Creative Streak

The Four Agreements, Applied to Business

Many people deservedly know Don Miguel Ruiz from his appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s television show to speak about his philosophy in his book The Four Agreements. I was introduced to him by my friend Greg in New York who gave me the audio book as a gift.

But, true to the Aussie personality, friends here in Sydney scoffed at the New Age spiritualism and the "icky" motivational philosophy ... and I had to agree, during the moment.

But when I re-read the book again this weekend, I was struck again by its relevance to the business environment. If you could scrub clean the Aquarian elements from its core philosophy, you might agree its essential clear tenets which should describe the behaviour of the most effective leader, a strategic creative thinker, or an ideal team member.

Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others day and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can do avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always do your best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

If you like Ruiz' style and philosophy, you'll love his website.

If you're curious about the book, take a look here, on Amazon.

Overused Buzzwords and Marketing Speak in Press Releases

My good friend Suzanne Ross of The Aerie Company sent this link to me a few days ago. (Sorry, I've been off on holidays for five weeks, and just now getting back to a keyboard.)

As background, Adam Sherk - a search and PR strategist for Define Search Strategies (owned by The New York Times Company) - analysed the number of words used in press releases archived on PRWeb over the past four years. "Leader" and "leading" were the two most used words. I've included the top 20 words below, or click on the link above to see the entire list.

Used together, the words really do repel the reader. ("As the leader of our industry, we at Acme are leading yet again by producing the best and most unique solution from the most innovative team of innovators with award winning exclusive technology.")

It reminds me of something that John Bennett (my first journalism teacher at the University of Iowa) said in one the early classes: "It's easy to select a word to use, but far more difficult to select one with impact."

1. Leader
2. Leading
3. Best
4. Top
5. Unique
6. Great
7. Solution
8. Largest
9. Innovative
10. Innovator
11. Award winning
12. Exclusive
13. Premier
14. Extensive
15. Leading provider
16. Innovation
17. Real-time
18. Fastest
19. Easy to use
20. Dynamic

The brilliant comic is by Drew & Natalie Dee and . Go here to see to their website and BUY SOMETHING. (I have heaps of their T-shirts.)

Bits & Bytes, May 29

Again, some miscellanea from around the Internet.

Adults, Play and Creativity

Two posts on ‘play’ for adults, particularly in business. On one hand, it’s fairly well-known that play is an important ingredient for adults, both in creative thinking and in learning. On the other, I know there's real hesitation from the Regular Person who doesn't understand what we often mean by that statement. A random search on Google has some questionable suggestions by creative experts, such as “Learn to cut loose, even at work!” or “When you’re writing your next report, think like a child!”

I'm not sure this is a good example of playing at work, but a few weeks ago, at a workshop for a financial services company in Melbourne, an executive and I were analysing how to improve her 78-page slide presentation for an upcoming meeting of the Board of Directors. Her immediate supervisor demanded she put all of his slides in the presentation, but then said "But feel free to make it your own." (Talk about Creative Paradoxes, see below.)

After getting our heads around the complex topic, we began to joke about how we might turn the presentation into something playful. “What would the Board of Directors never expect?” And, "What would make her presentation a surprise?” Or, “What if the Board were in control of the presentation, instead of her?”

Innovator vs. Pseudo-Innovator

 A cold, wet wintry day in Sydney is perfect for going through old stuff ... namely 11 boxes (I kid you not) of old articles on communications, creativity and innovation I've kept since I got my first job in 1984. I'm always amazed how some of the principles remain true after 25 years, others perhaps not so much.

One stand-out from this morning's gleaning is entitled "The Innovator vs. the Pseudo-Innovator", from the January 1980 edition of Executive Skills, an old newsletter from the American Management Association. It's interesting to me because the traits of an innovator have a natural affinity to the characteristics of a creative person. I cringe every now and then because I read a trait I don't follow consistently (so it's a good list, sort of like an Eighteen Commandments of Creativity). I'm not 100% sure I agree. For instance, "... prefers complexity." Personally, I prefer ideas which are simple, although I also understand the joy (among us INTPs) to reduce complexity to simplicity.

Anyway, an interesting read nonetheless. Any thoughts? Any others you'd add? HTML

The Traits of an Innovator vs. Those of the Pseudo-Innovator

The Innovator: ... is intellectually curious

   The Pseudo-Innovator ... is cynically curious

I ...is constructively critical

   P-I ...is corrosively critical

I ...seeks to improve the operation

   P-I ...seeks to impress others

I ...has firm convictions but listens to the ideas of others

The Value of Creativity, At Last

Did you hear that cry of vindication? You should have. Thousands of consultants worldwide threw their hats in the air as a new global survey found that the most important leadership quality was ‘creativity.’ If you haven’t seen it, read the article now.

The survey Capitalising on Complexity: Insights from the Global Chief Executive Officer Study is notable for a variety of reasons.

First, the findings came from the highest level: 1,500 chief executives from every region in the world. Collectively, they ranked creativity higher than other competencies such as integrity, global thinking, influence, openness, dedication, focus on sustainability, humility and fairness.

Second, it was conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value. Not only is the endorsement by IBM significant, it’s rich with irony. Remember the phase “No one gets fired for hiring IBM?” You couldn’t find a more non-creative declarative sentence, so clearly, the brand overhaul of IBM’s reputation is nearly complete.

