Crunch Time

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How to innovate more

I’m told the advanced degree many businesses are now seeking is not the MBA but the MFA, Master of Fine Arts. Since so much of our left brain functions are being handled by technological advances, what is lacking is the right brain creative contribution. It mostly laid dormant for years as businesses concentrated on growth through numbers. Yet, you don’t need an advance degree to have your creativity matter. You can learn how.

We learn best by doing, so in order to think different we have to act different. We don’t think our way to a new way of being, we act our way there. In a new book, The Innovators DNA, the authors Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen interviewed 100 innovative entrepreneurs to determine how they “ticked”.

The bulk of their findings were behavioral in nature-  these people acted creatively. The behavioral skills common to all innovators, ourselves included are:

• Questioning. Innovators never settle for the standard answer. They question assumptions and continued to answer “What if?” They are pesky in interrogation.

• Observing. Innovators keep a vigilant eye out for what was next on the horizon. They look at situations from different angles and perceptions. Einstein imagined what it would be like to ride on a beam of light. That perspective forever altered our view of the universe.

• Networking. We learn best when challenged by other people who have very different points of view from our own. Innovators allow others to stretch them and are wide open to the breakthroughs such tension creates. They are not threatened by other creatives because they know that nobody can create as uniquely as themselves. We are our own creative fingerprint.

• Experimenting. This is pretty straight forward. Innovators “tinker”, trying out new avenues without fear of failure. Failure in the creative process is a conduit to new ideas and refinement. Several smaller tests lead to more discoveries than just one major test. In other words, fail early and often.

It takes courage to act in these ways. They are vulnerable behaviors, putting ourselves out there for the world to see. Yet there is a powerful feedback loop that is put in place when we behave creatively. The more these behavioral skills are practiced, the more confident and innovative we become.

To be resilient these days, we need a vibrant imagination to bring about new possibilities and hope. We can all play a part in that.

Finding Your Hedgehog

Jim Collins in his book Good to Great talks about the importance of finding your hedgehog. The premise comes from an essay by Isaiah Berlin that contrasts the fox that sporadically does many things with the hedgehog who focuses on doing one thing really well.

You could be the most amazing speaker in the world, but if you don’t have something that differentiates you, a hedgehog, no one is going to know about you or care.  You’ll just be one of thousands of other speakers out there talking about "whatever".

98 percent of real estate agents sell to anyone and everyone. They’re a dime a dozen. The agents that are very successful know precisely what they sell and to whom. They have a hedgehog- a single driving idea that gives clarity to what they do.  I know a real estate agent who introduces himself as the realtor who finds great garages attached to homes for those who love cars. That is clear! I know precisely what he does and can refer him wholeheartedly when the time comes.

Identifying my hedgehog has been an agonizing journey.  I remember telling my wife I’m  a really good speaker but what do I speak about? What is it that sets me apart from other speakers?  My unique style of delivery is a hedgehog, but I needed a topic. I am interested in so many things that it was paralyzing to think of picking just one topic and market. I thought it would limit myself.

But  just the opposite is the truth. When you focus on a precise area within a defined market, you become more content and garner more business. You know where to focus your efforts so nothing is expended without a purpose and everyone knows exactly what you are about.  They can easily "sell" you.

My professional hedgehog has three identifiers

• I am a subject matter specialist on resilience
• I am a motivati0nal speaker that melds substantive content with humor
• I target meeting planners of trade associations

How did I come about discovering that? I asked three questions.

1. What in my experience made me a specialist on a topic. It takes 10,000 hours of concerted effort to become an expert in anything. I realized that one of the only things that helped me thrive in spite of the ramifications of bipolar disorder was resilience. I know a thing or two about bouncing back and thriving in the midst of extreme change.
2. What do I do by accident? In other words what gifts and skills do I bring to the table? I have been able to speak well in public and make people laugh and no one can do it like I can. That is my unique delivery for the subject of resilience.
3. Who would benefit the most from what I know and who I am?  Who can I serve to make their lives easier and more rewarding? I have worked extensively with trade associations in the past and know their purpose and challenges well. They would be my main market. In particular I need to reach meeting planners who schedule events and speakers for their events. I could narrow the hedgehog even further by choosing a particular industry such as health care.

From a professional point of view, do you know what your hedgehog is? What precisely sets you apart from the competition? Discovering your hedgehog will help you clarify your mission, enhance your efforts, and free you to be as influential as possible in the profession you have chosen. It will free you to serve those who most need what you can provide.

Is talent really that important?

