1

BUSINESSAS ART

Theuncreativelife isn’t worth living.TedNierenbergFounderDanskInternationalDesigns,Ltd.

Creativityis within everyone.Thatisa redly wildstatement.ButI redlythink it’s true.

ReneMcPhersonFormerCEODanaIndustries

Imaginationismoreimportantthanknowledge.Albert Einstein

Businessismyart.

RobertMarcusCEO,Alumax, Inc.

For mostpeople,thewordcreativity is moreeasilyapplicableto art thantobusiness.You expectthe Picassosof the world to experiencecreativebreakthroughs,butarelessconvincedthatbusinesspeoplehaveanythingtobecreativeabout.

Buta wisemanhassaid, “Art is basicallythe productionoforderoutofchaos,”andisn’t chaosthenaturalenvironmentof business?

In speakingto ourclass,WayneVanDyck, founderofWindfarms,Ltd.andseveralotherenterprises,hadthisto say:

Thehighestartform is really business.It isan extremelycreativeformandcan bemorecreativethan all thethingswe classicallythink ofascreative.In business,thetools with whichyou’reworkingare dynamic:capitalandpeopleandmarketsandideas.(Thesetools)all havelivesoftheirown.Soto takethosethingsandto work with themandreorganizethemin newanddiferentwaysturnsoutto bea verycreativeprocess.

4 ESSENCE

Dozensof coursespeakersandhundredsof MBA andSloan Manage-ment studentsand workshopparticipantshaveconfirmed over and overagainthat successfulbusinesspeopleapproachtheirproblemscreatively.They might not verbalizein termsof art, butthey expressin myriad waysthe sameapproachthat artistsdo: They becometotally immersedin ex-pressingtheir inner visions, knowing that theirchief challengeis to or-ganizefamiliar materialsin a freshway. They arecurious, adventurous,experimental,willing to takerisks,andthey areabsorbedin meetingthechallengesof theirworking day.

But evenif the regenerationandsustenanceof Americanbusinesshasbeendueto suchcreativeindividualsthroughoutits history,how doesthisrelateto you now?Theansweris thatyou toocancontributecreatively,andby developingyour own inherentcreativity, you can lead a completelyfulfilling andvaluablelife, both in andoutsideof business.You can liveyour life asawork of art.

The Heuristic Approach

Thevalue of developingyour innerresourcesbecomesapparentasyoulook moredeeplyinto the natureof creativity. TheresaAmabileprovidesthis scientificdefinition in herbook TheSocialPsychologyofCreativity:

A responsewill bejudgedas creativeto the extentthat (a) it is both anovelandappropriate,useful, correct, or valuableresponseto thetaskat handand(b) the taskisheuristicratherthanalgorithmic.

The (a) of Amabile’sdefinition is easy:What you do is creativeif it isnew, different, andhelpful. Thus, if during a drive or walk or businessmeetingyou doanythingtheleastbit unusualthat is “appropriate,useful,correct,or valuable,” you arebeingcreative. Even routineactivitiesarelikely to elicit somethingnew: newperceptions,a new mood,a newneedof themoment,a new decisionor response.

Part(b) requiresfurtherdefinitions,however.A heuristic is an incom-pleteguidelineor rule of thumbthatcan leadto learningor discovery.Analgorithm is acompletemechanicalrule for solvinga problemor dealingwith asituation.

Thus,accordingto Amabile, if a taskis algorithmic, it imposesits owntried-and-truesolution. If a taskis heuristic, it offers no suchclearpath.You mustcreateone.

But when is a situationin businesstotally algorithmic?Isn’t it possiblethatataskbecomesalgorithmiconly whenyouapproachit algorithmically?

It is the premiseofthis book thataheuristicresponseto problemsis theopen-sesameto personalcreativity in business.