Third, the release of the survey after one of the worst economic period in history makes it extremely surprising. A senior manager at IBM Global Business Services said that “(CEOs) didn't fall back on management discipline, existing best practices, rigor, or operations. In fact, they (did) just the opposite.”

Suits vs. Creatives

Maybe you’ve already seen this post – The Anti-Creativity Checklist?  Compiled by Youngme Moon on Vimeo, the list seemed to flood everywhere late last week, for good reason. I don't have more to add without re-hashing the hash. If you don't have time to watch the video, I've included her general checklist at far bottom.

At the same time, Moon’s post reminded me of a list I'd kept over the years of actual comments made by clients after presenting campaign concepts or ideas when I was creative director at Burson-Marsteller. I’d jokingly called the list “Statements To Make A Creative Director Cry.” Some of them are variations on the same theme as Moon's, highlighting the essential disconnect between "the suits" vs. "the creatives."

“No, that idea’s too big. I don’t want a BIG IDEA. I want a Little-Less-Big-Idea.”

“Let’s not try to out-think our customer. He's lucky to have our product."

“I want you think out of the box, not out of the ballpark.”

“That’s interesting. What else do you have?”

“Hmm, no. That’s not right.” (Followed by silence.)

“That's a clever brand execution. But where's the part that talks about our product being cheaper than the competition?”

Seven Different Types of Meetings

One book that keeps finding its way to the top of my shelves is How To Make Meetings Work, by Michael Doyle and David Straus.

One book section lists the seven different type of meetings, which I've listed below with some of their tips - and a few of my own - to consider prior to planning or facilitating your next meeting.

Problem-Solving Meetings

• Make sure the problem is well-defined and agreed-to by key decision makers in advance of the meeting.
• What problem-solving methodology or tool will you use during the meeting? Agree to it in advance, and make sure someone is fluent in the methodology.
• Energy is critical: attendees must want to solve the problem, or feel urgency to solve it.
• Incorporate plenty of time for discussion and debate.
• Engage a neutral facilitator depending upon the discussion and debate you expect.

Decision-Making Meetings

• The key decision maker must be involved, if not attend the meeting.
• Identify the coaches (the positive influencers to the decision maker) to determine how to win or leverage their support
• Identify the gatekeepers (the negative influencers to the decision maker) and the bomb-throwers (the ‘devil’s advocate’ type of people). Determine how to minimise, neutralise, or think ahead of them to counter-balance or address their concerns.
• Keep the number of attendees to a smaller number than a larger.
• Make sure team knows how they will be impacted by decision, that they have responsibility for the decision. At the same time, do not steam-roll.
• And last – perhaps most important – don’t fake a decision-making meeting. Be honest.

Bits & Bytes, March 15

Here's some of my week-end catch-up on posts related to creativity, innovation and communications.

Framing Is Everything - One of my favourites, Luciano Passuello writes Litemind, always a thought-provoking blog on creativity and innovation. His post Framing Is Everything speaks to the process of "framing" and its importance to problem solving and decision making. He suggests that how you articulate the problem will profoundly influence how you solve it with creative thinking.

How Good Is Your Website? -  My colleague Neil Drewitt sent this website to me - Bowen & Cragg - a company which consultants on website effectiveness. It has a terrific database of best practices, plus 1,000 articles free on its website. You can also sign up for its newsletter. Handy, practical and a beautiful website to boot (no surprise there).

Two Articles on Innovation

Verbal vs Non-Verbal Communications

You may not recognise the name, but Albert Mehrabian authored some of the most famous studies in communications research. His most well-known hypothesis: When two people communicate face-to-face, how much of the meaning is communicated verbally, and how much is communicated non-verbally?

First published in 1971, his research is almost a quaint idea today, considering that a lot of organisational and personal communications uses decidedly non-face-to-face methods of social media.

Despite using Twitter, Facebook, blogs to communicate (and I’m as guilty of it as anyone), there's something in Mehrabian’s research that continues to fascinate.

 He concluded there are three parts to face-to-face communications – sometimes called the 3 V’s – and these three elements determine how much a receiver “likes” the speaker:

• Visual, or body and facial expressions, accounting for 55% of the liking
• Vocal, or tone of voice, accounting for 38% of the liking
• Verbal, or words, accounting for 7% of the liking

Bits & Bytes, March 5

Some random things I've found during the past week ...

Creative Technique: Free-writing – Some good simple instructions for one of the most basic brainstorming techniques, an especially good one when you’re working solo. (From BQF, the blog of the British Quality Foundation’s special interest group on Innovation, written by Paul Sloane.)

How to live a simple and peaceful life: 13 tips – If you want some basic tips to simplifying your life, this is great. If you can read between the lines, there’s some interesting points here about creativity too: being aware of living in the moment, seeing unusual relationships between objects, finding metaphors between different tasks – and perhaps a new solution, scheduling time to think – or dare I say the word, ‘daydream’? (From WikiHow, a useful blog about all sorts of different things.)

Six writing techniques to increase your creativity – Love tips, absolutely love them. This post has six good ones about proper preparation, analysis and creativity to improve your writing skills. In particular, I love tip number 5: annotating. It’s not only about thinking actively about what you’re reading, but then, writing down what you actually mean. I constantly read things where I stop and ask myself: what is this person trying to say? (From Fast Cash Freelance, a blog about – how aptly named! – free lance writing.)