We marvel at those who seem to navigate life with exceptional giftedness. Mozart was composing music at age five, first performing at age eight, and producing hundreds of musical masterpieces before he died at age thirty five.

Tiger Woods defied categorization, winning major tournaments at a breakneck pace at a young age. Stephen King cranks out bestsellers year after year after year. They must have a divinely appointed moxie and mojo that the rest of us just don't have.  Or do they?

I just finished reading a book by Geoff Colvin entitled, Talent is overrated. He set out to  explore why some people become elite performers and others do not. What he discovered is very surprising: Their exceptional performance has nothing to do with innate talent. In other words, the elite performer you admire has no more talent than you do. So what's the difference?

According to the research Geoff investigated, elite performance boils down to two things:

Deliberate Practice: Elite performers practiced more than others. The hours put into a craft or endeavor was deliberately pursued, in spite of the boring, unpleasant, sometime agonizing aspects. They persisted and never stopped. It seemed the Beatles were a phenomenon- musical geniuses that suddenly came into the scene and changed rock and roll overnight. What we tend to forget is they were playing small cramped venues for five grueling years before their first hit. Lennon and McCartney would put relentless hours honing their songwriting skills, toiling away in obscurity before realizing their first hit single. Beatlemania didn't just happen solely because of their talent. It happened because they deliberately practiced, and practiced, and practiced and practiced.

Garrison Keillor the writer and host of the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" admitted he isn't a better writer than anyone else. He's just willing to slog it out writing more than most.

Unwavering belief that they could do it. Elite performers have a tenacious confidence in their ability. They know deep down that they could reach the highest heights, to become the best at what they do. They never let setbacks or doubt stand in the way of their ability to make it happen. They were brutally honest with themselves about their weaknesses and took deliberate steps to overcome them. They imagined a successful future with them as a key player in it. It made the agonizing moments of deliberate practice, the lack of accolades or immediate success take on a greater purpose.

Walt Disney continued to see the immense potential of animation to move emotions and impact the world when everyone else saw them as simple, short diversions. He persisted because he saw clearly the power in telling deep, character driven stories as a feature length film. He could see it and knew he was the one to make it happen. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was the result. It changed animation forever.

Great performance in any field isn't reserved for an elite few. Great performance is available to all, but it never comes easy. Deliberate, sometimes painful practice must be maintained and a raw self assessment of your ability must continually happen. Practice, Setbacks and Adjustments are ways to realize peak performance in whatever you do.

The hardest thing you'll do today

Every day you're confronted with a choice. In the stress and strain of everyday life, you have to choose between two different mindsets. I believe doing this is the hardest thing you'll do each day.

The choice is between allowing a vulnerable mindset or a resilient mindset to direct your day. That choice determines how your day is structured and your effectiveness in engaging its stress.

A vulnerable mindset tells you you're ill equipped to handle challenges and so you respond with a weakened resolve. A vulnerable mindset creates inadequate thoughts that are easy to adopt. They're the "I can't..." or "I should..." statements. They don't require anything from you but to give in. In fact, they can become excuses for not doing anything.

A resilient mindset, on the other hand, is hard to implement. It takes an act of the will. It requires a constant vigilance against vulnerable, ineffectual thoughts. You won't always want to deal with difficult situations, but you WILL because that is what resilience requires. It takes discipline and daily practice. You can choose resilience in the following ways:

• Begin each day with the conscious resolve to confront vulnerability. The first thought when you get up each morning should be one of strength to tackle the day. Tell yourself you can and you will engage the challenges with a gritty resolve. This daily conditioning will create a habit of thought that will carry over to the rest of the day.
• Interrogate your thoughts and determine their effectiveness. Ask yourself if the thoughts are diminishing your ability to resist stress. Remember vulnerable thoughts are the white flags of surrender. Don't give in or take the easy way out.
• Counteract a vulnerable mindset with the truth. Are you really that incapable of going where you need to go or doing what you need to do? Of course not. People who survived the holocaust did so because they knew their captors could never take away the efficacy of their inner experience.
• Interface with others that care for you. A resilient mindset is not embarrassed or too proud to ask for help. Give people the privilege of ministering to you in tough times. Spending time in relationships helps sharpen your resolve. It also normalizes any challenges you experience- you're not alone.

Keep guard over your thoughts today. The harder a thought is to listen to and act on, the more resilient it is likely to be. It's easy for me to give in to depression. It's much harder to get up and complete the simple task of just taking out the trash. Doing so though, gets me out of my funk and on with day. It takes tough, concerted effort, but anything worthwhile does. The difficulty in choosing a resilient mindset is why so many people spend their days vulnerable to anxiety instead.