Innovation on my Mind

A Little Creative Inspiration

2014-08-18T13:58:00.000-05:00

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after growing up."

~ Pablo Picasso

I'm in the process of building a new website to house both my professional and creative endeavors--a slow process so far but a great way to think more deeply about who I think I am and who I want to be. So I've not only been reviewing my current website--long in need of an overhaul--but the one that preceded it as well (you can take a peek here), which at one point flashed my favorite quotes on creativity. These were the quotes that inspired me as a younger man, and I thought I would share them here in hopes that they'll inspire you too...

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique...It is your business…to keep the channel open." ~ Martha Graham

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

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end." ~ Ursula Le Guin

"I have friends who are intelligent people, were English majors, art majors--and they get to be 25, 29, 30, and they've got no life. There's nowhere to put all that beauty and poetry. [Don't just] go to work, come home, get up in the morning and do it all over again."

~ Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows

"If only we were given the chance to be in our work with the full force of our personality, mind and body, heart and soul...what a power would be released in the world." ~ Theodore Roszak

"Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play." ~Heraclitus

"A childlike man is not a man whose development has been arrested; he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle age habit and convention." ~Aldous Huxley

"The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure." ~Joseph Campbell

And here are a few more recent good quotes about creativity in the workplace:

"Fostering creativity is not something you can do with a memo. It's really a matter of not squashing or slapping down people whenever they have an idea." ~Scott Adams, Dilbert

"The thing about inventing is you have to be both stubborn and flexible, more or less simultaneously. Of course, the hard part is figuring out when to be which." ~Jeff Bezos

"The real returns come from harnessing the imagination of every single employee every single day." ~Gary Hamel

"What matters is creating an island of imagination amid a sea of today's prosaic demands." ~John Kao

"It is our imagination and creativity which will open the doors to progress, to new products and services, to new worldwide markets, to new ways of communicating, to new ways of preserving our environment and resources." ~Joyce Wycoff

"Creativity is basically subversive. So you have to have subversive elements in the organization to keep yourself awake and evolving." ~Dan Wieden

Spring, Summer, Spain

2014-06-30T23:58:00.000-05:00

Summer has sprung in Chicago, and despite ongoing bizarro weather, we are reawakened as outdoor people again, and when I'm finished with this computer time or that phone call, you'll probably find me near the front of the stage at an outdoor festival or out on the scooter zipping to the lakefront, before I head to Spain for a break and a chance to mix it up in the heat of the cobblestoned streets of Sevilla.

I've been mixing it up out there quite a bit of late, wearing different consulting and creative hats, with also a new website in the works, so let's just say I'm ready to take a summer breath. I'll share a few pairs of hybrid highlights just from the past month...

IMPROV: At Greenheart's
Leadership Transformed retreat

I took a look within at a leadership retreat (where I got to practice some Improv exercises), right after running a teambuilding session for a large group at Allstate, where it took some improvisation to pull off a simulation which included 10 teams and lots of moving parts in a large company cafeteria.

STRATEGY: Navistar team fills
the walls with ideas

I facilitated a 2-day Strategy retreat with the trucking/engine company Navistar, whose HR leaders filled the walls with ideas, and I also facilitated leadership programs for an international group of University of Chicago MBA students, who represented dozens of countries and industries.

PREJUDICE: CPS Students present
strategies to combat bullies

I was part of an intervention responding to a rather horrifying Chicago Public School incident of anti-semitic bullying--getting a chance to work with 8th graders to help them better understand and combat Prejudice; while I also presented as part of an interfaith panel on religion and met with Muslim schools who are planning to be part of our Poetry Pals interfaith program next school year.

GUITAR: Pushing the creative envelope
at an innovation session

BEEGEE: Barry Gibb performs in Chicago

I brought out my Guitar to push the creative envelope further as part of a Catalyst Ranch creativity session on "Creative Collaboration" and a few days later brought out that guitar again to lead a Jewish song jam session as part of the holiday of Shavuot at a Mishkan community event. I also got to experience a taste of music from my youth as the original BeeGee himself Barry Gibb came to town and played all the sweet favorites.

GAME SHOW HOST: Who's got the biggest Fedhead?

I even donned a few costumes both professionally--as Game Show Host, with my own musical sidekick, of a special Federal Reserve Bank program I designed; and personally, as I tested my own creative limits at the two closest-thing-to-Burning Man-in-Chicago events, wearing a Tail at Resonate and something-rhythmic-I'm-sure at the latest Full Moon Jam (FMJ).

So SALUD to you, and here's to doing your own creative thing this summer. If you need just a little transformation inspiration, click here.

TAIL: Getting into the spirit of Resonate

FMJ: About 1200 people were out
celebrating the moon this month

Criminal Creativity

2014-05-12T13:57:00.003-05:00

"I've discovered that my best teachers were my mistakes." ~Philippe Petit

Listen to his NPR Interview here.

For Creative Sake, Can We Have More Candor?

2014-04-01T11:45:00.001-05:00

"A hallmark of a healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas, opinions, and criticisms....Candor is the key to collaborating effectively. Lack of candor leads to dysfunctional environments." ~Ed Catmull, Pixar President, from his new book Creativity, Inc.

Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, knows about creativity and success--the box office bonanza of the recent "Frozen" film is just the latest in 14 consecutive animated films that have topped box office charts for Pixar.

He also knows that embracing candor, as he explains in his new book Creativity, Inc. released this month, is essential to creative collaboration. "Candor could not be more crucial to our creative process," he says. His premise: "Put smart, passionate people in a room together, charge them with identifying and solving problems, and encourage them to be candid."

As reported on in this month's Fast Company magazine--read an excerpt from Creativity Inc. HERE--Catmull explains that the secret to creative success for his team has been that they are "relentlessly candid when arguing with each other," and they don't allow themselves "to be thwarted by structural or personal issues that can render meaningful communication in a group impossible."

This is not nearly as easy as it might sound.

As technology and virtual relationships move us away from meeting and speaking live with each other, candor often becomes a casualty. Who's got the time--or the stomach--to be honest with colleagues or collaborators these days? We barely have enough time to talk.

I've been shocked at how little "meaningful communication," let alone rigorous candor, there has been in different groups with creative agendas that I've been part of recently. Either there is no time to do more than cover a basic exchange of information, or personal styles or relationship issues make candor nearly impossible and in many cases tacitly forbidden.

But to be creative together--which means not only to open to lots of new ideas (divergent thinking) but to make choices and judgments of how to move forward (convergent thinking)--we need to share and advocate ideas, voice criticisms, consider audiences, lobby for choices and stay friends despite what is decided. That means to exchange ideas and debate strategy without being defensive, taking things personally or becoming resentful.

University of Chicago MBA students huddling up for some creative collaboration.
How can we huddle up more and increase candor?

While I have a strong impulse toward being candid, it often gets me in trouble, and I have a long way to go as a leader and collaborator in creating an environment and process that allows for candor as part of creative exchange.

I know we need to huddle up, check in and talk more. That's hard enough to do in a world of texting and conference calls. Then we need to go even further: To have a process and an agreement to be honest, to consider options and to debate, not to shut down. We need to practice doing this because it needs to happen again and again, one creative challenge after another.

The reason why Pixar and other creative collaborations make it work is that there is trust and respect, and they've learned how to go through the process, feel good about it, and still like each other.

What has worked for you and your teams? How do we engage with ideas in such a way that our egos and relationships do not suffer? How can we have more candor as part of being more creative together?

Creativity Resources for the New Year

2014-01-16T17:30:00.004-06:00

Ah, another new year and with it renewed opportunities to embrace our creative selves, personally and professionally. I wanted to share some resources that have crossed my eyes the past few months.

If you're scientifically-minded, you can boost your creativity IQ with just one magazine purchase (in bookstores now; why there is no link online baffles me), with a Scientific American Mind special edition dedicated to "The Mad Science of Creativity." Multi-disciplinary researchers and science writers weigh in on creativity, innovation and genius through 18 compelling articles that range from origins of creativity to dream states to ways of freeing the genius within.

