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Starting from Zero, Got Nothing To Lose (and everything to gain)

To build on Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" lyrics, the boldest ideas come from those who have nothing to lose.     For those of us with established careers, or at "established ages" it's harder to think bold.     Rebellious streaks nonwithstanding, our lives are more hard-wired than we think.    Our skills, CV, career networks, personal networks, industry knowledge all serve to keep us on the same track.    Any effort we exert helps us go faster and farther in the same direction.   

But what if we want to switch tracks?    We often lack the infrastructure to make the change.   

In Working Identity -- Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, Herminia Ibarra addresses the obstacles that success can create -- barriers that discourage us from thinking more broadly about our lives.  This is sage advice for business leaders, not just career changers, given the fact that success discourages change.   After all, reinventing ourselves could be the most difficult re-positioning exercise of all, since we can't keep ourselves at arms length.

We don't have to start from zero, but we can visualize the process of doing so.   Visualizing a "fresh start" could yield a bounty of fresh ideas.   

The Impact of Inconspicuous Consumption: Marketers Take Note

Conspicuous Consumption is Conspicuous.   Does it distract us from what's really going on in the market?   In her Marketing Profs article last Tuesday, The Devil May Wear Prada, But Everyone Else Wears Isaac Mizrahi, Marti Barletta cautions marketers to look beyond trend hype to what people really buy.   In a larger context, we may be missing the forest for the ornamental trees.

So how do we track Inconspicuous Consumption?   In their book The Influentials, Ed Keller and Jon Berry go where The Tipping Point's Mavens and Connectors leave off.   The book's subtitle is:  "one American in ten tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat, and what to buy".  According to Keller and Berry, Influentials are information-hungry, outgoing, and suprisingly pragmatic.   They don't seek to influence, but others trust their judgement.   What does this mean to marketers?   

We need to seriously consider who our real brand ambassadors are -- but not mistake Word of Mouth Marketing with orchestrating buzz through stealth spokespeople.   

Worth adding to your news feed: the Influence 2.0 blog, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Womnibus Blog.  A Great Primer for Marketers on Social Media: Brand Marketers, Meet Social Networks: Building Communities Without Jeopardizing Your Brand, by Joe Lichtenberg of Marketing Profs.

The Economic Impact of Creativity: Globally and Locally

In The Rise of the Creative Class, The Flight of the Creative Class, and www.creativeclass.org,  Richard Florida investigates what makes world regions creative, productive and competitive, as a result.  Looking beyond traditional economic productivity indices, he characterizes the “3 T’s of Economic Development”: Technology, Talent and Tolerance.  Creative capital drives growth in an idea-driven economy.     

How do we apply this global premise locally?  This week the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation released a report on state competitiveness, looking at several factors.   My state, Massachusetts, landed on top of the list.  I recently investigated relocating a corporate HQ in Boston for a high-growth software company.  It was challenging to choose a location with proximity to affordable housing, universities, suburban bedroom communities and a vibrant town center. Despite the #1 ranking, we're still far from creating a creative renaissance in Massachusetts–- high housing rates discourage newcomers, management training programs are rare and start-up executives

seldom find the time to mentor young talent. 

We can all have an impact on our region’s economic growth, and could do worse than to apply macro principles to our daily practice of attracting, hiring and developing talent in our organizations.    

Creativity Isn't Restricted to the Creative Department

As both a technology executive and artist, I continue to get unsolicited career advice on combining my two vocations, including "you should be in advertising" or "you should design greeting cards"...   I don't mean to disparage well-meaning career counsel, but if creativity just lives in the creative department, then say good-by to innovation.   

Creative thinking is required for every corporate function (creative accounting excluded).  Stuart Jackson's article in today's Wall Street Journal Finding Tomorrow's Winners Today -- Try Firms with Fresh Perspectives suggests investing in companies with a creative twist on their market space -- and there's not an ad agency in sight.   

Thankfully, there's no shortage of creative thinkers, and they don't have to pack a travel easel to be inventive.  But how do you find them in your organization?    IDEO,  the industrial design firm, has come up with a process for characterizing innovators and nurturing their entrepreneurial instincts.    Their 2005 book, The Ten Faces of Innovation will help you see ingenuity beyond the creative department and dig deeper into the product development process, regardless of the market space you're in.    You might find yourself in one or more of the "faces", whether you're coming up with the concept, corralling the forces in your organization to deliver the product or putting the final product into your customers' hands.   I initially identified myself as a "cross-pollinator" and "hurdler", but have since been characterized as an "anthropologist" and "storyteller".   Regardless of the label, I'll keep the book as a reference to encourage everyone in the organization to contribute new ideas.   

Sorry, Sun Tzu -- The History of Military Strategy is History

No offense intended.  I have several copies of The Art of War -- all given to me by former bosses.  Could it be that our current generation of CEOs feel compelled to quote military analogies because they never served in the military?

