Frank Knight, the Chicago School economist wrote: “The chief thing which the common sense individual actually wants is not satisfaction for the wants which he has, but more, and better wants.” To him, opportunity to create value–economic and other value–comes from identifying those tacit “better wants” and creating ways to fulfill them.
A post Easter Monday is a good time to think about “better wants” in our lives and the lives of others. Wants are not “needs,” they are aspirations and dreams. They are not something we give to satisfy, like food and water, but something we fulfill, like education and safety. They come from asking about dreams, not requirements.
Understanding “better want” requires us to get deeply into the meaning of culture and how people live it–their rituals and ceremonies. I’ve been signing a lot of books these past weeks and I had no idea how meaningful it is to people to have an author sign a book they are about to read. In the two or three minutes of engagement they have with you, they tell stories, gives complements, shyly suggest names they want on the page and simply have an intimate moment with you. This is a “better want” and I’m happy I can satisfy it.
I just love this review of the book by the Portland Book Review. It captures the message of Creative Intelligence which is that we are ALL creative and can learn to be MORE creative.
http://www.portlandbookreview.com/tag/creative-intelligence-harnessing-the-power-to-create/
I’ve been speaking at Google, Microsoft and a lot of other companies in the past weeks about the message of Creative Intelligence it is remarkable how many engineers, doctors, scientists and other “analytical” people say they are not creative–only to prove they really are once I ask them what they actually do.
Anyone who is good at seeing patterns is creative. People who do that using numbers and , engineers for example, typically don’t see themselves as creative. BUT THEY ARE!
I will be speaking at Ziba Design, one of the greatest design and innovation consultancies in the world, in PDX on May 9. It’s founder, Sohrab Vossoughi, taught me that Design is not just about process and thinking but about love–that powerful attraction you feel for an object, an experience. It’s about the beckoning, the aura, the culture. Come and have a conversation with us. The book has great stories of Ziba’s research and success in China.
And it will be on sale there if you don’t want to buy it now on Amazon or B&N.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
In reading the Financial Times’ coverage of the teen entrepreneur Nick D'Aloisio, you can see how he used many Creative Competencies to create his Summly App which Yahoo just bought for $30 million.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7755d5be-956b-11e2-a4fa-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Oea4EQIm
D'Aloisio used Knowledge Mining to connect three key dots of knowledge that he embodied as a 15 year-old living in London circa 2013. They are information (access to knowledge is a changing world is critical ); brevity (we like long-form writing but want it in short-form summaries); mobility (we want it anywhere, all the time). These are the same elements that go into Twitter and Vine.
He scaled his creativity into creation by getting his idea into TechCrunch, a platform that angel investors observe for possible new startups. His first investor was Li-Kashing, a Chinese billionaire. His venture capital firm, Horizons Venture saw his early work in TechCrunch. Li, or the people who worked for him, was a “wanderer” who cruised different sites looking for potential startups. Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Fry and Spotify;s Shakil Khan wandered into D'Aloisio’s world and back him as well.
Finally, Marissa Mayer, the ex-Google, now CEO of Yahoo, really scaled D'Aloisio by giving him a huge platform. Just as Google really scaled the startup YouTube, so too is Yahoo scaling Summly.
I’d like to learn more about the creative process of D'Aloisio. He learned code as a kid, according to the press. But who did he play with? Who did he bounce ideas off? Most creative people have a trusted friend, or two, where they mess around with ideas. Who is Nick’s creative buddy?
I’ve been signing a lot of books lately and it’s a warm, wonderful ritual that people find rewarding. You would think that in an age of ebooks, the actual physical act of an author signing a book that a stranger has purchased would disappear. But no–just the opposite. Signing that book, with a personal message and your unique signature, creates an intimate bond between writer and reader. People smile, laugh a little self-consciously, open the curtain of privacy with their requests and tell you stories in the brief moments of the signing. It’s immensely satisfying and meaningful.
Ritual and ceremony are critical to creativity. We recognize them in book signings as punctuating and celebrating creativity but they are important in the process of creating itself. Play is a ritual process that has rules that help lead us to surprising, new outcomes. It is a game that we can create ourselves, writing and rewriting the rules, framing and reframing the playing. These are all key creative competencies.
The research lab where a few people meet every day at the same time and “play” at science and engineering is a place of ritual. The morning meeting that we go to, where ideas are proposed and discussed and chosen, is a ritual activity.
The inkjet printer that we use so often came out of an HP lab where two researchers met daily and went through the ritual process of discovery. The most important thing Steve Jobs did as CEO was to visit nearly every day with his chief designer Jonathan Ives in Ives’ studio where they slowly walked around products and prototypes, touching, handling them, seeing how they worked, talking about them. That daily conversation was ritual. As was Jobs long walks by himself.
Rituals and ceremonies play two critical roles in creativity. They are a process that can get us to originality and new value. And they are windows into what is deeply meaningful to people. That so many people still buy physical books and want the ceremony of connecting with the author shows something significant about our culture. We demand the immediacy and ease of digital delivery but still desire the warmth and tactility of the “book.”
