Permission to Take It On in 2011

"Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah.
It makes no difference what people think of you."
~Rumi

As 2010 ends and we look ahead to a new, unknown year, I want to use this flicker of a moment of your at-least-partial attention to prod you to decide, right now, to take something creative on.

In this blog over the past couple of years, I've written dozens of articles about the state of creativity in our culture, about innovation in organizations, about tools and tips for opening yourself up to more creativity in your own life. I truly thank you for reading when you have and at times offering your own insights, feedback and appreciation.

But the truth remains that for most of us it's very hard to give ourselves much permission to be creative, to actually express our own unique perspective in some way, to play with ideas and each other with or without an end-product in mind. So...for your emotional and psychological health, for honoring your own amazing complexity as a human being, for being an active creator instead of just a passive spectator of life, why not decide, right now, that you will take at least a small sip of your huge and too-often-untapped internal cup of possibility in 2011 to work on something only you could do and/or bring into the world. Come on, take it on.

If you have difficulty deciding what creative project you'd like to tackle, let me suggest that you start small (unlike that huge cup in the picture above). Let's use the creative tool of constraints to help. It's winter right now, which constrains our options in many ways, so let's start by limiting ourselves to working on something inside. Look around your home now (or when you are there), and pick one location--just one place--that seems like a creatively comfortable spot for you to spend some time in. Clear and create one if you need to. Let that be your spot. And let that be the spot where you give yourself permission to try something you just want to try or do or make, secretly or not. Anoint that place as one where there is full, secret-smile permission to create something thathas a good chance of turning out lousy, that you may never share with anyone. What strikes your fancy: Write a short story? Make a mosaic collage out of rocks and lint? Make phone calls to famous people? Paint your cat? Build/invent/destroy/cook something you've never done before? Pick something that enters your mind and commit, right here and now, to try it. Choosing is the first, fertile step.

I'd like to help you in any way I can. Perhaps you know what it is you'd like to try, what project you want to work on--email me and I'll check in with you at a surprising time to see how you're doing on it. We all need support from others for our creative lives, so tell others you trust what you're going to do and ask for accountability or reminders. If you'd like ongoing help I might be just the one-on-one coach or music teacher you need; email me or call me at 773-388-2880 and let's talk about how we could make that work for you.

I write this right now recovering from an injury that has kept me homebound for more than a week. It has limited me and yet at the same time opened my eyes to opportunities in small places, to patience, and to help from others. 2011 looms as a long year full of opportunities, but that first step is often the hardest. Choose that one project, right now, that can get your creative self engaged and alive before the winter of possibilities melts like you know it will.

May you you lean into the new year with courage, creativity and cojones, Amigo.

Embracing your Inner Outcast

This week I was at the southernmost point of the United States where I got a chance to mingle with outcasts and drunks on one of the coldest days in the warmest place in the country. Ah, Key West. If you ever make it to Rick's Bar on Duval Street, watch out for the most foul-mouthed and offensive "folk" singer on the planet.

But I spent even more time in Hollywood, FL, which got me thinking about the other Hollywood, where creative, talented outcasts can sometimes make it big. Though I was not much of an early fan, it's time to give credit the latest crossover Hollywood success, Justin Timberlake. Yes, it was surprising to see his acting chops in the recent movie Social Network but he has also earned his creative distinction with his ongoing appearances on Saturday Night Live, where he has proven to be one of the most unpredictable and funny performers in years. Check out his versatility in the video below (Facebook readers click here). Just like the previously praised Tina Fey, what makes Timberlake so extraordinary is his combination of cool talent--yes, he can sing and act--and willingness not to be cool at all. I mean, at all. He has somehow managed to give himself complete permission to be a fool--which we all need at least sometimes to be at our most creative.

"I was an outcast in a lot of ways," he recently told Ellen Degeneres on the Ellen Show. To kids: "Everything that you get picked on [for], or you feel makes you weird, is essentially what's going to make you sexy as an adult...I would not be here if I listened to the kids who said I was a terrible singer or a sissy. Be different." Now that might be easy for someone of such talent to say (and some weird things about us will never be sexy), but there is in an inner outcast in all of us that is sexy, or at least talented and worthy of much more exploration. The question is how to engage it and love it rather than give in to the conformist voices all around us that want to squelch and homogenize.