The many articles explore how nature and nurture play a role in creative development, with creative people tending to be less cognitively inhibited, allowing their mind to venture far and wide, not getting as stuck in limiting mindsets. As long-time creativity researcher Dean Keith Simonton notes, creative achievement is strongly associated with "openness to experience...cognitive and behavioral flexibility, along with a tolerance of ambiguity and change." While this can sometime lead to eccentricity, lying and even mental illness, as the magazine details, the key to creativity and even to business innovation is our ability to know when (and how) to let go of cognitive control--to diverge--in order to explore new possibilities before we evaluate them. So here is to the eccentric in all of us!

You should also check out David Burkus' The Myths about Creativity from ChangeThis, which tackles the misconceptions we often have about creativity so that we can embrace our creative selves more fully. Here are a few examples:

-The Originality Myth: "The truth is that all new ideas are built from combing older ideas. The novelty comes from the combination or application, not the idea itself."

-The Expert Myth: "The truth is that some level of expertise matters, but the most creative

solutions come from those on the fringes of the subject area, who know enough to understand but not enough to block their creative thinking."

-The Constraints Myth: "The truth is that creativity is highest in a constrained

environment. Researchers found that individuals are more creative after engaging in tasks laden with obstacles and roadblocks."

And here are some additional professional resources from the end of last year to contemplate creativity and innovation:

Nautilus Article: Wasting Time can boost productivity

Entrepreneur Article: Overcoming Creativity Block

Fast Company/Edelman Innovation Forum: Showing Up Differently

Video Interview on U.S. Innovation: We Still Got it

Big Companies Need to Hire Small Companies to Innovate

Finally, as I've done previously, I'd like to share a few highlights from my consulting practice during the past few months:

Strategizing with Columbia College National Alumni Board

Gave keynote to 200+ UIC student workers:
"Self-Leadership: Making this Year Count"

Leading the Poetry Pals Rap as part of the interfaith creativity program I run for kids.
See the latest on Poetry Pals at our website or Facebook page.

Innovation…European Style

2013-12-03T15:19:00.000-06:00

As we tumble through a darkening December in Chicago, I'm thinking one more time of my recent Eastern European trip both to remember summer splendors and the new eyes I got to put on as a traveler.

Travelling throughout Europe reminded me that certain cultural hallmarks of the Old World--the time taken to eat, the multi-generational activity of the public square, the primacy of the extended family clan--are too often lacking or undervalued by our much younger and faster country. I want those things. On the other hand, it's easy to take for granted how great our customer service is, and how many amenities we have without even realizing it (Hello, free napkins and toilets!). Here are a few interesting notes from the European landscape:

Innovation winners:

1. Changing stations at the beach. These gems all throughout the Croatian Dalmatian coast and elsewhere made beach going so much simpler. Instead of hiking to a disgusting-floored bathroom to change from pants to bathing suit or vice-versa, I just find one of these little on-the-beach double-occupancy shields and voila, I am ready to go!

2. Set-temperature showers. While I'm sure these exist somewhere in the U.S., both Vienna and Prague showers had a simple temperature gauge assuring a good warm temperature--no need to get scalded or cold-shocked by the flowing water.

3. Public baths. All ages can appreciate a swimming and spa experience that we found at Szechenyi Spa in Budapest. This one had outdoor pools and fountains, and indoors included about 30 different baths, pools and steam rooms of various temperatures and mineral additives. I wish I was there right now!

What else was fascinating/baffling/mind-spinning for this American?
-Temperature of things. Despite hot days, most drinks were too warm, with ice a rarity and "iced coffee" having no ice and not very cold (and with fruit in it!).
-Much better drivers there who know that the left lane is only for passing. While left lane drivers clearly ignore speed limits--one reason you better get back into that right lane quickly--a mysterious speeding fine from Poland makes me wonder when I pushed my luck too far.
-Gotta pay for water at restaurants, and it's all about the different level of bubbles.
-Don't ask about the different--and, yes, just plain bad--shape of the toilet bowl that often resulted in the dreaded "muffin."
-Gas stations-Cafe hybrids--nice way to take a driving break.
-Windows open two ways--nice feature--but screens are nowhere to be found.
-Complementary shots of vodka-like drinks are the recommended way to start a morning boat trip. So "Nastrovia!" "egészségedreto!" and "Živjeli!" to that and cheers to seeing with new, sometimes blurry, eyes!

Let's talk Culture Change in Chicago

2013-10-09T10:16:00.001-05:00

I like to talk about the good ways our culture is changing--looking for positive signs pointing to a more innovative, sustainable, loving future for this planet and all of us on it.

It's not easy to do this publicly. There is so much evidence to the contrary. We see it in how stuck our government is, and all the constant bad news thrown at us every time we tune in to the news. Too many of us feel less hopeful because of the stresses and challenges and shared worries of our busy, complex lives in the 21st century.

But if we take a step back and look from a broader scope as Americans and as humans, we find that our world view is changing, which is having a direct, positive impact on our culture. More and more people are moving away from an "US vs. THEM" mentality, which sees people who are not like us as enemies, to a more global, diversity-embracing perspective. More people are getting--though clearly not Congress--that for us to thrive as an individual country and survive as a planet we need to put our heads together, collaborate, see each other as part of the same team. The world view that more people are embracing can be described as a "One planet, one family." With that change of perspective comes new ideas and even new talents that will be key to improving our lives individually and collectively.

Come talk more about this with me during the next two Sunday events here in Chicago.

This Sunday at 2:30pm!
Cultural Creative* Conversations

Hosted by Adam Shames of the Kreativity Network and Poetry Pals

Sunday, October 13th, 2:30pm to 4:00pm at Bodhi Spiritual Center, 2746 N. Magnolia, Chicago. Part of the Beats with Devotion Festival. Buy tickets here.

My "Conversations" program is part of this
larger music/dance/yoga festival

The Times They Are a-Changing: Personal stories and dialogue about being and becoming agents of cultural transformation.

Come join us for inspiration and open discussion about cultural transformation: How do we work toward positive change both personally and collectively? How are local Cultural Creatives making an impact on both our inner and outer lives? How can we better unite and empower the agents of change in Chicago? Speakers include:

• Coleman Franklin, entrepreneur and change agent, will talk about awakening as a citizen

• Lola Wright, leader at Bodhi Spiritual Center, will talk about community

• Hawk Durham, speaker, writer and Aikido teacher, will talk about inner alignment

• Susan Sinclair, intuitive healer, will talk about healing yourself and the planet

*“Cultural Creatives” is a research term describing people oriented toward creating positive cultural changes through ecological and social innovations. Like you.

For just $15 on Sunday afternoon, you can choose three different programs to engage your mind, body and spirit, including yoga, kirtan and a shamanic journey. Click here to sign up for either Sunday afternoon (Oct. 13) or the whole weekend (Oct. 12-13), which includes conscious creative music and dance parties Saturday and Sunday night.

Next Sunday at 11am!

Envisioning a World Transformed

Greenheart Transforms once again will present Envisioning a World Transformed, Sunday, October 20th at the Nature Museum, with a provocative line up of speakers who are making positive culture change happen. See below and click this link for a special discount (only $40 for the whole day). This is the key event to connect with other cultural creatives in the Chicago area--and get inspired for your own action.

Envisioning a World Transformed Presenters:
•   Amanda Britt with Panzanzee
•   Emanuel Kuntzelman with Greenheart Intl
•   Mark Anthony Lord with Bodhi Spiritual Center
•   Jai Luster with Luster Learning Institute
•   Amy Coffman Phillips with B-Collaborative
•   Victor Saad with The Leapyear Project and Experience Institute
•   Dr. Cassandra Vieten with IONS Institute of Noetic Sciences
•   Dr. Darren Weisman with The Lifeline Technique

Tracking Down my Ancestors in Eastern Europe

2013-09-19T12:59:00.001-05:00

100 years ago, my Bubba--my father's mother--was a young girl living in a small Polish village called Kosow Lacki, a couple hours' horse-and-buggy ride east of Warsaw. It was not a good time to be a Jew in that area, with violent anti-semitic pogroms too often coming through town, so in 1920 at age 13 she and some of her family made the long journey to the United States, where she eventually settled in New York, raised a family, and rarely spoke of what happened with her when she was young.

Just this July, I headed to Eastern Europe on a trip that took me and a few friends, with help from a stick-shifting rental car, through seven countries, six currencies, 5000 kilometers and many cappuccinos from Poland down to Croatia--with special countryside visits to the ancestral villages of both my Bubba in Poland and my great grandfather in the Czech Republic. We had lots of adventures both physical and interpersonal, but visiting my own history in two locations was perhaps the most powerful.

