Audacious creativity 101

Two items converged for me this week in a flash of audacious creativity.

One:  I went to see the Book of Mormon. 

Don’t see it if the sanctity of Mormonism is even remotely important to you or if you’d rather not hear the “F” word A LOT (both spoken and sung).

Do go if you want to laught your butt off at some of the most original musical material you’ll ever see.

Two:  Sears HoldingCorps. named Paul DePodesta to their Board of Directors, he of Moneyball fame (he was kind of played by Jonah Hill), assistant to the worshipper of sabermetrics and destroyer of everything holy in the old school way of building baseball teams.

Whether Mr. DePodesta can help the perpetually failing company remains to be seen.  But he's employed fresh thinking in the past to help resuscitate failing baseball teams.  

You don’t have to turn the world on it’s head or bring something outlandish to life to create something ridiculously successful.  But it sure makes it more interesting (and potentially more lucrative). The risk vs. reward ratio may a bit challenging, but man, is your potential upside massive.

And remember:  It’s actually riskier to not take a chance when you’re firm in your convictions.

What SHOWING UP looks like

Some people SHOW UP.

Other people just show up.

If you were born with a physical attribute that makes you clearly stand out, like tremendous height or size or beauty, or a halo hanging over your head at all times, you get noticed when you walk in a room.

For the rest of us, we need to do more to get noticed. But it doesn't have to be so hard.

You can SHOW UP by doing your homework about something or somebody and asking the right questions.

Finding out what their tastes and preferences and interests are, and sending them a note in advance of a meeting.

Wearing something great.

Smiling really big and having fantastic energy and enthusiasm.

The gentleman in the picture above whose back is to us is from a faraway land where seven-foot tall people aren't unusual.  On a basketball court in the middle of nowhere, his height is not just unusual, it's intimidating. He SHOWS UP.

How do you do it?

The virtues of going both ways

Manti Te’o and Charles Woodson have nothing in common.

Actually, they both had spectacular college football careers, for two of the most storied football programs (and finest universities) in the world.  So there’s that.

But Charles Woodson won a Heisman Trophy.

And Manti Te’o hasn’t.

Yet.

And I say, give it to him.

The catch is, he only plays on defense. 

It might help his case if he could run back a kick or two or line up as a receiver and catch a couple of passes for touchdowns.

Offensive players get all the glory in football because they score all the points.  When it comes time to vote for the Heisman, the most glorified award in college football, it’s extremely rare that a defensive player wins.

Well, OK, it pretty much never happens.  Charles Woodson (University of Michigan, 1997) did it, but he’s all alone.  Out of 76 Heisman winners, he was the only primarily defensive player to ever win the award. 

But he wasn’t only a defensive player.  He also ran back punts and played receiver, and scored key touchdowns from those positions.

They call it playing on both sides of the ball.

It’s extremely infrequent in today’s era of sports specialization.  It does happen at some smaller schools and in high school, where the most skilled athletes are sometimes asked to play on both sides of the ball.

Putting aside fear of injury for a second, why wouldn’t you have more people going both ways?  Theoretically, wouldn’t you want your best athletes out there all the time?  Don’t you think they could access different aspects of their physical abilities to make plays all over the field, in all different situations?

I use the same theory when it comes to using creative thinking to solve challenges.  Regardless of the type of challenge—be it strategic or executional—wouldn’t you want to put your best people on it, and put both sides of their brains on it?

You do have two sides, you know.  You may not access one as much as the other, but they’re both there ready and raring to go.

Don’t let people convince you that you’re good at only one way of thinking. You may have been told you’re more inclined to be an organizational, controlling, logical left brainer.  Or an imaginative, artistic, emotional right brainer.

I say you’re both.

Or you could be.

When it comes to working through a challenge, think all around it.  Expand your mind.  Go places you didn’t think possible or worthy.  Read inspiring (and easy) books like A Technique for Producing Ideas.  Or intellectually provocative white papers on big data.  Go to an art museum.  Read the New York Times.  Or Cosmo.  Or People. 

Play Halo.  Play the Piano.  Play Sudoku.  Go somewhere else, physically or mentally.