Originality is a hallmark (and key competency) for creativity, and anyone who embraces her own originality must at times accept--if not revel in--being an outcast. I particularly like what Mira Nair, the groundbreaking director of Monsoon Wedding, said when she was in Chicago earlier in the year speaking at Columbia College (see right). In many ways an outcast herself--an Indian woman director who found a way to bring stories of non-Hollywood-type outsiders to American screens--she explained that she thrives by putting herself in uncomfortable situations. “I like to do things I’m terrified by,” she said. "I don’t like to do things I’ve done before. I try to do things I don’t know if I can do." That's one way to embrace your inner outcast.

The truth is, when Timberlake released his "SexyBack" song a few years ago, I thought there was no way he would get away with his claim of "bringing sexy back." I mean, come on. But that song is passing the test of time and, frankly, it's a winner. I'm sure he was warned against it again and again, just as I'm sure advisors and commentators have questioned his decision to act or risk foolishness on SNL. Undoubtedly his outcast experience as a small town Tennessee boy ridiculed for singing like Michael Jackson has empowered him to follow his inner compass of creativity. Where is yours pointing you these days?

Creative Collaboration: the Art of Following

If you listen to any great collaborators--take, for example, your favorite sports announcing duo--they demonstrate a form of cooperation that is quite rare among adults in most discussions. They are speaking with, not against, each other, in a verbal dance of give-and-take, knowing how and when to follow and build on what their collaborator has offered, and how and when to drive the conversation forward themselves. Following, Building and Driving--these are the skills of creative collaboration most important to learn.Our ability to collaborate is crucial for innovation and for moving forward in what we want to do in the world. "We hear about collaboration and how important it is in all we do," a Panasonic business development manager told me before a two-day innovation program I led last week in New Jersey. "But the truth is we have so little time and so much is virtual that collaboration seems more like a wish than a reality." The time-limited nature of all our interactions means that when we do talk with collaborators, live or on the phone, we need to do so with skill and purpose. Instead of our typical way of interacting--I report, you report, she reports, meeting over; or you suggest an idea and I tell you eloquently what's wrong with it--we need to learn the art well known to improvisors: To fully support your collaborators' ideas, no matter how wacky they might seem. The key is to consciously shift to following.

We practiced this distinction at the Big Ooga networking event I facilitated Tuesday night. Instead of half-listening to someone else, waiting to interrupt with the agenda/conversation you want, let this be the time that your partner drives and you follow. To follow means that your job is to hear what the other is saying and to follow their course of conversation instead of stopping it or redirecting it. Following is often difficult because we are so invested in showing that we are smart, right, good at judging and fond of protecting ourselves. Someone might suggest: Hey, we could try this or we could create that... and many of us are likely to respond, Yeah, but here's why it won't work or what's wrong with the idea. As adults--particularly during work hours--we are particularly good at the "but"s. Men in particular never learned how to follow on the dance floor so the whole idea of waiting for and following the steps of another can be quite foreign.

Like an improvisor who sees her partner throw an imaginary ball and therefore puts up her arm to catch it, we follow by suspending judgment and fully accepting an offered idea as true, brilliant and full of possibility (regardless of what our "Yes, but," judging mind believes). Then we say, "Yes, And..." to the idea, building on rather than blocking or challenging what was offered. We use our imagination to heighten and bring to life the suggestion driven by the other person. Later, in a good collaboration, it will be our turn to drive and our partner's to follow and build on our idea. This give and take, where we support and expand what our collaborators suggest, and they do the same, sparks everyone's creativity, airs more possibilities and makes for more fruitful collaboration and brainstorming.

We get somewhere new together faster and also make our collaborators much happier when we spend time following--practice it and you'll see.

Listening to the Women

“The only difference between a creative person and an uncreative person is that a creative person takes her ideas seriously.” ~Mary Zimmerman

“We all have many hidden gifts within our own being, and they are all too frequently drowned in the negative and materialistic struggles on which we spend so much of our precious energy. Once we are able to get rid of our fears, once we have the courage to change from negative rebellion to positive noncomformist, once we have the faith in our own abilities to rise above fear, shame, guilt, and negativity—we emerge as much more creative and much freer souls.” ~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares to other expressions. It is your business…to keep the channel open.” ~Martha Graham

“If we fail to nourish our souls, they wither, and without soul, life ceases to have meaning.... The creative process shrivels in the absence of continual dialogue with the soul. And creativity is what makes life worth living.” ~Marion Woodman

“Remember that in order to recover as an artist, you must be willing to be a bad artist. Give yourself permission to be a beginner.” ~Julia Cameron

“The ‘creator’ and the ‘editor’—two halves of the writer whole—should sleep in separate rooms.” ~Judith Guest

“It takes guts, ardor, and faith to cobble a new path from emerging insights instead of simply defending the person-I-already-am on the path already known.” ~Shoshana Luboff