Hokusai's story exemplifies many of the key themes im exploring in a current manuscript about the importance of subjective intelligence in the advent of ai: the importance of #persistence, the value of #lifelonglearning, and the deep #insights that can come from looking closely at one's craft over an extended period.
Read MoreProfiles in Craft: Hannah Gadsby
Creativity (or, as Maslow says, “creativeness”) is a facet of self-actualization. It is not a process that results in something novel and useful. In contrast, Maslow observed that there is a correlation (in his experience) between psychological health and ordinary creativity.
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Copyright: Eileen Fisher
Who Is Eileen Fisher? Getting To Know The Fashion Designer & Seeker
This is part of my short series on the thinkers, leaders and craftsmen and women featured in Developing Modern Craft (pending publication late 2020). Here you will find a short introduction to Eileen Fisher, featured work, three exercises/lessons from her (and ways to apply them), as well as a selection of quotes. You can also read more about the Look to Craftsmen Project if you are not familiar with the work and check out Profiles in Craft for examples of people applying craft principles in the modern world.
Introduction
For more than 20 years, Eileen Fisher has been designing clothes that make women feel good about themselves. When Eileen Fisher started her namesake company in 1984, she had $350 in the bank and a basic idea: that women wanted chic, simple clothes that made getting dressed easy. The modular line -- pieces can be mixed and matched from season to season -- is now available in department stores and 52 Eileen Fisher stores, including one in Irvington, New York, where Fisher, 60, lives and the company is headquartered. In 2005, Fisher sold the $300 million company to her 875 employees through an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. She is now the chief creative officer.
Eileen grew up in the Midwest. She’s the second oldest of five sisters and one brother. Her father worked as a systems analyst at Allstate Insurance, and their life was modest. Her mother sewed their clothes—and in the sixth and seventh grade, it was all about a red shift dress. Today, Eileen sells chic, simple clothes that make getting dressed easy. She creates modular pieces that can be mixed and matched from season to season, and is now available in department stores and 52 Eileen Fisher stores. Her business has over 1200 employees and grosses over $400 million in sales.
When I went off to college I was going to be a math major. It was my best subject in high school, but then I got a D in Intermediate Calculus. I had no idea really what I wanted to do or what my options were.
One of my college roommates was an interior design student. We would hang out and I would play with colors and fabrics and that kind of thing—and then I would have to go and do my own work. At that point I realized that I wasn’t going get through college if I was going to do my work like that. I should do something fun. I studied interior design, in those days it was in the Home Economics department.
Many craftsmen appear to stumble on their fascinations and obsessions. Even with her background in sewing, her love of clothing, and her affinity simple styles, Eileen believed she found her interest in design by accident.
Eileen never pictured designing clothing for a living. She moved from interior design to graphic design. Involved with a Japanese boy, traveled to Japan to work on a projects. While there she became fascinated with the kimono.
After moving to New York, she bought a sewing machine and tried making a few things in her spare time. It was a disaster. But her mind kept seeing simple shapes made with good fabric. Living among artists in New York, one of them suggested she take over his booth at a trade show where buyers came to buy clothes for their stores. With three weeks to produce a clothing line, $350 in the bank, and no idea how to make a pattern—she got to work. Another friend knew someone who volunteered to make the samples. The first line was a pair of flood pants based on ones I'd seen in Japan, a simple top with a three-quarter sleeve, a V-neck vest, and a sleeveless shell.
Like every master craftsman I’ve interviewed for this project, Eileen never had a moment where she thought “I’m a designer now.” She never had that kind of clarity and her fascinations were ever-evolving—from shift dresses and uniforms, to symbols of design like the kimono, to modular women’s wear.
Eileen has used mediums of design, clothing, and leadership as modes of self-expression. Constant attention and deep reflection to her own awareness, to what is actually driving her awareness, directs her actions and guides her decisions.
By stepping back and viewing the business as a whole, Eileen gains perspective on how she can use the business to creatively express her interests and manifest her values. She also views the business as a reflection of herself. Eileen uses her medium (in this case the business itself) to define her own standards for success and make her unique mark.
In addition to focusing inward on her own awareness, and stepping back to get the big picture, Eileen gets perspective through the passions of others. Interest in recycling among employees led to Green Eileen (now called Renew). Working with and through other people is a unique quality of leadership. Taking culture, climate, and purpose of an organization into account impacts the outcomes the leader is able to produce with their unique signature.
Notable Work
Eileen Fisher Renew RENEW, part of EILEEN FISHER Inc., is a take-back program that embodies our commitment to build a circular design system and create a future without waste.
Eileen Fisher Leadership Institute The Eileen Fisher Leadership Institute brings young people together to explore their passions; learn from pioneers of industry, the arts and beyond; and discover their unique leadership style. When you support EFLI, you are ensuring that young women of all backgrounds will have access to EFLI's unique leadership education that unlocks their personal potential, transforming them into the leaders we need in our communities, and the world.
VISION2020 The EF vision is for an industry where human rights and sustainability are not the effect of a particular initiative, but the cause of a business well run. Where social and environmental injustices are not unfortunate outcomes, but reasons to do things differently.
3 Lessons from Eileen
Increase awareness.
“For me, communication was a problem. For me it was my ex husband. The sound of his voice would shut me down and I wouldn’t speak around him. After really processing and understanding my trigger with him, when I saw him again two days later, I was talking. I tried to understand what opens me up and what shuts me down.”