Be like Charles Woodson.  Make your brain go both ways.  See what glory comes to  you. 

And Manti Te’o, you’d have my vote right now if I had one.  But it sure would be easier if you could catch one little pass for a touchdown…

Welcome to SighBrrr™ Monday

Such a nice long holiday break.

Sigh.

Have to put on the down coats all week.

Brrr.

Back at work after extended amounts of time with the family.

Sigh.

It’s getting darker and colder earlier.

Brrr.

A week full of work after a half week last week.

Sigh.

Everybody’s  catching up, nobody’s actually talking to each other, leads are cold.

Brrr.

After the popularity of Black Friday (and Grey Thursday) and Small Business Saturday, days are getting all kinds of wacky names.

So you can call today Cyber Monday for the deals you’re hoping to get online.  Or ChiBear Monday in honor of yesterday’s win over the Vikings, or High Bar Monday for the goals you’ set before the ball drops in 35 days.

Or just SighBrrr™ Monday.  Describes the way most folks feel today. 

So put on your coat and get outside, breathe in some cool fresh air, and get ready for Giving Tuesday.

10 things Idea Creators can be thankful for

1. Aggregators.  Impossible to overexpress my appreciation for people who collect and then redistribute wonderful things.  Like Dave Pell and Maria Popova.   The former collects 10 stories a day and wraps them in his own twisted brand of biting humor.  The latter collects gobs and gobs and gobs of items every day, each one unique and interesting.  Both of them find stuff that save massive amounts of time and provide massive amounts of inspiration.

2. Originators.  People who are out there doing their own thing, which then becomes our thing.  Amy Krouse Rosenthal has been bringing loveliness to us for years.  Unique voices like hers are not easy to find so when you do, do whatever the legal and friendly version of stalking is.

3. Storytellers.  Find them wherever you can.  TED Talks is the obvious go-to; they can be hit or miss, but some of them are incredibly inspiring.  The most amazing talks are usually the most amazing stories.  Case in point:  Bill Strickland.  An unassuming speaker, a ridiculously riveting storyteller.  “There’s nothing wrong with poor people that sunlight, affection and dignity can’t cure.”

4. Collaborators.  Conferences like Chicago Ideas Week and techweek.  Weeklong petri dishes for connection and creativity.  It’s worth the price of admission to be surrounded by smart, creative people. Stock up on keychains and t-shirts but make sure you take part in the speeches, panels and exhibitors. Same's true of creative work spaces/incubators like 1871.  A staggering amount of invaluable fodder at your fingertips.  

5. Good Health.  Waking up every day and having the physical and mental ability to be in the idea business is never to be underestimated.

6. Independent coffee houses like Filter, Swim and Star Lounge in Chicago.  Infinite thanks for allowing us to do business without an office. For others, rent can be late.  For us, rent can be a latte (and a sandwich if you’re there during lunch).   When you’re surrounded by the energy of like-minded creative thinkers, you’re in business.  BTW, please tip heavily.

7. (Saving the best for last) Clients.  I’ve never had a client I didn‘t love.  They all have their quirks and some are more challenging than others, but without them, our ideas would go nowhere.  Be open and honest and Get Naked, and accept every one with a smile of appreciation and when necessary, a grain of salt. And when things get tough, here’s a thought:  turn your most challenging clients into ones that inspire you the most.  Aim to be over-and-above creative for them and solve their problems in ways they would never see. It could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

8, 9, 10.  Red wine, great cheese, and crusty bread.  For all the obvious reasons.

Six things to fear once the FOMO meme goes away

I’m assuming that by now you’ve heard of FOMO.  

FOMO, of course, stands for “Fear Of Missing Out,” a term coined by entrepreneur and blogger Caterina Fake last year, and was initially defined, in her words, as “what happens everywhere on a typical Saturday night, when you’re trying to decide if you should stay in, or muster the energy to go to the party.” 

What it’s become is the way social media has crowded our lives with gabillions of choices, and how we now need to constantly worry and wonder about missing out on something more interesting or exciting.

As memes go, it’s as au as courant gets.