Each of the following chaptertitles are heuristics,and each chapterprovidesexplanations,actualbusinessexperiences,andexercisesfor livingwith thesecredosor heuristics. Since heuristics are rules of thumb orguidelinesfor discovery,they relateto exploringyourcreativity asa road

BUSINESSAS ART 5

maprelatesto exploringanew area.Justlike a road map,our heuristicsdon’t tell youexactlywhatto do onyourtrip, whento leave,whatvehicletouse,what routeto take,or how far to go in what timeperiod.They allowyourown creativityto determineits ownpath.Onestudentdiscovered:

Creativity isn’t a destination,it’s ajourney.

With this heuristic approachto business,you can see that creativebehavioris integralto business,becausesuchbehavioris useful, resource-ful, correct, valuable,andself-expressive—notdifferent for the sakeofdifference.

Creativity in businessis a way of life. lt is an ongoingprocess,not aseriesof isolated aberrations.It is a productive attitude developedbyindividualsthroughouttheirbusinesslifetimes,notarandomgoodideathathappensto work.

Creativity thrives at all levels andin all phasesof business.Beginningclerks,corporationheadsandeveryonein-betweencanbe creative.Thisincludesdataanalystsaswell astheideamenandwomenin marketingandadvertising.

Our approachalsoimplies thatcreativity is moreindividual thanorgani-zational. Some people live creatively in smokestackindustries in theAmerican Midwest. Othersstagnatein Silicon Valley. It’s easierto becreative in a companywhosepolicies invite it, of course,but corporatepolicy is not arequirementfor individual creativeexpression.

Your CreativeExperiences

The word “heuristic” has the sameGreekroot as the exclamation“Eureka!” so often accompaniedin comic strips with the flashinglightbulbofanewidea.TheEureka!phenomenonhasbeenapartofdiscussionson creativityeversincetheday Archimedesreportedlyrannakedthroughthestreetsshouting“Eureka!” (I havefoundit)—havingdiscovered,ashesatin abath,his principlefor identifying ametal’scompositionby thewaterit displaces.

Haveyou hadanyEureka!experienceslately?If we askour studentson the first day of classto rate themselveson a

creativity scale,manyput themselvesbelow average.For that reason,weconfrontthem with thetaskof recallinga time whentheyhada greatidea,onethatsolvedan importantproblemfor them.By merely contemplatingtheir own past experienceand hearing the experiencesof others, theyrecognizethepresenceof theirown creativity.

You cando thesamething with the following exercise.As with all theexercisesin this book,just readingthe directionsand thesampleexperi-encescan give you a senseof what the outcomewill be for you if youcompletetheexercise.In thiscase,it maybeenoughfor youtojust quicklyrememberatimewhenyousolvedaproblem.Oryou mighttry doingthis inameditativeway, asfollows:

6 ESSENCE

Sit comfortably, with your backstraight andyour handsin your lap.Closeyoureyesandbreathedeeplyinto yourbelly. Notice yourstomachrising and falling asyou breathefrom yourcenter,doingeasyabdominalbreathing.Now think ofatime whenyou hadagreatidea—onethatsolveda problemor dealtneatlywith a situation. It doesn’thaveto bea businessidea. If it wasbriefly importantto you, that’senough.

With youreyesclosed,breathingfrom yourcenter,rememberhow it feltto have that idea. What was the specific problem?How long did youstruggle,andagainstwhat? What emotionsdid you feel? How did yourrationalprocessesgo?What wastheEureka!momentlike? What werethesurroundingconditions?What happenedto you andyourideanext?Was itactuallyused’?How did thatcomeabout?

Enjoy the memoryfor aslong asyou like. Whenyou openyoureyes,considertakingthe time for furtherexploration.You mightwrite downthedetails,your feelings,andthe upshotof this creativeexperience.

Overthe pasttwentyyearsor so, thousandsof peoplefrom all sortsofacademicandbusinesssettingshavedonethisexercisewith us. No matterhowuncreativesomeonebelieveshimselfto be,hesoonrecallsapastidea,andheeventuallyrecallsmany.Theseepisodesareevidenceoftheinherentcreativity in eachindividual.

