BRINGING TOGETHER BUSINESS & INSPIRATION
OCTOBER 2014
4
TIPS TO RUN A
THE PERKS OF GOOGLE
$5.00 US / $6.99 CAN
THE DESIGN IT! LAB: WORKSHOPS THAT OOZE SERIOUS PLAY
CREATIVE BUSINESS
WHAT’S INSIDE Features
16
VOLUNTEERING DESIGN IT! LAB by Keri Wheeler Enter a world where imagination, design and learning happen all at once. Kids are gaining skills.
12
LESSONS IN GOOGLE’S PERKS by James B. Stewart Wouldn’t you like to work in a place that has air hockey and nerf gun fights in the work day? They do.
4 HOW TO RUN A CREATIVE BUSINESS by Kathleen Davis Laughter is an indicator of productivity. Letting your ideas suck. Communication in unconventional ways. Peek inside this article to see how the head of pixar runs his ship. 2
/ OCTOBER 2014
Every Issue
14 INFOGRAPHIC by Sydni Graig-Hart How are distractions hurts productivity.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Did you pick up this issue hoping to learn the secrets of running a successful business from some incredibly fun companies? Well, get ready to enjoy these golden nuggets from successful and companies teaming up with creativity in the workplace. Unlock the keys to some of the most effective strategies that are actually enjoyable to implement. We strive for the same dynamic principles as we assembled each issue. Creative Meetings hopes you will find this issue full of entertainment giants, search engine heroes and up-and-
22 INTERVIEW by Innovative Tools Hear Paul Scheele’s take on creativity’s role in businesses
coming thinkers to your enjoyment. As always, listen closely for the lessons that you can implement and ACTIONS you can take to work with you everyday. Lets learn from these creative people that also know how to get the job done well... and often with a smile or tune in their step.
HOW TO RUN A
CREATIVE BUSINESS Pixar has it all figured out--the innovative animation giant has created 14 number 1 Movies in a row. Clearly they are doing something right. Can other managers learn from their success?
By Kathleen Davis Illustrated By Paige Kotalik Art Directed By Keri Wheeler
PIXAR PRESIDENT
ED CATMULL SHARES HIS SECRETS:
1.
CREATIVE PROCESSES
ARE NOT
QUICK OR EASY “People would like to be done quickly,” Catmull explained, which is a product of what he calls the need to “feed the beast.” He explained that “the beast” is the majority of people who are making the film (or building the product) — they are concerned with generating the revenue and making sure things get completed. While those goals are important, creative leaders have to recognize that initially things will be a mess and protect the process. Getting it right is a balancing act. He said: “If the beast engages too early, it screws it up, and if you let them wander along too long then you screw it up, so you have to find a middle ground. There is nothing about this that is easy but the 6
temptation is to make it easy.”
2.
LET YOUR
IDEAS SUCK Pixar movies have multi-layered, compelling stories and are
beautifully put together, but they don’t start that way. He said, “All that anyone sees is the final product and there’s almost a romantic illusion about how you got there. When we first put up something--these stories suck.”For example, he shared that the first version of the movie Up included a king in a castle in the clouds. They threw everything out from that first idea except a bird and the word “up,” from there it went through several other iterations with a little more of the final story emerging each time. They had to make a lot of mistakes and have failures along the way to get the final product, he said.
7
3.
COMMUNICATION
CAN’T BE TOO STRUCTURED While many companies work well with a hierarchy, communication shouldn’t follow the same rules, according to Catmull. “Communication needs to be between anybody at any time,” he says. Managers don’t like to give up of control, he explained, “it’s often taken as a sign of disrespect if you go into a meeting and learn something for the first time.” But such open lines of communication are necessary if you want to create a creative environment where good ideas can be freely shared without worry that things have to go through 8
the “proper channels.”
4.