As an author, it’s just wonderful to be part of all of this. As an author of a book on creativity, its wonderful to participate in what you are writing about.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
I once spent a drunken evening with the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky who died mysteriously in London recently. Berezovsky had fled Russia many years ago and feared for his life during his exile. The former mathematics professor had made billions of dollars when the Soviet empire collapsed and…
I once spent a drunken evening with the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky who died mysteriously in London recently. Berezovsky had fled Russia many years ago and feared for his life during his exile. The former mathematics professor had made billions of dollars when the Soviet empire collapsed and state assets moved into private hands opaquely. I met him at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a year or two after he fled Moscow.
This is how I remember the key part of that long dinner. After many, many drinks, Berezovsky said in Russian-accented English, “"Bruce, I pay taxes to those who protect me and the government doesn’t protect me. So I pay taxes to those who can.”
Framing and Reframing are essential Creative Competencies in my book and Boris’ startling words were among the strongest to cause me to begin thinking about the concept. Why? Like everyone else, I had always thought of Russia after the fall of communism as a corrupt place where the KGB, Russian Mafia and ruthless political players ruled. That was my narrative frame of Russia after communism.
Boris presented me with a simpler yet deeper and more sophisticated story. That narrative frame for Russia was one of a power-vacuum opening with the collapse of the state and Boris, like so many other businessmen, paid protection money to whomever could provide security. He would pay taxes to the government if it could provide safety but since it couldn’t, he paid “taxes” to tough guys in and out of government who could. Nothing more, nothing less. It was a story devoid of morality or moral lessons–just practicality.
Boris’ frame of Russian business life was so startling different from mine that it always stayed with me. It informed my analysis of creativity and my book on it. Knowing the narrative frame of the people we engage is vitally important to understanding the meaning of their culture and their place in it.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
“My own work is on social and political design in peacebuilding especially with creative thinkers in the national security establishment. In that work, we dance around a lot of the themes Nussbaum raises–(re)framing issues, designing new ideas and products, "pivoting” them from concept to product, and developing new, decentralized institutions in which one can most easily be creative.
What surprised me was the almost complete overlap between the specific projects and products Nussbaum raises and the challenges we face in Washington, where creativity has all but disappeared.“
”—Chip Haus, Alliance for Peacebuilding.
I was in the same Political Science program at the University of Michigan with Chip. Thanks to the of Amazon and my new book, we have connected after many a decade. Check out his work:
I just heard that one of the top book publishers in China, Citic Press, will publish my book, Creative Intelligence. And they are paying a global rate for the book, which is significant for both me and IP. As an author, I don’t have to worry about knockoffs. And it appears that China is beginning to honor the concept of valuing creativity by paying for IP. This is good news, especially for the Chinese who themselves are increasingly generating innovation and their own IP.
It’s fascinating to see that it is Asia–Taiwan and now China–that is moving first to translate Creative Intelligence. What does that tell you?
I’m very happy that the book is going with Citic. It’s the publisher that brought Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs to China.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
http://www.chinabooks.ch/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=119&sort=2a&language=en
Noam Chomsky in the Financial Times March 17 Weekend edition (my favorite airline read),
I’m flying to Seattle to speak at Microsoft about my book, Creative Intelligence.
Last week I spoke at Google in NYC.
Keith Sawyer, the author of Group Genius, has another great book out–Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Creativity. Keith is a giant in the field of creativity research. His Group Genius blew up the notion that brainstorming led to more creativity.
Zig Zag will show you how creativity happens.
Check out his book site:
http://ascc.artsci.wustl.edu/~ksawyer/zigzag/
Buy the book here:
I’m about to start the second unit of my Creativity and Capitalism course at Parsons which will focus on ritual and play as the paths to understanding the existential and the deep meaning of cultures.
For the business folks, we will focus on Branding and how the successful brand succeeds in mining the existential–how it succeeds in understanding and representing what is meaningful to the culture of its audience.
Its not about satisfying needs or even wants. A great brand speaks to the higher order desires of people. No focus group or marketing research can get to these higher order desires of people because they are usually tacit and unexpressed–yet real and meaningful.
So we read the following together and talk about stuff:
Readings Unit Two:
for March 18:
Lewis Hyde “The Bones of the Dead” from The Gift
David Foster Wallace “Federer as Religious Experience”
following, in yet-to-be-determined order:
Dreyfus and Kelly, “Our Contemporary Nihilism” from All Things Shining
Dreyfus, “Heidegger on the Connection between Nihilism, Art, Technology and Politics”
Barthes, Selections from Mythologies
Cowbird, especially the Pine Ridge Community Storytelling Project
to be read in prep for April 1st (Annie Correal guest)
Vygotsky, “The Role of Play in Development”
Dreams are a powerful economic force, perhaps the most powerful. Understanding and harnessing them can drive creativity, economic growth and profits.
Dreams, of course, are also a powerful social and political force. Understanding and harnessing them can transform a culture and make it better.
