"Innovation!" the President shouts again

This summer a student in my Depaul Mindset of Innovation course was researching U.S. government policy on innovation, and he claimed to be unable to find anything updated in years. He ended up talking as much about Canada's innovation policy as that in the U.S.

Now, that's not completely fair, as American innovation policy has not been entirely absent in the past decade, but Obama clearly is ringing the Innovation bell a lot louder. Last week, as I drove through the beautiful, purple-specked I-80 in Pennsylvania on a road trip East, Obama spoke nearby in New York's Hudson Valley, once again (video below) emphasizing the importance of innovation for our economy, as he did in early August.

"So as we invest in the building blocks of innovation, from the classroom to the laboratory," Obama told the crowd, "it's also essential that we have competitive and vibrant markets that promote innovation, as well. Education and research help foster new ideas, but it takes fair and free markets to turn those ideas into industries."
Click here to read the transcript of Obama's talk on innovation.

As I'll write about in my next blog, there has been innovation initiatives during the past decade that have had national aspirations and some impact. But Obama's continuing focus on the Innovation Imperative--that we as a country and a culture need to embrace creativity and innovation to ensure a successful future--seems different and substantive. The White House calls it the Obama Innovation Strategy, which includes the following three parts:

1. Invest in the Building Blocks of American Innovation, from investments in research and development to the human, physical, and technological capital needed to perform that research and transfer those innovations.
2. Promote Competitive Markets that Spur Productive Entrepreneurship.
It is imperative to create a national environment ripe for entrepreneurship and risk taking that allows U.S. companies to be internationally competitive in a global exchange of ideas and innovation.
3. Catalyze Breakthroughs for National Priorities. Governmental can help support sectors of exceptional national importance--including alternative energy sources, health IT, and manufacturing advanced vehicles--that markets alone cannot make happen.

Now, the skeptics in us realize that another talk that is still urging that "we are ready" to do this may or may not lead to real change. But I believe the more innovation becomes part of our national conversation, the more likely we are to embrace our creative potential and proactively shape our future rather than letting it shape us.

America Needs a Road Trip

"Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?"- Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Perhaps like me, you have had more than enough of the childish bickering of politics. Regardless of the words of the president or the compelling need for healthcare overhaul, what passes as public debate continues to be a repeated game of posturing and fear-mongering, fueled by a democracy-damaging media that prizes sensationalism over intelligent conversation that can lead to actual change. As this article yesterday from Bloomberg and our own memory makes clear, cries of "socialism" and "goverment takeover"--whether or not there are legitimate fears or arguments behind them--have effectively squelched thoughtful, qualitative solution-seeking for generations. As creative as children might be, to come up with innovative, effective solutions for big problems, there has to be some adults in the room.

After a long summer in Chicago, I have decided to take a road trip, and I strongly suggest America does the same. Yes, America has great health technology and some clinics are top-notch, deservedly attracting international patients. But America does not have the "best healthcare in the world," as blowhards will respond to shut down any challenge. Every international study shows our health outcomes to be terrible compared to other countries, and no foreign friend is envious of our terribly expensive, often-health-denying, pill-crazy system.
So, as I am doing in a couple of days, we all need to get out of our insulated walls and, with eyes and heart and brain open, explore what else is out there in the world. Any kind of travel to other cities and other lands can help remind us that our mindset is not the only one, and (like in healthcare) may be stuck in ways that don't serve us. The road trip is a great way to expand our creativity, stretch our sometimes flaccid creativity competency muscle of flexibility, and come back home ready to make changes that we need.

I'm taking a short break from writing the blog, so I wish you well on whatever roads you travel in the next two weeks, and will be sure to share some creative insights from the East Coast when I return.

Summer of Music and Songwriters

With Labor Day now passed, I'm thinking back already on a summer full of outdoor music bursting out from the seams of the streets in and around Chicago. As a singer-songwriter myself I am most inspired by an original voice--musicians with something to say in a way only they can say it. Two of my favorites played back to back the last week of August outdoors at the wonderful Ravinia and Lincoln Park Zoo.

Perhaps less well-known (outside of the West Coast) is the passionate and soulful Michael Franti, who along with his band Spearhead has been making people dance and think for a couple decades now. He mixes funky soul with folk rock (my friend who came to Ravinia with me swears on certain songs he sounds just like Cat Stevens), love songs a la Barry White with hip hop political diatribes, beautiful ballads with reggae-infused peace songs. Like the previously described Bob Schneider, Franti is a master hybrid, fusing different styles and showing a creative reach (including knowing how to engage his often dancing/singing audience) that I've rarely experienced. Despite not playing the corporate game, he finally had a mainstream hit song just this year--his somewhat more derivative and feel-good "Say Hey (I Love You)". Here's a feel-good song of his I like even more, "Sometimes" (video below):


Then there's John Ondrasik, whose name you might not know but is the piano-perfect, singer-songwriter behind Five For Fighting, whose 2000 debut album included "Superman (It's not Easy)," which demonstrated his wonderful and quirky creative flexibility of seeing from another's perspective. Here is another song I enjoyed watching him play the other night, making me wistful as the summer was ending and another season of change has begun. It's "100 Years" (video below):

Something Spectactular

The Not-Always Creative World of (M)admen

I'm a big fan of Madmen, the AMC television show that depicts the distinctive, sexist world of advertising in the 1960s. Putting aside past-era cultural traits (like constant drinking and smoking), we learn quite a bit about agency dynamics that still exist today: the tension between Accounts and Creative; and the competitive, smart and sometimes ego-driven personalities who populate the office.

I recently spoke with a couple of current-day (M)admen, an account director (woman) and a creative director (man) who once worked together at DDB (and still like each other!). I wanted to learn about the actual state of creativity in ad agencies today.
According to the the creative director, "Innovation is on the wane." As the explosion of media has made it more difficult to reach audiences and capture attention, he explained, most admen have learned to play it safe, going with campaigns similar to something that has worked well enough in the past, rather than trying something really different or original. The industry as a whole is being threatened, said the account director, as more typical advertising work is being siphoned away by technology-savvy internet marketing firms.

Like many industries today, the innovation imperative is clear--ad agencies need to try new approaches and keep ahead of the curve, but admen continue to hold on to traditional methods and are subtly or directly warned not to experiment because budgets are tight and failure is not an option. This trend is unfortunate, our admen explained, and quite contrary to what they themselves value. Their history of collaboration had given them insight into real creative success. Here are some creativity tips from those in the agency trenches.

>Two key creative principles:
1. Permission to fail or, as I like to call it, P.T.S. There is no way to be fully creative if you can't turn the faucet all the way on and spew out the good and bad.
2. Yes, and. Always a key to improvisation, saying "Yes, and" to an idea as much as possible-- rather than the much more common and creativity-killing "Yes, but"--is the easiest technique for building on each other's ideas and fostering an environment of imagination, possibility and collaboration.

>It's also good to have creative constraints, which can give more freedom for new ideas. In advertising, usually Creative, Account and Strategy folks come together to write a creative brief that helps focus the client request. When "sell chicken to women" becomes "sell frozen chicken to working women with three kids," the constraint actually increases fluency of ideas and usually leads to more effective and original campaigns.

>A little competition can breed better work. Though I tend to advocate collaboration rather than inner-office competition, creative duos of copywriter/art director can get creatively motivated when they know their work is being pitted against another duo or two.

>Finally, what they considered to be the most important qualities of admen:
Insight, originality and synthesis
Ability to bring out the best in others
Openness to collaboration
Ability to see other’s perspective
Ability to adapt to other people