Concurrence, July-September, 2015

2

“To
understand
the
process
of
creative
genius,

it
is
valid
for
business
people
to
look
at
the

model
of
the
artist.
The
business
of
the

artist
is
to
create,
navigate
opportunity,

explore
possibility,
and

master
creative
breakthrough.
We
need
to

restore
art,
the
creation
of
opportunity,

to
business.”

-‐Brandweek
(1998)

3

Inception

Beyond
Boundaries

It
is
now
10
years
since
we
got
into
Training,
the
last
five
of
which
have
gone
primarily
in

the
space
of
developing
Art-‐based
methodologies.
This
has
been
a
fascinating
journey
for

us,
a
journey
that
has
taken
us
overseas
to
nine
countries,
and
inwards
into
deeper

introspection
and
understanding
of
the
human
species.

And
with
each
programme
has
grown
the
belief
and
the
conviction
that
Art-‐Based

methods
have
enormous
potential
in
helping
people
learn.
As
adults,
constantly

challenged
and
pressured
by
the
world
and
its
demands,
Arts
not
only
offers
a
respite
(an

escape
even),
but
can
also
be
a
powerful
metaphoric
approach
to
decode
personalities
and

their
experiences.
Art-‐Based
methods,
whether
Painting,
Theatre,
Music,
Modeling
or

others
have
also
shown
us
how
alike
we
are
as
a
race.
How
similar
our
fears
and

fascinations,
charms
and
challenges
are,
across
physical
barriers.

In
this
our
second
edition
of
Concurence,
we
aim
to
see
how
our
global
connections
have

shaped
us,
and
how
we
can
connect
more
with
them,
and
learn
more
from
them.
This

edition
is
dedicated
to
our
friends,
partners
and
colleagues
across
the
world,
who
work

with
us
and
help
us
grow.

We
interview
Ali
Al
Uraimi,
Deputy
Managing
Director
at
the
Middle
East
College
in
Oman

and
a
great
believer
and
patron
of
Art-‐Based
learning,
as
he
tells
us
how
Creativity
in

campus
has
been
enhanced
through
more
Art-‐Based
approaches.

My
colleague
Rajni
Nair
contributes
from
South
Africa
with
two
excellent
pieces
–
on
the

fantastic
work
done
by
Business
and
Arts
South
Africa,
on
how
a
most
novel
project
is

aiming
to
merge
Arts
and
Sciences
to
grow
awareness
on
the
‘Highveld’.

Another
colleague
in
the
US,
Marta
Jascinska
delivers
a
wonderful
case
on
her
work
back
in

Poland,
an
innovative
Art
Taxi
project.

Leonardo
Previ
weighs
in
from
Italy
with
his
regular
piece
that
draws
inspiration
from
Artur

Koestler’s
work
and
connects
‘bisociation’
to
our
learning
efforts.

Our
partner
in
Australia,
Dr.Cathryn
Lloyd
writes
about
her
work
Down
Under,
in
pushing

the
envelope
across
organisations
ready
to
step
out
and
try
something
new.

And
there’s
of
course,
more.
A
review
of
Ed
Catmull’s
brilliant
book
Creativity,
Inc.,
a

tribute
to
Charles
Correa,
a
reprint
the
latest
McKinsey
Quarterly
article
on
the
The
Simple

Rules
of
Disciplined
Innovation.
And
more.

Read
on.
Thank
you
for
your
fantastic
feedback
on
our
last
issue.
We
learnt
a
lot
and
have

tried
to
take
in
your
suggestioin
to
make
this
issue
more
vibrant
and
exciting.
Like
our

work.

And
thank
you,
Rajni
Nair
and
Soni
Bhattacharya,
for
your
editing
help!

Anirban
Bhattacharya

Editor

Founder,
The
Painted
Sky

4

Contents

Page

Inception
Beyond
Boundaries
3

Point
of
View
Anirban
Bhattacharya:
Painting
in
the
Training
Room
5

Happenings
When
Business
&
Arts
Actively
Collaborate:
BASA
in
Africa
8

Point
of
View
Dr.Cathryn
Lloyd:
Beyond
the
Creativity
Challenge
16

Case
to
Point
Marta
Jasinska:
Bridging
Art
With
Professional
Growth
19

Tete-‐a-‐tete
A
Conversation
with
Ali
Al
Uraimi
26

Happenings
Art-‐Science
Collaboration
in
the
Highvelds
of
Africa
33

Point
of
View
Leonardo
Previ:
That’s
Why
We
Need
Arts
37

Insight
The
Simple
Rules
of
Disciplined
Innovation
41

Book
Review
Ed
Catmull’s
Creativity,
Inc.
49

And
in
the
End
Tribute:
Charles
Correa
57

5

Anirban
Bhattacharya
in
Bangalore
In almost all my programmes where we
use Painting, be it for Influencing or
Conflict Management, Collaboration or
Managing Change, one factor is
common - the participants' worry about
the Output.
Most of my participants aren't experts
in Painting, most haven't painted in
years, maybe decades. Some have never
painted in their life (at least the way we
do it - all formal and proper, stretched
canvases framed to perfection, easels
and paints and palettes et al). So, most
feel intimidated by the whole build up,
and anxiety about their performance
creeps in.
And that is a good thing.
One of things we drive through
Painting is to explore how comfortably
people can explore the new. How they
feel about getting out of their comfort
zones, trying different things with new
tools, to express themselves. Anxiety is
a catalyst for change (the same way
comfort is the enemy of progress). So,
getting the folks a bit worried is a good
thing.
The worry, essentially, is about the
output. The product they will,
individually and in groups, produce
after two hours of toil. And in view of
the lack of expertise, this is expected -
engineers, programmers, lawyers and
accountants all feel equally vulnerable
and exposed when confronted with a
stark white canvas. They are used to
being judged for what they produce, so
obviously there is discomfort.
And that is where Painting as a
method scores. Because we make it
completely non-competitive and non-
judgemental. Non-threatening, as
much as possible. By telling
participants that whether she is a
Vice President or a Management
Trainee, she is at par with the
Painting
in
the
Training
Room:

Where
Process

Trumps
Product

Point
of
View

6

person next to her (who could be,
yes, a Vice President or a
Management Trainee).
As most of our Painting based modules
are done in groups, there is a sense of
comfort in numbers. Beyond that, it is
all about the process. How people
respond to the stimulus of making art,
working together, overcoming barriers
and creating something new. Who they
are while they are at it.
Since we see these processes as
simulations, and our debrief brings this
out powerfully and effectively, the
process is much more significant to
observe, that the end product. And the
process, as we have developed,
follows five simple steps:
1. Ideate:
Facing the challenge, how
do you dive deep and come up
with ideas and solutions that can
be expressed on canvas? How do
you reference your memory and
experiences, create the stories
that you can sell to your group?
2. Communicate:
How do you express your idea to
your group? Are you passionate
and bright-eyed about the
beautiful image you can visualise,
or do you just sit back and let
others take the initiative?
3. Negotiate:
How do you convince your group
members to go with your idea
over others? How do you sell
your dream, your vision to a
group of others many of whom
are bringing equally beautiful
dreams and visions?