Check out these videos from the Dream:In conference in India in 2011. Since then, Dream:In has occurred in Brazil and will soon be in China.
Ask people what they need and they’ll give you a list of 10 or 20 things. The list will change from morning to night, from day to day. Ask people what they dream of, and they tell you one or two things that will never change. In India, people often dream of education, women’s rights, serving the nation and starting a business.
I talk about The Dream:In initiative on page 75 of my book. It is one of my favorite sections. Change your frame about Social Innovation and helping people. Check out Dream:In.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
Look at this ad for the SuperBowl of 1984 and ask yourself–what should the woman be smashing today?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjyrqVgWPXY
Why are some of the smartest, edgiest and coolest among us disconnecting from social media? What is the deep cultural meaning of this disconnect? What are they trying to connect TO?
Knowledge Mining, Framing, Connecting the Dots and Scaling are key creative competencies. In using them, we can begin to see the patterns. We can begin to see WHAT’S NOT THERE that’s supposed to be there. And then ask why.
Know the answer to the woman throwing the anvil and you could know how to make billions tomorrow. Or do something even more meaningful.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
I am so happy to be moderating a great panel on Social Innovation tonight at 6PM at Parsons. Finalists for the New Challenge contest will get their awards and I will have a great conversation with Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, Sasha Dichter, Chief Innovation Officer of the Acumen Fund and Jeremy Heimans, co-founder of Purpose.
http://newchallenge.newschool.edu/projects/2013/winners-2013/
Social Innovation has moved from the periphery to the core of our conversations about economics, capitalism, social justice, design and doing good. Social Innovation is hot on the campuses of design and art schools as well as business schools. Now, how crazy is that? Something deep is happening.
I have two great examples of Social Innovation in Creative Intelligence, both in India. One story is about Paul Polak and his drive to bring clean drinking water to Orissa villages. He used what I call Donut Thinking–see what is NOT there– to solve the problem (hint, its not the scarcity of water but of “clean.”
Paul worked with IDIOM, the top innovation consultancy in India, to design the project and Acumen invested in the new company, Spring Health. Paul hopes it will grow to a $1 billion company, employing thousands of people in India, most of them in their own villages.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424]
I have a piece in the Wall Street Journal that shows how employees in large corporations can reframe their jobs and careers by getting more creative. It offers up 10 specific ways for people to increase their value to their employers–and to themselves.
Check out the entire WSJ piece here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/03/11/how-to-become-the-creative-employee-of-the-month/
Here are: 10 Fast Ways to Boost Your Creative Intelligence
1) Find a creative friend. The social aspect of creativity cannot be underestimated. Spending time with creative peers can boost your energy and help you identify your own creative skills.
2) Map your creativity. Keep a daily journal about the places and activities that inspire you. Add something new one every month. Just changing the way you go to work every day can help.
3) Go for a long walk–or run or bike ride. Give yourself “zone-out” time to let your mind integrate all the new ideas you’re taking in. Creativity is social but still requires “alone time” too.
4) Conduct a “creativity audit.” Take a weekend to think about the knowledge and skills you have that you might be underutilizing. Dive deep into yourself. Bring a close friend to help.
5) Play the “reframe game.” Is your business or industry stagnating? Change the conventional wisdom about the way things have always been done and create something entirely new by connecting two previously unrelated ideas.
6) Find a wanderer. In their heyday, the labs at HP were hugely creative thanks to the founders’ policy of “managing by wandering around.” They choose promising research and championed it. Seek out the person at your organization who can help you bring your ideas into the world.
7) Become a wanderer. Find out what your colleagues and employees are thinking about and ask yourself: how can you help support their ideas? Can you become the person who makes things happen, whether by partnering with them or hooking them up with the right people? External image
8) Slow down. The rise in social media has left many of us longing for deeper, more meaningful experiences and engagements. There is an increasing need for people and organizations who can devise ways to help people simplify their lives.
9) Venture past the possible. We are often so accustomed to seeing things in a certain way that we’re blind to the possibility of something we can’t yet imagine. Set aside time each week to think about why things are the way they are, and imagine them differently.
10) Embrace uncertainty . There is so much change in our lives and in our work that it scares us, even paralyzes us. Yet uncertainty offers the greatest opportunities. With the right creative skills, you can make uncertainty a place of discovery for you.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
This Wednesday, I’ll be talking about Tapping Imagination and Creativity at The Times Center to an audience facing disruptive change in their industry–the vision folks. Google Glass, Warby Parker are transforming all the players in vision, from fashionable eyeglass frame purveyors to medical providers.
The Five Creative Competencies of my book, Creative Intelligence, can provide a path to a better future.