The buzz around FOMO has continued, from South by Southwest to Mashable to the New York Times.  So in honor of FOMO and all the timely angst it brings to us 2012-ers, here are some more “Fear Of’s” that can help guide us until we find our way to the next great meme.

FOBBOTCS (Fear of being behind on the cool shows)

For people like me who don’t watch Breaking Bad, The Wire, Downton Abbey, or Boardwalk Empire.  Homeland provides my TV-watching awesomeness and it’s about all I can muster.

FOWUBTAGO (Fear of waking up before the alarm goes off)

Unless you like not getting enough sleep.

FONSYKE (Fear of not seeing your kids enough)

For any parent who works too hard or travels too much, you know what I’m talking about.  For Doggie-Only Parents, FONSYDE is just as bad (Sorry feline lovers, FONSYCE isn’t quite the same thing).

FORMATT  (Fear of repetitive meetings all the time)

You may already be living through this hell if you work for a living.

FOOEYS (Fear of outsiders eating your sandwich)

Those who know me know that this really only applies to  me because I make really good sandwiches.

Good luck managing your way through FOMO and any other “FO’s” you might be experiencing.  And remember, for every person out there who you think is having more fun, there are two more who are sure you’re having waaaay more fun than they are.

How do you get to Trust? Drink your clients' Kool-Aid

In Forbes today a survey conducted by a marketing consulting firm tells us that advertisers continue to be frustrated with their agencies.

A client of ours asked me today what I think the cause is.

It starts with money.  But it comes down to one thing:  Trust.

Why does it start with money?  Because of our flailing economy, there’s just less of it to go around.

When there’s less money to go around, that goes double for marketing, as companies look to maximize resources in ways that can show better proof of spend, like sales, supply chain, and finance.

Because there’s less money to go around, margins are thinner.

Because margins are thinner, the level of fear is exponentially increased.   Every decision is scrutinized and questioned.

And when fear goes up, trust goes the opposite way.  And trust is everything when it comes to partnership and collaboration.

The symptoms are numerous:  Clients may feel that agencies don’t make their business a high enough priority or put their best people on it; they may feel like they’re paying too much money or not getting enough value. 

Or they just might not feel like they’re getting the strategic and creative thought partnership they crave (and pay for).

So how does an agency get to Trust?  It’s not so complicated.  

Throw yourself into their business.  Learn what makes them tick, dig into their category, interact with their brand and product, live a day or week in their shoes. 

Study their past successes, talk to people who’ve been part of them, learn from them.   Really believe in what they do and how they’ve succeeded.

Drink their Kool-Aid. You'll be surprised at what a big difference it can make.

Agencies are struggling to be trusted because they have a hard time dedicating the resources for their people to have even just a sip of Kool-Aid.  They're just stretched too thin. The irony is, the survey finds that advertisers want agencies to deliver “more for less.”  

One good way to do that is to have a more efficient, more nimble agency.  Which explains the rise of small and medium sized independents. 

So if trust is everything, one way to get there is clear:  reduce the size of your agency or create a not-so-big one from scratch.

Or as Steve Martin once said, get small. 

Consider your point of view as temporary

Not the advice Barack and Mitt are getting from their advisors as they prepare for tonight’s debate.  But great advice Jeff Bezos gave to the folks at 37signals yesterday in a 90 minute visit.

Jeff said that people who are right a lot of the time are people who change their minds.  They revise and reconsider points of view and are open to new ideas and information.

Certainly true of Zappos, and of 37signals, two companies that uniquely combine innovation and adaptation.

I’ve been in plenty of companies where this wonderful flip-floppiness was called “Lack of conviction.” When due dates are approaching at the speed of sound, margins are increasingly thinner, and clients are exponentially more fearful, who wants someone who can’t stick to his decisions?

Apparently, the most innovative and smartest companies in America.

Innovation in TV programming from the folks who brought you whammies and zonks

As our two Presidential hopefuls go toe to toe, most recently touting their own pro-female credentials, another gender-inequality barrier has been smashed, and none too soon:

The Price is Right has hired a male model.

Come on down, Rob Wilson, you’re the first male model on the Price is Right!

Three finalists were put through their paces, including showing their excitement as they were each called to "come on down," and experiencing the frantic pace of a costume change.