7

4. Execute:
After you have build consensus,
what was the process you
followed when you painted?
Since you are Painting in groups,
either as groups or as individuals
as parts of groups, how did you
go about giving shape to your
idea? Especially with possible
skill barriers?
5. Introspect:
Once the canvas(es) are ready,
what do you see? How has your
idea evolved and come to life in
2D? What did you learn from the
process - what went right and
what didn't?
When we sit back and decode at the
end, look at how the experience has
impacted participants, what they
learnt about each other and
themselves, the power of the process
becomes evident. And the output, the
product, becomes of secondary
importance. Of course, participants
feel a sense of pride about their
creation, there is a great sense of
ownership and joy. But what they
have created matters less to them
that the experience of creating.
This is how art making works in a
training room. By removing the fear of
the goal, focusing on the lessons of the
path.
Process over Product. Every time.
(First appeared on LinkedIn)

8

Happenings

When Business
and Arts
Actively
Collaborate:
BASA in
Africa

9

Rajni
Nair
in
Johannesburg

“Pablo Picasso never came to Africa.
However, the virus of African art stayed
with him throughout his life. Many of
Picasso's contemporaries shared his
fascination with African art. André
Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Georges
Braque and Henri Matisse who had
been searching for a new artistic
language to break the mould of
conventional representation, were
exposed to forms rich in African
symbols. Africa found its way in varying
degrees into their work.” The Economist,
February 2006.
So what is it that attracts Business to
Art and visa versa? Is this mutual
attraction limited to Corporate Social
Initiatives and Marketing strategies?
What explains an 11% increase in
corporate support for arts and even
here majority of sponsorships come
from marketing budgets as opposed to
CSI. An encouraging trend indeed…
Our focus as we go further
into this article will be on
Business Houses that
collaborate with African Art
and Artists who have taken
the risk to experiment by
partnering with other
disciplines in the true spirit
of Shared Values.
Internationally recognized South
African development agency Business &
Arts South Africa (BASA), a nonprofit
organization based in Johannesburg
was founded in 1997 as a joint initiative
of the Department of Arts and Culture,
South Africa and the business sector as
a public/private partnership.
Michelle Constant, the multi talented,
versatile, recognized as one of the
powerful and influential women leaders
of South Africa and also the CEO of
BASA, in the Agency’s annual report
2013-14 mentions a growing demand
occurring globally for a shift from the
long held universal paradigm of STEM
(Science, Technology Engineering and
Math to STEAM (with the inclusion of
Art).
A progressive enabler, Art ensures
porosity of engagement between Public,
Private Sectors and Civil Society,
according to Michelle. Based on this
overarching principle, Business and
Arts South Africa (BASA) conducts its
initiatives and programs to ensure
relevance and sustainability of business
– art partnerships.
Business and Arts South Africa under
Michelle Constant examines the
behavior of leading corporate
philanthropists and uncovers three keys
to the success of art based partnerships:
deep involvement from the CEO, board
members and Art Champions;
alignment between art and business
strategy; and management of Corporate

10

Social Initiative as a business
investment.
Drawing on the experience of senior
business leaders and artists, Michelle
Constant and her team look at
exploring whether, to what extent and
with what results Art is embedded within
business strategy.
One of the visionary
approaches of BASA’s
commitment to this niche yet
growing area of Business-Art
collaboration is therefore
observed in their Art
Sponsorship Tool Kit, which
is a very detailed and
comprehensive manual for
the benefit of Business
Houses. The toolkit is
designed to review, refresh
and enhance art sponsorship
practice, as well as highlights
the shift towards a more
strategic partnership
approach to art sponsorship.
For companies considering
investing in Art, the toolkit
provides a step-by-step guide
and set of exercises to craft a
well-considered, longer-term
arts partnership strategy.
Michelle Constant
emphasizes that the tool kit
also aims at moving beyond
strategic questions to
considerations of the most
appropriate structural
location of Art - business
partnership within business
and its implementation.
Rather than prescribing one
approach to integrating art into
business, the Business – Art tool kit will
provide opportunities to reflect on the
advantages and disadvantages
associated with a number of different
approaches.
A word of caution however from
Michelle Constant in today’s recession
driven environment. She admits that
partnerships are based on pre-
Michelle Constant

11

determined budget and surplus
affordability.
An interesting information provided by
Michelle points towards the fact that
while most business houses locate
partnerships with art within CSI
departments and corporate
foundations, there are examples of
partnerships housed within niche
business units within a company. Due
to confidentiality clause the advantages
of locating art-business partnerships
within different business departments
could not be explored further.
The product basket of educational
programs offered by BASA resonates
and with its vision and mission of being
a leading connector catalyst and to
provide expertise in developing
partnerships between business and
arts. Needs and requirements of all
relevant stakeholders have been kept in
mind while developing and rolling out
the pedagogy.
Some of the important ones include,
BASA Basic aimed at arts organizations
and individuals wishing to start a not
for profit organization or conversely a
for profit organization. BASA Dynamic
for registered arts organizations with a
basic business model and plan and
focuses on strategy and tactic. BASA
Professional aimed at Organizations in
operation for a couple of years, but are
faced with strategic organizational
challenges. Mentorship, Board bank,
Pro bono assistance and advocacy,
Breakfast Meetings are some of the
Business – Art tool kit will
provide opportunities to
reflect on the advantages
and disadvantages
associated with a number
of different approaches.