PAY ATTENTION TO
GROUP DYNAMICS Pixar is known for its creative “brain trusts”— groups that work perfectly together to solve problems and perfect ideas. But an effective brain trust is more that just a group of smart people, or even a group of people who get along, according to Catmull. In the most effective brain trusts, no one in the group had authority to change the project. This way, he said every member of the group has a vested interest in each other’s success. Catmull asserts the value of creating a space where it’s safe for people to say something stupid with fear of being chastised. “The problem isn’t finding ideas,” he said, “it’s finding a team that works well together. You can’t judge
the product you have to judge how they are working together, how they interact with each other — the laughter.” 9
rks Perks Perks Perks P e r k s P e r k s lesson P e r k Lso oPkei rn gk sf o Pr ear Lkess sPo en ri nk s Perks Perks Perks Pe ks Perks Perks r k s P e rGoogle’s P e r k s P e r k s lesson P e rks Perks Perks Perks Perks Perks Perks Pe son P e r k s P e r k s P e r k s Perks Perks Perks Pe r k s P e r k s lesson P e r k s Perks Perks Perks Pe r k s lesson P e r k s P e r k s Perks Perks Perks Pe rks Perks Perks Perks
Perks
by JAMES B. STEWART
After Yahoo’s chief executive, Marissa Mayer, ordered
has just stepped out, leaving her incriminating noose
employees working from home to show up at the office
(in the form of a necktie) prominently draped on the back of
for work, there was speculation that she was emulating
an oversize wing chair. A bookcase swings open to reveal a
Google, her previous employer.
secret room and even more private reading area. Next to the
rks
recently expanded Lego play station, employees can scurry
Yahoo employees should be so lucky.
rks
up a ladder that connects the fourth and fifth floors, where a fiendishly challenging scavenger hunt was in progress. Dogs strolled the corridors alongside their masters, and a cocker
Whatever else might be said about Yahoo’s workplace, it’s
spaniel was napping, leashed to a pet rail, outside one of the
a long way from Google’s, as I discovered this week when I
dining areas.
dropped in at Google’s East Coast headquarters, a vast former Port Authority shipping complex that occupies a full city block
Google lets many of its hundreds of software engineers, the
in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Yahoo set off a
core of its intellectual capital, design their own desks or work
nationwide debate about workplace flexibility, productivity and
stations out of what resemble oversize Tinker Toys. Some have
creativity last month after a memo with the directive surfaced
standing desks, a few even have attached treadmills so they
on the Internet. “We need to be one Yahoo, and that starts
can walk while working. Employees express themselves by
with physically being together,” read the memo from Jackie
scribbling on walls. The result looks a little chaotic, like some
Reses, Yahoo’s director of human resources, which went viral
kind of high-tech refugee camp, but Google says that’s how
after Kara Swisher posted it on AllThingsD.
the engineers like it.
The discussion may have been all the more heated since the
“We’re trying to push the boundaries of the workplace,” Mr.
ban was imposed by one of the relatively few female chief
Newman said, in what seemed an understatement.
executives, one who had a nursery built near the executive
In keeping with a company built on information, this seeming
suite after she gave birth last year.
spontaneity is anything but. Everything has been researched
rks rks
and is backed by data. In one of the open kitchen areas,
rks
Google’s various offices and campuses around the globe
Dr. Welle pointed to an array of free food, snacks, candy
reflect the company’s overarching philosophy, which is
and beverages. “The healthy choices are front-loaded,”
nothing less than “to create the happiest, most productive
he said. “We’re not trying to be mom and dad. Coercion
workplace in the world,” according to a Google spokesman,
doesn’t work. The choices are there. But we care about our
Jordan Newman. But do its unorthodox workplaces and lavish
employees’ health, and our research shows that if people
perks yield the kind of creativity it prides itself on, and Yahoo
cognitively engage with food, they make better choices.”
rks
obviously hopes to foster? So the candy (M&Ms, plain and peanut; TCHO brand luxury
Mr. Newman, 27, who joined Google straight from Yale,
chocolate bars, chewing gum, Life Savers) is in opaque
and Brian Welle, a “people analytics” manager who has a
ceramic jars that sport prominent nutritional labels. Healthier
Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from New
snacks (almonds, peanuts, dried kiwi and dried banana chips)
York University, led me on a brisk and, at times, dizzying
are in transparent glass jars. In coolers, sodas are concealed
rks
excursion through a labyrinth of play areas; cafes, coffee
behind translucent glass. A variety of waters and juices are
bars and open kitchens; sunny outdoor terraces with chaises;
immediately visible. “Our research shows that people consume
gourmet cafeterias that serve free breakfast, lunch and dinner;
40 percent more water if that’s the first thing they see,” Dr.
