Creative Acuity

In This Bloutcher
Where Art, Life and Leadership Collide

• Creative Acuity

Creative Acuity
I just got off the phone with Bob Handley (not his real name.)  Bob is the Head of Strategic Planning for a Fortune 500 Company (his real job.)  Let's just say he works a lot with numbers.  In the parlance of creativity, he's a left brain sort of guy.  Except he really isn't.

Several years ago Bob participated in one of my leadership workshops.  It really hit home for him.  He soon enrolled in a drawing class and several months later he sent me an email saying how the class "noticeably increased my problem solving acuity."  I love the word acuity because it is one of those words that sounds like its meaning which is keenness of perception.  So Bob is a believer in the power of creativity to accelerate and improve strategic and business problem solving acuity.

Today, several years later, Bob has deepened his mastery of many of the tools and concepts in the workshop and continues to apply them on a daily basis.  In our conversation he reminded me of a Claude Monet story I had told in the workshop.  Seems a visitor came to the aging Monet's studio and, pointing to a painting, asked how long it had taken the artist to paint the picture.  "My whole life," Monet responded.  Of course the actual task of painting that particular picture had not taken Monet's entire life.  He was suggesting that the painting reflected the fullness of his life experience, including the effort of building mastery over his craft.  Bob reminded me of this story because he said that dedicating himself to learning and developing his creative skills has also increased both his resilience and confidence.  As a result, he is calmer when he bumps into roadblocks and this in turn adds to his ability to discern new pathways to a solution.

The original purpose of our conversation was to get Bob's feedback on a new online prototype of a leadership development program my team had been developing called The Leader's Studio.  One of Bob's pieces of feedback was to be sure to emphasize the importance of what we call the "Preparation" skill in the creative process.  Simply put, preparation means regularly engaging in activities that predispose the mind to creative insight.  Many of these activities are pretty familiar and simple such as going for a walk or engaging in a brief meditation exercise.  But in today's work environment with so much pressure to perform and so many demands on our time folks simply do not think they have even brief periods of time to engage in such activities.  The result is that they get drained of their creative juices and default to the things with which they are are most familiar and present the line of least resistance.

Despite this, Bob has found a clever--should we say creative?--way to make room for activities which prepare his mind for breakthrough thinking.  This enables him to actually increase his efficiency even though it means spending time, no matter how briefly, out of his office and NOT in a meeting.  In fact, he confided he will schedule "false meetings" in order to get 15 or 20 minutes to engage in a preparation activity.  The results have been striking.  Among his favorite preparation activities is walking.  Which is not easy since he works on the 20th floor of a 29 floor downtown building.  On his preparation breaks he walks from the 20th floor up to the 29th floor.  He says he huffs and puffs.  And then walks down again.  "Something seems to happen," he tells me, "and it always works!" 

I call that "something" creativity.

Here are some  other preparation activities which trigger creative thinking:

• Musical triggers such as listening to your favorite music
• Cultural triggers such as viewing a work of art, for an example a painting or a sculpture
• Water related triggers such as soaking in a bathtub or shower
• Athletic triggers such as walking, bicycling or performing any other repetitive exercise for at least 15 minutes
• Repetitive-movement triggers such as needlepoint or knitting
•  Surrender triggers such as relinquishing control over a personal or job problem
• Altruistic triggers such as becoming involved in helping others

Let's start a Creative Acuity Revolution at work:  Bring Your Knitting!

Shepherd Knitting While Watching His Flock

Rascals

In This Bloutcher
Where Art, Life and Leadership Collide

• Rascals
• Another Plug

Rascals

The best leaders are neither stewards, nor CWOs (Chief Whatever Officers,) nor podium punctuators.  The best leaders have mischief in them.  They are rascals.

In order to be a meaningful rascal leader you need first to be a rascal to yourself.

I call it self rascalization.

Second, you need to be a rascal to your organization.

Organizational rascalization.

Here are some notable rascals.

Michelangelo was a rascal.  He tells us:  "The greatest failure is not that we aimed too high and fell short but that we aimed too low and achieved it."  The man knew how to mix it up!

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

Georgia O'Keeffe, the great American artist, said:  "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life--and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do."  O'Keeffe mixed up more than her palette.

Georgia O'Keeffe (1897-1986)

Steve Jobs was a rascal.  He said:  "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me.... Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful--that's what matters to me."  He also said:  "Stay hungry, stay foolish."  And:  "I want to put a ding in the universe."  Now that's galactic mischief!

Steve Jobs (1955-1911)

Rembrandt was a rascal.  He said:  "The smell of paint would annoy you."  He meant if you aren't willing to get messy you can't be a creator.  Messy is rascal.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)

 Thomas Edison was a rascal.  He said:  "Hell, there are no rules here--we're trying to accomplish something." Rascal is stepping into it.

Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

Rascals cause mischief.  They stir things up.

Here are three ways to rascalize yourself and your organization:

Self Rascalization:

• Wake up in the morning and ask yourself where can I aim high today.
• Wake up in the morning and ask yourself what can't I do. Then do it.
• Wake up in the morning and ask yourself how can I do something wonderful today.

Organizational Rascalization

• Wake up in the morning and ask yourself where are rules (my own and my organization's) getting in the way and then work to change them.
• Wake up in the morning and learn something new from a field  that is entirely different from yours and ask yourself how can I bring it into my work.
• Wake up in the morning and ask yourself "What if...?" and then do it--really do it.  That also makes a ding.

We all have rascal in us. Check it out, bring it out.  Our little rascal is what makes us special.

Another Plug
Live Smart After 50!  The Experts' Guide to Life Planning for Uncertain Times

This is a very smart, concise, practical resource for those who are beginning to think about the next chapter in their lives.  Live Smart After 50! makes a great gift and a great read.

To learn more and/or order click here.