12

senior level programs providing niche
business skills and skilled professionals
as mentors and guide.
Business and Arts South Africa under
Michelle Constant is strengthening its
international engagement with
upcoming trips to Mozambique and
Zambia that are part of BASA's ongoing
commitment to support the
development of extensive creative
industries.
Among the initiatives taking place
during BASA's Zambian visit are
audience development workshops in
Lusaka and Kitwe.
Ukhona Mlandu and Kim Sanssoucie,
who are both Fellows of the Connecting
Creative Markets initiative that BASA is
currently running in partnership with
The British Council Connect ZA, will
facilitate these.
BASA will be engaging with the
Zambian public and private sector on
ways of supporting and strengthening
the creative sector through policy and
institutionalized partnerships.
Business and Arts South Africa’s
philosophy that the well being of
companies and artists is
interconnected continues to gain
traction through many of its
members’ success stories.
Standard Bank, South Africa is
one of BASA’s very own
successful member stories.
It would be worth a mention
here that as part of its campaign
for 2015, National Arts Festival in
Grahams Town, South Africa,
Standard Bank undertook a social
experiment testing the hypothesis 'the
closer you are, the more you feel'.
Three volunteers - a music student with
"two tone-deaf parents", an aspiring
singer in her twenties and an elderly
sales rep who enjoys classical music -
were wired to a barrage of monitors,
recording EEG, heart rate and blood
pressure.
Their physical reactions to music were
recorded in three different guises:
• Phase 1: being told about the
performance by a knowledgeable
insider
• Phase 2: viewing a video of the
performance
• Phase 3: the live performance itself.
The stimulus used was Standard Bank
Young Artist winner Nduduzo
Makhathini performing his song
Echoes of You.
Not surprisingly, being merely told
about the performance elicited the
lowest reading, while the third phase of
the experiment, watching a live
performance of Nduduzo Makhathini at
Joburg Art Fair

Nduduzo Makhathini

13

The Orbit Jazz Club in Johannesburg,
yielded the most radical reaction -
increased blood pressure, increased
heart rate and unreadable EEG results -
because there was too much movement
from the participants.
According to Head Group Brand and
Sponsorships, Standard bank, Jenny
Pheiffer, "This was a fun social
experiment to re-examine what seems
really obvious on one level - just how
much better is it to experience a
performance live and it transpires it is
quantifiably better… one of the reasons
why Standard Bank continues to
support major live events.”
In yet another success story between
Business and Art collaboration, First
National Bank the oldest bank of South
Africa and the primary sponsor of
Joburg Art Fair, projects the Fair as an
embodiment of the bank’s vision of
creating a platform for dialogue and
exchange that reaches beyond the realm
of arts.
Now in its 8th
year the Fair, with a pan
African focus , attracts a wide audience
and spearheads a diverse ‘Joburg Art
Week’ with various events happening
around the city from open studios,
gallery openings, workshops and
debates. At the recently concluded 56th
Venice Biennale in May, one of the key
objectives of the 2015 FNB Joburg Art
Fair was to explore avenues to promote
emerging, interdisciplinary practices
besides create an ongoing platform for
the exposure of African artists abroad.
In the wake of many corporate leaders
around the world and agencies like
BASA, now embracing the notion of
shared value, through Business – Art
collaboration, even academicians have
come out in strong support.
Giovanni Schiuma, the author of “Value
of Art in Business “, goes a step further
and talks about developing a fresh
approach to Organizational
Development and Goals .According to
Giovanni approaches to Organizational
development are stuck in old
paradigms. He agrees that technical
knowledge is essential to drive
efficiency, however insists that value
creation and innovation leading to
transformation and success in business
comes through if business and
individuals think like artists!
Giovanni is firmly of the view that the
traditional view of the relationship
between business and art is very much
a one-way affair. Organizations may
endorse, fund or publicize the arts but
arts have nothing to offer from a
business perspective.
The Value of Arts for Business
challenges this view by highlighting
how arts, in the form of Arts-based
Initiatives (ABIs), can be used to
enhance value-creation capacity and
boost business and employee
performance index. He introduces three
models which embodies Art based
Initiatives (ABIs) and links them to
Organizational success. Firstly, the Arts
Value Matrix enables managers to see
how organizational value-drivers are
affected by ABIs. Secondly, the Arts
Benefits Constellation shows how to
assess the benefits of using ABIs.
Finally, the Arts Value Map shows how
ABIs can be integrated and aligned with
organizational strategy and operations.
These models lay the foundation for a
new research area exploring the links
between arts and business.

14

As Grayson Perry, the British artist’s
succinctly put it, “There is a new
creative economy, in which artists will
increasingly have a part to play. And
for Business and Science and Politics
to collaborate and add Art tools in
search of excellence...”
Rajni
is
a
student
of
Sociology
(H)

from
Delhi
University,

followed
by
PG
in
Human
Resource
from
XLRI
Jamshedpur

India.
Learning
and
Development
,Talent
and

Performance
Management
have
been
the
core
areas
of

specialization
while
working
at
IBM
India
and
TCS.
Rajni's

achievements
include
design
and
implementation
of

exclusive
High
Potential
Development
programmes
for

Business
Units.
Dance,
fitness
and
health
and
travel
are

other
passions
very
closely
pursued
and
practiced.
She

goes
by
the
philosophy
of
Live
and
Let
Live
after
having

experienced
different
cultures
around
the
world
and

navigating
life
through
these
various
cultural
differences.

Currently
based
in
Johannesburg,
South
Africa,
Rajni
is

working
towards
rolling
out
a
unique
project
under
The

Painted
Sky
umbrella
to
combine
Human
Resource

principles
with
visual
arts
to
create
an
Employee

Engagement
and
Top
Talent
Development
Programme
for

Business.

15

Creativity
is

putting
your

imagination

to
work,
and

it's
produced

the
most

extraordinary

results
in

human

culture.