Finding Kosow Lacki and then exploring Treblinka, where we found
the tombstone honoring the victims of my Bubba's hometown.

From Warsaw we headed toward this unknown town on the map--Kosow Lacki, pronounced "Kosuv Lahtsky" in Polish--and soon the urban traffic gave way to narrower roads and winding farmland. As we got closer to our destination we were awed by the lovely green hills and well-kept villages, with several sightings of beloved Polish storks called bocianis on makeshift towers along the road. About five miles from Kosow Lacki, we were suddenly shocked to see signs for Treblinka, one of the horrific Nazi concentration camps, which somehow didn't appear on our map. That was the final destination, we would soon realize, of several family members of mine who weren't lucky enough to leave Poland when my Bubba did.

Though there aren't a lot of Jews now in Eastern Europe, travel there is a constant reminder of that painful Jewish story, when in just a few decades from the 1920s to 1940s, Jews went from a thriving quarter of the population to complete phantoms in key cities we visited like Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Vienna and Budapest. We were able to trace the path and some still-remaining train tracks that connected the short six kilometers from Treblinka to Kosow Lacki, and we spoke with villagers there who remembered the Jews and at least one synagogue and cemetery, both which were destroyed. We even spoke to the town's librarian and found some old books about past Jewish families, but nothing specific to my family and very little remaining of what had been a significant Jewish population there.

The still-preserved synagogue in Kolin, Czech Republic,
where an old Golem stood.

It was a bit different in the Czech Republic, where the memories of Jews were more actively preserved in another town where I trace my roots. This one was Kolin, a Bohemian town east of Prague, where we pulled into the town square and were lucky to find help despite the language barrier. Just a few blocks away we got to explore the one and very old synagogue still preserved in town. In it was a golem, perhaps the first full-sized one I've ever seen, a fascinating inanimate being that has roots in Jewish folklore both as a protector and, at times, something more sinister.

This single synagogue in Kolin, at the site for centuries, was most likely the spiritual home of my great grandfather and his family in the latter half of the 19th century. According to the diligent genealogical research done by my father before he died, my great grandfather Henry Goldsmith and his five siblings were born and raised in Kolin in the 1870s but then Henry was married in New York City--evidently having moved there permanently--in 1895. Unlike my Bubba we so far do not know why the Goldsmith family chose to leave Czech.

According to a woman who worked there, Kolin had the second largest Jewish population in Bohemia after Prague and the Jews were well-integrated into the culture despite their forced exit around World War II, with the last remaining Jews leaving Kolin in 1953. The synagogue had become an historical and cultural site, still used for occasional concerts and events. When I told her my family had lived there in the late 1800s, she surprised me with a huge skeleton key to the old Jewish Cemetery just a few more blocks away. I was welcome to visit it.

Exploring the old Jewish cemetery in Kolin.

The cemetery housed the graves of Jews from the late 1500s to the 1890s, so as I slipped the ancient key into the gate, I was imagining the possibility of finding "Goldsmith" on one of the gravestones in either Czech or Hebrew. No such luck, as most of the stones had lost their engraving. But I stood there, feeling a sense of this town generations ago, imagining the choices made by my ancestors--to stay or to leave. And why?

Henry did leave for the U.S., bringing my grandfather who brought my mother who brought me into this world. And now I am here, a traveler returned, able to consider the mysteries of history, place, family and memories, many forgotten but some living on in small but powerful ways.

The Next Thing I Know near Szczyrzyc

2013-08-03T15:56:00.001-05:00

Try to pronounce this lovely village town in southern Poland

"Bardzo mi miwo," I say to Babcha upon arrival. We'd been weaving our way through the villages and farmland of southern Poland, where towns have names unpronouncable to American ears. "Oh, Szczyrzyc!" we yell, passing through that very town, which sounds something like "Jesus."

Gosia and her Babcha

"Vitam," I think Babcha says back. Her "welcome" to my initial "nice to meet you."

The next thing I know I'm getting the sheep from the pasture, plucking sweet cherries from the tree, jumping on the side "seat" of the tractor and careening through small creeks on our way to the local rock quarry, where for just a nominal 20 zlotys (60 cents), young cousin Marchin, the expert machine operator, claws and scoops out the black rock pebbles and then dumps them with ease into the tractor cart, and we're heading back to the farm to build a driveway.

Szczyrzyc! That guy sure knows how to handle a plow.

European (In)sight-seeing

2013-06-22T13:35:00.003-05:00

Well, hello there, Summer. Thanks for finally bursting through the cool Chicago spring and offering a bit more space and light and heat. I need you now, as I juggle a few more creativity/teambuilding gigs in the next couple weeks while also setting my sights on exploring a completely new land for me: Central/Eastern Europe.

Scenes from Art-Work, an art-based teambuilding program
I co-led in June at the Art Institute of Chicago and Catalyst Ranch,
resulting in client-created art work that reflected current global challenges

Yes, girlfriend Gosia and I are off in July to never-before-visited countries where some of my ancestors once lived. We'll be stuffing into a gas-efficient (I hope) little car and stick-shifting our way from Krakow to Budapest, down to the Croatian coast and back up to Vienna and Prague, ready to see with new eyes. We'll be picking up some friends and picking up some new ideas, perspectives and surprises along the way.

I can't think of a better curriculum for creativity. While I've continued to offer my own creativity curricula for groups and clients this past month (see images), there is little that massages one's creativity more than travel. And I'm looking forward to taking off my teacher hat and fully embracing being a student of life.

Glimpse of a creativity program I led for educators in May,
stirring up new ideas and new song verses.

In fact, all the creative principles that I've written or talked about or tried to inspire in others are most at play when we venture outside our known worlds and explore new cultures. Even if I planned everything out (which we definitely haven't--know any good places to stay in Croatia?), I am still in many ways winging it like a student--operating as a beginner, being flexible, thinking on my feet, learning to go with the flow, stretching myself to communicate in another language.

It's an adventure in newness and change that both offers clues for better ways to be living--and appreciation for the ways I currently live. Either way, I can't wait for this cultural immersion and the insights it will bring. I wish you your own special cultural adventures this summer!

Spring Retreat

2013-05-15T12:35:00.001-05:00

After a full few months of speaking and consulting engagements, I am ready to go on retreat, and am heading back to my old home of Northern California for a leadership retreat where I get to be a participant to reflect and renew.

In the past couple months I had the chance to design a special teambuilding program in D.C.--called the Amazing Intelligence Challenge--for 150 staff members of GMAC, which had them taking on many different challenges throughout the city and then returning to the lovely Top of the Town in Arlington, VA, where I emceed a cavalcade of presentations and performances as part of their annual retreat. I also had a repeat engagement as host of "Who's Got the Biggest FedHead?", a special game show I've designed for the Federal Reserve.

April also included the final Interfaith Community Evening for Poetry Pals, this time bringing together Muslim and Catholic school communities in the Western Suburbs for an evening of student performances, adult dialogue and a special visit to participate in or witness evening prayer at the mosque that is part of Islamic Foundation School--a real treat. To get a good sense of what we are up to in Poetry Pals, I encourage to watch these two video slideshows capturing the full school year program: Poetry Pals--Chicago North and Poetry Pals--Lombard.

Here are some visual highlights of my latest. Wishing you your own spring retreat!

Images from (1) a team building program I led for GMAC in D.C. (the indoor portion!)
(2) a game show I designed and hosted for the Federal Reserve,
(3) a session on collaborative creativity I presented at Catalyst Ranch, and
(4) the final interfaith community evening in the Western Suburbs for Poetry Pals
where we presented poetry keepsakes to partner Catholic and Muslim schools.

Making a Creative Shift: Adam's Story

2013-04-15T20:13:00.002-05:00

This Wednesday evening, April 17, Adam will be the final speaker at Juice on the Loose, a celebration of World Creativity and Innovation Week at Catalyst Ranch, one of the premier creative meeting spaces in Chicago, which published another version of this blog here.

In my mid-twenties, I did not believe I could ever, ever, play music or respectably sing or write my own songs. Even though I loved music, my mindset was: I am not a musician and it would be impossible for me to become one. But thanks to spending time with others who helped me break that mindset and inspired me to risk trying, I became a prolific singer-songwriter and now a speaker-consultant-facilitator who uses music with corporate groups to help them become better at collaborating creatively. (Read more about my musical story on a past blog here.)

