The Fertile Unknown

CCN Holiday Festival with Dan Pink & Social Media Innovation Panel

If you are around the DC area December 10, join the Capitol Creativity
Network for an evening with best-selling author Dan Pink and a panel of
social media pioneers.
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The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need - A Dynamic Presentation with Dan Pink (www.danpink.com), NY Times best-selling author of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, A Whole New Mind and Free-Agent Nation. In this provocative and entertaining presentation, Dan will discuss the medium and the message of his latest book, including how to convey ideas in a crowded, chaotic media landscape. And he'll discuss the book's six lessons - six crucial, creative and counterintuitive secrets to fashioning a successful and fulfilling career.
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A Creativity and Innovation Panel on Social Media will follow with Dan and leading social media industry experts who are part of a movement that is changing the business landscape and our career choices: Nick O'Neill, founder of www.socialtimes.com, Jesse Thomas, CEO and founder of www.jess3.com, and Frank Gruber, founder and publisher of www.somewhatfrank.com and founder of www.techcocktail.com. Moderated by DC's Marketing Navigator, Jeremy Epstein.
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Afterwards, stick around for socializing, networking, book signing and some book give-aways!
We'll have good food, music and fun!
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Date & Time: Wednesday, December 10th 
7:00pm - however long you stay!
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NEW Location! Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) in Washington, DC.
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RSVP BY REGISTERING ONLINE
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Registration: Online: $25  ~  At the door: $35 
We expect to fill up. Register now to reserve your space!
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Register Here: http://www.capitolcreativitynetwork.com/id6.html
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This event is sponsored by The Center for Creative Emergence, the Center for Digital Imaging Arts, The Sales Lounge and Job Matchbox.

Graphic Recording of Last Night's Presentation

Jeremy Epstein gave a lively and compelling presentation last night at our Capitol Creativity Network gathering on Creativity as the Key Driver for Profit - transforming the seemingly mundane aspects of business into your remarkable brand - and story - by thinking creatively...and having fun doing it!  Thanks to Diane Cline, of Over the Horizon Consulting, who captured the presentation with Graphic Recording, you can see the main points here - it's a whole-brainer!

 

Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators

Innovative organizations live by new rules. The Obama campaign played by the new rules. Harvard Business Publishing's Edge Economy, featured an article by Umair Haque, Director of Havas Media Lab entitled Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators. Here are some excerpts:

Barack Obama is one of the most radical management innovators in the world today. Obama's team built something truly world-changing: a new kind  of political organization for the 21st century...Obama's presidential bid succeeded...through the power of new DNA: new rules for new kinds of institutions...

Seven rules for tomorrow's radical innovators:

1. Have a self-organization design. Obama's organization...was able to combine the virtues of both tall and flat organizations. How? By tapping the game-changing power of self-organization. Obama's organization was less tall or flat than spherical—a tightly controlled core, surrounded by self-organizing cells of volunteers, donors, contributors, and other participants at the fuzzy edges....McCain's organization was left trapped by a stifling command-and-control paradigm.

2. Seek elasticity of resilience. Obama's 21st century organization was built for a 21st century goal—not to maximize outputs, or minimize inputs, but to, as Gary Hamel has discussed, remain resilient to turbulence. When McCain attacked Obama with negative ads...Obama's organization responded with record-breaking fundraising. That's resilience: reflexively bouncing back to an existential threat by growing, augmenting, or strengthening resources.

3. Minimize strategy. Obama's campaign dispensed almost entirely with strategy in its most naïve sense: strategy as gamesmanship or positioning.  They didn't waste resources trying to dominate the news cycle, game the system, strong-arm the party, or out-triangulate competitors' positions. Rather, Obama's campaign took a scalpel to strategy—because they realized that strategy, too often, kills a deeply-lived sense of purpose, destroys credibility, and corrupts meaning.

4. Maximize purpose...Obama's goal wasn't simply to win an election...It was larger and more urgent: to change the world...yesterday, we built huge corporations to do tiny, incremental things—tomorrow, we must build  small organizations that can do tremendously massive things. And to do that, you must strive to change the world radically for the better—and always  believe that yes, you can. You must maximize, stretch, and utterly explode your sense of purpose.

5. Broaden unity. What do marketers traditionally do? Segment and target, slice and dice...Yet Obama succeeded not through division, but through unification...Obama intuitively understands a larger truth of next-generation economics. Unified markets are what a world driven to collapse by hyperconsumption is desperately going to need.

6. Thicken power. The power many corporations wield is thin power: the power to instill fear and inculcate greed. True power is what Obama has learned wield: the power to inspire, lead, and engender belief. You can beat people into subjugation—but you can never command their loyalty,
creativity, or passion. Thick power is true power: it's radically more durable, less costly, and more intense.