-‐
Sir
Ken
Robinson

16

Dr.
Cathryn
Lloyd
in
Brisbane
We live in challenging,
complex and unpredictable times. Flux
provides new opportunities or can
generate fear and loathing. What
remain unchanged are human qualities
– creativity, curiosity and
imagination. These traits are
fundamental for creating positive
change.
Our ability to individually and
collectively think creatively, artfully,
curiously and critically is our greatest
strength. Our capacity to apply these
capabilities to a multitude of issues is
our greatest asset. The qualities and
skills embedded in the arts, creative
industries, and creative practitioners
play a fundamental role in bringing
creative intelligence to these issues.
As a creative professional originally
trained as a graphic designer and visual
artist I incorporate business, design
thinking, artistic/aesthetic and academic
principles in my work. I use facilitation,
creative development, action learning
and coaching to address individual and
organisational learning and
development needs.
I work closely with clients to
understand their business and their
needs in order to design and facilitate
the best possible learning experiences
and workshops and programmes. As a
creative provocateur, I help others
discover and access ideas and solutions
to challenges, along with new ways of
thinking and being. This can take place
Point
of
View

17

in the context of relationship building,
leadership, capability building, change,
conflict, creative thinking and
planning.
There is increasing evidence that arts-
based/creative interventions provide
other ways for people and organisations
to engage, learn, reflect, participate,
connect, gain new perspectives,
innovate, and impact on organisational
culture. For many people exposure to
artistic and experiential learning
methods can be challenging. There is
often indifference, resistance or
skepticism.
At times this can be challenging for
everyone to begin with. However, in
the course of our time together what I
so often witness are energised and
engaged people who gain a deeper
awareness and appreciation of their
creative capability, their colleagues
creative potential and in turn
confidence. I see a lot of
breakthrough thinking when people
participate in arts-based/creative
processes and interventions.
The corporate sector and arts sector
have much to learn from one another.
There is much to be gained by these
two sectors building a closer
relationship and strategic alliances.
Through Maverick Minds I provide
offer facilitation and coaching that
weave together creative processes and
methodologies that help clients develop
creative skills and capacity that support
them to successfully work through
challenges and discover
opportunities. T his covers a range of
individual and organisational needs
such as professional development,
teamwork, leadership and strategic
planning.
The work is eclectic as are my clients.
From engineers spending time in an art
gallery for discussion, reflection and
teambuilding; creative development and
visioning work for a community based
not-for-profits; creative professional
development for human resources, as
well as leadership in the corrections
sector. While each client is unique and
requires a particular response there are
some underlying issues facing many
organisations. VUCA comes to mind –
many businesses both large and small
are increasingly aware that volatility,
uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity
can be challenging. The flip side is that
Creativity is so often associated
with the arts, artists and
cultural activity. It also lies at
the heart of all human
endeavours.

18

it also offers opportunity. However, in
order to create opportunity or respond
effectively to change, a capacity for
flexibility and creativity is necessary.
These qualities are not just needed by a
few key people. From an organisational
perspective it needs to be understood
that supporting and encouraging people
to reach their full creative potential is
crucial to organisational success. Using
arts-based approaches is not cookie
cutter training it is so much more than
doing the bare minimum of training –
think compliance. It is about designing
and delivering relevant learning
experiences that engage and inspire
people.
Creativity is so often associated with the
arts, artists and cultural activity. It also
lies at the heart of all human
endeavours. From a business
perspective creativity is seen as being
important. One only has to look at
organisational websites that mention
creativity and innovation as key drivers.
However there is a disjuncture between
what is said and what actually happens.
How do organisations develop and
support creativity when failure and
experimentation are not encouraged.
When it is considered difficult to
manage, a bit airy-fairy and not
connected to core business. This
creates a paradox as businesses grapple
with change and innovation.
And here’s the rub – it is unlikely
innovation will occur without
creativity. An IBM Global CEO Study
(for more details, refer to ‘Concurrence’,
April 2015) revealed creativity as the
most crucial factor for future
success. It is a key capability for the
21st Century and a concept we need to
understand and embrace. This
necessitates a mindset of creative
entrepreneurialism and an investment
in the development of creative
intelligence.
Robust relationships within and across
professions and industries that enable
cross fertilisation of creative ways of
thinking and being will serve us
well. It’s time to stretch ourselves,
move out from the silos and our
comfort zones, walk across the divides,
embrace each other and learn from one
another.
(This article has been adapted from Beyond the
Creative Challenge originally published on 27 January
2015 by Arts Queensland. For the original link go to
http://www.arts.qld.gov.au/blog/index.php/beyond-
the-creative-challenge/)
Dr
Cathryn
Lloyd
is
Founder
and
Director
of
Maverick

Minds
working
at
the
intersection
of
arts
and
business.

She
is
Australia’s
first
certified
creativity
coach
with
the

Creativity
Coaching
Association
(CCA)

Dr
Cathryn
Lloyd
is
a
facilitator
and
Australia’s
first

certified
creativity
coach
with
the
Creativity
Coaching

Association
(CCA).
She
is
Founder
and
Director
of

Maverick
Minds
a
consultancy
that
designs
powerful
and

flexible
learning
experiences
for
a
range
of
people
and

purposes.

She
has
experience
across
the
arts,
education,

business
and
management.

She
holds
a
research

doctorate
in
Creative
Industries
and
knows
the
joys
and

challenges
of
running
a
business
and
living
a
creative

life.

19

Marta
Jasinska
in
Hawaii

As far back
as I can remember, people have always
amazed me with their inherent
inclination towards Art. With more
than ten years of experience as a social
worker and art therapist, I have noticed
that art therapy begins where resistance
appears. Therefore the first phase of art
therapy is about facing ones’ own fears
while exposing ourselves, to something
new and that which we may or may not
qualify as “art”. Even though the art
therapist assures us that it is.
Bridging Art with Professional
Growth: A Case Study of
Creating Art in Everyday
Businesses

Case
To
Point

20

My vision is to expand art to hitherto
uncharted territories, and bring into its
ambit people who think they have no
time or talent for applying artistic
aesthetics or vision, especially in the
business sector.
Let’s take a moment and think through
these scenarios… the unique strength
and building skills displayed by a
building contractor through the creative
installations, a passionate diving
instructor who is a source of motivation
while displaying a photo exhibition
inspired by ocean. A bartender, who
designs a puppet performance using
bottles and glasses (that which s/he
juggles around with day and night, as
part of routine work) based on stories
heard from pub goers. These
professionals do not believe they have
access to a mystic artistic world. But
they do… in fact we all do! That’s what
inspires and amazes me and I am in awe
of them.
My inspiration to weave my art therapy
work into the business sector and
thereby bridge the gap between the
two, began with an on-site grant-based
project that started with my father’s
functional taxi cab. Other sites for this
project included: a local hair salon, a
psychologist’s office, a homeless
shelter, and a mom-and-pop restaurant
owned by a couple for 15 years.
Project Seniors in Action, funded by the
Polish-American Freedom Foundation
and organized by Association of
Creative Initiatives “ę” from Warsaw
Poland, aimed at engaging senior
citizens aged sixty and above in their
respective communities as leaders and
activists. The paticipants were required
to support fellow citizens in their
community by sharing their knowledge,
passions and unique life experiences.
The grant also required each senior
citizen to be paired with a younger
individual and thus reach out to others’
in the community in a creative and
agreed-upon fashion.
I’ve always been inspired by my dad’s
work as a taxi driver. I would think for
stretches of time about how so many
varied people passed through the space
of his car, and how my dad spoke to
each and every one of them. I thought
about how intimate that space really is,
and how the parties present really had
no choice but to engage. The
possibilities in such a space were
immense, for connections,
transformation and art installations.
I decided to partner with my father for
the Seniors in Action project, in
collaboration with Mateusz Tymura, a
performing artist / director, community
developer, and lender of the vintage car
that we used as our interactive stage.
We decided to use the medium of
sound and interactive performance art
My inspiration to weave
my art therapy work into
the business sector and
thereby bridge the gap
between the two, began
with an on-site grant-
based project that started
with my father’s functional
taxi cab.