I had always been interested in creativity and self-expression, having studied in college with Teresa Amabile, one of the world’s leading creativity researchers, and, after a master’s degree in education from Stanford, getting an opportunity to experiment with group creativity for five years as an eventual teacher-of-the-year at a top private school in Northern California. At the time I began to play music, I lived in San Francisco and saw how easy it is for all of us to turn off our creative faucet, to accept being a spectator rather than a creator in our lives. So I founded the Kreativity Network then, which eventually brought thousands of people together in the Bay Area to share and support their own creativity through events and workshops. When I moved to Chicago ten years ago, Kreativity Network became the name of my business.

As adults in organizations (and in our personal lives), many factors conspire to squelch rather than unleash our creative thinking and doing. To be creative together, a group needs to operate by different ground rules and permission to experiment, to risk, to sometimes be wrong and sometimes fail. I share with clients this definition of innovation: To improve what’s now and to create what’s next. To do that requires a shift of mindset, a willingness to imagine and envision, that may seem nearly impossible. My job is to help groups and individuals embrace new possibilities, like the possibility, perhaps, that you too could become a musician.

Now I’ve worked with more than 100 companies and organizations, including McDonald’s, Panasonic, Siemens and the Federal Reserve, to help them build cultures that are more innovative and collaborative. You can check out a brochure here. My goal, through innovation retreats, teambuilding events and strategy sessions, is for the group to experience creativity together so that they bring a new mindset into the way they work.

I’ve also continued to take my own risks as a creator, now directing a groundbreaking interfaith creativity program for kids called Poetry Pals, recently writing a musical with unusual audience-participation components, and expanding my offerings to include how we are changing as a culture overall, based on research on Cultural Creatives.

So come out to Catalyst Ranch Wednesday night to celebrate creativity and experiment with ideas (and perhaps music…) with me—you might be surprised to find a shift is possible for you too.

Here is the description and bio for my 8:00pm program for Juice on the Loose. All information on the event can be found here.

Creative Collaboration: Breaking the Creative Ice

How do we go from our left brain, logical side—which many our jobs demand—to our right brain, imaginative side? And how do we best do that in collaboration with others? Adam will take us from a left brain understanding of what creativity really is to an interactive exploration of how best to get out of our heads and into the creative moment together. Using principles from the most creative groups—from improvisational theater to rock bands—you’ll learn key creativity ground rules and skills to help you and colleagues (or friends) be more imaginative together.

BIO

Adam Shames is a creativity expert, organizational consultant and speaker who specializes in innovation, teambuilding and community events, and whose recent clients include Walgreens, Whole Foods and the Federal Reserve. He is also a musician, poet and executive director of Poetry Pals (www.poetrypals.org), an interfaith non-profit creativity program that brings together Muslim, Jewish and Catholic kids and their communities. A former “Teacher of the Year” with a master’s degree from Stanford University, Adam is the founder of the Kreativity Network (www.kreativity.net), writes about creativity in his “Innovation on my Mind” blog (www.innovationonmymind.com) and is adjunct faculty for Depaul University School of New Learning.

Embracing Aging and Cultural Innovation

2013-04-02T11:32:00.000-05:00

I finally replaced my old picture on the right panel here, which first appeared more than four years ago when I started sharing my ideas and happenings related to creativity and innovation as this blog. Our online presence has forced all of us to see (or pretend not to see) how quickly we are all changing. When is the last time you updated all your online pictures and profiles?

It's true, I have aged. Innovation is in many ways about embracing aging--change, risk and unknown possibilities--and letting go of that which no longer serves us. Not easy to do but I am trying.

I'm shocked to see it's already April, but I'm thrilled that the birds are chirping again and much is going on in my life and work in service of cultural innovation--both good changes for our culture at large and among our individual organizational and team cultures. Here are a few creative happenings coming up and recently passed I'd like to share:

If you're in Chicago you can find me Thursday emcee'ing Cafe Finjan, an unusual evening of interfaith collaboration that includes performances by Muslim and Jewish artists. The following Thursday I encourage you to join me at the April 11th Envisioneers event, which is a follow up from last November's Envisioning a World Transformed at the Nature Museum, featuring Chicago speakers on the forefront of social, ecological, educational and spiritual culture change. It will be a chance for cultural innovators to gather--greens mixing with spiritual folks, artists with activists, conscious capitalists with healers.

Adam warms up the crowd as part a 4-school Interfaith
Community Evening hosted by Poetry Pals in March.

Poetry Pals, where I am part-time executive director, celebrated a special Interfaith Community Evening for its Chicago North hubs in March and will be hosting one more in the Western Suburbs next week on April 10th. Check out the Poetry Pals website or Facebook page to learn more.

Finally, check out the collage below for a glimpse at some of my recent gigs. Wishing you a very happy spring and may you use this renewal time to embrace your own forms of personal and cultural innovation.

Recent engagements include a creativity session for interior design firm Soucie Horner,
a communication and collaboration day for a team at Walgreens headquarters,
a Greenheart dinner with Chicago changemakers
and team facilitation for new MBA students at the University of Chicago.

Innovation Is Still On My Mind

2013-02-06T16:20:00.002-06:00

2013 has opened up new opportunities for me in my role as a speaker, consultant and educator specializing in live innovation and community events. My outfit sometimes changes, depending on whether I am engaging corporate or educational groups, but the impulse is similar: To help individuals be more creative and to foster more innovative and collaborative cultures. Here are a couple visual highlights of very recent events:

Adam leading innovation retreat for technology consulting firm Burwood Group

Adam leading Poetry Pals program: Muslim, Jewish and Catholic students visit
Sacred Heart School chapel and write and perform poetry together

Check out the new website for Poetry Pals here, where I am executive director running four current programs in the Chicago area.

Shift Time

2012-12-16T12:31:00.001-06:00

It's Shift Time. For me and for you. 2012 is coming to an end, and while the world is unlikely to blow up on December 21^st, I am convinced of this: Look and you shall find a profound shift happening.

I've done what I can to be polite and professional in this Innovation on my Mind blog of 4 years and 170 articles, so allow me to be a bit more direct: How about giving your inner-Skeptic a well-deserved rest on this one? Why not take this opportunity--as conversation about a global shift abounds--to give your old dream of love and purpose at least a walk around the block. That means shutting off the need to prove that nothing is changing or that believers are idiots. That humans suck or you suck or I suck and there is no Shift. Tune out your monkey mind and tune in to this intuitive truth we share--that it is indeed time to shift. We need to shift, as a country, as a culture, as a planet and as individuals.

It's definitely been a shifting year for me. As I've blogged about these past months, I've lost my father, been involved in new and growing projects, taken risks in leadership, in travel, in trying to stand up for and act in alignment with my values. I continue to see how many blocks, bad habits and fears I have; how I am challenged by feeling isolated and unsupported, and by the way others react or often don't react to what I'm trying to do; and how much I let other people take my power away.

So to me and to you I ask these two Shifty questions:
1. When will you stop the incessant distraction-seeking and take some time to listen to your own inner wisdom?
2. When will you stop letting other people take your power away and start showing up in the world more fully awake--as the creative, empowered source of ideas, action and influence that you know you can be?

Yes, let's use this end-of-2012 opportunity to actually wake the fuck up.

"To be nobody but yourself —

in a world which is doing its best,

day and night,

to make you everybody else —

means to fight the hardest battle

which any human being can fight;

and never stop fighting." --e.e. cummings

Interesting and Interested: In Memory of my Father

2012-11-08T19:59:00.000-06:00

"Everyone wants to be interesting -- but the vitalizing thing is to be interested. Keep a sense of curiosity. Discover new things. Care. Risk failure. Reach out." ~John Gardner

To be both interesting and interested--that to me has long been the measure of the kind of person I want to be around and want to be. My father Martin Shames, who died last week at 77, was just that kind of person. More on his remarkable life below.