Conventional military strategy is not the path to victory in the 21st century.  And it has lost its effectiveness on the corporate battlefield as well.   Head to head competition doesn't build shareholder value -- it ravages it with inconsistent earnings and lower margins.

So what's the alternative?   Fortunately, there are several fresh opinions on the subject.  I'll start with one and post more ideas over the next couple of weeks:

 

A strategy guide I refer to often is Blue Ocean Strategy, which turns conventional strategic thinking on its head by offering paths to finding "uncontested market space" where you can build value for customers without getting battered by competitors first.   Quite often, creating value is about what you DON'T offer the customer -- why spend time and money to offer customers what they don't want, just because your competitors do?   

Thoughts on the software industry (my own industry):  application software is well-known for piling on more and more features in each release, but not building significant value as a result.  I use PowerPoint daily -- but 85% of the time I use features from release 3.0  (which was released over 10 years ago!).  Are more features adding more value, or more frustration?   I resent the extra space the new version takes up on my laptop.

Perhaps less really is more.   Or perhaps it's all about listening to the customer.  Which is what we should all be doing in the first place.

Taking Bias out of Brainstorming

Successful teams have strong personalities -- when brainstorming, these personalities can become caricatures:  the naysayer, the vulcan fact-checker, the polyanna, the emotional chest-pounder, etc.  Bias squelches creativity.   Good ideas, cloaked in emotion, never see the light. 

One way to take bias out of brainstorming is a methodical approach.   There are many structured brainstorming processes designed for long, complex product development cycles, but small processes and small companies can get bogged down with all the details.   

An approach that's worked for me over the years is the one of "thinking hats" where everyone on the team has to take on different roles (or "hats") to think through the situation from multiple angles.   The red hat is the emotional hat, the black hat is the devil's advocate, the white hat is fact-based, the yellow hat is the sunny optimist, the green is the creative hat and the blue hat is the integrator that brings them all together.   The method is 40+ years old, but it still feels fresh.  The book is short, once you skip the overly congratulatory introduction by the author.  Add a Post-it Note easel pad, place the six points of view around your conference room, and make everyone try each role at least once -- you'll have a more balanced view of your situation -- and a better end product as a result.   

Who wants to be labeled "doom & gloom naysayer" or "naive optimist" anyhow?

Business Inspiration from the Art World

Art has the power to inspire us.  The real creative inspiration, however, may come from artists themselves.   They need to think differently every day - so they know how to get through creative logjams.

Great Resources for all of us, Artist (or Not):

Books:

Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit, is one of the best tomes on the creative process.  Her creative challenge as a choreographer is multi-dimensional, since she needs to bring together movement, music and the visual arts.  I keep her "exercises" close by as a constant reference, and her autobiographical notes add a human touch to her hard-driving persona.

Wolf Kahn's America is popping with color -- but it's not just eye candy.  Kahn is matter-of-fact when talking about his work and the creative process. He doesn't get swept up into flowery artist statments.    He's just doing his job. 

Alison Stanfield provides business backbone for the artistic spirit.  Art schools offer little support on "how to build a business".  Her ArtBiz Blog offers daily encouragement, expert advice for navigating a world of subjective opinions (and constant rejection) and a community of others.

Artists need to think like businesspeople to support themselves.   We need to think like artists to stretch ourselves.      

Getting Unstuck -- Taking Cues from the Creative World

You're prepping for a strategy meeting but have no fresh thoughts to add to what's already been done.  An impromptu brainstorming session makes you feel like a newbie comedian at the improv.   We can all get stuck in an idea rut.    Fortunately, having "idea block" in business is not the same calamity as it is for "creative" professions.

Artists, writers and musicians must tap the well of creativity for a living.   What do they do when the well is dry?    There are hundreds of books on the subject.  And they're useful resources for all thinkers -- Michelangelo or not.

Written for writers, useful for the rest of us:   

Natalie Goldberg originated the concept of "timed writing" as a daily practice, which is helpful when you're staring at that blank page.  Her recipe:  set your watch or kitchen timer to 10 minutes each day and write whatever comes to mind (I think her words are "feel free to write the worst junk on earth").   Some days are junk days, period.  But one must consistently work through the junk to find that treasure of an idea.  My favorite of hers is Thunder and Lightning -- I have worn out the audio version attempting to inspire creativity during long commutes.

I'm not a fan of the horror genre, but Stephen King has done an admirable job of deconstructing the creative process.  His book On Writing is thankfully free of fluff, pep talk, and life-affirming statements.   So of course, he's inspiring, because he's not trying to be.

Taking cues from creatives makes sense.   They're under a heck of a lot more pressure than most of us to come up with something new.