21

for our taxi-based art piece. As part of
phase one of the performance, my
father and I interviewed a handful of
seasoned taxi drivers in our town,
gathering information about their work
experience over many years, hearing
about the different kinds of people
they’ve met, learning about what they
love about the job and what they are
challenged by, and how the city has
changed and evolved before their eyes.
Then we pieced together parts of
different interviews into a single track
that played continuously in Mateusz’s
vintage car, now converted into our Art
Taxi and driven around the town by my
father.
In the end, as is the norm with
art therapy experiences, it was
the process more than the
product of this experience that
enriched the artist-participants’
lives.
For my father, 67, working with
a sound
recorder, was a novel experience. He
acquired skills he never thought he
would care to learn. We also practiced
how to ask others questions for the
interview. This discovery that he is now
adept at interviewing skills brought him
unexpected joy in the role.
Soon, we had local media talking about
the project. A newspaper devoted half a
page to my father’s picture with related
story, and a radio station referred to
him by name. His self-esteem was
raised and for probably the first time in
his life, he identified himself as an
artist.
My father was onboard from the
beginning, but there were other seniors
who expressed their resistance to the
project at different stages. The whole
concept of the project was to partner
young artists with experienced seniors,
and to have the team create art-based
interaction in public spaces.
The older participants didn’t believe in
the possibility that they could transform
their daily work into art. It seemed to
be a very complicated idea. And then
there was the issue of how to interact
with the public as part of the “art.” But
the biggest challenge seemed to be
around the curiosity: How do I become
the artist? For the young partners, who
already identified themselves as artists,
the challenge was to not take the lead as

22

“artist,” and rather be a companion and
equal role player to the senior business
owners. Together, the two had to focus
their attention on why and how the
seniors’ workspace was inspiring, and
use this fresh view to create an inspired
art experience.
My father had spent hours daily,
monthly, and yearly in his taxi, but it
never crossed his mind that it may be a
space for a small gallery, or sound
installation, or that he could put up a
one-man show for a random, captive
audience. This project expanded his
views to what was possible even during
his long work hours. He was able to tap
into an inactive, latent potential that
awaited him simply by challenging
himself to think differently.
Now, imagine the impact of
this experience, if it was
brought to a company? How
it would help break the
monotony of everyday
“business as usual” and
create an inspiring, efficient
and effective work force.
As I continued this journey, every art
partnership and experience turned out
to be a unique experience. The
partnership with the psychologist and
the photographer were about emotions
from the beginning. The psychologist
decided she would like to show
emotions through photographs of non-
human images. Together with her
already-an-established artist partner,
the two engaged in outdoor
photography, looking for interesting
expressions in nature and town
buildings alike. The psychologist would
point to how she wanted the photo
framed, and the photographer took the
shot.

24

They reviewed the images, and decided
if the photographs were good and
expressed the emotions the
psychologist “saw” in them to begin
with. The photos were hung as an
exhibition in the stairwell between the
first and last floor of the Psychology
Office where the participants used to
work.
As a result of these tactically
displayed photo frames,
individuals walking past the
space would view them and
identify the kind of emotions
they represented.
At the top floor there was a key,
revealing the emotions that had been
attributed to each image by the
psychologist. The primary objective of
the project was to observe the pictures
and consider them from an emotional
point of view.
The hairdresser salon was a strong
inspiration for a musician Adam
Frankiewicz (https://soundcloud.com/
adamfrankiewicz). Adam engaged with
his senior partner by recording music
tracks based on different sounds they
identified at the hair salon. They
recorded sounds of scissors, dryers,
water, radio and more unique ones like
sound of the falling hair.
Our endeavor was to focus on the
strongest skills and abilities the
participants possessed. Every single art
project designed and created by the
young artists along with their senior-
partners were preceded by series of
workshops and discussions during
which we tried to identify their skills
and experiences, that could be
transformed into art and shared with an
audience.
One of senior participant spent years
working at a telecommunication
company but decided to change career
and become a counselor. Her passion
was to support and encourage people.
In the project she was working with
Sebastian Łuykaszuk, a 3d Projection
Mapping artist. He created an
installation and invited her to add
pictures, which they could project on
the huge cube. They performed the
show at a shelter for homeless people.
She had decided to use her private
pictures showing beautiful landscape
views while she would narrate positive
and encouraging sentences about the
beauty of life, nature, and the
importance of being alive.
One of the project outcomes was a
performance towards the end, based on
the stories of the three participants: taxi
driver, psychologist and counselor. For
about six months we were working on
the script and setting up the play which
contained stories and facts based on
professional experiences of these
I believe my work as an Art
Therapist and as a Trainer is to
show people that it is not about
art, but about them.

25

participants. The lead roles were
performed by the participants
themselves in the play, giving the
performance a distinct touch of reality.
The energy of creativity let loose via
this non-profit project was immense.
Besides the young “established artists”
who became further inspired, the
senior professionals now experienced
the freedom to take risks and look
beyond their rationale day-to-day work
thoughts and behaviors, and think and
feel as artists. It was a freedom that was
offered to them and which they
ultimately accepted… even though with
resistance in the beginning, but with
success in the end. It was a wonderful
learning experience for all participants,
who connected with each other in deep
and subtle ways, and who hopefully
kept their new artistic eyes open as they
moved forward in their lives.
Through the “Art Taxi” project and my
other experiences within the business
sector there are many benefits to be
leveraged. Overall, art stimulates your
creativity and imagination, makes you
more observant, enhances problem-
solving skills, encourages out-of-the-
box thinking, boosts self-esteem and
provides a sense of accomplishment.
Each of these benefits greatly enhances
organizational culture, team
development and provides a
competitive advantage for
entrepreneurs to stay in the zone.
This work is profoundly imperative as it
adds a unique dimension to a person’s
personality. I have embarked on a path
to facilitate others in their professional
arenas, address burnout issues and
bring the power of art not only into
personal and professional lives of
participants, but also further draw them
out into public spaces without
inhibitions and fear, whereby they can
share their story and inspire the greater
community. Art brings creative minds
together and develops an interest in
seeing each other at a deeper level. My
mission ultimately is for planetary
betterment. To encourage people to use
their creativity and transform their
personal and professional lives and
experience a sense of wellbeing.
Marta
Jasinska
is
the
Founder
of
‘Your
Company
Arts.’