As we close the chapter on a presidential campaign that mostly wasted months of our collective attention, it is more vital than ever for us to be interested--to engage in the question of where we are heading as a culture and a country. If you live in Chicago, I invite you to join me for Envisioning a World Transformed, a day-long event on November 18th that asks us to imagine and play a role in creating a thriving future. The event, hosted by Greenheart Transforms (a Chicago-based organization dedicated to personal and social transformation and part of the international cultural exchange non-profit CCI-Greenheart), includes speakers reflecting change in different arenas--ecological, social, educational and spiritual--and an opportunity to connect with other difference-makers and cultural innovators. Because of my relationship with the host, I can offer you reduced tickets for the full day, including lunch, for only $35! Just sign up here and select the "membership" option.
My dad and I were different, but I know he appreciated my creative urges and aspirations. When he died suddenly of a heart attack last week, I got a chance to spend some meaningful post-superstorm days with my family and friends in Philadelphia thinking about the life of this special man. Marty had a rare combination of kindness, curiosity and intelligence that made him successful as a businessman and much beloved by almost everyone who met him. People felt comfortable around him not just because he had interesting things to say but because he took interest in others and the world. He was a reader and a writer, constantly sending relevant articles to friends and family. He was a lifelong student--he loved history and Judaism and geneology--as well as a teacher, always patient and articulate. He loved to tell stories and to hear yours. His natural way of being--interesting and interested with a smile--put others at ease, whether they were complete strangers without obvious commonalities (he'd find them), our English-deficient Argentinian cousins (he attempted broken Spanish), or a new nervous girlfriend (who would be laughing in seconds).

Originally of very humble origins and immigrant parents growing up in the Bronx, NY, Marty truly lived the American dream. He graduated from NYU (getting an MBA before they were even called that), learned some life lessons as a proud Marine, somehow snagged a beautiful woman from above his station, and took her and three growing children with him to Chicago as he quickly ascended the corporate ranks as a disciplined and effective financial manager. By 42 he became the president of the largest division of the largest picture frame company (Intercraft) in the world. Later he was the CFO of AAMCO Industries before becoming a business consultant specializing in the leasing industry.

I admired his courage as he switched professional gears in his 50s, carving out a varied consulting practice and easing into a role as advisor and mentor to many. He never retired; just last month he was orchestrating a complicated final sale on a business he helped found many years ago.

But mostly I admired him as a person. He wasn't flashy, but he knew how to run one heck of a Passover seder, welcoming loved ones and strangers alike, coaxing their participation, singing off-key and being the center and sage of the family. He knew how to be alone and he knew how to be with others. He appreciated what he had and never forgot where he came from. He was a real mensch, a good, good man, and I loved him.

52 years of marriage with his beloved Joan

Creativity Flowers from Diversity

2012-10-11T12:43:00.000-05:00

Check out some creative inspiration from the web: You are the Creative Type and Accidental Inventions.

America is the grand experiment in diversity. In this blog, I want to give an update on my efforts to build bridges among diverse communities through my work with the non-profit kids program Poetry Pals. But I'm going to begin with this assertion: Much of our innovative success in the U.S. has come from the mingling and melding of diverse cultures, perspectives and talents. As economist Richard Florida has established, cities that embrace diversity are more creative and economically vibrant. As other research has shown, spaces that optimize random meetings and interactions among diverse people--whether that be an urban center or work office--result in more innovation. As we all know, the more we are exposed to different cultures, attitudes and practices, the more possibilities we see.

Creativity flowers when we get out of isolation, and a new trend to foster innovation (and combat isolation of the growing virtual workforce) is the collaborative work centers that are popping up around Chicago. I recently visited 1871, a spacious co-working center for digital start ups, which opened this year in Chicago's Merchandise Mart. Run by the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center with many partners and sponsors, it's a 50,000-square-foot facility that provides Chicago startups with affordable workspace and access to mentors, programming, educational resources, potential investors and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. I also checked out the Green Exchange, another Chicago private-public partnership project, where green-oriented businesses can mingle. While I'm not sure it yet lives up to its claim as the "country's largest sustainable business community," it is a model of a sustainable building that can serve as a hub for diverse businesses and conversations related to the emerging green economy.

For diversity sake, let's change hemispheres and listen in on a video here (and below) at the Creative Innovation conference last year in Australia that addresses issues related to creativity and diversity.

Diversity flowering: Muslim, Jewish & Catholic students

Fall Update from Poetry Pals

In addition to my consulting and creativity work with adults and organizations, I am also executive director of Poetry Pals, which I'm happy to report is now gearing up for another year of interfaith collaboration and creativity.

Poetry Pals is a Chicago-area non-profit creativity program that brings together young people (8-12 years old) from diverse cultural and faith communities. Our programs—including our groundbreaking signature tri-faith program connecting Muslim, Jewish and Catholic schools—have already given more than 1000 elementary school children and their families the opportunity to share their culture and express themselves through poetry, dialogue, rhythm and song. Our mission is to build bridges and relationships among young people and their communities in order to foster understanding, cooperation and peace in a multicultural and multi-faith society.

We were blessed with a significant donation this summer from a family foundation, which has energized us to continue to reach out to new schools and communities for partnership. If you are part of a day school, Sunday school or youth program and are interested in partnering your kids with a different faith/cultural community, please contact us at adam@poetrypals.org.

For the second straight year, we will be running a tri-faith (Muslim, Jewish and Catholic partnership) program with our Northern Suburbs Hub. 4th graders at MCC Fulltime School in Morton Grove, Solomon Schechter in Northbrook and Sacred Heart in the city will meet for at least three sessions and a special Interfaith Community Evening, scheduled for March 6, 2013, when the public is invited. Last year's Community Evening was a special occasion with 200 kids, parents, siblings and community members sharing an evening of dialogue and performances. Check out this overview and pictures from host Solomon Schechter.

We are planning a couple programs in our Western Suburbs Hub this year, renewing a 3-year previous partnership between Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park and St. Pius X Catholic school in Lombard, and are in the process of partnering a southside Muslim school and city Catholic school. We are also in conversation with numerous faith communities and Sunday schools, and are excited not only to bring more Muslim, Catholic and Jewish communities together, but also to include new Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Baha'i community groups as well.

Poetry Pals poet-educators and participating teachers

We've recently expanded our board, which is now at work improving our infrastructure, strategizing for more funding and outreach, and creating a special event for friends and supporters soon. We are also in the process of adding more paid Poet-Educators to our group, with a training coming up soon.

Donations are always appreciated and needed so that we can offer our programs to communities at a reduced rate--and help make Poetry Pals into a sustainable non-profit. You can donate here through Paypal on our website or mail a check (please make out to "AI Partnership for the Arts") to: Donna Yates, 400 E. Ohio Street, #1002, Chicago, IL 60611.

For the quickest overview of Poetry Pals: Watch this Chicago Tribune video.

Visit the Poetry Pals website and connect with us on Facebook.

So here's to the great American advantage--our diversity. While sometimes it's challenging to get out of our own isolation, tribe, routine or box, there are creative and rewarding prizes that come from connecting, combining ideas and sharing perspectives.

Creativity News Roundup

2012-09-11T11:34:00.001-05:00

Taking his imagination too far may have cost him his career

>Did you know there has been a scandal in the creativity world? Jonah Lehrer, the popular-science-writing wunderkind of creativity, whose best-selling book, Imagination: How Creativity Works, expertly linked the latest research to imaginative insights about our own creativity, has now been blacklisted for multiple sins, ranging from plagiarizing himself to making up Bob Dylan quotes. The publishing world came down so hard that he lost positions with the New Yorker and most recently Wired, and his book, which I praised unreservedly in a previous blog, was recalled and is no longer available. That's right: One of the most successful non-fiction books of 2012 has been taken completely off the shelf because its author broke some cardinal rules in publishing.

As I read about some of his sins--and there were many though few were particularly egregious--I couldn't help but recall seeing him live and being amazed by his eloquence, extensive personal research, and ability to draw new and important conclusions from the steel trap that was his brain. Here was a guy who personified creativity and his own lauded creative characteristic of "grit," tracking down rarely-reported studies, balancing his own right and left brains, knowing when to diverge and when to converge, and knowing how to communicate in our short-attention-span world. Who wouldn't want to recycle great writing from snappy and inventive article titles such as "The Importance of Mind-wandering," "The New Neuroscience of Choking," and "Why Smart People Are Stupid"? To throw away this still-brilliant book because of a few extra words he appears to have attributed to Dylan is just not right. And to silence this one-0f-a-kind writer--who does appear guilty of some questionable choices, omissions and inaccuracies in a 21st century writer's incessant effort to keep providing content--is quite painful.

>In other somewhat painful but not surprising creativity news, an Adobe study has found a Global Creativity Gap--evidence that despite 80% of people in five countries believing that unlocking creativity is critical to economic growth, few believe they are living up to their creative potential. Workplace reports found growing pressure to be productive rather than creative (despite expectations to think creatively), and more than half of the respondents believe creativity is being stifled by their education systems. Interestingly, the respondents from the U.S., UK, France, Germany and Japan selected Japan and Tokyo as the most creative country and city, edging out the U.S. and New York. Download a graph-filled PDF here.

"People need more time, training and an environment where they can think creatively," concludes the Global Creativity Gap report

>This month, Forbes came out with its ranking of The World's Most Innovative Companies, with Salesforce.com ranked #1 and Amazon.com #3. Read more about how innovative leaders maintain their edge here.

>From the blogs...
3 Myths about Creativity: "Myth: There are two kinds of people: those who are creative and those who are not. Facts: Everyone is creative."

There is no innovation without experimentation: "In an environment where everything must be perfect the first time, experimentation loses and sameness wins."

Stress reduces our ability to be creative: "The more stress someone has in their life, the less likely they are to be creative."

Our Olympic Road Trip--7000 miles Westward, seeking Gold

2012-08-11T09:45:00.000-05:00

Click here for a road trip music radio program and pick a song to accompany your reading!

Off road in Southern Montana

As the final Olympic records get shattered in London, my girlfriend Gosia and I have returned from our own American version of an Olympic road trip this past month, setting personal traveling records and seeking creative gold in the stunning cities and national parks of the Western United States. I also had the chance to return to San Francisco, my former home where I founded the Kreativity Network, visit with old friends, speak on creativity and get new perspectives on life and beauty and friends and memories and this country in 2012.

Finally back in SF with Golden Gate Bridge behind us

Let's start with some record-breaking statistics:
Round trip miles driven from Chicago: 6,845
Days on the road: 20
30 gas stations total: $1039.11

Number of National Parks visited: 9. Key spots included the Badlands (SD), Mt. Rushmore (SD), Yellowstone (WY), Grand Tetons (WY), Kings Canyon (CA), Grand Canyon (AR), Bryce Canyon (UT), Capitol Reef (UT), Arches (UT), Rocky Mountains (CO).

Nights we slept at friends' homes: 10. Big thank you's to the bungalow, the SoCal and Island beach villas, the lovely Piazza Aguilar and the mod-home-of-Maddy that welcomed us!
Nights in hotel: 6. Nights as speaker at retreat center: 1. Nights we camped: 2, once sleeping in the Subaru.

Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD

Local dining favorites along the way: Hartford Steak Co. Tavern in Hartford, SD (learned filet mignon means "wrapped with bacon"), Custer Battlefield Trading Post Café in Crow Agency, MT (an "Indian taco" is like nan bread), Chadz in Livingston, MT, Blue Plate Diner in Salt Lake City, UT, Original Mel’s Diner in Reno, NV, Pastranomy in Napa, CA, La Pena in Berkeley, CA, Crepes on Cole in SF, CA, House of Nanking in SF, CA, Burger Lounge in SD, CA, Station 66 Italian Bistro in Williams, AZ, Boulder Café in Boulder, CO.

Sculptures made of recycled steel in Oakland

Most intriguing man-made attractions: The Corn Palace, historic event building in SD, and the astounding sculptures of the American Steel Studios of Oakland.
Most peaceful moment: At the Labyrinth at the IONS Retreat Center

Labyrinth at IONS Retreat Center in Petaluma, CA

Strangest moment: The stalker at the North Fork of the American River near Auburn, CA. We hiked a long while to find our own private beach but he had other plans for us.
Most nostalgic moment: Returning to SF through the fog-enshrouded Golden Gate bridge.
Best seats for a concert: We saw Sheryl Crow from on-the-water seats from a raft in San Diego! Thanks, Suze!
Number of daytime movies: 1 in Santa Cruz, CA.
Favorite non-Cali city drop-by's: We loved Boulder, CO, most ("Hmmm, we could live here," we thought) but also need to extend our appreciation to Livingston, MT, Jackson, WY, Williams, AR, and Des Moines, IA.

Back in California...

Younger me living in SF after college

Jamming at SF party

I got to revisit many a memory and place in the incomparable San Francisco, home of fog, cliffs, Golden Gate Park, winding streets on hills, Victorian row houses, bays all around and the most-open-minded, meaning-seeking people in the U.S. We got to re-experience our own Summer of Love along the shops and smells on Haight Street, briefly joined a Hari Krishna fest on Hippie Hill, and found my favorite nature spots in the Botanical Gardens that I used to frequent again and again as a fleece-wearing San Francisco resident. Our few days there culminated with a classic Saturday night SF party--live music and jamming, unexpected old friends showing up, freak flags flying from the true SF (now living in the East Bay--one of them named "Hummingbird") Cultural Creatives, and intimate talks about life and past and future.

Cultural Creatives talking about our future at IONS

I also had a more formal chance to review my own life as the speaker at an Institute of Noetic Sciences event in Northern California a couple days before, covering my inner and outer journey as a creativity professional from California to Chicago, and addressing the research on Cultural Creatives with a group of certifiable Cultural Creatives. You can see the full video here. It was a bit of culture shock for me and Gosia, as I was reminded that Californians are a more advanced breed, and everywhere we saw signs of ecological, spiritual and creative appreciation that are less common in the Midwest.

I returned home just in time to lead an annual retreat for 120 facilities and operations employees at DePaul, and now I sit once again in my Chicago condo, a computer stuffed with to-do's and needed follow-ups, not sure whether I imagined the days and nights and waves and sights on the road, knowing that new ideas are percolating and new blood of adventure is circulating, as I breathe back in to the last call of summer in Chicago. Let me leave you with a few more visual stories from the trip as I beckon you to embark on your own inner or outer traveling journey as soon as possible.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

We loved sharing the road with wildlife

Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone

Ah Napa and Sonoma

One of our many historic and nostalgic stops in SF

Our transportation and seats (that's a raft) to see Sheryl Crow in SD

Ah, the Grand Canyon

Made it to the Rockies and still haven't killed each other!

Sequoia trees at Kings Canyon

Just the side of a typical road in Utah!

Road Trip West and my recent creative ride

2012-07-09T12:43:00.001-05:00

It's been ten years since I moved from San Francisco to Chicago, and I'm finally making my way back West, with Subaru and girlfriend, on a winding road to remember and renew. It will be about 6000 miles, starting north through Rushmore, Montana and Yellowstone, all the way to Oregon and California coast, then back south through the Grand Canyon, Bryce, likely Santa Fe and Colorado.

I founded the Kreativity Network nearly 20 years ago in San Francisco, and I'll have the chance to visit old friends and past fellow creative rabble-rousers in the Bay Area and beyond, and even speak publicly about my creative journey (Bay Area friends, please come join me for an event on Thursday, July 19). It's a chance for me to reflect, review and perhaps rediscover what I've forgotten since my fertile time as a Westerner. Sometimes there is no better way to renew than to drive, drive, drive.

Cultural Creatives event, 6/24/12

It's been a fascinating ride here in Chicago these past few weeks, as I've been able to stir up creative thinking with very different audiences, starting with the Chicago IONS Cultural Creatives event I had written about previously. I presented intriguing research about how our values are changing as a culture--they indeed are--and we had a chance to talk as a group about paradigm shifts, culture change and both global and local consciousness. We've now formed a Cultural Creatives group to keep the conversation going and to see whether combined forces here in Chicago can have some impact in moving our fair city, and perhaps the planet, a few millimeters forward toward innovative solutions, sustainability and unity.

Who's Got the Biggest Fedhead? event, 6/25/12

I also made a repeat appearance as host of a game show I designed for the Federal Reserve called Who's Got the Biggest Fedhead? as a part of conference bringing Fed leaders together to think more creatively (yes, they are trying). Perhaps this gig may not change global consciousness, but with its theme song (one line: "Main Street, Wall Street, Did you read Ron Paul's tweet?"), my musical sidekick (with two congas among other noisemakers), judges and about 100 participants in 11 teams, it was a blast to creatively and collaboratively challenge a large group in this way.

