Archive for: May, 2017

Can Creativity Be Scheduled?

can creativity be scheduled?

Can creativity be scheduled? via NY Times

Yes. Actually, it’s necessary to making progress.

From The New York Times Can Creativity be Scheduled?:

What if you don’t have to be “creative” to create?

We all know the archetype of the creatives, right? Eccentric, weird, scattered, messy. The creatives are plagued perpetually by writer’s block (or sculptor’s block or painter’s block or whatever block). They spend most of their time lazing about gloomily, smoking cigarettes and cursing this cruel world. But then, every once in a while, the creatives are so touched by the muse that they are forced to immediately drop everything, go into a trance and become a funnel for the beauty of the world.

Personally, I think that’s a bit too precious. This notion to wait around in the rain until you get struck by lightning to make art (or anything) doesn’t mesh with my experience at all. What comes much closer is the famous Chuck Close quotation: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

The major implication of Mr. Close’s quotation is that you don’t have to be creative to create. So here’s a secret ninja trick that will help: Don’t wait around for creativity to strike. Strike creativity! Invent an obligation for yourself so you have to be creative on purpose.

I once heard a story about a guy who wanted to write a book. But he was too overwhelmed by the enormity of the process, so for a decade, he didn’t do it. One day, he decided to create a 5,000-word monthly magazine and offer a two-year subscription to everyone he knew. A bunch of people signed up, and all of a sudden, he had to do it. At the end of two years, he had 120,000 words to work with to create this book.

So, can you be creative on purpose without waiting for lightining to strike?

Yes, you can be creative on command but in my experience two things have to be true for it to work:

  1. A well defined problem;
  2. Deep immersion and then distancing yourself from the challenge.

The first one is the hardest, it’s what gives your mind focus. We saw this in my recent interview with Greg Satell on how the main challenge for every manager and business leader is how to answer “what do I do?”; it all starts with having a well defined problem.

The second part, has to do with not thinking about the challenge and letting your mind wander for a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you just want to throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. It actually helps to loosen up a bit because we’re so used to doing routine work so we have to shock the brain.

This is an important point because one of the main fears of established organizations is that making time for creativity is a waste of time; it isn’t if you start by articulating a well defined problem.


Bottom line: While it is my belief that there is no single path to creativity, creating a constraint and articulating a well defined problem is very powerful to jumpstart the process of making stuff. 

It All Starts With A Provocative Question

all brilliant answers start with questions

It’s not unusual that we get stuck in situations where we’re not able to find a way forward and feel like we’ve exhausted all options. In these situations we struggle, get stressed out and block ourselves from exploring other options. What do you do to get unstuck? 

Mapping Innovation with Greg Satell

Mapping Innovation Every Business Manager asks itself the same key strategic question about how to approach innovation: what do I do?

Having gone through the experience of having to figure out an answer to that question Greg Satell, the author of the very popular blog Digital Tonto, wrote his new book Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age to help Managers do the same.

The Courage to Ask

kobe bryant courage to ask

You might not know that I’m a big basketball fan. Along with the UFC, it’s the sport I follow the most. So, every once in a while I’ll find interesting lessons that apply to my “better your best” mindset. For example, during this year’s playoffs Isaiah Thomas, point guard of the Boston Celtics, reached out to NBA legend Kobe Bryant for some help on studying film. Kobe Bryant, as we’ve seen before, was obsessive about offense and defense during his playing days and is one of the reasons why he’s an all-time great.

3 Key Criteria of Disruptive Innovation

Just a few hours before sitting down to write this post I was in a meeting were a group of people pitched themselves as disruptive, they aren’t, but people on the other end of the table soaked it all in. Why? One, the misconception and another is disruption is good PR, there isn’t a day that goes by where some new upstart describes itself or is described as disruptive.

The truth is not all innovation is disruptive. How can you tell what has the potential to be disruptive?

Innovation is Not Necessarily Disruptive

So, last week’s post Innovation is the opposite of what we’re pretending the word means hit a nerve; as it should. Some people quickly commented that disruptive and radical innovation is rare and that 99% of established organizations really pursue incremental innovation: