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Psst. Wanna hear some lectures on marketing?

For the first time, after two decades of teaching, I believe I just might have reached the level of competence.

And you are invited.

Tomorrow, January 23rd, at 6:45 p.m., I return to CCAD for the first of a dozen weekly lectures on consumer behavior.

Come. This is your invitation.

There are 100 students registered for the class and it will be taught in a big, comfortable auditorium, so you can just blend in. Each class is only 75 minutes. You could come to this first Monday, any Monday, or every Monday.

Don't be shy. I would love to have you there.

(About a dozen folks accept this invitation each semester. They just show up. Nice!)

Let me know if you are coming, and I will send you a map to the specific location. Or just download the syllabus and come.

Ye Olde Rut
I taught this course for years, years ago at CCAD. As one student wrote:

“The course was high-energy, optimistic, full of humor and most importantly: informative. It was one of the few courses that just about everyone who took it not only looked forward to the next lesson, but recommended it to their colleagues as well.”

But, I left after hearing this thought about teaching:

If you are teaching the same thing the same way for more than five years, then you lack either ambition or imagination.

(I think this might have come from Noam Chomsky.)

I was indeed stuck in a rut.

The students were generous and appreciative. But I was teaching the same thing, in the same way, year after year. The presentation slides were so ready, I would just show up and let 'em rip.

So it was time to go away.

The Course Is Sound
Over time, I'd designed — and now redesigned — the course to help artists:

• Make work that is more than beautiful. The course helps the artist think through the work, so it persuades others and changes behavior.
• Justify each piece of work as more than beautiful. The course helps the artist describe work to executives in the workplace, to win more production budget for, say, the photography.
• Live a fuller life. We must live for more than our art. We can live creatively and ethically. So: let's!

The legendary CCAD education — especially its intensive first year, "Foundation" — expertly develops each artist's technical skills.

But having hired dozens of CCAD graduates at Young Isaac, I have seen too many who are riding solely on their technical proficiency. They do have highly developed hands and eyes — but aren't always levering their minds.

That's where this class comes in.

Bridging The Gap
After years of helping CCAD artists win the favor of businesspeople in the workplace, I've been teaching MBA candidates about creativity. This has me building the same bridge — over the creative gap — from the other side.

Now, with my MBA experiences, I'm really enjoying working with the artists at CCAD.

And you. Coming?

Love A Librarian

Do you love libraries? I do. 

I always pull over, park the car, and go inside.

Usually, it's my own beloved Bexley Public Library or our magnificent Columbus Metropolitan Library. They are award-winning and deserve every award.

Often, it's when I'm passing through some small town. Or New York City.

Why The Love?
Because I love to go in and ask the librarians questions. They often know the answers. If not, they know where to turn.

They are like Google. But with judgement. 

They face disintermediation. As in: we might stop realizing we need librarians and libraries because everything is Googlable. But, you know and I know: the Internet isn't the same thing as a Masters in Library Science. It isn't the same thing as knowing what information is trustworthy and what is just Net Cotton Content. 

Don't disintermediate. Talk to a librarian today.

Now I Get To Talk To A Litter of Librarians
Amid all this flurry of travel, I'm looking forward to speaking to the Ohio Library Council 2011 Convention and Expo later this month.

That prompted an interview with Jill Holton Arrasmith, OLC Director of Communications.

Heres an excerpt, as published in the OLC's Access Weekly:

Jill (Q): What do you like best about public libraries?

Artie (A): Well, I like the sharing of information. I like the sense of community. I like the idea that we provide for ourselves and our children and our neighbors and the stranger in our midst a communal gathering place. A place where people can go for betterment, for relaxation, for meeting others that is not mercenary and it’s not retail or designed to prey upon us. It is designed to help us become our best selves.

Q: So, you are new to a lot of the OLC audience. Why is your session a must see/participate for our convention attendees?

A: Well, in the management of a library . . . we need greater creativity and collaboration. My sessions will talk about how to find ingenuity amid a constraint-based life, which certainly describes our libraries. I will also talk about how we can collaborate in a genuine and engaged way with peers, work colleagues, and patrons so that the library is not purely a hierarchical flow of information.

Q: How does creativity not only enhance a person’s career but their entire life?

A: The myth that we eventually see through is that we never really were living to work. We organize much of our personal development around what we think is professional development but in the end, my wife often says, all we really have are our relationships. We need human development. In order to help people personally, I have to masquerade as someone who’s teaching it from a business point of view, but really there is no such thing as a business person. There are only humans. And, I teach creativity because like liberal arts it offers us intellectual satisfaction, it offers us something to think about, and something to work on. We are created, whatever that means to whoever reads the word. We are created and we are creators and there is no greater satisfaction than the simple act of creating, whether it is a loaf of bread or a garden patch or a piece of text. . . . The study of creativity – it transcends the mercenary world.

I Was In California
The interview was over the phone while I was in California. I think that shows. I was talking like I was in California. 

Agenda-Free Advice for the Perpelexed

Here's the draft of a sermon I plan to give tonight at Temple Israel in Columbus, Ohio.

Agenda-Free Advice

(A Temple Israel Sermon)

Where were we? What was I saying last time I was up here? 

This is Shabbat Shuvah. Shuvah is about returning, so I'm trying to return to where we were when I was last on the bimah. 

Well, it was last year around this time. It appears that the rabbis are full up writing their High Holy Day sermons. So, if I offer to give a sermon at what might very well be — amid the rush of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — the least attended service in the history of Reform Judaism, I might be allowed to do it.

So I offered. And here I am. (I'm glad both of you could be here.)

So, where were we last time I was up here? Oh, I remember: I was boasting about how distracted I get during services. I tried to make the case for how daydreaming might be the most effective form of worship.

And I encouraged you to try to get lost in your worship. Stop stressing about keeping up. Fall behind everyone else. Go wherever the moment takes you.

That was either great advice, deepening the experience of the High Holy Days for you.

Or it was terrible advice, giving me a slight advantage over you in getting my prayers heard — while you were daydreaming.

In either event, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be giving religious advice.

And, that brings us to where I left off last year.

This sermon is about bad advice. And good advice. And what makes one different from the other.

***************

This sermon is about agenda-free advice.

During the past couple months I've been doing a lot of reading about the subject. By "a lot of reading" I mean "I've skimmed the better part of a book."

For me, that's a lot of scholarship.

That's the reason I'm not a rabbi. Because a real rabbi knows that reading half a book is not being a scholar.

Still, now I am an expert in agenda-free advice.

First, I will define it. Then I will tell you where you can find it. Then I will tell you how to give it.

Then I will sit down.

***************

What It Is
Agenda-free advice is advice given by someone — an "advisor" — who has no direct investment in the advice. The advisor won't be helped or hurt substantially by your decision to accept or reject the advice.

The advisor wants to help, so there is that agenda. But the advisor seeks Tikun — your healing, your advancement, your improvement. The agenda driving the advisor is your agenda, not the advisor's agenda.

What's the opposite of agenda-free advice? Let's call it: "agenda-rich advice."

What might be the advisor's agenda?
A mentor of mine says: "After a business meeting I want the other person to think three things: 1. That I'm smart. 2. That he or she likes me. And 3. That he or she feels vaguely uncomfortable because there is work to be done."

I love that description of agenda-rich advice. It's when the advisor wants to do more than help. The advisor wants to move you toward a mutual agenda.

Sometimes the agenda-rich advice is an attempt to make you more like the advisor.

That's not bad. It can be quite good.

But it isn't agenda-free advice.
Agenda-free advice doesn't want to make you into someone else. Agenda-free advice wants you to be more authentic. Like that midrash about Louie arriving in heaven and apologizing for not being more like Moses. The gatekeeper says, "But the goal was not for you to be more like Moses. The goal was for you to be more like Louie."

That's shuvah. Returning. Returning to authenticity. Returning to who you are.

Agenda-free advice is when the advisor has only your agenda in mind — and the advice is pure, purely in service to you. Then the advisor walks away, with no ownership in your next steps.

Where can you find agenda-free advice?
I have found it in only two places.

Flung Around

Readers of Net Cotton Content are far-flung.

Perhaps that's because the writing is far-fetched.

Anyway, readers live all over the world. One in Japan reads Net Cotton Content to learn English. Bad idea. (Why? Sentence fragments.)

Where Are We?
During the next few weeks, I'm traveling. If I'm coming near you, perhaps we can get together. Feel free to let me know if the following itinerary crosses yours.

• Honesdale, Pennsylvania (September 18-19)
  I'll be leading a creativity workshop at the Fifth Annual Retreat for Children's Magazine Editors, hosted by Highlights For Children. It's private, but — if we ask nicely — they might let you sit in.

• Indian Wells, California (September 21-24)
  I'll be speaking on creativity at The Top of The Table, a meeting of the Million Dollar Round Table. Their meetings are private, but I think I'm going to be sitting by the pool for a few days; I can probably hook you up with a towel.

• Ewing, New Jersey (October 5)
  I'm delivering the keynote speech and a breakout on creativity at the Community Learning Day at The College of New Jersey. I'm sure they'd let you join the fun.

• Salinitas, El Salvador (October 12-17)  
  I'm teaching creativity and leading brainstorms with 400 coffee growers, suppliers and all kinds of coffee experts at Sustainable Harvest's Let's Talk Coffee.

• Montreal (October 25-27)
  I'll offer Creative Boosts to three Vistage groups. Those meetings are private, but my afternoons and evenings are not scheduled.

• Toledo, Ohio (October 28)
  I'll speak on the "Habits of Highly Creative People (And Those Who Want To Be)" at the Ohio Library Council's 2011 Convention and Expo. 

Come on over. Wherever you are.

Psst. Wanna hear some lectures on marketing?

Tonight at 6:45 p.m., I return to CCAD for the first of a dozen weekly lectures on consumer behavior.

Come. This is your invitation.

There are 100 students registered for the class and it will be taught in a big, comfortable auditorium, so you can just blend in. Each class is only 75 minutes. You could come tonight, any Monday, or every Monday.

Don't be shy. I would love to have you there.

(Usually there are about a dozen Net Cotton Content readers who attend. Nice!)

Let me know if you are coming, and I will send you a map to the specific location.

Ye Olde Rut
I taught this course for years, years ago at CCAD. As one student wrote:

“The course was high-energy, optimistic, full of humor and most importantly: informative. It was one of the few courses that just about everyone who took it not only looked forward to the next lesson, but recommended it to their colleagues as well.”

But, I left after hearing this thought about teaching:

If you are teaching the same thing the same way for more than five years, then you lack either ambition or imagination.

(I think this might have come from Noam Chomsky.)

I was indeed stuck in a rut.

The students were generous and appreciative. But I was teaching the same thing, in the same way, year after year. The PowerPoint slides were so ready, I would just show up and let 'em rip.

So it was time to go away.

The Course Is Sound
Over time, I'd designed the course to help artists:

• Make work that is more than beautiful. The course helps the artist think through the work, so it persuades others and changes behavior.
• Justify each piece of work as more than beautiful. The course helps the artist describe work to executives in the workplace, to win more production budget for, say, the photography.

The legendary CCAD education — especially its intensive first year, "Foundation" — expertly develops each artist's technical skills.

But having hired dozens of CCAD graduates at Young Isaac, I have seen too many who are riding solely on their technical proficiency. They do have highly developed hands and eyes — but aren't always levering their minds.

That's where this class comes in.

Bridging The Gap
After years of helping CCAD artists win the favor of businesspeople in the workplace, I've been teaching MBA candidates about creativity. This has me building the same bridge — over the creative gap — from the other side.

Now, with my MBA experiences, I'm really enjoying re-meeting the artists at CCAD.

And you. Coming?

Teaching Creativity at Ohio State

I am so glad to be teaching another section of my course on creativity, starting on September 22nd at The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

Personal Creativity and Innovation (BUS-MHR 390)
With the guidance of Michael Camp, I've taken the best of more than a decade of creativity teaching experience and have revised this course further still. (The former students are a great source of continuous improvement for this course.)

If you're an OSU undergraduate business student — or in another college and interested in this course — 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 recent students:

"A 'can-opener' for your mind and emotions. Intense and intriguing. Expect to test and develop your emotional maturity in an unorthodox business school setting. Each class is different. You can never get enough; you're not supposed to - this class merely sets things in motion to help you attend to your whole self beyond this class. Don't expect to be uncomfortable forever - you'll begin to like what you discover about yourself."

"This class challenged me, but also helped me grow as a person. I feel that the things I learned in this class can be carried with me forever. This is a class I will never forget."

"This was the most mentally stimulating course I have ever taken."

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.

If you want to send a flyer to a friend — or post it in a hallway bulletin board, here's an old one.

Here's To The Graduates

It's been one of the most emotional weeks of my life, as I described here.

An anchoring moment, the chance to catch my breath in service to others, came at Village Academy, a lovely gem of a independent school. They were nice enough to invite me to deliver this year's commencement address and being there was a chance for me to relax and recenter myself.