In other news, Poetry Pals, the interfaith non-profit creativity program for kids I've been directing, both officially established a new Board of Directors and received a significant grant from a family foundation! So we are setting a course for more programs--yes, more opportunities for young Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Ba'hai (and other culturally diverse) kids to connect with others they would rarely get a chance to meet.

Speaking of unity, I also had a chance to visit Amma, a tremendously popular spiritual leader from India known as the "Hugging Saint," who I was surprised to learn has just opened an impressive campus center just west of Chicago. A couple thousand people attended the inaugural opening of M.A. Center Chicago, and we were welcomed by Pat Quinn, our Illinois Governor, who honored Amma as "one of our world's humanitarian leaders," and said, “I think it is so important that our state of Illinois is a home to an M.A. Center." I didn't get a chance to get a hug, but I was floored by the number of spiritually-seeking folks in Illinois, and amazed that a governor and guru shared a space and an ideal together.

Finally, thanks to my friend Joe, I once again have been able to balance out my Chicago life with some sails on Lake Michigan. It's great to get that kind of perspective a few miles offshore--look at that sunset--and I am looking forward to more perspective-shifting and natural awakenings in my travels throughout July.

Cultural Creatives, Part 2

2012-06-19T09:22:00.000-05:00

As I wrote about last time, Cultural Creatives are on the forefront of creating needed culture change in the U.S. and elsewhere. The term describes people with a cluster of values that reflect an ecological, social, global and often spiritual consciousness who are distinct from the more skeptical, individualistic and materialistic Moderns and the more fundamentalist Traditionals. If you're in the Chicago area, you're invited to join me for a public program about Cultural Creatives this Sunday afternoon.

I wanted to share two more pieces about Cultural Creatives in this blog. The first is my own summary of who Cultural Creatives are and what we value and believe. Second is a list of Cultural Creative characteristics--an assessment of sorts--drawn from the original 2000 book, The Cultural Creatives, that reflect earlier findings of value distinctions. Please let me know if you have comments, reactions or criticisms.

Cultural Creatives: Who are we?

We are people who believe that all humans are interconnected and are all citizens of Planet Earth, which should be treated with respect and love.

We don’t subscribe to the “Us vs. Them” or “Every man for himself” philosophies and believe relationships, community needs, social responsibility and ecological sustainability are more important than short-term profits or material success.

We value our own personal growth and spiritual development, seek authenticity and creativity, and honor what are sometimes considered feminine values of caring about each other and our children, supporting education, and seeking peace and collaboration with neighbors and nations, who are our brothers and sisters, not our enemies. Yes, we are idealistic rather than cynical.

We believe our political and healthcare systems are in need of transformation, currently in the stranglehold of moneyed interests invested in the status quo, and the media should be focusing less on sensational conflict that divide us and more on finding solutions that can unite us.

We appreciate Western medicine but know that our pursuit of good health and well-being must be expanded to embrace other forms of holistic healing of the body, mind and spirit.

We actively seek change and are involved in creating new ways to thrive as a country and culture.

~AS

Cultural Creative Characteristics

Here are some of the key characteristics common to Cultural Creatives determined by Dr. Ray and Dr. Anderson in their 2000 book:

want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life
love of nature and deep caring about its destruction
strong awareness of the planet-wide issues (i.e. global warming, poverty, overpopulation, etc.) and a desire to see more action on them
heavy emphasis on the importance of developing and maintaining relationships
heavy emphasis on the importance of helping others and developing their unique gifts
volunteer with one or more good causes
intense interest in spiritual and psychological development
see spirituality as an important aspect of life but worry about religious fundamentalism
desire more equity for women in business, life and politics
want politics and government to spend more money on education, community programs and the support of a more ecologically sustainable future
are unhappy with the left and right in politics
optimism towards the future
are concerned with big business and the means they use to generate profits, including destroying the environment and exploiting poorer countries
unlikely to overspend or be in heavy debt
dislike the emphasis of modern cultures on "making it" and success, on consuming and making money
like people, places and things that are different or exotic

Coming out...as a Cultural Creative

2012-06-06T09:29:00.000-05:00

Around the web: The "Innovation" buzzword--overused but still going strong: Check out this WSJ article.

It's time for me to come out...I am a Cultural Creative.

The term Cultural Creative, drawn from research and population surveys conducted over the past few decades, refers to a growing subculture of people whose values and world views are quite distinct from those that most often dominates our politics, media and many cultural norms. Though still not universally known, the term gained popularity when sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson's published their 2000 book, The Cultural Creatives. You can read an updated report based on 2008 research here.

Cultural Creatives are actively creating cultural and social change and tend to have a more unifying world view--embracing ecological sustainability, social responsibility, diverse cultures, creative expression and psycho-spiritual growth--and are more willing to challenge the status quo of materialism, cynicism, and, yes, even capitalism. While less than 5% of the population in 1960, they have now become approximately a third of the American population.

This general area of research and discussion--how we are changing as a culture and as humans--is quite complex, a bit tricky and rarely addressed directly so I can only begin to touch on some key points in this blog entry. Come join me for a live program in Chicago on Sunday, June 24th when I'll be leading a town hall-like discussion, sponsored by our local chapter of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

According to Ray's research (with similar findings in Europe and Japan), Cultural Creatives have only emerged as a significant subculture since the 1960s, joining the two existing subcultures who've been in America for a while, Moderns and Traditionals. Moderns generally rule our culture and media--they value skepticism, scientific expertise, individuality, material success and efficiency. They have long engaged in a culture war with Traditionals, with their conservative, nostalgic, usually religious values. Traditionals believe their way is the right way and that we should go back to a better time, while Moderns strongly resent any infringement on their individual freedom and rights (and usually rights of others) to achieve success.

Cultural Creatives don't subscribe either to the Every-Man-for-Himself or Us-vs.-Them philosophies of the Moderns and Traditionals. They have a different--and some would say more evolved--ecological, spiritual and global consciousness. They believe that humans are one people, that the earth is our home and must be taken care of, and that we have the power and imagination to invent a better future where the planet and everyone in it can thrive. Check out the latest published population distribution (chart, left) based on Ray's 2008 survey. While Moderns are still the largest group with about 40% of the population, Cultural Creatives are catching up, and Traditionals are slowly diminishing in number ("Transitionals" refer to Traditionals whose green, planetary values are moving them toward Cultural Creatives).

"Core" Cultural Creatives at about 16% tend to be the leading change agents, and include artists, writers, thinkers, spiritual- and alternative health-seekers, who combine a focus on inner life and authenticity with a strong passion for altruism, activism and social responsibility. The "Green" Cultural Creatives tend to be a bit more secular or conventionally religious, but still embrace more eco-conscious, social justice values. While it's appealing to put Cultural Creatives in a political category, Ray points out that neither party accurately reflects Cultural Creative values and most often surveys reflect a deep dissatisfaction with both parties.

Despite their size, Cultural Creatives have yet to fully be identified, even by themselves, and because their values tend to be disdained by the dominant culture as too idealistic, most of us are still in a closet that we may or may not be aware of. More to say about this and Cultural Creatives in my next blog entry.

Finally, surveys in different countries have shown that Cultural Creatives have more in common with each other across cultures and countries. Some Europeans have taken on the Cultural Creative mantle, with Cultural Creatives online TV and a film, called Cultural Creatives 1.0: The Revolution, which you can see below (or click here).

Accessing our Creative Superpowers

2012-05-03T12:32:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that stories about human mutants with special powers, i.e. superheroes, have taken over our movie theaters in the past number of years. This week brings together several of them (some who already have their own movie franchise), in the debut of the Avengers, which may or may not provide a bigger wallop then ever before. But what fascinates me about these fantastic phenoms are not the often-violent punches they deliver but their often-similar personal stories--in many cases they have a mutation that they don't necessarily want (and initially fear) that becomes a gift that they can use to save the world.

I'm of the belief that our culture is in need of saving, and that we need to call on our special superpowers to lead us in some new directions. But it's not about physical powers. It's about harnessing our creative powers--seeing alternatives, prioritizing long-term visions, inventing new forms and collaborating as a unified species. Given our current us-vs.-them, short-term-profits-are-king values, this kind of change in thinking requires a mutation. In some ways we know this and I think that is why these movies are so popular. "Mutation: It is the key to our evolution," announces an X-Men movie. "It is how we have evolved from a single cell organisms into the dominant species on the planet." The message of all these movies is that the superhero outsiders--the mutants with special powers--are the ones we should be rooting for.