It’s a sold-out audience. Check it out.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
I talk about how creativity generates economic value for business in this interview. And I reveal which business book I am reading now. Hint: Roger Martin is co-author with one of my favorite former CEOs.
http://blog.800ceoread.com/2013/03/07/tir-bruce-nussbaum-on-business-books/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789 &creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424 B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_ mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
I’m not kidding about that. Take a look at what I write in my book:
Researchers at Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, showed that in a test, participants “demonstrated a negative bias toward creativity ….when participants experienced uncertainty.” Worse, “the bias against creativity interfered with participants’ ability to recognize a creative idea.” People tend to choose what they know in the face of uncertainty even though they realize it probably won’t help them. It is just familiar. And what words did the participants associate creativity with? “Agony.” “Poison.” And my favorite—“Vomit.” So, yes, creativity scares us. And it doesn’t have to.
So we need to get beyond this creativity anxiety and build up our creative capacities. Here’s the interview I did with Thinker-In-Residence. It talks about the 5 Creative Competencies of CQ–Creative Intelligence and how we can learn to enjoy being creative instead of …
http://blog.800ceoread.com/2013/03/06/thinker-in-residence-a-qa-with-bruce-nussbaum/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
Dan Pink’s new book, To Sell is Human, is on all the best-seller lists. It’s terrific. I noticed a while back that nearly all my students at Parsons are incredible performers. They can switch on a stage persona that "sells" whatever they are pitching at that moment. They grew up with participative video, they don’t just watch but act. Fits right into what Dan is talking about in his book.
Dan did a Q & A with me for his blog site. Here it is.
http://www.danpink.com/2013/03/be-mindful-meaningful-and-masterly-3-questions-for-bruce-nussbaum
Here’s the part about “Donut Thinking."
It took me about 10 years to become a decent birder. Birding is all about seeing the “odd duck.” You spend years in the field training to look for what’s NOT there. In Singapore four years ago, I saw a black swan. It didn’t surprise me. I was looked for what didn’t fit the pattern. That’s what “Donut Knowledge” or “Donut Thinking” is about. You spend the time to learn the patterns and then you train yourself to look for what doesn’t fit.”
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
And then you can reframe your narrative and decide where to go next.
Creative Intelligence
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
Here is a great interview on America’s innovation shortfall-and what to do about it? What should be America’s National Innovation Policy?
I talk about shifting R&D away from bioscience to making, materials and manufacturing. “We need to become makers again."
"Bring back shop.”
“Art and shop should be central to education."
"Memorization in an age of Search is ludicrous.”
“I would make David Kelley, who is the founder of the D-School and IDEO, the head of the Department of Education.”
And we need to bring a lot more entrepreneurs and startup people to Washington. Wall Street and big business dominate Washington.
We need to be more creative about student debt.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
On Thursday at around 4PM, I’ll be talking to the designers at Frog in their great Chelsea digs about the ideas in my book, Creative Intelligence. It will be cool since the founder of Frog, Hartmut Esslinger, was the first designer I put on a Business Week cover back in 1990. I can’t find an image of that cover anywhere. There’s Hartmut, fresh from giving Apple its first design language, in leathers, straddling a big motorcycle. Readers loved it.
I hear there’s an image this cover hanging on the wall of Frog in San Francisco. If so, send it to me. I’ll put it up.
I’ll be talking “Old Model” vs “New Model” at Frog, throwing out my new creative competencies of Knowledge Mining, Framing, Playing, Making and Pivoting to the pros to see how their clients can use the new ideas. Very casual and fun. I have a weird Keynote presentation that I may or may not show, depending on the vibe. It has clip of Zero Dark Thirty, which shows how the CIA analyst, Maya, used Creative Intelligence to get Osama.
Did you know that the CIA has long been involved in creativity research?
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
Framing your engagements with people, especially in social media, is one of the key Creative Competencies of Creative Intelligence. It’s amazing for me to see it happen live on Amazon, where your numbers rise and fall as people decide to engage you via your book. I guess there’s not much more intimate–or transparent–than this ritual of committing to you and your ideas.
This morning, the ebook edition of Creative Intelligence is up to #24 in the Biz & Investing category.
It’s above Nassim Taleb, #26 who wrote The Black Swan (I show people how to train to spot Black Swans in the book and call it “Donut Thinking”–looking for the hole in the donut). Jim Collins, the Good To Great guru, is #27.
Creative Intelligence is just below the remarkable Clayton Christensen, #22, whose Innovator’s Dilemma, launched the conversation about innovation.
The 5 Creative Competencies of the book–Knowledge Mining, Framing, Playing, Making and Pivoting take that conversation forward.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
OK, maybe it was a coincidence that yesterday, the day my book, Creative Intelligence, was officially launched, the stock market hit a new high. Or maybe not. The optimism that is at the heart of Creative Intelligence is returning to America after five long years of gloom.
Creativity is about discovery, opportunity and generating new value, often new economic value. Creative Intelligence shows us how to cultivate our creativity. For startups and big businesses, the book offers specific ways to boost your creative capacity.
So check out this great Q&A from Time Busines & Money that really captures what the book has to offer. “First there was IQ. Then EQ. But Does CQ–Creative Intelligence–Matter Most?”
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
After nearly two years of research and writing, my book Creative Intelligence is officially launched today. I believe the book contains specific things people can do today and tomorrow to help them reduce their Creativity Anxiety and to build up their Creative Capacities. It provides specific ways businesses can become more innovative tomorrow.
