Corporate creativity

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, by Austin Kleon  

IN OUR rush to find creative ways of doing business, it is easy to forget that that the only element in the corporate universe that can be creative is the people.  

Kleon is an artist who expresses his art through poetry and writing. Steal like an Artist is a New York Times bestseller that highlights 10 suggestion for unlocking creativity. While there is clearly a difference between creativity expressed through poetry, and creativity that found a new way around the logistics bottleneck, the creator remains the same. The corporate person will be well-served to look at what a poet, artist, actor or any other creative, would do.

I picked up this book because the title intrigued me; I read it because the content is valuable. T S Eliot wrote. “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal, bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better…”

The logistician who tried to imitate what that multinational does in your 15-person business is immature. The logistician who stole the concept and transformed it to suit your business is the good logistician.

Most often when an idea is described as original it is only because we are unaware of the original source. Everything we know is based on what others have uncovered, discovered or converted. As such, there is clearly no disgrace in stealing ideas from others, and adapting them to suit you. In fact, it is one of the most common sources of creativity in the arts and business. “When you look at the world in this way, you stop worrying about what’s 'good' and what’s 'bad' – there is only stuff worth stealing and stuff that is not worth stealing.”  

The artist as collector differs from the artist as hoarder. The hoarder collects indiscriminately, but the artist collects selectively. The more you collect, the more you have to choose from. There is so much information available that it overwhelms. As an artist, you want to select only from the best. You might not use it now but it can, and must, be saved for another day.

Artist David Hockney had the inside pockets of his jacket tailored to fit his sketchbooks to capture ideas. Electronics have made idea collection so much easier with your phone as a recording device, camera, and mobile scanner.

Kleon talks of writing “the book you want to read”. The man in the accounts department knows how he would like to receive and review data. Using his personal preferences is a fertile field in which he should seek new opportunities.

Another personal source of creativity is from the side projects you play with. It is probably because you are merely “messing about” that you have the opportunity to discover interesting nuances that can be transferred from your mountain bike to your day job. Was it your fascination with the ease of customisation of the machine to your body style that led you to restructure the outer cover?

“I get a lot of e-mails from young people who ask, “How do I get discovered?” Kleon has a not-so- secret formula, the first part of which is unexceptional, but the second not. The first is “Do good work”. While this is extremely difficulty to maintain, there are no shortcuts. The second is to share your ideas with people and invite them to wonder about the ideas with you. This is clearly not giving everything away, but the input of others cannot be overestimated.

Over many years, travel has been a great source of inspiration, primarily because of the exposure to the exotic it provided. In the past travel was limited to a few of people who could take advantage of it. Now, it is no longer necessary to change geography to achieve some of the results, thanks to the internet and a plethora of media.

Another valuable source of new ideas and insights is other people, online or in person. Provided you don’t mind looking uninformed you are able to learn much and engage with people better informed than you. If you find you are the most interesting person in the room, it is probably time to change rooms.

Frans Kafka wrote: “It isn’t necessary to leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you.” This was written over 100 years before the internet and remains good advice.
What inspires the artist can be used by the operations person too.

Creativity is not limited to the arts, and it can inform all we do. This is a quick and pleasant book to dip into for tips on how to do just this.
   
Readability:    Light ---+- Serious
Insights:        High +---- Low
Practical:        High --+-- Low

*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. Views expressed are his own.