Combining
her
10
+
years
of
experience
as
an
art

therapist,
theater
instructor,
trainer,
and
project

coordinator,
she
supports
local
communities,
nonprofit

organizations,
clients
from
business
sector
to
transform

through
the
use
of
everyday
art.
Her
adventure
with

bringing
art
into
the
business
sector
initiated
in
Poland

inspiring
her
to
continue
to
develop
a
curriculum
that

would
meet
the
needs
of
businesses
across
the
globe.
She

now
lives
in
Hawaii
where
she
offers
professional
art

based
trainings
for
companies
in
the
United
States.

Website:
www.YourCompanyArts.com

Editor:
Devora
Kalma,
MA

27

A
conversation
with
Ali

Al
Uraimi,
Deputy

Managing
Director,

Middle
East
College,

Muscat
(Oman)

I first met Ali Al Uraimi in a
small room in an office in central
Bangalore…
Sitting across from me, in track
pants and a t-shirt, Ali exuded
the kind of confidence and
charm we associate with
Hollywood heroes (not that I
know any, personally). But over
the next hour, our conversation
soared – through philosophy and
art, economics and politics, and
above all else, on learning needs
for the changing world. Ali left
me inspired, intrigued, and most
importantly, impatient, about
what we can think next.
We caught up again recently,
and talked of the future. And
how Arts and Creativity are
helping the students at Middle
East College (MEC) find new
meaning in Muscat.
Concurrence: Ali, how has 2014-15
been for MEC, in the region? What are
some of the significant achievements
and milestones? Creatively, and
businesswise.
Ali: 2015 has been a great year for MEC
in terms of program offering expansion,
international student recruitment from
27 various countries and promoting a
collaborative, vibrant campus life
through international activities
participation and conferences.
Concurrence: What are some
strategies and initiatives adopted at
MEC to promote Creativity and
Innovation among its staff and
students? How have these approaches
and process impacted quality of
education, productivity and creativity
at MEC?
Ali: MEC believes in inspiring the
minds of students and staff through
embedding creativity and innovation,
problem solving, entrepreneurship,
inquiry and openness to fresh and
novel ideas. Such strategies were
implemented through various initiatives
and approaches that include
brainstorming and brain writing
methods, canvas paintings that convey
individual creativity and 3D model
building to visualize problem solving.

tête-‐à-‐tête

28

Concurrence: How does the future
look, both medium and long term?
Ali: We see a prosperous future waiting
for MEC talented individuals to take a
step into a challenging life and
obtaining opportunities. The college is
keen to work towards an institution that
is a source of inspiration to others and
to be recognized for highly competent
students, talented staff, entrepreneurial
graduates and a cultivated culture of
research and inquiry.

29

Concurrence: If we can broaden the
discussion, in your view, how does
creativity help a college like MEC
evolve, both for business
sustenance and growth? And what can
an organization get from encouraging
creativity to understand and decode
the current VUCA environment?
Ali: Creativity has enabled our students
to break through boundaries and move
towards more than what is required to
become competent and inspire our
surrounding community. Making things
our way has given MEC a unique
identity that has helped the
organization to significantly grow and
sustain within the surrounding
community.
Concurrence: What should an
Educational Organization do to
promote a culture of
innovation/creativity among its
employees?
Ali: Creativity and innovation are
significantly important to the
development of our current knowledge
society and it contributes to the
economic prosperity as well as to
building a dynamic culture. Therefore,
as an educational organization we shall
promote and foster such skills in order
to emphasize and encourage the
development of our staff potential
growth.
Concurrence: We are keen to explore
how learning from the world of the
arts and the process of the artist can
benefit businesses across the world. In
your opinion, what are some key areas
that you see businesses learn from the
world of arts and the artists? And
what could be the outcome of such
collaborations? What does it take to
align business and arts in a way that
they compliment each other?
Ali: Artists and business leaders have
many in common: they both observe a
Artists and business leaders have many in
common: they both observe a desired vision
and use a persuasive perspective that
formulates a model, navigates through and
finally produces its own creation rendition.

30

desired vision and use a persuasive
perspective that formulates a model,
navigates through and finally produces
its own creation rendition. We believe
that businesses have thoroughly learned
from artists where the delivery of
emotions and perspectives depend on
the sender’s capability of expression
and persuading. Artists are
distinguished from others through
creativity just as businesses are
distinguished by the message they
intend to convey and the desired
outcomes they accomplish. Setting
parameters, managing expectations and
being different are artist techniques
that need to be adapted to organization.
Throughout our consultation sessions
with students with reference to
developing our campus, I have been
astonished by student’s creativity. As a
deputy managing director, perspectives
tend to be restrained to the field of
experience, whilst students, have no
boundaries and limitation. Creative and
new ideas are open to discussions and
implementation. I have personally
learnt how to take a one step back and
allow for new ideas to enter.
Concurrence: What are your
expectations from organisations like
The Painted Sky, which promote Art-
Based Training Initiatives? How can
they improve their offerings and
training outcomes?
Ali: The Painted Sky is one of the most
inspiring deliverers of creative thinking
and innovation. The Middle East
college staff has thoroughly appreciated
the efforts put in to deliver an intensive
program that has diverted our staff from
a traditional way of handling activities
to more creative and groundbreaking
strategies. The Painted Sky may open
doors of improvements to delivery
techniques through embedding live
institution problems and allowing
participants to feel the situation, think
as leaders, prepare, and present
proposed business solutions in various
forms of art based activities.