7. Remember that there is nothing more asymmetrical than an ideal. Obama ended his last speech before the election by saying: "let's go change the world." Why are those words important? Because the world needs changing...In the 21st century, there is nothing more asymmetrical—more disruptive, more revolutionary, or more innovative—than the world-changing power of an ideal...

The seventh lesson is the starting point for tomorrow's radical innovators—because it's the thread that knits the others together. And it's where you should start if you want to use these seven rules to start building 21st century institutions—whether businesses, non-profits, social enterprises, or political campaigns.

For the full article go to http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/

I've recently become a big fan of Umair's. He write on juicy topics such as strategic imagination, radical management innovation, the new DNA, corporate revolutionaries and overinnovation.

My Improv Article at Innovation Tools

Innovation Tools is featuring an article I wrote, Creative Collaboration: Lessons from Improv Theater, on Applied Improv, based on my experience performing with Precipice Improv and applying improv principles and practices in organizations.

Click here for the article.

Creative Culture: From Finite to Infinite Games

Creative organizations and communities not only play by different rules,
they actually play a different game. One of my favorite books to illustrate this
difference is James P. Carse's book, Finite and Infinite games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. It speaks to the new games - those which cultivate play, improvisation and engaging the unknown...creating as you go. Here are a few nuggets from the book:

A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play...infinite games are unscripted and unpredictable...the rules of an infinite game have a different status than those of a finite game. They are like the grammar of a living language, where as those of a finite game are like the rules of a debate...when we are playful with each other we relate as free persons and the relationship is open to surprise; everything that happens is of consequence...

To be serious is to press for a specific conclusion....to be playful is to allow for possibility...because infinite players allow themselves to be surprised by the future, they play in complete openness. It is not an openness as in candor, but an openness as in vulnerability...

To be prepared against surprise is to be trained...to be prepared for surprise is to be educated...training repeats a complete past in the future...education continues an unfinished past in the future...

Culture is an infinite game...a culture understands its past not as destiny, but as history, a narrative that has begun but points toward the endlessly open...

Finite players play within boundaries...infinite players play with boundaries...the rules of a finite game may not change in the course of play...the rules of an infinite game must change in the course of play...

Infinite play is inherently paradoxical, just as finite play is inherently contradictory...the paradox of infinite play is that the players desire to continue the play in others...

10 Traits of The Creative Personality

Psychology Today featured an excerpt of an article written by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (who popularized the term "Flow" in is books which include Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention among others). To build on Flow Theory, Csikszentmihalyi  interviewed 91 people, eminent in their respective fields, each of whom engaged in "flow" in an ongoing basis while contributing to the betterment of society. He found certain traits common to all that he called the Creative Personality. The following article summarizes his finding. I have copied only parts of it below - for the complete article, click here.

The Creative Personality
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living...Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity...When we're creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life...what makes their personalities different from others...complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."

Here are the 10 antithetical traits often present in creative people that are integrated with each other in a dialectical tension.

1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest. They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm...This does not mean that creative people are always "on"...When necessary, they can focus it like a laser beam; when not, creative types immediately recharge their batteries. They consider the rhythm of activity followed by idleness or reflection very important for the success of their work.

2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time...Another way of expressing this dialectic is the contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness...a certain immaturity, both emotional and mental, can go hand in hand with deepest insights...Furthermore, people who bring about an acceptable novelty in a domain seem able to use well two opposite ways of thinking: the convergent and the divergent.

3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. There is no question that a playfully light attitude is typical of creative individuals. But this playfulness doesn't go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, perseverance...Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not.

4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality. Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that is different from the present...the whole point of art and science is to go beyond what we now consider real and create a new reality...this "escape" is not into a never-never land. What makes a novel idea creative is that once we see it, sooner or later we recognize that, strange as it is, it is true.

5. Creative people tend to be both extroverted and introverted...in the thick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines and observing the passing show. In fact, in psychological research, extroversion and introversion are considered the most stable personality traits that differentiate people from each other and that can be reliably measured. Creative individuals, on the other hand, seem to exhibit both traits simultaneously.

6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time...Their respect for the area in which they work makes them aware of the long line of previous contributions to it, putting their own in perspective. They're also aware of the role that luck played in their own achievements. And they're usually so focused on future projects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding, are no longer very interesting to them. At the same time, they know they have accomplished a great deal. And this knowledge provides a sense of security, even pride.

7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping...ability to be at the same time aggressive and nurturant, sensitive and rigid, dominant and submissive, regardless of gender. A psychologically androgynous person in effect doubles his or her repertoire of responses. Creative individuals are more likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other one, too.

8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative. It is impossible to be creative without having first internalized an area of culture...But the willingness to take risks, to break with the safety of tradition, is also necessary. The economist George Stigler is very emphatic: "In innovation, you have to play a less safe game, if it's going to be interesting. It's not predictable that it'll go well."

9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lacks credibility. Here is how the historian Natalie Davis puts it:  "...you can't be so identified with your work that you can't accept criticism and response."

10. Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment...Being alone at the forefront of a discipline also leaves you exposed and vulnerable...invites criticism and often vicious attacks...Divergent thinking is often perceived as deviant by the majority, and so the creative person may feel isolated and misunderstood...Yet when a person is working in the area of his of her expertise, worries and cares fall away, replaced by a sense of bliss.

Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake.

That was from Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

My two cents: the Creative Personality can hold paradox without feeling conflicted - both paradoxical traits within oneself, as well as the ability to hold the world (and world view) as containing seemingly opposing realities without having to adopt one in particular. It is not reductionist, reducing a philosophy, creation or way of being down to one common denominator. It is expansive and yes-anding - accepting that contradictory ideas, situations and traits can be operating simultaneously or within the same individual or system - and that adds to the creative complexity, aliveness and richness of output.

Top 10 Creative Freelance Careers

According to About.com's article, Following Your Artistic Passion to Find Business Success, the top 10 Creative Freelance Careers are:

1. Scrapbook Design Consultant
Companies, like Creative Memories and Stampn' Up, offer home-based consultant programs....receive a starter kit and then resell the supplies, and other related products, through home party demonstrations.. provide scrapbooking services to others...use your talent to create gift cards and other custom products to sell direct.
2. Speciality Freelance Writer
...time to think beyond the standard freelancing notion of writing copy for brochures, white papers and magazine articles - and get creative...copy for online greeting cards...custom party invitations, thank you notes or love letters....professional complaint letters to send to offending corporations.
3. Color Consultant
Color consultants are companions to the interior design business...boosting the need for color consultants in both homes and businesses is the Feng Shui movement and the recognition of the effects of color on mood.
4. Waterscapes Design Consultant
...focusing on outdoor living spaces and custom-designed gardens....help home owners and businesses utilize water elements in their outdoor spaces.
5. Real Estate Marketing Consultant
As a home staging professional you are paid to declutter, rearrange and organize a home so that it looks its best for showing to prospective buyers...create an attention-getting Open House...
6. Social Media Consultant
A growing trend is the use of social networking sites, such as FaceBook, MySpace and Second Life to market a traditional business...advise companies on issues such as, the most appropriate, and cost-effective means of advertising on these and other social networking sites; creating viral videos; and even on implementing and maintaining a corporate blog.
7. Event Coordinator
Stop thinking in terms of wedding planning and boring, corporate functions...coordinating lavish Sweet 16 parties for teens, or the Spanish equivelant of the Quinceanera party...create intimate, romantic dinner parties for two and to organize unique and over-the-top memorial and funeral services for the ultimate going-away party.
8. Jewelry Designer and Buying Consultant
Using precious gems or intricate beadwork to design jewelry is a wonderful way to evoke your creative muse...consider designing custom necklaces, or jeweled collars, for pampered dogs and cats....design custom pieces to add to cell phones, digital cameras and MP3 players.
9. Graphic Artist
...specialize in online graphics. For example, you could use your artful imagination to design Avatars, or graphical representations of people for use online. Similarly, you could put web-based artwork to use in video games, Flash ads, and online videos.
10. Play Consultant
Companies once paid big money for employees to attend team-building programs, and now that same concept has been reinvented as a play therapist...consult companies on how to use play and creative thinking in brainstorming events to engage employees and solicit better ideas...advise on how to use fun as a way to de-stress overworked, burned-out employees...or provide weekly exercise programs or creative play sessions for their students.

For the full article, go to
http://consulting.about.com/od/gettingstarted/tp/CF_10CreativeCareers1007.htm 

Characteristics of Creative Organizations

1.  balance planning with improvising
2.  use the unknown as a resource (do not avoid it)
3.  creativity is a core value
4.  creativity is a organizational discipline; an ongoing process; a mindset
5.  time and attention are dedicated to “practicing” creative process until it 
     becomes embedded in the system
6.  flexible, limited organizational structures
     combined with intensive interaction
7.  room for exploration and discovery without judgment
8.  act upon intuition and “resonance” as well as logic
9.  employ real-time feedback loops and adapt accordingly
10.  mistakes and failures are seen as invitations to improve, grow or create
11.  hold organizational tension, cognitive dissonance and natural resistance
12.  engage paradox – engages opposing or differing “truths” and view points to without
       needing to boil them down to the lowest common denominator
13.  use diversity productively – uses differences to contribute to the creation of something new
14.  creativity can come from anywhere in the system in any direction
15.  use both linear and non-linear ways of thinking
16.  believe in their people; draws forth what is positive
17.  encourage the questioning of all assumptions
18.  informed by, but not limited to, what worked in the past
19.  not reliant on business buzz words; uses more authentic language
20.  excitement is not squelched – it is used to fuel creativity
21.  tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty
22.  use both divergent and convergent thinking; whole-brain approaches
23.  balance structure and “being organized” with flow and emergence
24.  value fun as part of the creative process

Michelle James©2008