Research has shown that there is a significant number of people right now on the planet--about one in three Americans--who have what we might call a recent mutation. They're known as Cultural Creatives, and I will share more about them in the next blog and will be leading a public event about them in June. You may be one, but even if not, they're worth understanding better and supporting, as their forward-thinking, interconnected values and in certain cases special powers--as artists, healers and intuitives--most likely hold the key to a sustainable and unifying future for humans and the planet.

In the meantime, we all need to keep boosting our own creative powers to play our own role in shaping our culture and our own lives. Last week I had a chance to hear Jonah Lehrer, the creativity author and subject of last month's blog, live. His brain burst with insight and the latest intriguing scientific studies, and he offered it all up eloquently in an attempt to help us all be more creative. Here were some goodies he shared:

Research has shown that creative insights--"aha" moments--1) come out of nowhere, and 2) you know it’s the answer when it comes. So how to get them to come? “The answer will only arrive when you stop looking for it," says Lehrer. Since Alpha waves have been shown to lead to insights and being relaxed leads to Alpha waves, he encourages taking breaks, having a beer, getting away from it all regularly.

"Grit," however, is what distinguishes great creators from others. They refuse to quit. “In field after field, grit is the greatest indicator of success,” he says. It's important in the creative process to feel like we’re making progress. If we do, we should keep at it, keep focusing, be gritty. When no progress, then time for a break, to relax.

"Choose easy, work hard." The key is to find what we love to do, and then do it thoroughly. He encourages kids to explore many things (make choice easy)—help them fall in love then have them work hard at what they love.

While there are indeed peak creative ages, usually pretty young, in different fields, that doesn't mean we can't increase our creativity as we age. Creativity decreases mainly because once there is success one gets invested in the status quo. You can stay creative by reinventing and being an outsider.

For organizations, creativity is enhanced by spaces that bring diverse people together. Physical location matters, the closer the better. Even in the 21^st century, our best ideas do not arrive on screen—they come from idle chatter, close proximity. We have to come together in person. Creativity is not about efficiency; it’s about serendipity. It’s human friction that makes sparks, even in this age of technology.

Research has found the most creative cities can be correlated to how fast people walk. Human density is good, the more the better. Unlike cities, the more people in companies the less innovative they are. Why? Companies get in the way because they want to control the process, force creativity, which doesn't work. Creativity in the city comes from its freewheeling nature: the Mayor can’t tell you what to do or where to live or go. “When in doubt," Lehrer says, "imitate the city.”

More to grease your creative wheels? Check out Stanford professor Tina Seelig's new book, InGenius.

The 4th Grade slump and Jonah Lehrer on How Creativity Works

2012-04-03T09:11:00.000-05:00

Jonah Lehrer, a science writer whose creativity book, Imagine, has been making a big splash this month, talks about the "4th grade slump." That's the time scientists have found that many kids lose interest in and stop being creative because they become all too aware that they can draw, sing and even play “wrong.” Dancing or sharing writing becomes risky business, subject to ridicule and criticism. We've all experienced it, and many of us learned early it was better to shut down our self-expression than to risk the consequences.

But in studying creativity in adults, Lehrer found that those most creative had learned to overcome the 4th grade slump, even for just short spurts of time. Research with jazz pianists found that they are able to shut off a part of the brain associated with impulse control when it became time to play. In other words, when the situation demanded their creativity, they had learned to inhibit their inhibitions, to permit themselves to be that 3rd grader again, fully able to play, to risk, to let go despite all the possible judging around them. “I think we can learn to recover this kind of childhood exuberance," Lehrer says. "We can learn how not to hold ourselves back.” Listen to the NPR interview by clicking here or below.

P.T.S., as those who've taken my workshops know, is a fundamental principle and mindset of creativity: Permission to Suck. It’s about learning how to let yourself go, playing like a little kid--diverging, as we in the creative thinking business like to call it. Because creativity is all about coming up with ideas that are both different and valuable, both novel and fitting, we need to spend time making-it-all-up like a child does separate from judging or converging into practical ideas or strategies. The creative person needs to turn off the part of the brain in charge of quality control, at least for certain amounts of time, before s/he turns it back on.

In innovative organizations, Lehrer explains, that also means giving employees permission to experiment on their own, whether that means time to work on their passion projects or just shake up their routine. A few key points:

>The latest scientific research has found that people who are relaxed, in a good mood, will solve more creative puzzles.
>3M engineers still get their "bootlegging hour" (know more officially as the “the 15% rule” or sometimes as "passion time"), an hour of each day on their own that has contributed to thousands of new products. “They trust their employees at a fundamental level to manage their own attention,” Lehrer says.
>Lehrer also questions the effectiveness of group brainstorming, which research has found mixed results on, and that many believe is less effective than individual brainstorming. Maybe so, but I would still argue that brainstorming plays a key role in creating a culture of innovation and sharing ideas in a needed, communal way. Brainstorming researcher Gerard Puccio also takes exception here.

Lehrer also makes clear that taking breaks, even being lazy, can bring about real creative insights. Incubation, the principle of leaving an idea for a while so that it can gestate and later be solved, continues to find scientific support. “When one looks at the research on individual creativity," he says, "when you look at where insights come from they often come when we least expect them; in fact that’s one of the defining features of moments of insight—they only arrive after we’ve stopped looking for them.”

So to be more creative, even at work, it comes down to this: We need to be better at playing like a kid, following our own daydreams and even going home early sometimes.

Ideas and Trends that are Changing our Lives

2012-03-07T17:11:00.000-06:00

Around the web...Creative insights combining business and spirituality: Click for video from the Wisdom 2.0 Conference. Latest Fast Company list of 50 most innovative companies, Economist Article: Jeff Bezos and long term innovation, Forbes Article: Your Mental Model of Innovation, For more on creativity from Adam, use search field (top left) or click on keywords (bottom right) on his Innovation on my Mind blog.

A recent issue of Time Magazine explored the breakthrough, game-changing phenomenon of YouTube, where 60 hours of video are now uploaded every single minute. That's 10 years of video every day. We all have a sense that new technology is changing us as people--both as individual beings and how we connect with others, but we're not sure how. Is it okay that we talk with and see each other less despite having more "friends"? Is it good that we have so much information--some of it outdated or biased or amateurish--at our fingertips? Are we happier and are our lives more fulfilling compared to life before YouTube or smart phones or the Internet or answering machines or word processors?

I definitely feel something internal in me rebelling in this pivotal year of 2012. I'm wondering in particular about relationships--how to be connected with others in ways that are nourishing and authentic. Am I writing this to connect with you (in large part, yes) and, if so, is it working (you tell me)?

These heady technology changes are only part of larger ideas and trends, and this week's Time Magazine features a nuanced, non-technological list of 10 Ideas that are Changing your Life, which further asks us to think about how we are connected as friends and community members. Here are a few interesting ones:

>More of us are living alone and the number is growing. 28% of U.S. households are occupied by "singletons," NYU Professor Eric Klinenberg's term for people living alone. It's 47% in Sweden. Coupled with the 40% out-of-wedlock birthrate we now have, we need to think differently about the family unit and the make up of the community around us.

>The number of people who claim "no religious affiliation" has doubled in the last 20 years to 16%. The numbers don't mean the hunger for spiritual connection has decreased, but clearly the connection to a religious institution is changing in such a way that allows for new forms of spirituality and community to emerge.

>Human activity is now impacting the earth in ways never seen before on the planet. Some scientists claim that we have broken into a new epoch due to the "human dominance of biological, chemical and geological processes on Earth." With an exploding population and continued use of damaging fossil fuels (not to mention a backlash from fellow humans who ignore the science), we have to wonder how environmentalists--and all of us--need to change in order to be in community together and with the planet.
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We just completed our Poetry Pals school season with an interfaith community evening, and we celebrated--a gym of 200 Muslims, Jews and Catholics--by watching kids perform their collaborative poetry and getting a chance to talk honestly as adults who have a lot in common but don't often talk to one another. There is a greater trend that we all need to heed: Coming together to creatively solve common challenges in a way that benefits all. I quoted Rumi to the group: "There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street, and being the noise."