Many ofthegreatideas,like thefollowing two, arebusiness-related.Bill Camplisson,now director of marketingplans and programsat

Ford-Europe,tells of a time when designengineerscouldn’t find a cost-effective way to produce,for a new sportscar, bucket seatsthat wouldautomaticallyadjustto bodycontours.Monthsofwork seemedwastedonexorbitantly expensivemechanicalmodels. One night Camplissonsatback,exhausted,in oneof theseseatsandstarteddaydreamingofplayingon theseashoreasachild. A bigguysteppedon hisbeachball,crumplingit.Camplisson(thechild) startedto cry. His fathercamerunningandpushedin theedgesof the ball. Eureka! Theball poppedout, asround and firmasnew.

The dream beachball explodedin Camplisson’smind. Through itsdynamics,theengineerscreatedacost-effectivedesignfor bucketseatsthatrespondedto body contours.

A secondexampleof agreatideacomesfrom Mary LouShockley,nowchieffinancialofficerof theSpectrumServicesdivisionof PacificTelesis.Sherelatesthat shehad presentedto her company,at that time PacificTelephone,ananalysisof theirpoorperformancein thetimely installationof dataservices.Shewas flying backto Los Angeleswith herboss,DougFagg,havinganend-of-the-daydrink, when:

It dawnedon methattheresponsibilityfor the installationoftheservicewas in the hands of only fifteen people in a departmentof sixteenhundred.Why not setup a club that would meetevery two weeksoverlunchto discussthe roadblocksto serviceinstallation?

BUSINESSAS ART 7

Implementationof this idearequired additional ideas and much hardwork, but in six monthsSouthernCalifornia’s dataservicewent from theworstto thebestin theBell System.

Many of the greatideasinvolve careerchanges.It seemsthatcreativityblossomsfor manypeoplewhenthey aredoingsomethingnew,somethingthat is forcing them to grow in all partsof their life. Like a new love orthe renewalof an old one,acareerchangeforcesoneto look at things infreshways.

Somegreatideasare very personalandperhapstrivial to the outsideworld, but they areexamplesof creativity nonetheless.Theygive valida-tion to eachperson’sinnercreativity.

One man, for instance,was extremelydepressedafter businessandsocial failures anddeathsin his family. His greatidearecollectionwentback to childhood—whenhe was six yearsold andwas sentwith anotherboy to the principal’s office to be disciplinedfor fighting. By telling theprincipal they were friends (havingformedan uneasyalliancein the hallenroute),theyavoidedpunishment.He appliedthatchildhoodsuccesstohis adultdepressionby makingfriendswith himself. As with Camplisson’sbucket-seatbreakthrough,thesolutioncamethroughadaydream.It led tohis gettingon with his life in avery positiveway.

Your Inner CreativeResource

Reviewingyourgreatideasandthoseof othersgivesyou impressionsofthecreativeprocess.It seemsthat creativity startswith someproblemorneedandmovesin variousways through aseriesof stages,consistingofinformation-gathering,digestionof the material, incubationor forgettingtheproblem,suddeninspiration(whentheconditionsareidiosyncraticallyright), and,finally, implementation.

But the creativeprocesscanbe distinctive for everypersonandeveryidea. More importantthanstriving to pin downtheprocessis gettingsomeexperienceandpracticein living with your enormous,almostunfathom-able,innercreativeresource.

Jim Benham, founder of Capital PreservationFund as well as of aperformingjazzband,saysthisabouthis own creativeprocess:

I really do geta lot ofgood ideaswhenI play my horn. This typeofmeditationi’m describingis averycreativeprocess. WhenIpracticemyhorn, I don’t look at music.1 don’t reada note. I simplyplay, I playmelodiesthat comeinto mind. Iplay scales.I play slowexercises.I’ll beplaying myhornandall ofasuddensomebusinessthoughtpopsinto myhead.I’ll go write it down.I don’t knowhowto explain it, butthat’sjustwhathappens.

Wheredo ideascomefrom?Benhamis not alonein his puzzlement;thesourceofcreativity hasbeenamysterythroughouttheages.Whenyouhave

8 ESSENCE

an ideaor when you haveanexperienceof yourown potential,what is itthatyou areexperiencing?What canyou expectif you wereto fully realizeyourpotential’?

