How Creative Companies Stay Creative

These ideas are about keeping innovative people happy at the companies that employ them. You may want to look these up at the source and show them to the boss; many of these ideas do not reflect the customary thinking at business schools. These nine suggestions come straight from the June issue of Inc. magazine, the commentary is courtesy of Mixonian:

1. Encourage risky behavior. How much risk can your boss tolerate? Find ways to try new things, without bankrupting the company.

2. Get multicultural. A variety of viewpoints means people working together with differing political views, ethnic backgrounds, languages, ages, social backgrounds. It could also mean having lunch at Dale's Indian Cuisine.

3. Provide lots of free time to think. Hmmmm....sounds anti-productive. But burning out employees is not exactly productive either.

4. Hire smart. Review the hiring process to encourage the qualities valued by your company.

5. Bring in outsiders. These can be poets, artists, film directors, theologians, astronauts (i.e. rocket scientists), physicists, musicians. Get their perspective on a your project, or have them talk to employees to widen everyone's views.

6. Do it for free. Reward employees for helping others. The trick is to set it up so it's not just another salary-enhancing practice, keep it unpredictable.

7. Mix up your people. Cross training has been around for awhile, and for a good reason.

8. Be flexible, very flexible. This also means being open, very open, to employee suggestions.

9. Write it down. This suggestion refers to employee-created publications, it could be a simple bulletin board. The idea is to provide a venue for employees to put out some wild ideas....one might turn into a big home run for the company.

See, creativity is for everyone. Not only does it make for a richer life, but it can lead to a richer bank account.

One Person, Multiple Personae, in Action

Several readers found the concept of multiple characters within ourselves illuminating. Today's Raleigh newspaper, the News and Observer, gives an example of this paradigm in action: lawyers by day, actors by night. Upon reflection, it's hard to imagine someone better prepared to play the role of Iago (in Othello), than a trial lawyer. That's just what Raleigh attorney Seth Blum does, "It's an extremely lawyerly role as Iago is constantly given new information that on its face is bad, but he has to turn it into something good" (1-D).

It turns out that Harvard, Duke, Stanford, and other law schools have their own drama societies. Furthermore, actors Fred Thompson, Ben Stein, Ruben Blades, John Cleese (among others) all earned law degrees, but never practiced. The article's author, Orla Swift, interviewed several area attorneys who perform drama in courtrooms by day, in theatres by night.

The theatre provides a creative outlet that allows these lawyers to express themselves in different ways to different audiences. Mr. Blum further explains that both jobs involve capturing a universal truth and expressing it so that it resonates inside the heart of the audience. "If you're arguing to a jury, then the job of the lawyer is to make it resonate in the heart. If you're arguing to a judge, usually it's to make it resonate intellectually. But you've got to know your audience" (4-D).

What interests Mixonian, of course, is how the theatre provides form for vital creative expression. Most jobs and careers today, the ones that pay salaries, are far too narrow in scope to provide total personal fulfillment. That's why Sally works in HR by day, quilts by night. Carrie explains software by day, paints (canvasses and faces) on the week-ends. Dawn teaches science at her "real" job; paints furniture on the week-ends.

While the synergistic connection between professional work and creative expression may not be obvious, the two ways of work interact to make a more completely prepared and happy person.

Prepare for Your Big Break

In interviews celebrities often refer to some incident, a "big break", that resulted in their getting on the fast track to achievement in their field of choice. Many times the story is told as some form of rescue drama -- the scout, the agent, the producer, the editor -- who spotted their insufficiently polished talent and got their professional lives in motion.

It's a good idea to prepare for that big break of your own. Just remember, you may be 65 years old when it arrives. You need to keep productively busy in the meantime. The valued experience called life is not what happens to you during your sojourn on this planet; the real grit is what you do, the way you react to what happens to you.

I started my first post-MBA job as an assistant to an account executive in the international area of a very large bank (this was after sending out 50 resumes!) However, I disliked intensely, much to my surprise, the rhyme and rhythm of corporate banking. In my process of learning more about the local economy, I ran across an ad for a writing job, one that paid double what I was earning at the bank. Even though I had no professional writing experience or writing courses in college, I got the job; it changed my life. Many years later something similar happened that got me teaching at ECU. I interviewed a professor in the process of writing an article I hoped to sell. At the end of the interview, I got a job offer; it changed my life.

Many, if not most of you, are not exactly sure of what you want to do with your work lives. That's normal. Probably, you do want work that is interesting, somehow fulfilling and allows you financial stability.

Prepare for what you THINK you want to do. On your own. College courses prepare you only imperfectly and inadequately. If you want to write for a living, read and write. Reading trains your subconscious mind for good writing. If you want to pursue writing Southern stories, read Flannery O'Connor. Just pick one of her short stories and read it until you have absorbed it. Reread it from time to time. If you prefer a different writing field, find a top author and read one of his works.

Prepare for your big break by taking action. Whatever you think you want to do, start doing it. Write. Read. Make movies. Take photographs. Paint. Start interviewing. Collect personal stories. Get together with like-minded people. You won't know if you really like something until you do it. In the process, opportunities surface -- otherwise known as "big breaks".