Broadway-theme conference rooms with velvet drapes; and
Welle said. (Note to Mayor Bloomberg: Perhaps New York City
conversation areas designed to look like vintage subway cars.
should hide supersize sodas rather than ban them.)
The library looks as if Miss Scarlet (from the board game Clue)
Craig Nevill-Manning, a New Zealand native and Google’s 11
engineering director in Manhattan, was the impetus behind
company’s AdSense and AdWords advertising platforms. Razor
the company’s decision to hire a cadre of engineers in New
scooters make it easy to get around the huge floors (each
York, and he led an exodus to Chelsea from what was a small
covers five acres), which offer every conceivable gathering
outpost near Times Square. “I lobbied for this building,” he
space, from large open spaces to tiny nooks with whimsical
told me. “I love the neighborhood. You can live across the
furniture. It was Mr. Nevill-Manning’s idea to install the ladder
street. There are bars and restaurants.”
connecting floors, now that Google is too large to fit on one.
He showed me a map of the city with dots indicating where
He said he wouldn’t go so far as to say cost is no object, but software engineers “are incredibly productive on a square foot
Google’s success depends on innovation and collaboration.
basis,” he said. “Their value is enormous. It doesn’t cost that much to make them very happy.” Allison Mooney, 32, joined Google two years ago from the advertising giant Omnicom Group, and the difference is “night and day,” she said. “I came here from the New York agency model, where you work constantly, 24/7. You answer every e-mail, nights and weekends. Here, you don’t have to show you’re working, or act like you’re working. The culture here is to shut down on weekends. People have a life.” And the perks, she added, are “amazing.” In the course of our brief conversation, she mentioned subsidized massages (with massage rooms on nearly every floor); free once-a-
each Google employee lives. They’re heavily concentrated
week eyebrow shaping; free yoga and Pilates classes; a
in Manhattan below 34th Street, Brooklyn and the Upper
course she took called “Unwind: the art and science of stress
West Side, most within walking distance of Chelsea or a
management”; a course in advanced negotiation taught by a
short subway ride away. “We inherited the informal work
Wharton professor; a health consultation and follow-up with a
environment — the casual dress, the flexible hours — from
personal health counselor; an author series and an appearance
Silicon Valley, but we adapted it to the East Coast urban
by the novelist Toni Morrison; and a live interview of Justin
environment,” he said. After the dot-com collapse in 2000,
Bieber by Jimmy Fallon in the Google office.
Manhattan was largely written off as a technology center. Since Google’s move, Chelsea is mentioned in the same breath as Silicon Valley. Google has turned over 22,000 square feet of its space, rent-free, to Cornell until its new technology campus can be built on Roosevelt Island. “The philosophy is very simple,” Mr. Nevill-Manning said. “Google’s success depends on innovation and collaboration. Everything we did was geared toward making it easy to talk. Being on one floor here removed psychological barriers to interacting, and we’ve tried to preserve that.” Among innovations that sprang from seemingly chance office encounters are the Google Art Project, which is putting thousands of museum works online, and enhancements to the
Here, you don’t have to show you’re working, or act like you’re working.
This in addition to a full array of more traditional employee benefits. Curiously, there’s some exercise equipment but no fitness center (Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. has multiple state-of-the-art fitness centers) because Manhattan employees said they preferred joining health clubs to exercising with colleagues. (Google subsidizes the gym memberships.) And there’s no open bar, although alcohol is served at T.G.I.F. parties (now held on Thursdays), one of which featured a dating game. After my visit, I spoke to Teresa Amabile, a business administration professor at Harvard Business School and coauthor of “The Progress Principle,” about creativity at work,
There’s some evidence that great physical space enhances creativity.