In somesenseyoucan’tdescribeyour innercreativeresourcein words. Itis the very fact thatit is beyondwordsthatmakesit sopotentiallypowerfulin your life. So we emphasizeexperiencesin this book—experiencesofcreativepeoplein businessandexperiencesyou can have.But let’s giveyou astarterdescriptionofyour truepotential.

Your inner resourceis so immediateand yet timeless, so basic andoverarching,soindividual andalsouniversalthat wehavechosentheword“Essence”to describeit. Our speakersandstudents,manyphilosophicaltraditionsandevenprinciplesof greatart cry out with what this creativeresourcecanmeanin businessandlife.

First, your inner creativeEssenceprovidesthe quality of intuition: adirect knowing without consciousreasoning.Intuition hasalways beenapowerful mainstayof greatbusiness,but until fairly recentlyit hasbeendeniedasabusinesstool in theeraof overdependenceon analysis.This isno longer true. Businesspeoplenow speakof intuition with pride. It isconsideredamarkof managementability.

Artists wouldrelateintuition to theartprincipleofdesign.And theword“design” describesperfectly what you are doing when you use yourintuition. You seeinstantlywith clarity thedesignofasolution,adesignforyour life.

But intuition alone is not enougheither to describeyourEssenceor tosustainacreativelife. A secondquality, will, beginsto fill in thepicture. ltis the part of you that can take responsibility. It is the groundof yourcreativeactions. Peoplewho arecreative in businesshavea compellingvision ormission,andthisexemplifieswill. It is mostdirectly relatedto theartprincipleofunity, andit doeshavethatcharacteristicofunifying,givingyou asingularpurposeto integrateall yourcreativebreakthroughs.

The third quality of Essenceis joy. This book couldhave beencalledTheJoyofBusinessbecause,for all the work andfrequentdifficulty thatcreativity entails,it alwaysbrings a senseofjoy. Whenyou geta hint ofyour own creativity or potential,you alwaysfeel this bright, shimmeringquality ofjoy. It is bestrelatedto theartquality ofbalance.Whenyouhavebalancewithin yourselfandbetweenall partsof yourlife, you experiencethejoy of theflow ofcreativity.

We often talk aboutcreativity in termsof breakthrough.And to breakthroughawall of fearandcriticism thatmight stopyou,you needa fourthquality, strength.Creativebusinesspeopletakeappropriaterisks. Theirstrengthallowsthemto do thatwithoutevenseeingrisksasrisky. This innerstrengthovercomesfear. This Essencequality is mostclosely relatedto theart principleof contrast.Justasanartist—apainteror aphotographeror achoreographeror a composer—relieson contrastto makeastrongpoint,thecreativebusinessmanhasthestrengthto be newanddifferentwhennew

BUSINESSAS ART 9

anddifferentis exactlyright. You havethisstrengthwithin you,waiting tobe tapped.

Finally you can draw on a fifth quality of Essence,compassion,tocompletelybring yourcreativity into theworld. This compassionisn’t themushinessof do-gooders.Insteadit is loving kindness,first for yourselfandthenfor others.Whenyou operatefrom thiscompassionyou nurtureyourown ability, recognizingyourown creativityandthatof others. It causesyou to experiencethe ultimate Eureka! feeling of “I Am.” Creativebusinesspeoplecanimplementtheir creativity so well becausethey havethat confidencein their own creativity and bring it out in otherstoo.Compassionof thissort is bestrelatedto theartprincipleof harmony,andyou canseehow it cancreateharmony,notonly amongall thequalitiesofEssencebutalsoin yourbusinesslife.

Intuition, will, joy, strength,andcompassion—thesequalities of Es-senceform yourcreativebase.Considerwhatyourlife would belike if youlived everymomentwith whatyou canhaveat yourbeckandcall.

Philosophicalandpsychologicaltraditionsoftenemphasizetheenormityof Essenceby characterizingthesequalities in totalities: infinite intuition(design),completewill (unity), absoluteshimmeringjoy (balance),over-whelmingstrength(contrast),andboundlesscompassion(harmony).

