What Innovators Can Learn From Poetry

Last night I attended a book launch party to honor Elizabeth Alexander, the poet who spoke at Obama’s inauguration. After some opening remarks, she read her inaugural poem, “Praise Song for the Day.”

After her reading, she took questions from the audience of over 100 people.

The question (and response) that struck a chord with me was when Elizabeth was asked if the inauguration committee gave her any guidelines for her poem. Did it have to be a certain length? Did it have to be around a certain theme?

Elizabeth’s response was an emphatic “No.”

There were no restrictions on the poem’s length. It did not have to fit neatly into a time slot. It did not have to address any particular topic. She could talk about whatever moved her.

The only restriction was how much time she had to write the poem. Obviously it had to be ready by January 20th. She joked that this was the first time she ever had a deadline for one of her poems.

Elizabeth commented that the organizers knew that only the artist could determine the perfect length and the perfect theme. Dictating these parameters would compromise the quality of the finished product. Poetry is a natural expression that emerges best when there are fewer limitations.

Even though a topic was not dictated, I suspect the theme was immediately obvious to her.  It was to capture the historic moment of change within the country.  To honor America and Americans.  And to celebrate the inauguration of her friend, Barack Obama.

Creativity is similar to poetry. If you put too many restrictions on the creative process, you may compromise the quality of the finished product. Creativity often needs time to incubate.  And the best solutions often look different than expected.

But in business, the “theme” is not always as obvious.  Everyone has their own agenda.  One reason creative endeavors fail in business is that they are solving the wrong problem.

Einstein once said, “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.” From my personal experience, most people (and organizations) spend 60 minutes finding solutions to problems that don’t matter.  For those of you who have played Personality Poker®, you know this is why the “spades” (the fact-driven, analytical people in your organization) are so important to your success.  They can help define critical themes for the creative “diamonds.”

In business, we are not creating works of art.  Our creative endeavors need to make business sense. They need to be implementable (the domain of the “clubs”) and they ultimately need to serve customers, employees, business partners, and/or shareholders.

Regardless, there is great wisdom in Elizabeth’s response.

You need to give people – all employees – more creative freedom. You need to put fewer restrictions on the creative process. And you need to give employees more latitude to let the best ideas emerge.  In doing this, your innovation efforts may just develop spectacular works of art that move, inspire, and create value for everyone.

Climate for Innovation On the Rise

According to a recent study by Chuck Frey at innovationtools.com, 47% of companies say that the climate for innovation has “improved slightly or significantly” since the onset of the global recession.  In fact, only a quarter of the respondents felt that the climate for innovation has deteriorated.

Surprisingly, only one third of the companies say they cut investments in innovation.  37% have kept funding steady while 29% have increased funding.

However, as I suspected, those innovation investments are now being channeled into things other than new product development.  The top 5 innovation strategies are:

• Looking for creative ways to improve or extend your existing products (50.9%)
• Looking for opportunities to improve collaboration (47.2%)
• Increasing focus on changing customer needs (39.8%)
• Focusing on service innovation (38.1%)
• Focusing on process innovation (36.4%)

Most of the innovation dollars are being funneled into getting more out of existing products, while increasing efficiency and service levels.

The one thing I did not find in the study is if companies, as part of their efforts to “improve or extend” existing products are using “simplification” as method of increasing marketshare.  To learn my perspectives on this, read about the “innovation bell curve.”  This is an overlooked opportunity to gaining marketshare by leveraging your existing offerings.

You can read the full report on innovationtools.com.  This is an interesting report and offers hope for those who believe that innovation is the answer.

Having said that…

It is important to point out that studies like these are inherently biased and are not statistically accurate as the respondents are not randomized.  The companies who participate tend to be connected to the surveyors in some (albeit indirect) way.  Therefore those organizations are thinking about innovation more than others.

When I was recently asked what morale was like at my clients, I said “challenging yet optimistic.” But my client list is not representative of the norm.  Anyone who hires me is clearly still investing in innovation and continues to see its value.

Therefore, when reading this, focus more on the qualitative aspects rather than the hard, cold numbers.  There are interesting insights to be found.  And maybe there is even a ray of optimism shining through the cloudy economy.

New Literary Agent

News flash…I just signed on with Bonnie Solow as my literary agent. She represents big name authors like Jack Canfield and T. Harv Eker.  I am honored to be working with her.  We already have a two book deal in the works.  More details soon.

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