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Volume 2, No. 9
| Contents Beauty The Future of Strategy ACA Call for Presenters Blogging Away Advertising: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why Think in Another Box Buidling an Innovative Enterprise The Power of Values in Organizations |
Blogging Away There's a new blog to subscribe to - The Illuminated Innovant. Its a blog for book reviews and disussion. Books will mainly focus on innovation, creativity, leadership and strategy. Contributions are welcome. Don't forget the other two blogs - The Innovation Commons and The Innovation Roadmap Travelogue. More blogs and discussion groups are planned for the future. |
| Beauty In 1995, Donna Prestwood, Barbara Benjamin and I, created, produced and hosted 8 two-hour live satellite TV broadcasts for the National Technological University (NTU) on leadership, which we entitled "Leadership in the Interactive Age." In the session called, Personal Ingenuity and Emerging Technologies, we described three characteristics of inevitable opportunities in technology:
My point was, as I presented these three criteria, that if a technology operated on the space between people (things, ideas, concepts), enhanced synergy, and was beautiful (elegant), it probably had a good chance of being a success. I would probably add time shifting now, and still think it's a pretty good list. I want to focus on beauty right now, because I think it is imperative that we keep our eye on this criteria as we move to more collaborative, emergent behavior types of human systems. Rollo May was an existential psychologist and a philosopher. I read several books of his in the 1980s. In My Quest for Beauty, May wrote, "Poincare, the great contemporary mathematician, sounds like Plato when he asks the question of how new mathematical discoveries are made. Then he answers, 'The useful combinations are precisely the most beautiful, I mean those best able to charm this special sensibility that all mathematicians know...But only certain ones are harmonious, consequently, at once useful and beautiful.' Writing about Shiller, May comments, "...we best let him speak for himself. 'Beauty alone confers happiness on all, and under its influence every being forgets that he is limited.' Shiller hastens to add that this forgetting is temporary, however, for the sense of limitations is crucial to our creating beauty. We actually create beauty out of the endeavor to come to terms with the paradox on the one hand of freedom and on the other of destiny. Our limits come from both nature and spirit, finite and infinite, objective and subjective." May agrees with Shiller that beauty is born in play. "Play is the one activity where the fusion of inner vision and objective facts is achieved. Out of this comes the living form which is beauty. This living form is vital, alive, dynamic; and at the same time it gives serenity and repose..." May remarks, "Artists wrestle with fate in the endeavor to make objective their inner subjective vision." And, in order to do that people must be psychologically healthy. Beauty is a result of creativity that is driven by the engine of paradox, the duality of opposites (finite/infinite, life/death, yin/yang, right/left brain). "Death is the mother of beauty", wrote Wallace Stevens. "Thus creativity brings together what Freud summed up as the two purposes of life: to love and to work. (Otto) Rank was only going further than Freud by pointing out that both of these, love and work, are aspects of creativity." May later writes, "Let us explore the human mind as it engages in the creative act. The capacity to create - which we all have, although to varying degrees - is essentially the ability to find form in chaos, to create form where there is only formlessness. This is what leads to beauty, for beauty is that form. Beauty reveals a form in the universe - the harmony of the spheres, as Kepler called it. It is a form which is present in the circling of the planets. It is a form which is felt in the curves and balance of our own bodies. And it is present especially in the way we see the world, for we form and reform the world in the very act of perceiving it. The imagination to do this is one of the elements that make us human beings." But what is form? "Form is a pattern, an image and an order given to what would otherwise simply be chaos. Form is the nonmaterial structure of our lives, on the basis of which we live and on which we base our own particular character." Henry Miller wrote of creative people that they want "to make of the chaos about them an order that is their own." In another seeming paradox, May points out that "the form dictates the content." We select a form "because the content can best be formed out of the chaos" and put into "whatever form seems to fit." "Form", he continues, "is nonmaterial, and has its existence only as things are related to other things." Writing about Pythagoras, he explains, "he held that the fundamental element (of the universe) was no substance at all, but was really the form in which everything in nature is related to everything else." At a personal level, our own quest for beauty through our creativity gives us grace. May writes, "Creativity gives us grace in the sense that it is balm for our anxiety and a relief from our alienation. It is grace by virtue of its power to reconcile us to our deepest selves, to lead us to our own depths where primary and secondary functions are unified. Here the right brain and the left brain work together is seeing the wholeness of the world." Chaos is essential for creativity and thus beauty. Too much order will stifle creativity. The role of the artist changes depending upon the environment. If too much chaos exists, the artist creates new order. If too much order exists, the role of the artist is to create chaos. If you have any doubt about beauty being a serious objective of any undertaking, listen to what Rollo May has to say. "Beauty is the expereince that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously. Other happenings give us joy and afterwards a peace, but in beauty these are the same experience. Beauty is serene and at the same time exhilarating; it increases one's sense of being alive. Beauty gives us not only a feeling of wonder; it imparts to us at the same moment timelessness, a repose - which why we speak of beauty as being eternal. Beauty is the mystery which enchants us. Like all higher experiences of being human, beauty is dynamic; its sense of repose, paradoxically, is never dead, and if it seems to be dead, it is no longer beauty." Innovation commons, as well as other open, collaborative systems, are by their very nature chaotic systems. The goal is to find the order in the chaos through the individual and collective creativity of its members. This will happen if their is a shared vision, will and significance in the group. The balance of order and chaos is extremely important, as well as the timing of that balance, which should change from more chaotic to more ordered over time, or else the effort will not be productive. The group has to collectively and individually be on a quest for beauty, in addition to functionality, in order to avoid building a termite mound. (See The Limits of an Innovation Commons in the blog for more information about the reference to termite mounds). Paul Schumann My Quest for Beauty, Rollo May, Saybrook, 1985 Comment or Discuss this essay The Future of Strategy "It's provocative and full of insights." This is a 47 minute telephone interview of Paul Schumann by Tom Carroll. All of the files listed are mp3. You can download for free, or order a CD for $10. 