31

Meeting with Anirban and knowing
about The Painted Sky has really
interested me and motivated me to
explore more on the programs
conducted to fulfill MEC needs of
creativity. The working environment
we are surrounded by is a challenging
environment where creativity and
problem solving are critical skills that
are required for students, staff and
even managers. The Painted Sky
encourages people to think out of the
box, be creative and search for
various approaches of problem
solving.
One of my colleagues, Mr. Muhamed
Refeque, who is a faculty in our
Management Studies department,
mentioned this recently: “The course
of The Painted Sky has changed my
perspective on module delivery and
ways of teaching. I have implemented
creativity to link student mind
together through brain writing and
linking student thoughts and emotions
through canvas paintings. I believe
that such practices have benefited the
students through using personal
creativity to portray student
perception”
Concurrence: Thanks Ali. That is
inspiring! Finally, about Ali the man:
What makes you believe that Creative
Thinking and Innovation are key for
success in today’s world? What have
been your key learnings that inspire
you to think that way? Can the Arts
inspire the Business world? Who or
what are some of your greatest
inspirations from the creative world?
Ali: I strongly believe that every
individual has various angles and
perspectives of overseeing situations
and acting upon it. It is our creativity
and inspiration that changes who we
are to the best and makes us competent
and talented to challenge the outside
community. Due to the ever revolving
era we are moving towards, we need to
be distinguished by who we are and
what we do different from others in
order to succeed as an organization and
stand out.
Personally speaking, I see that Arts are
a major inspiration to the business
world whereas every successful leader is
an artist himself/ herself, if a painter
scatters colors on a canvas to deliver a
whole set of beauty, uniqueness and
diversity, then a leader scatters people
around to adapt to situations, integrate
together, and work towards achieving a
desired outcome. Artist and leader are
both defined by different yet similar
characteristics, where an artist is made
“Using creativity in our classes
has really been enjoyable and
benefited our attitude of
understanding on how businesses
work. Our teachers have used
various creative teaching
approaches such as
brainstorming that has helped us
view the larger picture
of situations and link other
aspects in association to
respective topics”
- Layali Al Subhi
(Student, Third Year)

32

up of the colors he uses and a leader is
defined by the people he produces.
Therefore, arts in
general have always
been an inspiration to
the way I perceive
things and draw goals
and objectives to fulfil
achievement and
satisfaction.

Ali
Al
Uraimi
is
the

Deputy
Managing
Director
of
Middle

East
College
and
member
of
its
Board

of
Directors
and

Board
of
Trustees.
After
his
degree
in

finance
from
Sultan
Qaboos
University,
Oman,
Ali

mastered
in
management
learning
and
leadership
from

University
of
Lancaster,
UK.
For
the
last
13
years,
Ali
Al

Uraimi
has
been
relentlessly
pushing
the
envelope
on

Higher
Education
in
the
Middle
East,
and
has
served
in

many
national
committees,
boards,
and
task
forces

related
to
Education
and
Higher
Education.

33

Art - Science
Collaboration in the
Highvelds
of Africa

Rajni
Iyer
in
Johannesburg

The belief that Africa is
the cradle of mankind is
virtually unshakable.
Within this belief lies another
unshakable truth that emerges since
prehistoric era... African rock carvings
and paintings, the masks and wooden
sculptures, used to communicate with
the divine by the Sans (Bushmen) and
the continents’ eco system are
intertwined and have played a
significant role in shaping her culture
and economy across space and time.
This highly sophisticated and intimate
bond between man,
animal and nature binds
South Africa and indeed
the African continent’s
past to her present and
will further shape her
future from the point of
view of the economy and
art.
This intimate bond got
further cemented when
Visual Artist Hannelie
Coetzee and Scientist
Hannelie
Coetzee

Happenings

34

Sally Archibald initiated a fascinating
collaboration between Art and Science,
which benefited society at large whilst
simultaneously connecting disciplines
that have been working independently.
This business model referred by
Hannelie as Functional Art encourages
social entrepreneurial collaboration as
seen in natural eco systems.
The first phase of the experiment was
conducted on 5-hectare hillside in the
Khatlhampi Private Reserve, which
borders on the Nirox Sculpture Park
and Artists Residency in the Cradle of
Humankind.
Benko and Eland 2015
In this experiment, the outlines of a boy
Benko is seen to be reaching for the
eland (a type of antelope, very popular
and highly revered in African Bush art
paintings) as a silhouette of blackened
grass. This visual was achieved through
a controlled fire within the outlines that
eventually filled in and burnt the entire
patch of grass. The resultant creation,
Benko and Eland 2015, was lit and
monitored by highly trained and
experienced fire fighters from Working
on Fire. As the smoke cleared and the
image was revealed, the landscape art
was undeniably powerful. This
experiment is expected to last two
seasons as the herbivores animals that
graze there, the eland, wildebeest,
zebra, rhino, zebra, hartebeest, and
warthog will come and crop at the new
grass, keeping the artwork intact. Intact,
unless there is a heavy rainy season, or
a drought.
Along with Sally’s M.sc student Felix
Skhosana, the artists installed cameras
in the bush, which aim to record the
animal movements that come to graze
here.
The experiment will further study the
soil fertility and chemical balance in the
area, which can provide valuable
information to the South African
farmers and the game reserve owners.
This will simultaneously enhance and
promote South Africa’s and the
continents’ eco and adventure tourism
while transforming the agriculture
sector.
Sally Archibald, an associate professor
at the Wits School of Animal Plant and
Environmental Sciences, has been
carrying out experiments in various
landscapes dealing with the
relationship between fire and grazing
animal.
Hannelie recognized the potential for a
large-scale ecological artwork in
Archibald's scientific practice, and went
for it. She thought that the spectacle of
the burning, and the scale of the
markings of the landscape presented "a
rich medium" in which to communicate
the meaning behind the scientific
project, bringing a dimension of human
experience to the science, and scientific

35

exploration to art. She also saw the
opportunity to convey a broader
ecological message, exploring the
relationship between humans and the
landscape.
Hannelie’s approach using the
medium of art to improve the
environmental systems is
twofold. She makes artworks in
public spaces to explore the site
and listen to the community.
Her approach was to plan this one step
at a time. The initial information-
gathering phase creates a neutral
platform where keen and interested
community members could engage.
This facilitated greater participation
and involvement from them when the
second phase commenced.
The second phase focused on
identifying “congestion or
contamination” Hannelie’s own
expression while referring to challenges
and problem areas.
This collaborative artwork would have
been incomplete without the inputs
from Bob Connolly, the Commercial
Operations and Research Development
Coordinator from Working on Fire
(WoF), whose team supported Hannelie
and Sally’s art-science collaboration,
providing manpower for the fire
operation, through perfection,
precision and expertise.
In the midst of controlling and
monitoring the fire spread, wind
direction, temperature and humidity
percentage and simultaneously
engaging with his team over wireless,
and drone imageries, Bob provides very