This might sound odd to you.
Many people would be made more anxious to have to write and deliver a speech. 

For me, especially during an emotional week, is was a welcome moment of flow. Surfers surf — and that looks scary to me, but they are focused and reinvigorated. Speaking is my surfing.

Here's what I said to the graduates.
A disclaimer, first: it borrows heavily from and expands on a commencement address I gave two years ago to Laurel School.  I did what I could to improve the presentation. I customized it for this wonderful school. But I couldn't imagine a better topic for the day. 

Perhaps it is the right topic for you, too, today?

Here it is...

In Praise of Speed Bumps
(or "A Summer Breath") 

Presented to Village Academy
At the Fifteenth Commencement Exercises
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Powell, Ohio 

Thank you, Board President Dymerski, Head of School Lasley (Miss Susie), Mr. Fitchko, Miss Hohe, members of the board of trustees, esteemed faculty, proud parents, loving siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles. 

And to the class of 2011, thank you.

You have been mutually supportive in a real community of genuine people, indulging each other with encouragement, using your power for good. You are a model for other classes to follow. And they will. 

I don't know how your tradition describes heaven.
Perhaps it is white robes, halos and carpeting made of clouds.  

My tradition is vague on the notion. I kind of think that it is a place of learning, where fabulous people encourage each other. Village Academy might be heaven. I hope you're happy.  

When Life Comes Together

It's the very meaning of "home game."

When you know the place, the people, the message. You are wearing the right clothing. Everything you know is displayed for all to see.

More Than That
No one else could do what you are doing. At least: not in the same way.

You are doing something that only you could do.

This just happened big for me.
Everything came together a couple weeks.

I was invited to speak to the Upper School — that's like "high school," but much more expensive — at my alma mater, The Columbus Academy.

So I faced several hundred of the most demanding citizens of central Ohio.

They were quite generous with me.
I'm glad.

Click here for the video. Happily, the school administration cut out the truly inappropriate parts.

Are you doing only those things that only you can do?

Creativity In Your Life

A couple weeks ago, I enjoyed spending the day talking with 300 people at the Columbus Museum of Art about creativity. The program — called Creativity In Your Life — was about just that.

It was an exhilarating day for me: more than five hours of instruction and discussion on the basic truths — really just a collection of my opinions and experiences — about creative sources and methods.

Here's the first hour, a presentation on how to live to keep our brains sharp. It starts with an introduction to the day from Nannette Maciejunes, the executive director of the Columbus Museum of Art. I'm indebted to her — and Jeff Sims and Cindy Meyers Foley of the Museum's education department who joyously and expertly crafted the day with me.

 

 

 

A Day of Creativity

How are you strengthening your creativity?

Is it worth study, work, investment?

Many of you have asked, "May I take your creativity class?"

Until now, the frustrating answer has been, "No." The room is full and Ohio State doesn't allow unregistered auditors.

But now the answer is "Yes."
Because — now — here's a creativity class for you.

For the past six months, I've been working with friends at The Columbus Museum of Art on a one-day creativity program.

Here are the details:

Creativity In Your Life
(a one-day program for everyone)
Thursday, October 14th, 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Featuring:

• a keynote speech on creativity by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon.
• a panel conversation exploring the creativity of Liz Lessner (creator of several local restaurants, including the best new restaurant of the year according to Columbus Underground) and Pete Scantland (whose Orange Barrel Media has transformed outdoor advertising into delightful landmarks in Columbus and across the nation).
• a presentation of seven ideas I recommend for keeping your brain sharp, combating our daily tumult and aging.
• a planning session for you to develop a one-year curriculum for your personal creative development.
• and LUNCH. Lunch is included!
• And your choice of four breakout sessions on topics from: how to brainstorm to the latest offerings of the Museum.

Sounds good? (Want to watch my hour-long conversation with Ann Fisher and her listeners on All Sides With Ann Fisher on WOSU 820 AM?)

What do you think this might cost you?
The Museum and I priced this so our friends could afford it.

What would it be worth to come — and expand your mind (just when your mind is hoping for a little expansion)? How much will you intentionally invest this year in your continuing personal creative development?

(And lunch.)

If you are office-bound, what might your company be willing to pay for you to attend? Or, perhaps, for you and your entire team to attend?

Do you have a price in mind? Good.

I bet the price on the ticket information page is lower than what you have in mind.