amazed at the way I’m gone. That’s probably the only way to really do things that you didn’t think you could do. The only way to create amazing things that will astonish the world.
And you, did you put your skin in the game? How could you do that?
In the Industrial Age, the world wanted to make us stupid. It wanted to make us be a cog in the well oiled machine of society.
For the first time since centuries the Fourth Revolution gives us the possibility to be clever and free again. But – will be seize this chance?
Industrial Age classical image: watching what others have decided for us
There is quite some comfort to passively be told what to do. To avoid taking decisions as they are taken by others. To watch TV all day long, watching what others have decided would be good for us. Relying on ‘specialists’ to decide what we read, eat.
The difficulty of accessing information has vanished. Today at the touch of our fingers we have humankind’s information available.
Will we use it? Will we make the effort to seek information, to find what we need, to decide by ourselves what we want to do, watch, read?
Some individuals have chosen that path. Most have not. It is scary, it requires decision-making, it involves risk and – gosh – failure.
Will we see the majority of people chose the harder way of freedom and choice? It seems like the young generation is much more unconventional than the previous generations. Still the majority will start working in corporations where fitting with the system is a survival skill.
Maybe the ongoing economical crisis that forces more people than ever to be creative in their response to finding ways to live will be considered as a key moment in the emancipation of humankind.
Yes, the world wants to stifle our creativity. And so many institutions are designed to keep us stupid, subdued, non-creative: the bureaucracy, the educative system… Of course, it is much easier to deal with non creative, dumb people.
Angry Birds – keeping us busy
We are swamped by things that want to keep us busy, away from the spark of creation. I am always amazed by the number of people spending their day playing on their phone (Angry Birds is of course among the biggest culprit these days).
The world is so nasty – the phone is even called a ‘smart’ phone. Yes it’s smart: it makes us dumb.
Let’s shake the straitjacket put on us by the surrounding institutions and find again our natural creativity. The one we had when we were a child. And when the world did not figure out that we’d better be dumb to be better controlled.
Following our blog post on Lean and accelerating our learning in the Collaborative Age, a particular issue came up. As part of the lean methodology, we propose to go out in the world as early as possible with a ‘Minimum Viable Product’. That is to say, an unfinished product with some basic functionality and lots of bugs. This product could be a book, a painting, a recording, a set of photos, a blog, a website… anything that you are creating with your heart.
Getting out into the light is the hardest
That’s generally at this point of time that Resistance attacks. What? Coming out to the world with an imperfect product? What about my ego, my reputation? Won’t I look ridiculous?
And there we often freak out. Delay. Find all sorts of excuses not to go out with this imperfect product and work to improve it. Worst even, not to anything on the product and just shelve it waiting to be secure enough to show it to the world.
Resistance was already trying to avoid us working on the product or the creation; it is the ultimate battle before it gets to the world; and Resistance does fight it with the back to the brick wall.
Just consider this: you might be somewhat ridiculous this time with this imperfect product; but you will be much more later if you spend much more time trying to make it ‘perfect’ in your eyes and if it remains dull in the eyes of the world. And you won’t be able to forgive yourself if you never bring it out to the world.
Do you want to live in regrets all your life? Just come out with it. And rock on!
And no- you won’t be ridiculous this time anyway. Your tribe will take interest in your new creation and guide you toward making it really fascinating and useful.
Have you anything almost finished on the shelf you never managed to get out to the world? Get it out and start learning! Beat the Resistance!
Don’t wait until your product is perfect to push the button or you’ll never progress by getting the right feedback. Yet how finished, polished, perfect should be your product before you shoot it to the world? What is actually a ‘minimum viable product’ to follow the words of the Lean Startup Movement?
Are you ready to push the button even if not "perfect"?
There is a little bit of debate on this issue. Is it just a functional product even if it does not look nice? Well, if it’s not attractive and nobody tries it, you’d better add some good presentation.
Is it a product for CEOs? Make sure it looks professional enough.
Is it a nice-looking product that does only part of the work? Here again it depends who you send it to, and what they would expect.
‘Done is better than perfect’ is written on the Facebook walls. It is the motto of the hackers. It’s true. But your product should have at least some of the functionality and look as your prospective clients will expect. Don’t wait forever for the perfect, but make sure what is done works for what you expect it to do. Maybe you should start by analyzing what are the minimum functionality you are aiming for your audience and stick to that as a priority.
In summary, don’t seek to be perfect. Just do the right thing – and just the right thing. And shoot to the world.
I went to a series of entrepreneur workshops and, again, and again, the same recommendation came from of the experienced entrepreneurs: don’t follow your dreams alone, focus on getting a team!
This is the single main distinction between successful endeavors and sad failures: the team, the quality of the team and of the support it offers.
Only with the help of the team can you catch the ball!
It might not need to be a team in your company; it can be a team of advisors, mentors, but it is vital to get a team around you to support, encourage, test new ideas…
It certainly need to include your close family.
Plain summary: it is vital to have a team around you to help you take off and catch the ball that you were looking to catch! Alone you won’t be able to do it, you’ll just be stuck to the ground.
And it is not just the case as an entrepreneur. It is the same when you are just pursuing your passion, your purpose.
The more your purpose really matters, the more your own resistance and the world’s resistance will act to suffocate it before it becomes too big. You need a team to help you in this quest. You won’t fight the world alone.
I love this image. And I wonder where I am right now. How much am I stretching myself outside my comfort zone? Is it enough to get to “where the magic happens”? Am I leaning in the right direction?
Gosh! Do I really need to go beyond my comfort zone?
Tough questions, precisely because I am out of my comfort zone, not quite at ease. I literally dream sometimes to get back in the comfort zone (having a simple, cosy job as an employee in a large corporation, no more worries about marketing and end-of-the-month cash?).
In that general context of uneasiness how can I know whether I am moving in the right direction to encounter magic? How will I recognize magic? That’s a tough question!
Actually, magic is easy to recognize: it is when what you do resonates with people, when you get conversations started because people are interested, when people ask to meet you to discuss what you are doing.
Once you meet the magic, the energy you get from these encounters and these conversations makes you lean even more outside your comfort zone, and necessarily in the right direction.
So, do people resonate with what you do? If not, continue to seek by experimenting. If yes, then lean further in that direction.
I loved reading the book “Drive” by Daniel Pink. We already referred to it a few months ago in the post “what motivates the K.E.E.N.“.
Daniel Pink uses a framework for the evolution of motivation in history that is similar to the ‘fundamental revolutions’ familiar to the readers of this blog:
Motivation 1.0 – 50,000 years ago – survival
Motivation 2.0 – extrinsic motivators: seek reward and avoid punishment (which lead to put some barriers for social life (don’t steal your neighbor’s wife), etc).
Motivation 2.1 – empowerment in organizations, greater autonomy
Motivation 3.0 – intrinsic motivators: autonomy, mastery, purpose. (the drivers of the Collaborative Age)
It is a real revolution to switch from extrinsic to intrinsic motivators. Yet as our live example of the Collaborative Age organization shows, in these organizations, only intrinsic motivation is at work.
How can we change our extrinsic motivation mindset? No, above a certain level, people won’t stay because you pay them more to do the same boring job. They need to find purpose and fulfillment. How can you give it to them? Only by allowing initiative, failure and releasing control. That will be the secret of success of the Collaborative Age organization. Are you ready for it?
(And for those that have not seen the RSA animation drawn from the book, here it is – and if you’ve seen it, watch it again because it is so fundamental:)
, a book where he puts emotions in equations (which allow to play with the parameters): for example,