and told her I had just been to Google. “Isn’t it fantastic?” she said. Some of her former students work there, and “they feel very, very fortunate to be there,” she said. As to the broader relationship between the workplace and creativity, “there’s some evidence that great physical space enhances creativity,” she said. “The theory is that open spaces that are fun, where people want to be, facilitate idea exchange. I’ve watched people interact at Google and you see a cross-fertilization of ideas.” That said, she added, “there isn’t a lot of research to support this. And none of this matters unless people feel they have meaningful work and are making progress at it. In over 30 years of research, I’ve found that people do their most creative work when they’re motivated by the work itself.” Ben Waber, who has a Ph.D. from M.I.T. and is the author of “People Analytics,” is, at 29, the median age of Google employees. His company, Sociometric Solutions in Boston, uses data to assess workplace interactions. “Google has really been out front in this field,” he said. “They’ve looked at the data to see how people are collaborating. Physical space is the biggest lever to encourage collaboration. And the data are clear that the biggest driver of performance in complex industries like software is serendipitous interaction. For this to happen, you also need to shape a community. That means if you’re stressed, there’s someone to help, to take up the slack. If you’re surrounded by friends, you’re happier, you’re more loyal, you’re more productive. Google looks at this holistically. It’s the antithesis of the old factory model, where people were just cogs in a machine.”
Both experts were critical of Yahoo’s plan. “If you’re spying on them, monitoring them or coercing them, it will create a poisonous atmosphere,” Dr. Waber said. Professor Amabile added: “Google doesn’t have to force people. Marissa Mayers’s mistake may have been not being more clear about the need to be together and to experience creative excitement. Taking a hard line will have effects.” A Yahoo spokeswoman responded: “We don’t discuss internal matters. This isn’t a broad industry view on working from home. This is about what is right for Yahoo, right now.” It should probably be obvious at this juncture, but Google doesn’t require employees to work from the office. It doesn’t even keep track of who’s there. The notion seems to have never occurred to anyone. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a policy on that,” Mr. Newman said, but “we do expect employees to figure out a work schedule with their team and manager. It’s not a free-for-all.” For a company with Google’s largess — and the profit margins that make it possible — it’s hardly necessary to require employees to be at the office. “People want to come in,” Ms. Mooney said. She spends nine hours a day there, five days a week. She mentioned that she recently took a day off — and ended up at the office.“I live in a studio apartment,” she explained. “And I don’t have free food.”
13
GET THE FACTS:
How Multitasking Is Hurting Your Business Your browser has 8 tabs open. There are 5 documents open on your desktop. Your calendar alerts are popping up and you stop to send a quick text. Sound familiar? You probably think you’re being efficient, but you’re not. Multitasking is a big mistake and it’s hurting your productivity. Which in turn is hurting your profits. So lets take a look at the numbers.
In a study of Microsoft workers, employees took 15 minutes to get back to intense mental tasks like writing reports or coding, after responding to messages and emails.
Written by SYDNI CRAIG-HART
Multitasking leads to as much as a 40% drop in productivity.
$$$$$
Multitaskers make up to 50% more errors.
The estimated cost of interruptions to the American economy is $650 billion / year.
Your Action Plan: 14
Pause throughout your day to notice your energy level. Rate it on a scale of 1 to
1
5. Track your energy for the rest of the week & look for patterns.
Multitasking causes a 10% drop in IQ.
Ready to give up on multitasking? Batch your tasks. Try grouping like work together so you’re working within the same mode for blocks of time. Have specific times of day when you read and answer emails. Train your contacts not to expect instant answers to email.
It actually takes more time to get things done when you try to multitask. People who are interrupted – therefore have to switch their attention back and forth take 50% longer to complete a task.
Let them know you check email at 10 am and 3 pm, for example. Consider hosting “office hours” when you’re available on Skype or instant message to avoid quickquestion-type interruptions. Stop answering the phone every time it rings. Instead, schedule WZphone calls so you aren’t interrupted and loose precious work time. Prioritize your to do list. Track your energy throughout the day to find the times when you have the most energy. Schedule the tasks that require “heavy lifting” at the times when you are at your peak. Try alternating tasks that take a lot of focus with tasks that are less intense. Delegate. You don’t have to do it all on your own. Delegate tasks to others when you need to. A Virtual Assistant can be an excellent investment in your business. All that time
Only 2.5% of people actually process tasks simultaneously.
you’re wasting returning phone calls, managing your email, futzing around with your email newsletter and responding to customer service inquires could be spent landing your next high paying client. How much money is your multitasking really costing you.