1. What is corporate strategy? (1.6 mb, 2:09) 2. What does it mean for an organization to have an effective strategy? (.6 mb, :49) 3. What are some of the best practices for developing an effective corporate strategy? (.9 mb, 1:16) 4. What should an effective corporate strategy include? (1.8 mb, 2:32) 5. Who should be involved in strategy formation? (1.4 mb, 1:56) 6. What do you mean by the term "knowable future" and how does that relate to business strategy development? (4.5 mb, 6:16) 7. What sort of new strategy development methodologies do you see emerging? (1.5 mb, 2:03) 8. Presently, are there some recent global trends that you believe are important to consider when developing business strategies? (9.7 mb, 13:30) 9. Were you surprised on finding that technology develops slowly? (4 mb, 5:30) 10. Are there any companies who really have gotten strategy development down to a fine art? (4.2 mb, 5:48) 11. What are some first steps a company can take to begin formulating an effective corporate strategy? (2.6 mb, 3:36) 12. How can people contact you? (1.1 mb, 1:36) Order the CD (audio or mp3) ACA Call for Presenters The American Creativity Association is holding it's 2006 International Conference on March 22 - 24, 2006 in Austin, Texas at the Austin-Bergstrom Airport Hilton. The call for presenters as well as other information about the conference is available on their web site (www.amcreativityassoc.org). Proposals must be submitted before October 31, 2005. Linda Shafer & Barry Silverberg are Conference co-Chairs. Contact Barry Silverberg at barry@amcreativityassoc.org with questions or suggestions. Paul Schumann (www.theinnovationroadmap.com) is organizing a focus on advances in the understanding of innovation in organizations. The desire is to have seminars, workshops and panel discussions on new systems and knowledge of organizational innovation, especially open, collaborative ones. Topics of interest are developing insights in a complex future, discovering opportunities and threats, attracting collaborators and leading collaborations, open systems for innovation, issues of recognition and reward in open collaborations, the microeconomics of innovation and measurement systems. Anyone interested in this special focus on innovation should submit a proposal on the ACA web site. Visit Their Web Site Advertising: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why FREE SEMINAR 11/30/05 What makes people do the things they do? Can advertising really change how customers think and feel? The simple truth is that most advertising isn't working like it should. But why not? BUSINESS OWNERS - You're invited to a free, all-day seminar to be held at the Wizard's Castle in Austin, Texas on November 30, 2005, entitled, "Advertising: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why." This seminar will answer your questions about what to expect from the marketplace this year and beyond. This is the same seminar for which Roy Williams (the Wizard of Ads) is routinely paid tens of thousands of dollars to perform in cities around the world. Now you have the rare opportunity to see this material presented by the Wizard himself. Seating, as always, is limited, so secure your reservation now. For more information call (800) 425-4769. Please note that although the Free Public Seminar will be incredibly helpful to your marketing needs, you should not confuse it with the more in-depth curriculum offered at Wizard Academy. Presented by The Wizard Academy, the home of The Wizrd of Ads- Roy Williams - located just south of Austin, Texas in Buda. Come and visit the Wizard's new castle on a hilltop in the Texas Hill Country. Register to Attend Now (Free) Creativity and the Future Creativity and the future are inextricably intertwined. We create the future and creativity is required to perceive the future being created. In today's complex environment, foresight requires the interaction of a number of creative minds with expertise in a variety of fields. Creativity is required to analyze or synthesize data from noise, knowledge from data and wisdom from knowledge. And, that creativity must be tapped and channeled through the use of appropriate futures methodologies. This presentation will cover some concepts of the future and useful ways to utilize the creativity of people to develop foresight. It will also include a discussion of the limits of our ability to forecast. You can download (wmv, 8.9 MB) a copy for free (low resolution) or order a CD ($14.95). Paul Schumann is a practicing futurist with expertise in creativity and innovation. He has lived long enough to see forecasts fail and succeed, including some of his own. He had a thirty year career with IBM in three very different arenas - as a technologist and technology manager in semiconductor technology, as an internal entrepreneur creating the first independent business unit within IBM, and as a cultural change agent developing a more creative and innovative culture. Since retiring from IBM he has been consultant as a business futurist with programs in creativity and innovation. He is the founding president of the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society (www.CenTexWFS.org). More information about Paul can be found on his web sites - www.theinnovationroadmap.com and www.glocalvantage.com. Order Now! Think in Another Box In this CD by Mark Fox you will learn some of the best kept secrets to creative thinking. The secrets of Elvis's hit records, how Einstein really came up with those mind boggling theories, how Picasso created some of his best masterpieces, as well as today's latest technology breakthroughs. The best part is you will learn how these techniques can be applied to you job and your personal life. Regular Price: $29.95 Secial Offer: Free for a Limited Time Find Out More and Order CD (Free) Buidling an Innovative Enterprise An introduction into Paul Schumann's unique, systematic approach to building a self regenerating, innovative enterprise. This outlines the concepts covered in his 4 hour workshop. (DVD, 6 minutes) If you would like a this free DVD description of the Building an Innovative Enterprise seminar, please order below. Order DVD The Power of Values in Organizations Obtain a free 6 minute video excerpt from Paul Schumann's insightful seminar on The Power of Values in Organizations. Order DVD or Videotape |
| Paul
Schumann Editor & Publisher The Innovation Road Map Newsletter 4512 Autumn Leaf Hollow, Austin, TX 78731 PO Box 26947, Austin, TX 78755 512.302.1935 Visit The Innovation Road Map Web Site |