Thanks to all of you who preordered the book. Creative Intelligence is already trending strongly on Amazon.
It’s trending # 5 on Amazon in the category of Creativity and Genius for ebooks.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/156524011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kstore_1_5_last
And # 5 for Cognitive Science in ebooks.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/158028011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kstore_2_7_last
Creative Intelligence is trending # 18 on Amazon in Business Decision-Making and Problem-Solving for hardcover books.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/2679/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_4_last
Tuesday, March 5, is the official launch date of my book, Creative Intelligence. Those of you who preordered the book should get it in the mail on Tuesday. I preordered a book for my mom in Florida. And the ebook, of course, should be available as well. I’m getting one of those too, of course,
Thanks everyone for the early support. Amplifying our creativity is so important in this era of VUCA– Volatility, Uncertainty, Chaos and Ambiguity. The book contains stories, skills, ideas on leading a creative life and management lessons to build more creative businesses.
Spread the word please.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
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This is in my Knowledge Mining chapter. Mapping your organizations formal and informal networks is the first step in knowing the sources of creativity in your organization.
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Creativity is a lateral move. You are at connecting dots. Linking different existing ideas is the greatest source of innovation. That “aha” moment people talk about comes after you make new connections. So how do you go about connecting different dots?
In my book I write: “You’re not born with a great ability to connect dots. You learn it.” OK. But how? First, recognize that dot of knowledge your anchor dot. Then cast out from that to link to something else. I write: “Casting wide can land you in the strangest of places, but having some kind of anchor–a puzzle you’re trying to solve, a product or process you’re trying to improve–can help you…We don’t always know what connections will work best, what synthesis of two ideas will be the most effective. That’s why its important to keep an open mind to what your casting may bring back. You may have to relearn the joy of surprise.”
James Dyson found the answer to a new vacuum cleaner in a saw mill. He completely reframed the cleaning process by watching how saw mills cleaned up sawdust.
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I went back to the June 2006 cover of IN: Inside Innovation, a quarterly supplement I founded at BusinessWeek to look at Marissa Mayer’s 9 Notions of Innovation. The subtitle was "Marissa Mayer, The Talent Scout.“ Mayer has Stanford U degrees in symbolic systems and computer science and patents in Artificial Intelligence. She was the first female engineer at Google, its #20 hire and took charge of search products and the user experience.
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-06-18/marissa-mayer-the-talent-scout
Here are her "9 Notions of Innovation:
1-Ideas comes from everywhere. Google expects everyone to innovate, even the finance team
2- Share everything you can. Every idea, every project, every deadline–it’s all accessible to everyone on the internet
3- You’re brilliant, we’re hiring. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin approve hires. They favor intelligence over experience.
4- A license to pursue dreams. Employees get a "free” day a week. Half of new launches come from this “20% time.”
5- Innovation, not instant perfection. Google launches early and often in small beta tests, before releasing new features widely.
6- Don’t politic, use data. Mayer discourages the use of “I like” in meetings, pushing staffers to use metrics.
7- Creativity loves restraint. Give people a vision, rules about how to get there, and deadlines.
8- Worry about usage and users, not money. Provide something simple to use and easy to love. The money will follow.
9- Don’t kill projects–morph them. There’s always a kernel of something good that can be salvaged.“
The controversy surrounding Mayer’s decision to end remote working and have everyone be physically present in the office is reflected in these notions of how you generate innovation. It is a very Silicon Valley, techie model of brilliant engineers coming up with new techie functions that are then tossed out into the world to see if there is an audience for them. It often works. It more often fails.
There is a much better way–understand what is culturally meaningful to people and THEN generate the innovation that satisfies their aspirations. Or do both simultaneously and have engineers and designers work together to design new products and services.
Either way, what Google and Yahoo need right now is to get the cultural meaning part right. They need to move beyond the engineer-centric reliance on numbers and data to tell them about the world and get into the world itself to understand it. They might find that the employees staying home and raising their children have important ideas for the products and services that are meaningful to millions of people.
I talk about Knowledge Mining and Framing in Creative Intelligence. It just may be that Mayer and her old bosses at Google need to rely less on the "best” intelligence of their engineers and more on the creative intelligence of people who embody the lives of their customers. Then they could reframe who and how they employ and what they actually offer up in the marketplace.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
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I did a cover story on Marissa Mayer in 2006 for IN: Inside Innovation and spent time with her. She was many things at Google, but her most important role was as a designer. There was pressure from Google’s engineers to put all the functions they could dream up on that page but Mayer kept Google’s engagement with its audience simple, clean and clear. It beckoned us to use it. Google’s search page had aura and still does.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/06_25/B39890625innovation.htm
Mayer’s other big role was innovation. She did much of the hiring and shaped much of the way innovation happened at Google. Mayer knows that creativity is social. Creativity comes out of the interplay of people and ideas. Which is why, as head of Yahoo, she wants everyone to be physically present.