2
Make a list of tasks you do regularly that
Before you open your email or listen to
Schedule specific blocks of time during
could be delegated then call a VA and
your voice mail, look at your to-do list for
the day to check email and voice mail.
ask for a quote on those reoccurring
the day. Consider what you should be
Otherwise keep your email closed and
tasks and events.
3
doing that will grow your business.
4
choose not to answer when it rings.
Volunteering at the
Design it! Lab Written by Keri Wheeler The Design It! Lab involves demonstrating and guiding kids through hands-on learning and creating projects that they can take home with them. I rotated to different stations including: creating vacuum form badges, creating breast cancer awareness jewelry, the pour lab, hosting, handing out guitar picks, and helping with the design projects at the lab.
PROGRAMS & Services The Design It! Lab programs include:
•
The weekend lab
•
Weekly Quick shops
•
Internships for high school students
•
Workshops (ex. Girl Scouts badges)
•
Designer challenges
MISSION STATEMENT The Design It! Lab works to promote design and innovation. Their goals are to turn ideas into beautifully designed products, give access to cutting-edge equipment and connect students with emerging designers. This agency believes that design is all around you.
Fulfilling it’s mission The Design It! Lab opens it’s doors to patrons of the museum and provides design projects and problems to solve. The lab and staff provide materials, instructions, and fun. The leaders instruct the staff to allow the participants to figure things out on their own, discover, try a technique, and make each project their own. I believe that promotes the mission of discovery and ignites an interest for designing. Making science and STEM disciplines exciting is the problem the agency is trying to solve. I believe the agency does a great job of teaching and fostering learning for the patrons that walk through their doors. I also think a wider scope could be reached — a more diverse demographic. I believe that lower income or people without transportation means are missing out on these resources. When I discussed concerns of reach with the Design It! Lab leaders, they agreed that access to the museum is a huge topic. Though they also added that they don’t have good information about the demographics they’re not hitting or why — the current leaders have only been in the position for 6 months haven’t seen the full breadth of who visits KDI. They also mentioned how they wish they had a greater online and older presence. They have programs for high school students to learn and also to work in the lab, but of the patrons I saw were kids 12 and under. I can tell you that we’re not hitting the teen-young adult demo hard enough. We have awesome tools that college students can use, but they don’t. We have products that might interest the elderly. We have world-class exhibits that might tie in international visitors.
17
“Empower kids to think for themselves”
A powerful moment One moving moment I encountered while working was on February 23rd when I was assigned to the Pour It Lab. Learning how to engage visitors in an otherwise boring demonstration was my main lesson for the day. By engaging the visitors and asking questions I also learned how smart some of our young visitors are! It was also interesting to see which parents answered my questions and which ones encouraged their kids to answer my questions on their own. Originally, I wanted to do volunteering that empowered young kids (especially girls). After deciding to work at Discovery World, I changed my mindset to one of combining my engineering background with design – which is all around discovery world. However, I learned that I could empower kids at this site. I absolutely loved being able to tell a kid who guessed my questions (or got close) “wow, you’re smart!” “Good guess” or “Nice! I didn’t even think of that.” I think there are many ways of empowering people and this is one. Empowering kids to think for themselves, ask questions and encouraging critical & creative thinking is something I wanted.
A DIFFICULT moment The most challenging day was probably on a very busy day. That day was a lesson in patience with pushy parents. For the most part, both the parents and kids at the museum are very well behaved, and it’s a fun, playful environment. Near the end of the day the lab got backed up and a line started to form. Many of this month’s projects took a long time to complete due to the “decorate it however you want” aspect. I had to employ my crowd management skills as the gatekeeper/host. A couple parents wondered why they
“ Let them know we’re all on the same team!”
couldn’t just go in, or thought they saw available chairs when in fact the current kids were still working. I learned to balance being nice with being firm, and I learned how to offer a distraction or alternative to waiting in line. My challenge was make sure that each family was being attended too and didn’t feel ignored. I had to make sure families waiting in line knew I wanted to get them in there as fast as possible – We’re all on the same team! I wanted to make sure the families inside the lab were being attended to so they could do their projects and have a experience.