After the dust cleared and America voted, Mr. Wilson had defeated the other two finalists, Clint Brink and Nick Denbeigh (yes, that’s their real (stage) names), to win the right to snuggle up to Drew Carey and show off the latest in refrigerators and speedboats.

In a world where men are increasingly moving into traditionally female jobs, I applaud this bold move.    

Nowhere in the history of civilization could people like Chuck Woolery, Bert Convy, Gene Rayburn, and of course, Alex Trebek have become household names if not for game shows.  For decades, game shows were part of the fabric of our culture, and to see shows like Password and The $10,000 Pyramid decrease in number and relevance since their heyday has been crushing for anyone who grew up watching them in the ‘70’s. 

So it’s good news to see some fresh thinking from the folks who brought us whammies, zonks, and "The Password is..."

The bad news is, he’s only on the show for this week only.  Friday’s his last day heroically clapping for a contestant to spin the Showcase Showdown wheel and speechlessly displaying the finest products American ingenuity has to offer.  So tune in now or you’ll miss him.

I’m not sure Bob Barker would approve.  But I’d bet he’d like to see such fresh thinking on the Price is Right

Let’s hear it for innovative ideas in the world of aging dinosaurs.

Everything I needed to know about product development, I learned from a 10-year old.

Her name is Lily and her dad’s name is Joe Born.  Melissa Harris wrote about them in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend. Joe is a successful lifelong inventor, which helps explain why Lily invents things too. 

Her grandfather has Parkinson’s Disease, which causes him to frequently spill beverages.  Lily wanted to create a spillproof cup for him.

So naturally, she conducted some focus groups, developed some insights, wrote some concepts, tested them qualitatively, refined them, tested them quantitatively, refined them some more, did some BASES testing, went through several rounds with Legal and R&D, then got the go-ahead to create a model of the cup.

Actually, her process was a little more simple.

1. Assess the challenge

2. Sketch out a solution

3. Build a prototype

4. Go to your dad’s friend’s pottery studio in China to create pre-production samples

Other than the China part, it’s pretty simple, intuitive stuff.  In her dad’s words, “The is the way you should do product development.”  It led to her creation of the  Kangaroo Cup, which is basically a cup with legs.  Duh.

When it comes to product innovation, if you know what the challenge is, and have an insight around how to solve it, and have just a little bit of sketching skills (or have a friend who does), you can do a pretty good job of developing great product ideas.  Even if you don’t have a friend in China.

Of course, it isn’t always that easy in corporate America.  There’s lot more at stake than a coffee cup with legs and I’m not sure Lily would survive longer than a few hours.  That said, she still has a lot to teach us.  Primarily, that understanding a challenge can lead to a simple, desirable solution:

 An idea with legs.

Creativity, Collaboration, and Coffeehouses

This is starting to become familiar...

Please check out another guest post, and this time, on not one but two terrific blogs:  Groupon Grassroots, and Chicago Ideas Week.

Not many places will you find tomes tying together Vincent Van Gogh, Bruce Springsteen, and the wonderful independent coffeehouses of Chicago.

Check out "How to turn coffee into creativity," and hopefully we'll see some of you at our Chicago Ideas Week lab on Monday October 8.

5 Ways to Make Writing Easier …Before You Even Start Writing

Today the Twist Blog can be found at this blog!  Orbit Media is a web design and development company made up of very nice and very smart people who were kind enough to ask me to guest blog for them.  Check em out.

And be inspired (or at least helped) by my 5 tips to make writing easier.

Why Labor Day could be the best and most meaningful holiday of the year (or should be)

Anyone out there know why we celebrate Labor Day?

According to the United State Department of Labor website, it’s “…a  creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”

So initially, it was a crucial recognition and reminder of the importance of the laborers of this country, created in a time when they weren’t valued much more than a horse. 

The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882.  Crowds gathered, speeches were made, parades where marched in and watched by thousands.

Things are different now.  The reason Labor Day is celebrated is because most of us get a day away from laboring. 

Which is a pretty great reason to celebrate.

