Net Cotton Content

Spousal Recruitment, Retention and Attrition

About 18 months ago, I gave a dinner speech to a national assembly of undergraduate business students at The Ohio State University. (You might remember "MBAs In Heat.")

Well, ever since then, the idea of that speech has been percolating, growing, gnawing.

I've been wondering:

• Why do we teach business students how to make money, but not how to preserve their assets through intelligent marriage maintenance?
• Don't widely-accepted business strategies and practices work at home, as well as they do in manufacturing or service businesses?
• Isn't our national divorce rate a measure of our educational system?
• Is there truly nothing we can teach students that might help them pick, retain and — if need be — jettison a spouse in the most intelligent way?

Cold-hearted?
I know that last phrase — "jettison a spouse in the most intelligent way" — doesn't sound all that romantic.

But, really, it is.

Money can't buy you love, but a lack of love can sure lose you a lot of money.

I think we can agree that money could be a good measure of doing marriage right: falling in love with the right person, developing that relationship so it blossoms, and — if everything turns to mud and wickedness — ending that relationship in the right way and at the right time. Fail at any of these skills, and there is a huge economic price to pay.

It's not about money,
And, of course, there is an emotional price to pay for failure — or dividend to reap for success. Live beautifully — in love, holding hands — and your prosperity is potentially economic and certainly emotional.

Consider David Brooks this week in The New York Times on "The Sandra Bullock Trade," in which he argues:

If you have a successful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many professional setbacks you endure, you will be reasonably happy. If you have an unsuccessful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many career triumphs you record, you will remain significantly unfulfilled.

Mr. Brooks is right. It's not only about money. But I wanted to get your attention. And I know how you love money.

And, I know, if you think I am helping you chase money and yet all you end up with is love and happiness, then you won't be disappointed.

So, here we go.
I'm going to start writing a book — in installments on Net Cotton Content — called:

Home HR

No. How about:

Going Spousal

Naw. Pick one, any one:

Marriage CEO
Marriage Management
Love And Marriage
You Know You Want It
Grabbing Asset

I don't know.

I guess all I know now is the subtitle: spousal recruitment, retention and attrition.

I could use your help.
As you read the installments (like the preface, above), which will come occasionally (like all good things), feel free to suggest titles, as well as edits small and large.

Suggest anything. Win my gratitude. And, better yet, help someone marry right and stay rightly married.

Teaching Creativity

I am so glad to once again be teaching my course on creativity, starting tomorrow at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.

Now: Personal Creativity and Innovation (BUS-MHR 390)
With the guidance of Michael Camp, I've taken the best of nearly a decade of creativity teaching experience and added some great new elements, including two Harvard Business School cases — on product development at IDEO and retaining talent at Cirque du Soleil.

If you're an OSU undergraduate business student, here is an overview:

Personal Creativity and Innovation (BUS-MHR 390) explores how people, places and practices foster human creativity. Students discuss: What is creativity? How can I become more creative? How can we lead others to greater creativity? Readings include academic, management, spiritual, confessional, and self-development literature on creativity, productivity, happiness and the optimal experience. Assignments include private daily writings and self-assessments of personal creativity. In order to become more creative, students must be willing to look within themselves and share what they find.

A teacher of artists and MBAs, children and adults, Artie bridges the gap between right and left brains in the corporation and within the individual. Students read and discuss the science and art of creativity, share personal experiences, write daily, take weekly field trips, and look deeply within themselves to better understand how to become more creative. In the end, students are more creative, can better relate to highly creative people, and have a personal curriculum for lifelong creative development, including a goal statement on just how the student plans to change the world.

If you have any questions about the class (or want this class to be taught at your corporate offices), please email me. If you wonder whether creativity can be taught, read this.

Here are some comments from three wonderful students who took the 2008 MBA creativity class:

"I learned how to recognize and capitalize on creative opportunities. I learned techniques to push the envelope of my creativity."

"This was an interesting adventure of self discovery, a unique experience that is a MUST! An atypical, entertaining, keeps-your-attention instructor who breaks the norm."

"This 'can-opener' will open your mind and emotions and expose your complexities in an environment not only safe enough to discover and explore them but to speak openly about them and with a community of new confidantes. The readings help you understand your struggle and ease you into the realm of deep questioning in an intense and intriguing manner. Expect to test and develop your emotional maturity in an unorthodox MBA setting. Each class is different and you can never get enough; you're not supposed to - this class merely sets things in motion that will help you be more attentive to your whole self beyond this class. Don't expect to be uncomfortable forever - you'll begin to like what you discover about yourself."

On the other hand, some recent students suggested that I offer some warnings to students who are thinking about taking the class. So, let your expectations be guided:

1. The course can be unpredictable. I will lead (and be led) as the classroom conversation strays. Do not expect predictability.

2. The course is deceptively difficult. There is much reading and writing. But the work does not have diminishing returns; incremental effort yields incremental gain.

The syllabus is new and improved (and always under renovation). In its current form, it is here.