19
AN Action Plan Three assignments that come to mind from this semester’s assignments are the State of Union Journal, the Inequality for All video, and the This I Believe. The State of the Union forced me to do something I have never done, but should have been doing. It was required, but I felt as if I owned the experience. It made me feel like I was getting important direction and news first hand and evaluating the speech for myself. Often times I get this type of information second hand and filtered from my parents or even Justin who is in business school. I am usually relying on someone else to do the first telling, which always comes with personal opinions. This assignment forced me to have personal responsibility in my citizenship. It was empowering and insightful. Being exposed to Robert Reich’s writings and video was a real treat through out the semester. I appreciated how clear and straightforward his presentations were. I appreciated the statistics mixed in with stories and real examples. I thought the video was so well done and hit many ways of learning: those who need hard facts, those who want a bottom line, and those who need the story. His message made me think and sparked a great discussion with my husband later. The most important thing that the video did for me was clearly lay out why some things are the way they are. How did we get here! As an African American I knew that slavery, segregation, and discrimination has played a part in certain disadvantages over America’s history. When Reich explained how suburbs were formed, most of the information was not new to me.
“Wh
However, when he brought up the fact that certain races were not allowed the same loans as whites that struck a cord. Some
en y ou’r e inf orm ed y ou a re p owe rful. ”
how I never knew that piece of the puzzle, and I’m not sure why, but that was a big “click” for me and it hurt. It just made me re-realize how the race wasn’t fair from the beginning and made me sad when thinking about all the people now trying to catch up. I’m not naive, and I do know that was not the only factor, and it didn’t limit everyone. I just thought it opened up more understanding for me. The video continued to do that in other areas also. It was a really good example of perspective – how perspective changes with each piece of information gathered. When people are informed they can make informed decisions. When people know why things are the way they were they can make more informed decisions. The This I Believe project that came directly after the Inequality for All project was another step in personal responsibility. My final voice recording was challenging and exciting to craft and publish. I think that piece of work could be revisited every year – updated, received, and with better story telling. However, the part that sticks out most was the pre-work. After watching the video we were instructed to free write what we believe and our reactions to the presentation. A lot of my reactions were personal but fueled by the new information and how that fit into my life. It was a powerful exercise for me because I was so charged after watching the video. It also included my perspective, which I think is completely unique. It forced me to evaluate my perspective and where I fit into this discussion. A common trend of these three projects is that when you’re informed you are powerful. To the same effect, access to information and helpful programs is empowering. Also, it’s important as young adults to inform ourselves. In connecting these ideas to my service work, I think a big social media campaign could help connect more people to the lab.
21
ASK THE QUESTIONS:
We Interview Paul Scheele on Creativity in the Workplace
Q. How does your work relate to creativity? Scheele: On a continuum of problem solving approaches, we often place creativity on one end and rational/analytical approaches on the other end, but we really need both ends of the continuum at different stages during the problem solving process. I work with integrating both sides of the brain and both ends of that continuum. For example, in my second book, Natural Brilliance, I describe a creative problem solving process I originally created for Honeywell, where I taught for years a course called “Creativity and Problem Solving” as well as a course called “Managing Creativity and Innovation.” My approach uses Neuro-Linguistic Programming in a systematic way to deconstruct a rigid definition of “problem” from a static or stagnant view of a “thing” called “problem” to a more fluid and flexible exploration of internal representations and options.
Q. What do you see as the emerging paradigm of work? Scheele: The new paradigm of work is a focus on a quadruple bottom-line. We are creating economies that
Creativity is the key driving force behind successful
practice conscious capitalism and organizations that strive
innovation, and is being increasingly recognized
to create enterprise that is socially just, environmentally and
as the new capital in uncertain and challenging
economically sustainable, and spiritually fulfilling.
economic times. This is the first in a series of posts
Employees and managers in such businesses are finding
based on interviews and dialogue with creativity and innovation thought leaders around the topic of applied creativity in business – a subject that has been the focus of my own work for 15 years.
greater meaning and purpose in what they do. Their gifts are encouraged to come forward. They know that their work actively creates a better world for all. It is bringing about conscious capitalism – measuring results by real indicators of human progress, and not merely an economic bottom line that stresses quarterly earnings.