But simply “being there” may not be the kind of social interaction that generates the creativity Mayer seeks. I write in Creative Intelligence that “As much as we love stories about serendipity,” seeking out the right people may be as important, if not more so, than accidentally bumping into them. It’s very hard to play with strangers that you can’t trust.“
Creativity tends to flow out of small teams of people who trust each other and know how to play with one another to puzzle out new challenges. They also tend share deep knowledge of specific fields. I believe that this is the "magic circle” that generates the best creativity.
And if that is true, then it just might be possible to use the great new videoconferencing technologies like HALO and Telepresence to bring these small teams together wherever they are, including home. I’ve personally used them and you can talk to people anywhere and its like chatting across the table. They are emotionally powerful.
Cisco is putting Telepresence into apartments in Korea. Yahoo should consider putting them into the apartments and houses of those potential creators who are now working at home. If serendipity isn’t all that its cracked up to be and sociability is the key to creativity, then you just might be able to build those magic circles with people tending to their kids at home.
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This is from The Search for The Search For The Secrets of Creativity section of Creative Intelligence.
In my Fast Company piece on 3 Paths Toward a More Creative Life, I talked about the need to disconnect from our hyper-connected life to foster creativity and suggested walking. But what a dope! I left out running and biking!
Thanks to the people who commented on the FC post who talked about how running and biking help their creativity. I’m betting swimmers send in a post as well.
Anything that cuts you off from the racing flow of information and hyper-engagement that makes up most of our lives should do the trick.
Any other ideas on how to do this?
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http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671921/3-paths-toward-a-more-creative-life
In the chapter on The Search for the Secrets of Creativity in Creative Intelligence.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424Knowledge Mining chapter of Creative Intelligence.
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Knowledge Mining chapter of Creative Intelligence.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/creative-intelligence-bruce-nussbaum/1112757030?ean=9780062088420&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&r=1&
“We can all implement our own 20 percent (creative time) strategies, committing to a certain amount of time each week to pursuing areas that interest us…We can spend some of that time "mining the past” of industries that interest us. We should be setting up at least one meeting a week with an expert in our fields and asking What’s exciting and inspiring these days?
We can also ask experts what’s NOT there. What is everyone getting wrong?
”—Creative Intelligence.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424Creative Intelligence.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062088420
Creativity is a social phenomenon more than an individual event.
Mihaly Csikszmentmihalyi is best know, of course, for his work on individual flow. But he also analyzed Renaissance Italy to explore why Florence, at a certain point in history, was able to produce such an amazing number of brilliant artists.
In my book, Creative Intelligence, I say that he asked, What are the social conditions that lead to creativity? How can we make ourselves part of that social matrix? These are critical questions in our quest in becoming more creative.
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Meg Whitman is trying to save Hewlett-Packard, a once and glorious high-tech company. HP has been in trouble for nearly a decade. So far, the remedies tried have involved improving efficiencies–firing over 30,000 people, outsourcing production, flattening that old pyramid. It’s time to try something different–reigniting HP’s creativity.
In my book, Creative Intelligence, I bring together a panel of former HP engineers who talk about their incredibly creative early years at HP–and how it ended. They describe the labs–which I call “magic circles”–where researchers explored all kinds of things without much restrictions–and the GMs who came by to screen the new ideas, curate them and then provide the resources to scale creativity into creation. I call them the “wanderers.” The founders of HP, Mrs. Hewlett and Packard managed their company by wandering around.
The magic circles of labs (play-grounds really) linked to wanderers who scaled generated organic innovation for HP. The company created new scientific instruments, ink-jet printers, computers–a panoply of new products coming out of the creativity of its engineers and researchers and then scaled by skillful brokers of corporate resources.
It ended when the GMs, who were often engineers themselves, were replaced by the biz dev guys. It ended when deep knowledge about science and experienced intuition about chances of success were replaced by wanderers who were business people using numbers to make decisions. It ended when HP started to fire the bottom 5% of employees every year to “improve” its human capital–destroying the trust among colleagues needed to play, try things out, take risks, fail and go on without repercussions. That ended the creation of exciting new products with fat profit margins for HP (the last was HALO, that wonderful conferencing technology, that HP never developed and sold off).
Organic innovation is what HP needs now. It has failed to buy innovation in its many purchases of companies. It has failed to turn around by promoting more efficiency. Its time for creativity. The example of HP in its heyday provides the narrative for #5 of my Creative Competencies–Pivoting/Scaling. It’s what Meg Whitman needs to do.
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http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4d531bb8-7c67-11e2-91d2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2LdPzZWiN
I remember my first ride on the Segway, Dean Kamen’s incredible invention. I got up on the two-wheel thing, pushed forward and I was away, moving quickly, turning, having great fun. The Segway was supposed to change everything–how we moved along in cities, how we left cars behind, how we saved energy, how we went to war, etc. It didn’t.
In the end, it was a wonderful piece of technology in search of human purpose. It became an expensive novelty.If it had been framed differently, if the culture and history of transportation had been mined deeply, if it had been made more cheaply–in short, if Kamen had used a few of the 5 Creative Competencies in Creative Intelligence, his technology might have found traction with a big audience.
