Tag: creativity

Gold stars

~ trythisathomekids ~ 1 Comment

My mama told me when I was young, we’re all born superstars… So hold your head up girl and you’ll go far, listen to me when I say…

Born this Way, Lady Gaga

There’s a familiar knot in the plot line, when people who’ve found their calling reflect on their origins. It goes something like this “when I was young, my [mother / father / teacher / someone] told me I was good at [insert talent]”. Or, there’s a self realisation of this sort. A realisation that resonates and clicks in deeply.

And so it comes to pass.

Successful New York real estate agent Barbara Corcoran’s mother “pinned one thing on each kid… My thing was I had a wonderful imagination… and I fell for it, you know, and she’s right and I did have a good imagination, or at least maybe I learned to have it because of her.”

Journalist and professor Linda Villarosa had a great aunt who looked after her on Wednesdays and taught her to read “she said to me, you’re going to be a writer”.

Arnold Schwarzenegger goes to a small gym in Austria. He gets an award for a clean and jerk he did really well. That moment of positive feedback, sets him on a path and propels him forward.

In conversation with Shane Parrish on The Knowledge Project, Daniel Gross of Y Combinator and now Pioneer, describes these as “catalysing moments”. Experiences that lead to positive feedback loops, which in turn lead to where we are today.

The act of naming the talent is an important ingredient in the catalyst. With naming and categorising come shortcuts to understanding. With understanding, comes the confidence to take action.

In a world with lots of choice for lots of kids, perhaps kids with a strong sense of a particular talent have the advantage of an early knot in their plot line. Something that helps orient them and gives them a stronger sense of how they might fit in and contribute. Perhaps it makes the first (and next) steps clearer and easier to take.

In many cases, it probably doesn’t matter what the step is, or if it turns out to be the best step. There’s value in getting started, to get feedback – test, learn and adjust. As author and teacher Jim Collins argues, a key to success is not a single idea or one plan, it is the act of turning the flywheel, slowly gaining momentum and eventually reaching a breakthrough.

Without considering the counterfactual, without a randomised control trial, perhaps these moments of talent-naming aren’t material. Perhaps it’s a strategy that fails as often as it succeeds. But if there’s value in just getting started…

Try this at home [mums and dads]

Tell your kids something you’ve noticed they’re really good at, and add the ‘so what’. Perhaps your future robot boss is a brilliant constructor. Transforming the recycling into creatures and vehicles. With a talent like that, perhaps creating the machines or buildings of the future to transform how we live, is for them.

The idea isn’t to be deterministic, but to get the flywheel spinning.

Thank you to Shane Parrish (@farnamstreet) and Daniel Gross (@danielgross), Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) and Jim Collins (@level5leaders), Barbara Corcoran (@BarbaraCorcoran) and Linda Villarosa (@lindavillarosa) for inspiration and insights.

Editing: old school for iterating

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‘Come with me. A superhero soon you’ll be’! Choose a costume: shield or cape? Boots to make a quick escape? What’s your power? Strength or speed? These are things all heroes need.

How to Be a Superhero by @SueFliess

Getting your superhero just right takes a few goes.

IMG_3641

Kids can spend hours drawing. Getting what they see in their heads down on paper. Iteration is core business.

Writing seems to be approached differently. Perhaps because dabbling is more difficult for younger kids or, in a school context, there’s a draft or two, but that’s it. Hand it in. Onto the next thing.

Editing prose – drafting and redrafting, getting to heart of the matter – isn’t fashionable, but it’s incredibly valuable in business.  Consider how written material contributes to compelling brand identifies and value propositions.  When consumers are time poor and platforms are crowded, getting to the point is critical.

Also, experts who can also write well, have a real competitive advantage.  Equipped with great knowledge and the capacity to translate complex ideas into words that speak to people? Now that’s a real super power.

Yet editing is a skill rarely overtly taught in schools.

Try this at home kids!

Here’s an activity for older kids, taken from Jason Fried’s blog post The writing class I’d like to teach. It can help encourage kids to bring the approach they often bring to drawing, to writing.

Pick a topic, any topic, and write a three page version, a one page version, a three paragraph version, a one paragraph version, and a one sentence version.

Each step requires asking ‘What’s really important?’ That’s the most important question you can ask yourself about anything….Whittling it all down until all that’s left is the point.

Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of Basecamp in episode #329 of The Tim Ferriss Show and in a Signal v. Noise.

Thanks for the inspiration @jasonfried and @tferriss.

super bursti

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Creativity is a sought after thing. Creativity and its close companion ‘innovation’ are key drivers of many thriving businesses.  Creativity and innovation also seem likely to be even more important in the future, in part because they seem less prone to automation (AI advances pending!).

In his great podcast Worklife, Adam Grant talks about the concept of ‘burstiness’, a way creativity can happen in teams or groups.

Burstiness is when everybody is speaking and responding to each other in a short amount of time instead of having it drawn out over a long period of time.”

“Burstiness is like the best moments in improv jazz. Someone plays a note, someone else jumps in with a harmony, and pretty soon, you have a collective sound that no one planned. Most groups never get to that point, but you know burstiness when you see it. At The Daily Show, the room just literally sounds like it’s bursting with ideas (Worklife – Season 1, Episode 2)

Christoph Riedl and Anita Williams Woolley (interviewed by Adam for the podcast) have written this article on team-based problem solving, including ‘burstiness’.

Given the value of creativity and the often team-based nature of our working lives, nurturing some burstiness in our kids (and ourselves) sounds like the way to go.

But where to start? In his Worklife podcast Adam talks about the importance of ‘psychological safety’.  In short,  people need to feel comfortable and willing to take a social risk to encourage ‘burstiness’.  This sounds like a good a foundation to build and keep in mind.

Try this at home kids

To help nurture robot bosses equipped for ‘burstiness’- of the best improve-jazz-variety – here’s an idea to try at home with the kids(s), or on your next car trip.

A group of three or four kids aged between four and seven seems to work best.

Start by explaining that you’re going to play a game, where you’ll all be working together to tell a strange and excellent story.

The winner is the person the team decides has planted the seed(s) for the ‘best’ character or plot twist, which inspired others and encouraged others to jump in. For a sporting analogy, it is the person who sets the team up to score or the person voted ‘best and fairest’.

Make it clear up-front that:

  • the more imagination the better
  • there is no wrong answer
  • everyone should feel free to jump in and build on the story or characters, this is a team effort
  • interruptions are fine (good even), but everyone should have a little bit of space to get their idea out.

To get started, asking one of the kids in the group to kick-off with a joke or a funny story often does the trick.

Be ready to jump in and lead by example.

Tip: aim for the improbable and to entertain, make supporting each other central.  

Special thanks to Adam Grant for the inspiration.

Postscript 

Officially ‘burstiness’, ‘swarming’ at Brink (tweet below) and ‘super bursti’ here at trythisathomekids.com. A great concept resonating.