Paul Scheele, founding partner of Learning Strategies Corporation and chairman of Natural
The measures of the business also include the social capital
Brilliance Productions, is an accomplished author,
that is being returned to the community, and the business
speaker, and consultant in the area of human development, the brain, learning and creativity, transformation, and leadership. The following
practices are sustainable environmentally. More than just consumerism, real value is produced for customers, the employees, the organization, and the community. In the past, we were hired based on talent to solve problems
are his thoughts on business creativity, creative
and implement solutions to problems that were clear. But
leadership, and the emerging business paradigm.
in the emerging paradigm, we are faced with extremely challenging problems. We have to do adaptive work – actively
22
embracing paradox – recognizing that whatever solution we
Q. What is one tool or approach for bringing more creativity into work and business? Scheele: The most essential tool is to pause in the problem
implement can create more problems. Every solution contains
solving process. Don’t rush to premature closure. Most
problems, and every problem contains solutions – giving up
people who have a problem want to get rid of it as quickly as
the notion that we can find a lasting solution. It is a continual
possible. One of the first three solutions that come to mind
process of solving, creating, implementing, getting feedback,
usually get implemented.
learning how to define and attend to emergent solutions in ways that do not grow out of our history. It requires
and refining. If we examine time allocation, 20% of the time is spent in problem definition and solution finding, then 80% of the
Q. What is creativity’s role in that paradigm? Scheele: A lot of business activity is devoted to problem
time is devoted to implementation. I can virtually guarantee
solving. And most of our problems exist as the unintended
solving approach that unintentionally put the problem in place
by-products of our current problem solving strategies, all of
to begin with.
that the solutions will have emerged from the same problem
which have emerged from mental models that emerged out of our social system. Naturally, we have blinders to the fact, and
We need to switch that equation around. Take 80% of your
think we are producing something new while we are actually
problem solving time in problem definition and solution
busily creating more of the same.
finding. Explore seven, nine, or eleven potential solutions. Challenge each solution by anticipating the ways things
The role of creativity is a full-on frontal assault of the mental
could go wrong with implementation and build in creative
models that created the messes humanity now needs to clean
approaches to maximizing the potential benefits. Then, 20%
up. As the brilliant creative thinker and inventor Buckminster
of your time will be devoted to implementation, which will
Fuller said, “Humanity is in its final exam. And I am confident
also move much more smoothly and effortlessly. Spend more
we can make it if we recognize we are here for each other,
time in exploration of the problem – more time in creative
that we are here for our minds.”
exploration, new and unexpected solutions can emerge.
We need to do hospice for the old paradigm of business and performed, and creative new approaches need to be birthed
Q. What is creative leadership to you? Scheele: Creative leadership is leadership that guides
every day, if we are to move from the level of consciousness
a social system to look into its own blind spots. It creates
that produced our current malaise into a new paradigm that
containers for the emerging future to land. It holds space for
creates a world that works for everyone.
rich dialog and deep listening. It encourages an open mind,
begin to “mid-wife” the new. Adaptive work needs to be
an open heart, and an open will that can trust the next steps into the fertile unknown will be blessed. Creative leadership
Q. What attitudes and behaviors are essential for effectively navigating the new paradigm? Scheele: Improv principles are a great template for
models how to surrender what doesn’t work and gives birth to the next evolutionary step for ourselves as individuals, and the system within which we interact.
navigating in a more fluid, emergent work environment. Three that are being highlighted in the Creativity In Business Conference are a great starting point: (1) Yes, and… (2) Make everyone else look good, and (3) Seek the good of the whole. In addition, two key behaviors that I work to help develop in people are a tolerance for ambiguity, and to embrace paradox.
You can reach Paul Scheele at the Reclaim Your Genius website. He will be a presenter and panelist at the upcoming Creativity in Business Conference in Washington, DC October 4, 2009.
Nice work. Now go create.