This visionofcreativity is far wideranddeeperthanmasteryofproblem-solving techniques.It is also far more personal,but at the sametimeimpersonal. We look within to find our own individual and universalsource.That sourcehasbeencalled the inner self, the Self, the hiddenmind, thedivine spark,theDivine Ego,theGreatI Am, God,andEssence.Somesaythattheverypurposeof humanexistenceis to getacquaintedwithyour own essentialqualities and expressthem in your daily activities.Whetherit is the purposeof life or not, it is a fine definition of personalcreativity: living everymomentfrom yourEssence.

Bringing Art into Your BusinessLife

A questionthathasoccurredto manythoughtfulpeoplemightbecomingto your mind now. If you havethis inherentcreativity within you, thisEssencewith its five magnificentqualities,why hasn’t it appearedmoreoften?Why haven’tyou beenmorenaturallyandconsistentlycreative?

The answeris thatyourcreativity hasbeeninhibited by fear, negativepersonaljudgment,andthechatteringofyourmind. YourcreativeEssenceis often blocked by what is called the falsepersonality, the egoor theexternalself.

And the key to personal creativity in businessis in eliminating theconflict betweenfalsepersonalityandEssence.The creativity techniquesfrom the 1950s, suchas brainstorming,do little to deal with this basicconflict—aconflictthatkeepsyou from beingconsistentlycreative.Tryingto destroythefalsepersonalityalsohasproblems,becauseyou c~n damage

I0 ESSENCE

or submergeaspectsof yourpersonathataretruly valuableto developingyour full potential. Your bestapproachis to awakenyour own Essenceby experiencingit strongly; then you can intelligently overcomeyourown falsepersonalityasyour true selfmanifestsitself moreand more inyour life.

This strategybuildson the kind of experiencewe haveall had; adeep,personallove for someone.Suchlove is anexperienceofEssence.We knowthat when we’re in love we arenot very muchaffectedby fear, negativeinternaljudgments,or theendlesschatterof abroken-recordmind.

Ofcourseit is not possibleto fall deeplyinto loveeverydaybeforewegoto work. At least it’s not possiblefor most of us. But it is clear thatoutstandingbusinesspeoplearesuccessfulbecausetheydeeplylove whattheydo; theyseemto live directlyfrom Essence,withoutstatic from a falsepersonality.

Only a few peoplenaturallyfind thiskind of lovefor theirworkandart intheirlife. For therestof us,the Stanfordcourseandthishook offer waystorepeatedlyexperiencepersonalcreativity.With practiceit becomesnaturalto replaceconfusionwith will, fearwith strength,negativejudgmentwithintuition, andtheceaselessmentalchatteringwith joy andcompassion.

The heuristicswill help you to find yourway. In thenext four chaptersthey are used, along with exercisesand experiences,to give you fouressentialtools—almostsuper-heuristics—thatyou need to develop inorder to manifestyourcreativity fully. Thesetools are: faith in yourowncreativity, absenceof negative judgment, preciseobservation,andpenetratingquestioning.In fact you hadandusedtheseabilities asachild.The next four chapters—thesectioncalled Preparation—will help yourediscoverthem.

Of courseyou can’t havecreativity without a problemor issuein yourlife. Whenwe askbusinesspeoplewhat is botheringthem, theanswersfallalmostentirely into five categones:careeror purposein life, time andstress,balancing personal and professionallife, issuesof money andself-worth,andbringingpersonalcreativity into thebusinessorganization.Dotheysoundfamiliar to you?Theyaresopervasivethatwenow call themthe five challenges.They must be met in order for you to have a fullycreativelife in business.The lastfive chaptersof the book—in thesectioncalled InspirationandImplementation—eachconcentrateon oneof thesefive challenges.

We trust thatasyou live with theheuristics,developthe essentialtoolsandapply them to thechallengesin your life, yourtrue creativepotentialwill manifestmoreandmorein business.You will becomean artist in thelargestpossiblesense.