I recently had a debate with a friend about which is better:

•Work at a time-consuming job that takes you away from your family, is not all that enjoyable or fulfilling, but financially rewarding, which allows you nice things to live in and drive and wear, and nice, vacations and a comfortable, potentially early retirement.

•Or a little more flexible, pretty fulfilling, still hard-working but not crushing job, where you have more control over your life but need to stretch to make ends meet, get less nice cars and houses and few if any vacations, driving and staying in motels along the way, and working later and longer into your life.

The answer? 

Whichever you think is better, of course. 

We all make our own choices. We all have different things we want to get out of work.  And we all work differently. 

I ascribe to the theories laid out in Rework, one of my personal bibles.  I’ve seen co-author Jason Fried speak and I’m buying everything he’s selling.  Which, basically, is “Build it, and they will come.”

When it comes to work, one thing is undeniable and unarguable:  We all need to work.  Which means we all need time away from work. 

So the fact that there’s a day expressly designed for us to not work is pretty awesome and should be celebrated.

Hope you did absolutely nothing but not work yesterday.

Want to create brilliant ideas? Go away.

Imagine living in a place where nothing exists except for what immediately surrounds you.

Your property is on a dirt road, with neighbors pockmarked every half-mile or so.  In winter, you have to plow yourself out or dig in for the long haul.

When you drive up the dirt road to your house and step out of your car, the silence is deafening.  The stones at your feet crunch like someone’s eating potato chips in your ears. The constant hum of nothing rushes into your ears like a backdraft, but you soon adjust to the peace and breathe in unaffected, unpolluted, unbelievable air.

Your dogs have the run of acres of the land.  Your garden produces a bounty of fresh rhubarb and strawberries and other good stuff.  “Your lake,” while open to others, is a short hike away and as beautiful and secluded a place as there is on Earth.

I stayed at a place like that over the weekend, in Southern Vermont. 

It was heaven.

And it was a great place to let my thoughts ramble and do a little extracurricular cranial sightseeing, landing in places that they ordinarily might not ever get to.

As you read this, you may be in your office or in transit, eating or drinking, surveying and surfing.  Wherever you are, you’re likely surrounded by people and machines and lots of artificial things that make noises and smells.  

There’s an energy to it that’s infectious.  It’s what keeps us going.

So for a few minutes, stop.

Get yourself to a place where those things don’t exist.  I bet it isn’t that far. 

Get out of town, or stay local.  Find a nook or cranny in your house or apartment or office or neighborhood where you can be assaulted by silence.  I bet you can find it.  Bring a pad of paper and something with which you can write or draw. 

See what happens to your mind and body when everything slows down. Watch how creativity creeps up from behind and smoothes into your lap.

If you can’t get to Southern Vermont, find your version of it. Surround yourself with nothing but potential ideas. 

It may not sound deafeningly silent, but it'll still sound pretty good.

Can a monologue can stop a bullet?

Depends on how you look at the world.

You can take the cynical stance and point out how ineffective Tony was, fancy feet aside, in preventing the Jets and Sharks from rumbling.  Riff and Bernardo are living proof. Well, not living, really, but you get the point.

Or, you could side with Hallie Gordon, who’s partnering with great organizations like Facing History And Ourselves and Steppenwolf Theatre, mounting an uphill battle to use the arts to help stop the killings of young Chicagoans.  It’s called “Now is the Time,” and it sends artists into gang-plagued Chicago public schools to at least try to start stemming the violence. 

You can say it’s a preposterous goal filled with ignorant ambition, given the extremely deep-rooted challenges facing many of the people involved in the cycles of violence.  As Chris Jones wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “…isn't some artistic response to this crisis going to be marginal at best…?”

Or, you could believe in the kind of effect that Now is the Time hopes to bring to troubled neighborhoods in need of radical change. While accomplishing that isn’t as easy as bringing in actors or dancers, it’s a different way of thinking.   And changing actions starts with changing thinking.

If nothing else, as Chris Jones also points out, anytime kids are involved in artistic pursuits, they’re off the streets and out of danger.  So for those few minutes, you could say the arts is actively fighting gangs and crimes.

You never know how someone could be affected by one monologue or one plie’ or one aria.  It could stop one bullet. 

It’s worth a try.