Identify and understand your triggers.
“Once I started to notice what was going on inside myself, the feelings of anxiety or my heart beating, faster I would notice when I was triggered (like when I heard the sound of my ex-husband’s voice). It was like my energy was captured and I was not able to be present. I noticed and that I could actually make a different choice. I could say, “oh there's that triggered feeling” and I am talking fast. I'm not really where I want to be. I'm not really saying what I want to say because I'm caught in my anger or frustration or my energy spin around this person. The more I notice, the more I can cut that cord and show up more.”
Cultivate Curiosity: Bring meditation into everyday moments and meetings.
“One of the things I struggle with is listening. I use listening as a meditation practice. When someone speaks, I try to pay attention in a way that's fully present which is actually opening a lot of possibilities. As a company we are going through a massive transformation. We realize we need to bring in outside talent. When interviewing someone, I watched myself not listen. Here was this incredibly talented person. She was talking so fast and so full of information and I felt myself collapsing internally. Did she know more than me? Would she overshadow me? I don’t know if I went that far in my thoughts, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to work with her. After the interview was over, I realized I had completely missed her. So I decided to give her another chance and this time I practiced listening. And I realized, wow, she’s smart. If we don’t hire her we are going to miss something amazing.”
Quotes by Eileen
“Personal growth and development is so critical, because we get in our own ways and it impacts everyone in the workplace. It's almost like some crazy percentage of what do everyday isn't really just what's happening in the moment, it's what's happening that comes from my childhood.”
“You may have to approach your leadership challenges intuitively to make sense of them.”
“The difference between thinking things and trying to solve problems rationally all the time, sometimes you just get stuck.”
“First, we have to know who we are...which is really hard. We have to know what we care about and what we want, and what matters to us. Those are things I work on every day.”
"Everything is about listening. That's how I started. I started listening to buyers in ways that others don't. When we listen, things shift."
"I try to follow energy. Where is it going, and why did it go there? And it's a balancing at to decide whether to go with it or bring the energy back to that moment."
"Not being a fashion designer by trade or training, I saw a different kind of picture."
"A lot of what I did in the early days was very spontaneous or had some kind of common sense as I moved from day to day. Although that is still very much in play for me, I've come to be more clear about what matters to me."
“Running a business with small children is really hard. The advice I would give my younger self would be to be work when you're at work and be at home when you're at home. Be present where you are."
“We live in our heads. Every day, every minute, we are getting messages that open us up or shut us down. Every time we close down we find tension in our necks or shoulders and that shuts off some of the energy going to our brain, and we’re less creative as a result.”
P.S. Visit my page on Quotes on Craft for more wisdom on the principles of craftsmanship and how they apply to the modern world.
The Prepared Mind: The Importance of Going Fallow
[Article originally published on Medium]
Photo by Zbysiu Rodak
THE SABBATICAL: WHAT IS IT & WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of shmita. Relating to agriculture, every seven years, a sabbath (or rest) year was ordered to give the land a break from agricultural production. In a similar way, our minds, like the soil, need rest to be able to continue to grow and provide.
A “sabbatical” has come to mean an extended absence in the career of an individual. But there is a hook — most people come back from these experiences still forcing production in exhausted soil. They feel under pressure to fulfill some goal, e.g., writing a book, or somehow operationalizing their experience for others, or even productizing it in some way. We have a very hard time just doing something for the sake of doing it. With proverbs like “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop” or references to “killing time” allowing ourselves to go fallow does not come easily.
In his 2009 TED talk, The Power of Time Off, designer Stefan Sagmeister explains how he decided to start closing the doors of his New York studio for a full year every seven years:
“Like many things in my life that I actually love, I adapt to them and over time, get bored by them. And in our case, our work started to look the same.”
Sagmeister first thought about taking a work sabbatical when reflecting on the typical flow of our lives. He estimated most people spend 25 years learning, 40 years working their career, and then 15-plus years in retirement. But, Sagmeister proposed, what if we cut off five years of retirement and interspersed them in between the working years?
When he experimented with this new schedule, the result was both creatively and professionally beneficial. As he explains in his TED talk, in that first sabbatical year, Sagmeister created a film, explored new design styles and materials, and experienced new cultures and ideas.
“The work that came out of that year flowed back into the company, and into society at large.”
SIGNS YOU NEED A SABBATICAL
A sabbatical is an opportunity to unplug and press pause. It doesn’t have to be a full year or 6 weeks. Giving yourself an opportunity to pause is about disrupting the inertia to which we most often succumb. Most of us can’t opt out and go completely fallow, but we can create space for an intentional shift in thinking. Changing our thinking changes our decision making, which eventually leads to behavior change. We can embrace an opportunity to gain perspective that enables a mental shift in attitude, thoughts, or emotions that otherwise would not have occurred. We all need to create that kind of shift for ourselves, on a daily basis.
Here are five signs that you’re due:
If you used to love your work and now you can’t stand it.
If your boss or partner tells you things aren’t working out.
If you’re constantly distracted by your phone or social media.
If you’re facing a challenge or adversity.
If an opportunity comes knocking on your door that you want to follow.
Creating space could be signing up for a class, up-leveling your business, getting better something, or saying a truth that may not have been said before. The whole idea is to connect to yourself. If you had an extra five minutes or an hour, what could you do differently? What would you say? Who would you be with? Those are great cues about what would work for you.
Start by creating space in your day. We constantly shift and go into autopilot. We succumb to the back to back meetings, the constant stream of email and information coming our way. To take a few minutes to journal your thoughts and feelings at different times of the day can be really informative. Your mood improves when you consciously bring thoughts into the moment.
Consider checking in with yourself first before checking your social media feed and ask, “How do I feel? What am I thinking right now? Is this where I want to be?”
When you check in, tune out others and focus on yourself. We’ve been counseled since we were children to be first, be right, to win — none of that has anything to do with slowing down. In racing against the clock and against others, we didn’t learn how to care for ourselves very well. There is a reason why we are told on airplanes to take care of ourselves first. We have to learn to take care of ourselves to be the best self we can be.
HOW TO CREATE A SABBATICAL
Sabbaticals are all about rejuvenating and acquiring nutrients. They are a time to explore topics you’re deeply passionate about or try something new outside of your comfort zone. But if you read through this article and still feel like it’s impossible for you, there are ways to get the benefits of disconnected, unstructured time off without risking your job. Not everyone can take a big break in their life or career. Start with a day, or an hour.
TAKE OFF ONE DAY A WEEK
Dr. Matthew Sleeth, author of 24/6: A Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life, has indisputable proof that life doesn’t have to be quite so frantic all of the time: himself. His experience changed his life, leading him to write his book — a guide to refocusing your life around the principle of taking a much-needed rest day.
“For most of my life, I worked in emergency medicine. Ten years ago, I was given a 24-hour Sunday shift. I felt wiped out, and I was dreading Sunday each week, so I decided to take Saturday off to have a very simple day to read and explore my purpose in life,” recalls Dr. Sleeth.
BE UNREACHABLE FOR A SET PERIOD OF TIME
Learn how to disappear, for a bit. Start with 90 minutes twice a week.
It’s a powerful trick that lessens stress, increases productivity, sparks creativity, improves work/life balance, and changes your perspective of work.
Medium member Josh Spector reveals his tricks and what you’ll get from pulling your own disappearing act.
LEARN TO TAKE “MINI-SABBATICALS”
According to Harvard psychologist Shelley Carson, one of the best ways to enhance your creative output is to separate work and consumption. As she explains, even taking an hour a day for a “mini-sabbatical” to be in an “absorb” state where you gather information and inspiration without doing any work can be an easy way to get new ideas.
If you’re feeling stressed, unmotivated, and burnt out, there’s no point in trying to just push through.
Instead, our best ideas often come when we’re not working. And a sabbatical–no matter how long–is a fantastic way to rest and rethink how you’re approaching hard problems.
If you find yourself blaming your (mental) tools, do something about it. Learn about mental models, learn from how Craftsmen talk about how they learn and get better at what they do and more importantly, take ownership. Moving forward requires change but change by itself does not mean that you are moving forward. As Socrates said, “The un-examined life is not worth living.”
Christine Haskell, Ph.D. is a leadership consultant and adjunct faculty at Washington State University. She helps busy leaders take responsibility for their learning and development. She writes on the topic of “Craftsmanship and The Future of Work.” sharing lessons from master craftsmen and women on personal and professional mastery, is due out late 2019. Sign up for her (semi-regular) newsletter here.
10 Hallmarks for Thinking with Craft
OVERVIEW: This article was inspired by research I conducted with Mastercraftsmen & Women in 2016. As part of that effort, I wrote a series #LookToCraftsmen posts that provide context for the book is set for publication in 2019. Some tips to help free the mind and connect with your innate creativity.
A few years ago, I spent time studying master craftsmen and women and how they get better at what they do. This work culminated in a book, Look To Craftsmen, pending publication. That effort kicked off a deep fascination I have human being's penchant for creativity and it offers some advice for living a more inspired life, of living and working with Craft. Far from the often romanticized amber sunbeams cast across wood shavings and worn leather aprons, the process is often messy and riddled with contradictions. For example, I describe master ceramicist Louise Pentz's method for evolving her work emphasizing constant editing--to the point where she actively deconstructs her work or proactively damages it. Some might think her "focus on destroying refinement extreme or merely artistic license. However, she knows giving up an attachment to perfection she will reach new thresholds in her knowledge." In this way, Craftsmanship is not a result; it is a process (of learning by doing). Craftsmanship is about standing apart from the mainstream, by standing out through unique, quality work. As Louise herself explains it, "You’re hoping for the mistakes, because...too much control and the outcome loses some of its essence. Our natural tendency is to be judgmental and controlling. This has two negative consequences: we are less happy and our work is mediocre."
Of course, few of us consider ourselves creative in the way that craftsmen and artists are creative. But creativity is so much more than natural talent. It is a state of mind. Craftsmen and women have an attitude that they bring to every task. There is a general air of spontaneity. They question everything about the world and the way things work, breaking things and reconstructing them again. As a result, they are continually seeing their medium through new eyes, the eyes of a genuine learner, even though they have so much experience. Not only are they solving problems, but they are also finding new ones all the time. It's a way of being.
Prescribed solutions do not work for the perplexing, complex problems we face today. In order to adapt, we need to build up our subjective intelligence systematically. Those of us who don’t have language for subjective qualities have to learn it. This often impacts us where it counts: following dreams or advancing professionally. If you are a person who consciously works at these capabilities, these tips might provide some insight on how to develop your creativity with deeper focus.Along with creativity, the concept of failure is starting to become popular again, which is heartening. But few people have experience true failure enough to know what it is in order to court the kind of risk it requires. We are told to "fail fast" as if it were a small thing. We know, inherently, that each one of us needs to have courage. We need to be willing to fail, learn from that, get up, and try again.What’s most surprising to me about creativity and transformative learning isn’t, as most research suggests, that people haven’t realized how powerful it can be. We know, in theory, that learning, asking tough questions, curiosity and creativity are powerful leadership behaviors.
What’s most surprising are the subtle ways we resist these qualities. I don’t believe we need to learn the benefits of creativity, per say--we already know them. I believe we need to focus on learning to tame our resistance to allow creativity (and the failure that comes with it) to happen--that, is what sets Craftsmen apart.
Here are ten hallmarks to help you unlock your inner Craftsman and tap into your innate creativity:
1. Inspiration and creativity cannot be forced or approached directly.
Sometimes a deadline can help spur your creativity. Other times a specific task or job requires some level of imagination to complete. But generally speaking, focusing on the result doesn't achieve the inspired performance we are seeking. You cannot achieve inspiration through sheer will. You don't wake up and say to yourself, "today I will be creative." And, the more you want it the less likely it is to appear. Creativity requires space. Craftsmen do not approach gaining expertise directly. There is no straight path, no “one thing” that will get them there—it’s everything they do, together.
2. Know when you are in the presence of bias.
From elementary school to the workplace, we have a bias against individual expression and unique choice. Craftsmen feel stifled by environments where they need to conform to a standard. They are in the business of elevating standards, requiring them to question the status quo. The standardization of education and work really kills creativity. How can students and 9-to-5ers overcome rigid structures? By tapping their intuition. When you find something that ignites your curiosity and interest, find an outlet to express it.
3. Balance IQ with EQ.
Achieving craft in our decision making means learning to use judgment, imagination and improvisational discernment in our own work. Turning simple problems into craftsman’s problems means relaxing our grip on what we perceive to be objective data (there is none). We need to value subjective knowledge and better integrate our multiple intelligences toward creative solutions.The stonemason sees a relationship between the way shadows play on one side of a rock and structures the rest of her vision around this emerging relationship; a CEO weighs market reactivity and customer pressure, then makes a far-reaching decision on shifting culture more aggressively toward more sustainable practices. As they work, neither the mason nor the CEO limits their judgment strictly to data or deductive reasoning.
4. Remain unfazed by failure and fame.
Failure and fame are two sides of the same coin and one that craftsman find of little value. No matter how devastating the failures might be, and no matter how awe-inspiring their successes, the measure of performance is not what matters to most craftsmen. Failure and fame are traps that true craftsmen work hard to avoid. Craftsmen rely mainly on their own evaluations. They compare what they produce to the ideals they pursue. They evaluate their effectiveness based on how closely they create what they intend. They judge what they produce by assessing the subjective quality of those qualities displayed.
5. Manage Feelings and Feel.
True craftsmen know the difference between emotional feelings and feel in their medium. They know that the feelings they have for their work—whether upsetting reactions or motivating passions—can distract their attention from the critical connection they have to their medium…their perception and recognition of certain qualities. To keep their perception and recognition abilities in the presence of failure, success, drama, difficulty, exhaustion, discouragement, challenge, derivation, hurt, fear, anxiety, grief, uncertainty, excitement, and the like, craftsmen cultivate the ability to discern feelings from feel. When feelings threaten to flood perception, the craftsman remains open, curious, empathetic, interested, fascinated, determined, brave, sensitive, intrigued, surprised, attentive and focused.
6. Go after process and outcomes, simultaneously.
Craftsmen develop their outcomes as they engage the process, at the same time. Sometimes this happens on a grand scale, as when Zingerman’s embarked on a 15-year vision. Sometimes this happens on a smaller scale, as when Sanna determines and adjusts felt for a particular piece she is working on, or Eric learns from a particular piece of joinery that isn’t working. What is common to all is what Donald Schön called, the ‘conversation with the situation.’ This conversation generates and then reshapes both ends and means as the situation changes in response to the craftsman, and the craftsman learns.
7. Be compelled by your subject.
Craftsmen are fascinated by their medium, so much so, it's a compulsion. They think about the idiosyncrasies of their medium all the time. This comes from total involvement in the work and full immersion in all the qualities and aspects of the medium. It’s a kind of love and affection. Despite adjectives of “total” and “full” this relationship or connection to the medium is a never-ending learning process. There is no point at which the craftsman feels he or she knows all there is to know. Experiences change from day to day—whether using clay or managing a business—and there are always qualities yet to be practiced. These may remain overlooked until subtle shifts of awareness bring them into focus. Once experienced, qualities can be interpreted and used to guide action. Achieving this unity, craftsmen acquire feel in their medium.
8. Embrace paradox.
Craftsmen welcome the tension of paradox. They enjoy melding two seemingly contradictory ideas that lead to some new understanding of their medium. We accept a lot of false dichotomies in our lives, such as the imaginary line between work and play. Craftsmen are good at trusting their intuition but also being highly rational in their analysis of whether their work is complete, or good, or in need of development. Craftsmen are highly sensitive but are capable of staying true to their values even under significant pressure.
9. Remain Open. Hold knowledge lightly.
To push the boundaries of what they know, craftsmen demonstrate expertise in response to the qualities they recognize and, at the same time, generate original responses when the situation inspires. Craftsmen are committed to building skill, working effectively, and achieving control in their medium; and, they also maintain and openness, seek novelty, generate variation, and invite surprise. Balancing these competing forces is a temporary achievement that craftsmen know they must leave behind. In transient moments of balance or flow, craftsmen combine expertise and ingenuity to create ideas, products, performances, and outcomes that are both excellent and original.
10. Express beliefs, understanding, and awareness in action.
Using our imagination is one way we adapt. Being deliberate about how we approach problem-solving, and doing it in a way that helps us adapt and improve is a beautiful human quality. Subjective intelligence involves the crafting understanding of experience, as reflected in the grace of storytelling and elegance of using imaginative models to simplify the complexity of the problems we deal with.
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All of these qualities suggest that Craftsmen think differently because they do something very distinct from everyone else: they create contemplative practices in their lives, or habits, that force them to think about their priorities, goals, and work with more depth than people using their job as a means to an end. That depth pays huge dividends when it comes to quality of work and gratification in one’s work. Christine Haskell, PhD is a researcher, writer, and leadership consultant specializing in personal and professional mastery. She emphasizes deep self-awareness and reflection with practices that stick, so people can take responsibility for their own development. By taking charge of their own learning busy leaders become more intentional about developing their own path for the future.
What makes you uniquely creative?
This question stumps most of my clients. It's not a trick question. It's just that most people overthink it.
They go right to skills and no-how. They start comparing themselves to others to find differences that make them stand out (to themselves).
The answer is both obvious and subtle.Your life experiences and the coping mechanisms you acquired along the way make you uniquely creative. How you process and make sense of your own life attracts you to certain problems that you are uniquely qualified to solve. That is why one person's path to success arc cannot be the same for another.
The problem is that our unique abilities get edited out of our lives at such a young age. All through school and later in our jobs we are told to get with the program, fit in, get on the bus. When really, it is our unique perspective on the world that will help solve the world's greatest problems.
Each of our journeys is unique because one person's tactical steps cannot be the same for everyone. The choices we've made in our lives have a deep context.When we start out in life we are issued backpacks, of sorts. Our packs filled with very different things. Some of the contents are advantageous. Others are quite heavy and detrimental. The ratio of those items varies for each of us.
But that pack doesn't need to stay the way you got it. As you make progress or suffer setbacks in your life, you can toss some of those items and rearrange the contents. And, you get to accept the cups of water, energy bars, and free advice from the people you come across all along your route.
I challenge you to be both a well-prepared hiker and enthusiastic support to others along the way.
Do not go gentle into that good night
Sharing a poem to inspire creativity and connection with the work you are engaged in. Engagement with the work we choose to labor over is our own individual responsibility.
It is up to each of us to find the singular world problem we want to dedicate our lives to--and it is a privilege.
“Poetry can break open locked chambers of possibility, restore numbed zones to feeling, recharge desire,” Adrienne Rich wrote in contemplating what poetry does. “Insofar as poetry has a social function it is to awaken sleepers by other means than shock,” Denise Levertov asserted in her piercing statement on poetics. Few poems furnish such a wakeful breaking open of possibility more powerfully than “Do not go gentle into that good night” — a rapturous ode to the unassailable tenacity of the human spirit by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (October 27, 1914–November 9, 1953). --via BrainPickings
The Pulitzer-winning Irish poet and New Yorker poetry editor Paul Muldoon writes in the 2010 edition of The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas:
Dylan Thomas is that rare thing, a poet who has it in him to allow us, particularly those of us who are coming to poetry for the first time, to believe that poetry might not only be vital in itself but also of some value to us in our day-to-day lives. It’s no accident, surely, that Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” is a poem which is read at two out of every three funerals. We respond to the sense in that poem, as in so many others, that the verse engine is so turbocharged and the fuel of such high octane that there’s a distinct likelihood of the equivalent of vertical liftoff. Dylan Thomas’s poems allow us to believe that we may be transported, and that belief is itself transporting.
In this rare recording, Thomas himself brings his masterpiece to life:
[embed]https://youtu.be/g2cgcx-GJTQ[/embed]
Do not go gentle into that good night
Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Photo: IKEA
Values guide us
It is endlessly fascinating to me how people and organizations decide to live their values--and I include myself here. How we choose to express ourselves through our work matters. We make a difference in how we choose to show up, whether we like it or not.
We are guided by our values. In the classes I teach, the talks I give, and the clients I work with--to a person--most people do not know their values...and I mean really know them. I will extend that notion to organizations as well. They come up with values, but rarely incorporate them in their ongoing decision making.
IKEA remains in my #PantheonOfInterestingCompanies - a category of posts I'll add to over time - because of how they reckon with their values. The hold tension between both poles - waste and conservation - much like us individuals. And they try, hard (imo), to do the right thing. What attracts me most is their pursuit of elegant problem-solving resulting in learning that is valued and integrated into the company's culture and eventually its products.
Every year, Ikea Group and INGKA Holding (the holding company that controls the majority of Ikea’s retail stores) publishes a research report on how people live in and relate to a specific aspect of their homes. Since 2014 it’s dealt with morning routines, food and kitchens, and disagreements at home. This year, it takes on a more existential tone–dealing with loneliness, belonging, and the effects of living in cities.
Two years ago, the company asked thousands of people about where they felt “most at home.” At the time, 20% of subjects said it wasn’t the space in which they lived. Two years later, they asked again, and found the number has risen by 15% among people who live in cities. In other words, 35% of people who live in cities don’t feel at home in their house or apartment.
“Almost half of Americans (45%) go to their car to have a private moment to themselves,” the company reports in a new survey of 22,000 people in 22 countries."
There is a huge amount of research and theory going back to the early 1900s on changing definitions of home. But what’s fascinating about Ikea’s report is that Ikea, simply by being the largest furniture retailer on earth, has a role to play here. The corporation has more than 400 stores in 25 countries. It reported 936 million visits to its stores last year. One favorite faux-factoid, which, obviously, can’t be verified, claims that 1 in 10 Europeans is conceived on an Ikea bed. We are increasingly renters rather than owners, which makes inexpensive and disposable furniture a necessity. ...the idea of “home” has become less permanent and more transient than ever, and, as a result, we’ve stopped thinking of our homes as “self-expression.”
Full article here.
#ProblemSolving #creativity #sustainability #home #innovation #Values #ethics #learning
Coaching Behaviors: Interruption
Coaches actively listen, but they also interrupt—strategically. They seek to understand—for their own sake—following their curiosity about decisions, behaviors, assumptions we are making. These decisions, behaviors, assumptions may or may not be informed by our past, but our reactivity about them most certainly is.
We come to coaching with certain goals. We are seeking answers. There is a presenting problem that hints at, but does not fully capture, the full picture. Why, for instance, do we repeatedly hire people who do not perform? Why do we seek out bosses that do not support us? Why is it so hard for us to work through others? How can we be both so convinced we need to leave a role and yet have remained completely unable to find something more fulfilling? Why do we sabotage our potential?
By their questions and their attention, the coach tries—harder than anyone we’ve spoken to yet—to discover how our presenting problem connects to something larger. In particular, they help us navigate “the web”: ourselves and our team(s); our wider ecosystem of departments, vendors, customers, and strategic stakeholders or partners; and, how we interpret “the outside” market, the economy, the natural environment, and political shifts (as appropriate). Remember, the coach’s goal is to help us increase effectiveness by interweaving relationships with results, pinpointing key areas of growth.
Starting in the first session, we gather a succession of small discoveries with the coach to contribute to an emerging picture of the sources of our presenting problem, not just the symptoms.
When we view ourselves at the center of our web, we gain insights in the way in which our character has slowly evolved in response to early wounds. We learn how those wounds form into triggers, and how our reactivity to those triggers hampers our possibilities today.
When we view ourselves at the center of our web, we gain insights in the way in which our character has slowly evolved in response to early wounds.
Reactivity narrows our focus. Responsiveness broadens our view. In the space between reactivity and response is where we find the seeds of our creativity.
When we view ourselves interacting with our teams and wider ecosystems, these triggers amplify. Do we trust others enough to delegate? Can we get past our initial judgments of peers enough to collaborate effectively rather than work around them? Can we learn to engage rather than avoid difficult personalities we encounter as managers, partners or stakeholders?
When we take in the even broader environments (social systems, market competition, etc.) we notice additional pressures in the system.
We may, for example, start to sense how a feeling of rivalry with another manager led us to take on more challenges to compete for a boss’s approval, as well as seeing, perhaps for the first time, that the logic of our self-sabotage no longer holds. Or we might perceive the way an attitude of negativity and pessimism, which restricts our personalities and our friendships, might have had its origins in a someone who let us down at a time when we could not contain our vulnerability, and thereby turned us into people who try at every juncture to disappoint themselves early and definitively rather than allowing the world to mock our emerging hopes at a time of its own choosing.
It is unhelpful to state any of this too frankly, to any client, as they are likely to resist. There is a dance to active listening—and not everyone is dancing to the same music. There are useful or counterproductive behaviors that we can have with our coach. Here are some examples (the first two are constructive, the second two are less effective):
we want advice, the coach fosters independent thinking.
we seek feedback, the coach gives it.
we vent about a colleague, coach soothes.
we are late for appointments or forget to reserve a room, the coach tolerates it.
Often, the dance pattern developing between you and your coach is an example of the system the client is in with their own team or organization. Systems have a way of extending themselves out to their furthest boundaries. In that way, they have a strong gravitational pull.
The coach resists this by reflecting to us the decisions we are making, or how we are reacting and behaving. Together, we replay those scenarios and discuss alternatives. For the process to work, the coach reflects of the structure of our troubles in a way we can best interpret it as our own observation and insight.
NEXT
This blog post is part of a series related to Driving Your Self-Discovery pending publication.
Book Shelf: Steal Like an Artist
Overview
To nurture your creativity, follow these 10 tips: First, understand that all artists steal from material that inspires them.
“Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.” Self-knowledge comes from creative action.
“Write the book you want to read.” If you’re stumped creatively, work on whatever is the most fun.
“Use your hands” to get the physicality back into your creativity.
Your work and your interests can meld to create something totally new, so “side projects and hobbies are important.”
When you “do good work…share it with people” online. Find inspiration on the web.
“Leave home.” To be creative, you may have to hit the road.
“Be nice,” because the world is so small now that, more than ever, manners matter.
“Be boring.” A routine and a paying job can fuel your creative work.
“Creativity is subtraction.” Cull what’s unnecessary, and leave what’s brilliant.
Key Points
Why an artist’s creativity comes from other people, places and things; and
How to use 10 ideas to nourish your creativity.
There are no new ideas, only new combinations
Recommendation
Artist and poet Austin Kleon writes in an accessible, breezy, conversational shorthand. Few of his sentences run longer than eight words, and his message is simple: Learn all you can, develop a library of influences and never stop believing in your own creativity. His best advice to artists – get out of and stay out of your own way – recurs throughout the book in various forms, and Kleon offers simple, effective methods to do just that, organized as 10 creative spurs. His little sketches and profound, often humorous quotes from great thinkers and artists from across the centuries feature throughout this pocket-sized guide to unleashing your inner Picasso. While Kleon’s unchanging tone can feel a bit precious, it's still worth carrying his guidebook around for boosts of creative confidence and doses of friendly, workable commonsense advice.
Summary
Creative License
Artists and creators throughout history have known that, as Pablo Picasso said, “Art is theft.” Every innovator has built on the work of others, using ideas, formats or things in fresh and exciting ways. Originality doesn’t exist. Everything is a confluence of influences, thefts, mutations and interpretations. Even the Bible says, “There’s nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Whether you’re an artist or you’re simply looking to add some creativity to your life, consider these 10 ideas:
1. “Steal Like an Artist”First, start by looking around for something worth appropriating. If copying, altering or borrowing it has no value, look for another inspiration. Regarding the world through the prism of “Is it worth stealing?” will keep you from wasting time wondering if something has intrinsic or aesthetic value. What matters is whether it serves you. And it needn’t even help you today. Remember what you reject; you might want to pinch it “tomorrow or a month or a year from now.”
“Every artist gets asked the question, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ The honest artist answers, ‘I steal them’.”
Once you acknowledge that what you create will never be unique, any fear of owning and accepting your influences will vanish. You are the sum of your family genetics and of your “genealogy of ideas.” You choose the experts you listen to, the music that moves you, the books that stimulate you, the art that speaks to your soul, and the movies you must see again and again. These influences, along with a variety of others, shape your artistic identity – your creative roots.
“You are...a mash-up of what you choose to let into your life.”
Don’t try to learn the entire scope and legacy of the art you hope to make; you’ll drive yourself crazy with overload. Pick “one thinker – writer, artist, activist, role model” – who profoundly affects you. Learn all you can about that person and his or her influences. Study those influences and learn who influenced them. “Climb up the tree as far as you can go.” Once you’ve climbed high enough, create your “own branch.”When you’ve established your set of creative ancestors, honor them. Regard yourself as the continuation of their work. Put photos of the artists you love around your workspace. Select what you want these artists to teach you and ignore everything else. Read as much as you can. The books you start out with may not help you immediately, but they will definitely take you to the ones that will help you the most.
“Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.”
Always carry a pen and paper to write down whatever occurs to you wherever you have an idea. Never be self-conscious about it – you are making yourself smarter and more observant. Note the conversations people are having as they pass by. “Copy your favorite passages out of books.” Photograph what catches your eye. Maintain a “swipe file” – a notebook or tape recorder or cellphone in which you store the ideas you steal from other artists and from the world around you.
“The great thing about dead or remote masters is that they can’t refuse you as an apprentice. You can learn whatever you want from them.”
2. “Don’t Wait Until You Know Who You Are to Get Started”
You may not fully know yourself, and if you expend all your energy navel-gazing, you never will. Self-knowledge derives from action – creative action. Nobody can tell you where “the good stuff” springs; it comes from being present and doing your work. Think later – work now.Behaving like a writer or a musician or an artist will get you to your own style, so “fake it ’til you make it.” Practice makes perfect. Emulate those who inspire you, but don’t slavishly copy their work; because people aren’t able to imitate anything perfectly, the results you get will be uniquely yours. Try to understand your idols’ motivations and worldviews. If you can see the world through their eyes, you’re on your way to getting to the heart of creativity.
“You are only as good as the stuff you surround yourself with.”
3. “Write the Book You Want to Read”
When writers wonder what to work on, other writers or teachers often tell them, “Write what you know.” That is the worst possible advice. Never mind what you know – write what you’d like to read. Write what makes you smile when you read it. Write what makes you want to read more and write more. If you’re stumped creatively, pick whatever is the most entertaining to you – not the hardest or the most profound, but the most fun.
“Don’t worry about doing research. Just search.”
For example, indulge in “fan fiction”: Come up with the sequel to a popular movie or book. Compose your favorite band’s next album. Study your inspirational gurus’ work and figure out where you’d make improvements or additions. “Do the work you want to see done.”
4. “Use Your Hands”
Work produced on a computer is too abstract. To experience all the joy and knowledge that comes from creating, you must use your hands. “You need to find a way to bring your body into your work.” Your brain learns from your body just as your body learns from your brain. Pick up your drumsticks or your paintbrush or your welding torch or just your pen and paper – get the physicality back into your creativity.
“Your morgue file is where you keep the dead things that you’ll later reanimate in your work.”
Author Austin Kleon’s first book was a collection of poetry he made by blacking out lines from newspaper stories with a marker. That gave him full tactile engagement with his materials – cutting newspapers, wielding the marker, combining two different lines to make a third – thus following the crucial creative formula, “1 + 1 = 3.”
“If I’d waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started ‘being creative,’ well, I’d be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things.”
Try making a workspace with two sides, one “analog” and one “digital.” Your computer and electronics live on the digital side. All the work you do with your hands – which can include writing drafts in longhand or drawing cartoons – happens on the analog side. Keeping these worlds separate nourishes your creative impulses.
5. “Side Projects and Hobbies Are Important”
The things you do when you’re avoiding activities you think you’re supposed to be doing will invariably turn out to be your most important work. That’s why you should never restrict yourself to one project at a time. The activity you pick up to distract yourself from your main work may be what your heart most desires. When you have several projects going on at once, you can “practice productive procrastination” on one by working hard on another. And “if you’re out of ideas, wash the dishes.”
“Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.”
Don’t ignore something you’re passionate about to focus on something else. Your work and your interests can meld to create something totally new. Don’t discard what moves you, including hobbies. A hobby is creative work that won’t bring you money or fame, but “it makes you happy.” If you like to play the guitar, for example, go jam with your friends on weekends. All these aspects – your hobbies, passions and procrastinations – are manifestations of your creative self. “Don’t worry about unity – what unifies your work is the fact that you made it.”
“Your hands are the original digital devices. Use them.”
6. “The Secret: Do Good Work and Share It with People”
When you toil in obscurity, you get to make all your mistakes in private. Plus, you can do whatever you want. Work hard at your art every day. You will get better. And when you do, share it. At one time, you had to find a gallery to show your art or a club that would let your band play or a magazine that would print your articles. Now it’s simpler: “Put your stuff on the Internet.”Sharing your work online requires two steps: 1) “Wonder at something” and 2) “Invite others to wonder with you.” Think about things and ideas that move you or are on your mind. If nothing’s on your mind, don’t worry: You will find ideas to discuss simply by putting yourself out onto the web. The Internet is a potent “incubator” for work you may not even know you’re about to start. Some people fear that going online will drain their creativity, but it’s more likely that the Internet will inspire you.
“A hobby is something that gives but doesn’t take.”
Absorb and learn all the necessary technical web skills. Create your own website; learn about social media and blogging. Spend only as much online as makes you comfortable. If you don’t want to share your full concepts, instead offer some tips or links to help others. Don’t worry about people poaching your ideas: “You can share your dots without connecting them.”
“You don’t put yourself online only because you have something to say – you can put yourself online to find something to say.”
7. “Geography Is No Longer Our Master”
Location means little today. The world is your world, and the world you make is the world people come to visit. No matter where you live or how alienated you might feel from your surroundings, a community of like-minded souls is only a click away. If the physical world discourages you, create your own realm. Fill your area with art, movies, music and books that make you feel whole. “All you need is space and time – a place to work, and some time to do it.”And whether you’re ready or not, you eventually have to “leave home.” You must shed your normal routine and most-loved places to go spend time around people who don’t think like you. Going to new places makes you new and makes your “brains work harder.” As for where to go, “bad weather leads to better art,” so consider someplace where the summers are hot and steamy or the winters are dark and cold. Find a place where artists, writers and filmmakers congregate. It helps if the local cuisine rocks. “You have to find a place that feeds you – creatively, socially, spiritually and literally.” And, wherever you go, your online community will still be there.
“Freedom from financial stress also means freedom in your art.”
8. “Be Nice”
The world is so small now that, more than ever, manners matter. If you speak poorly of someone online, they will know it all too soon. To crush your online enemies, pretend they don’t exist. To gain new buddies online, say something kind about them. If somebody makes you mad, don’t respond; head for your workspace and let your anger fuel your work. Find people online who are “smarter and better than you,” and, when you find them, listen to what they’re talking about. If, over time, you come to realize that you are the smartest person who’s doing the best work, find somewhere else to hang out.
“In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out.”
You will go through long stretches during which no one will care about anything you do, say, build or post. To get through those lonely days, create a “praise file.” Keep emails or tweets or notes that say nice things about your work. Delete anything unkind immediately. Save your praise file for a day when you’re feeling down or discouraged. Then read through all that wonderful encouragement – and believe every single word.
9. “Be Boring”
The biggest problem with pursuing the myth of the self-destructive artist is that, sooner or later, you will self-destruct. Your energy is precious. Apply it to your art, not to burning yourself out.Taking care of yourself also means taking care of your finances. “Do yourself a favor: learn about money.” Track your expenditures. Keep away from credit cards, expensive coffee and fancy electronics. If you can’t make a living from your art, employment will keep you sane and properly disciplined: “A day job gives you money, a connection to the world and a routine.” If you cover your expenses, you never have to compromise on your art for money. You can create what you want until your work is so good you can live off the proceeds of selling it.But how do you find time for your creative pursuits if you have a job? Surprisingly, a routine helps you be more productive, because a schedule lets you identify the finite amount of time you have to devote to your passions. Diligently work that period of time every single day, even on holidays or when you’re ill. Soon enough, you won’t even notice you’re working.
10. “Creativity Is Subtraction”
Paradoxically, restrictions – even conceptual ones – can focus your creativity. Author Dr. Seuss took on his editor’s dare to write a children’s book using just 50 different words; Green Eggs and Ham is now a classic. Cull what’s unnecessary from your work, but leave what’s brilliant. Use what you have now to create. Cut back on your most ambitious ideas. Less is more.
About the Author
Work by artist and writer Austin Kleon has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and on PBS NewsHour and NPR’s Morning Edition. He is also the author of Newspaper Blackout.