Google is doing the same thing with its Google Glasses. It’s new technology is very cool but there is no connection to people. Right now it is a gadget made by gadgeteers for other gadgeteers in search of a broader popular audience. Throwing new invention over the wall to designers is an old way of doing things that sometimes works just fine (hey, Search is great, right?) but often does not (remember the old VCRs with a million useless functions?
There is a better way. Creative Intelligence.
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Creative Intelligence, Bruce Nussbaum.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
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This is in the section of Creative Intelligence called “The Search for the Secrets of Creativity.”
You can preorder at:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
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Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062088420
iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/creative-intelligence/id533403255?mt=11
Thanks for pushing Creative Intelligence ever higher on Amazon in preorder, even before it officially comes out on March 5. In ebook, it is at #17 in Amazon’s Creativity & Genius category. And it is #55 in Cognitive Science. In hardcover, Creative Intelligence hit #84 on Monday in the Decision-Making & Problem Solving category.
Preorders build momentum and can “tip” the book into the fast selling lane once it is released. So please pass the word.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062088424?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062088424
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Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062088420
iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/creative-intelligence/id533403255?mt=11
Brian Collins, my advertising/media guru, venture creator, Davos design buddy and Flatiron neighborhood mate just tweeted, saying he finished the second chapter and “So far, perfecto!”
President Obama wants a decade-long program to deepen our understanding of the human brain. It would build a map of brain activity and, quoting the NYT “do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.” There are three goals–fight diseases, especially Alzheimer’s, increase artificial intelligence, and since DARPA is involved, bolster cyber-security.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/science/project-seeks-to-build-map-of-human-brain.html?hp&_r=0
I have one suggestion–to the array of neuroscientists, nano scientists and representatives from Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm running the brain project, he add cultural anthropologists, sociologists and designers. Combining the social with the scientific will accomplish two things:
1) Make the science relevant. One of the biggest economic and social failures of recent years has, in fact, been the Human Genome Project. There were big promises of huge economic benefits and, despite a federal study showing a “return” of $800 billion over a decade, we can see little of it. There is one project turning algae into energy producing organisms that I can think of. In addition, the Genome Project has not led to big breakthroughs in medicine either, despite promises that it would. It has, in fact, been disappointing.
Adding social scientists early to the program increases the chances that the direction of the research from the start might be more meaningful, both socially and economically. Had social scientists been attached to Monsanto’s genetic modification work, the company might not have had the enormous opposition to its GM seeds in Europe. It might have focussed on health and taste rather than efficiency and yield.
2) Americans fetishize the brain. The brain has become a secular divinity, in which we see everything coming out of it. The result is that the locus of control is seen to be outside ourselves. Just as religious people believe in fate or God’s will, so too the brain. As we focus on the brain “causing” creativity or thinking. we tend to think that exceptional brains will give us more exceptional behavior. And we hope that in the end we’ll be able to stimulate a portion of the brain and that will make us smarter, or better in some way.
I’m all for understanding more about the brain but I’m wary about how we, as a culture, use the brain to “explain” our lives. Learning and doing and understanding what is meaningful in context are the keys to making society and our lives better. Brain scans reflect our behaviors as much as the brain “causes” them. In Java, the shadow play shows the shadows of puppets acting out great political and social dramas. The Javanese understand the meaning of the shadows. They don’t confuse reality with reflection.
“Companies should be nurturing their "bandito creatives,” men and women who’ve already demonstrated a willingness to break the conventional rules if that’s wht it takes to do their jobs creatively. Find them and map their networks. Ask them: Who are you talking to inside and outside the company? Who are the most original thinkers you know? Who do you go for inspiration? And, most important of all, how can we help you build out your “off-the-books” network?
I talked about the ritual of the gift in my Creativity and Capitalism course at Parsons this past Monday. In a rare occurrence, Valentines Day and the Chinese New Year fall together so a good chunk of the world is giving gifts over the next few days.
In addition, Charles Adler, co-founder of Kickstarter talked to these students last week–a wonderful presentation–and he framed Kickstarter within the idea of gifting–not investing. A NYT piece came out over the weekend that did the same.
I asked my students about giving and receiving gifts and it was clear that giving gifts is fraught with tension. The ritual of the gift is actually very complex, very emotional and very powerful. Knowing what the other person REALLY wants requires skills of deep empathy, that men especially apparently lack, according to many of the women in the class. They steal themselves for getting hurt in the act of gift giving. And then pretending not to have been hurt.
Many would just as soon do it the Chinese way–red envelopes filled with money. People can then go out and buy their own gifts. We are moving in that direction with gift certificates and wedding registries. Maybe we need Valentines Day registers–do they already exist? I don’t know.
How much to give–the value of the gift also came up in class. Should it be equal or unequal? Can it ever really be equal?
Should use wrap necessities inside the ritual of the gift–like giving a vacuum cleaner or a washing machine? Ha. Most thought not but a few didn’t mind.
When you think about it, the gift is one of the most common of our social rituals. Schwag–free gifts–is given at the end of nearly every big occasion now from weddings to award ceremonies. There isn’t an event on any night in any big city in the US where gifts are not being given out. Much of this schwag is personal–and much is commercial, filled with products donated by companies wanted you to BUY something.
Kickstarter reminds us of the power and importance of the gift. You offer the gift of your money, you participation, your advice and, finally, your consumption, to a maker–an artist, film-maker, book writer and, increasingly a techie type/designer making a cool new product. Usually it is the parents and friends of the person doing the making that gifts first, building the momentum for the rest of us to offer our gifts.
Kickstarter socializes making through the gift–its a very different model than the buying and selling model we are used to.
Hmm.. Come to think of it. If you haven’t already given that Valentines Day gift, you could go on Kickstarter and “gift” your honey by gifting some dough to something she or he is really into. But then again, you’ll have to actually know what kind of music or film or book your honey really likes.
I remember the first time I met a team of designers from Samsung. It was at an annual Industrial Designers Excellence Awards dinner (before they changed “Industrial” to “International”). I remember five middle aged men wearing identical boxy black suits with white shirts and dark ties. Their haircuts were the same too. Samsung began to spend billions on design and for years, boxy-suited design guys would show up.
Then, one year, the middle-aged guys brought two young men who didn’t wear boxy-suits. They had spiky hair, brightly colored ties and tight, European suits on. Ah, things were changing. This was mid to late 90s.
I can think of no other Asia company that has spent more on design than Samsung and the company has risen high into the ranks of design award winners. But until very recently, Samsung’s design has nearly always been derivative. Samsung uses a Fast-Follower approach to both design and business. It rarely leads and uses vast amounts of research to follow trends in the market. Apple, of course, is much of that market, so Samsung follows Apple very closely. This has made Samsung hugely profitable and hugely huge in size. But it has not made the company a leader.
The New York Times article is a good summary of the design/business culture of Samsung.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/technology/samsung-challenges-apples-cool-factor.html?hpw&_r=0
Not leading has not bothered Samsung much. I consulted for them years ago on a panel in NYC. Of course, the panel of mostly US designers told the Samsung people they should be more creative, more innovative and lead. But the Samsung design and marketing people didn’t think it was that necessary. They were making products that others could use as platforms to create apps and services to engage people. They could build the aura. And that would be sufficient.
Maybe Samsung is right. Last year I was in a movie theatre, being forced to see ads (which I hate unless the ads are really entertaining–just like everyone else, right?). There was this ad for a Samsung Galaxy phone that showed two people taping their cells together to exchange videos. Hmmm… Very cool. I think there was one about a daughter sharing a tape with her dad. Then there was a racy one between a wife and her husband.
Talk about engagement. It beckoned, it grabbed you and kept you in a relationship. It made you want more. It was personal and intimate. It was aura.
So Samsung is beginning to get aura. That’s very exciting indeed.
“Bruce Nussbaum is one of America’s most interesting design minds. His latest work is both a clarion call and a guidebook for moving creativity to the center of our lives.” Blurb on my new book, Creative Intelligence, by Dan Pink.
Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062088420
iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/creative-intelligence/id533403255?mt=11
Dan Pink, of course, is one of my heroes. His book “A Whole New Mind” was a breakthrough in understanding how creativity really works. “Drive” is terrific and his current book, “To Sell is Human” is a best-seller.
Charles Adler, co-founder of Kickstarter, presented in my Creativity & Capitalism class in Parsons on Monday. He was absolutely great and the 85 undergrads in the auditorium really like him. One of the points he made at the end of his talk was the role of family and friends in financing so many of the Kickstarter projects. They often provide the initial money, get the funding momentum going until “outsiders” start kicking in money.
This is fascinating to me. In a global era of digitalized crowd sourcing and crowd funding, the role of family and friends to startups remains crucial. I thought about it and again and again you hear stories of startups beginning with money from parents and uncles and buddies and classmates betting on someone they know. By far, it seems that angel investors are people we know and trust.
Kickstarter amplifies this social phenomenon by legitimizing people’s startup dreams. If you can make it to actually presenting on Kickstarter–coming up with a great idea, doing that pitch video–your family and friends have even more motivation to help you. “Harry, come look at young Stevie’s camera idea! I always knew he was so smart. Let’s give him some money.”
Family and friends form the core of what I’m calling your Network Radius. That radius is the functional part of your network that provides resources to implement your creativity. It expands out from blood relatives to close friends to buddies to VC strangers to the public stock market. Knowing your Network Radius is critical to being a successful entrepreneur.
In Creative Intelligence I talk about Creativity Circles and Pivot Circles. The book is coming out in just a few days. But Charles has me thinking of the next round of thinking about creativity. That would include the idea of a Network Radius that cuts across both Circles, linking them.
If I were teaching a course in creativity and entrepreneurialism, a course in Indie Capitalism, this is what I would be putting up on the screen.