36

valuable information about his
organization.
Working on Fire
Working on Fire (WoF) aligns with the
overall vision of South Africa in
promoting its eco tourism and
transforming the agriculture sector as
well as providing employment to its
citizens from rural areas.
Men and women from
marginalized communities are
trained in fire awareness and
education and prevention and
suppression. They then form
forest fire fighting ground crews,
stationed at bases around the
country to help stop the scourge
of wildfire that costs the South
African economy billions of
Rands annually.
The multi-million rand job creation
programme is primarily geared towards
assisting government to fulfill its job
creation and social upliftmen promise
to the people of South Africa. There are
currently 5000 beneficiaries in the
programme, 85% of whom are youth,
29% are women, the highest in any
comparable fire service in the world.
Working on Fire, officially launched in
September 2003, can be practically
applied in South Africa’s unique
landscape. Embedded in the Expanded
Public Works Programme, the project
combines sound land management
principles and best practice model for
poverty relief and skills development.
The organization also works side by
side with farmers and game reserve
management on a national basis
reducing fuel loads using specific,
controlled burns to control bush
encroachment and general veld
management.
This threefold collaboration between
Art, Science and Government by
investing in local communities will
hopefully see many more future
successes. For now, Hannelie’s efforts
with ‘Working With Fire’ sets a
wonderful example for other artists are
organizations to step forward and
explore hoe to balance the environment
with developmental needs.
Working on Fire, officially
launched in September 2003,
can be practically applied in
South Africa’s unique landscape.
Embedded in the Expanded
Public Works Programme, the
project combines sound land
management principles and best
practice model for poverty relief
and skills development.

37

Leonardo
Previ
in
Milan

President, Triviquadrivio,
Architect. Author. Biker. Historian.
Thinker. Trainer.

Leonardo
Previ
contributes
with

his
views
on
how
the
worlds
of

Arts
and
Business
can
influence

and
enrich
each
other.

Point
of
View

38

In 2013, I was invited to deliver a talk on
Creativity to the students of ABAI,
(Association of Bangalore Animation
Industry) Bangalore, India. The
mandate for the talk was to enable the
quorum to understand how Creativity
comes “from scratch”. The leading
metaphor is always the same whether in
Asia, Europe or elsewhere in the globe:
the blank page. Businessmen,
Academicians, Artists and Statisticians,
everyone is in love with the idea of the
very beginning. Let’s then start with
scratch and fill up the empty space.
I opened the discussion floor with a bad
news. The kind of bad news that people
are not usually happy to receive. And
that is, there is no empty space! Indeed
there is no blank page at all! Instead,
the page is already fully populated of
bridges, links, hubs, webs. They are
there, right in front of us, but we can’t
see them because they are invisible.
When we look at a “blank page”, either
metaphorically or in reality, we should
visualize this forest of invisible
relationships waiting for our bravery.
Only the braves know how to cross the
white page and access the frontier of
mutual belongings. Things are already
connected but they don’t know and
neither do we. To be creative means to
bring this prolific unknown out of
existing things, through the perception
of bisociations that silently crowd the
white page.
According to Arthur Koestler, author of
The Act of Creation, bisociation means
connecting elements that lay on
different and sometimes opposite
matrixes. It is the contrary of
association, which means connecting
similar elements. Masters of bisociation
are the clowns, the scientists and the
artists. When the creative connection
leads to a paradox, we laugh; when it
leads to the solution of a problem, we
have discovered scientifically; and
when through a bisociative gesture we
access new aspects of reality, we are in
front of Art.
Interestingly, in his book Koestler
highlights the mutual belongings of the
three reigns: a) when you experiment
that is, when you lead yourself through
the frightening apparent desert of the
white page) don’t be afraid of failure,
you can peacefully laugh it off ; b) be
ready to grab the insights that you can
perhaps step into; c) or choose to
abandon yourself to the emotion of an
unforeseen view on complexity. But is it
possible to apply this vision, written by

39

Arthur Koestler fifty one years ago to a
manager, an entrepreneur, an artisan or
a consultant, who is looking for
Creativity and Innovation within a
profit-driven organization? What is this
business of “business white page” all
about?
Nowadays, within our offices and
workshops, we spend our life
surrounded by artefacts. The
unparalleled Heinz von Foerster referred
to these ubiquitous presences as “trivial
machines”. Both our professional and
non- professional activities (not to
mention our sentimental affairs) are
increasingly rooted in these artefacts
and it is becoming almost impossible, at
least within working places, to see a
human being without perceiving his
personal high-tech outfit. Actually,
trivial machines go along with humans
since the very beginning. No matter
how deep you’re digging, all of our
ancestral stories are different versions
of our unavoidable relationship with
artefacts. Many trivial machines are
nowadays precise, efficient and reliable.
They do what they’ve been designed
for, and this eases our lives by many
means.
However, trivial machines are not the
only machines we live surrounded by.
Fortunately, we spend our time with
many “non trivial machines” too. Like
the trivial ones, non-trivial machines
are designed in order to accomplish
specific missions, but there is one vital
difference. There is an area where
trivial machines fail, and non-trivial
machines succeed. This is the area of
the unforeseen, or if you prefer, “the
white page area”. Unlike the trivial ones,
non-trivial machines know how to face
surprises. Even the best or biggest or
fastest pc in the world will remain silent
in front so many unforeseen questions -
they call it the GIGO syndrome:
Garbage In, Garbage Out. In other
words, any trivial machine performance
is entirely hooked to the inputs. Trivial
machines do not know how to
improvise. Moreover, any artificial
intelligence instantly becomes a
completely useless mass of plastic and
silicon, once the electricity blacks out.
Humans, the most sophisticated non-
trivial machines on earth, on the other
hand, do not remain silent and do not
stop, no matter what the conditions are.
Humans know how to reach incredible
outputs without having received any
There is however, only one problem: we’ve been trained
to behave like trivial machines. Over the years in
schools, in business schools, in offices, and even in R&D
departments, we’ve been told to be rational and straight,
and not lose our time on thin and barely noticeable
links between existing things.

40

specific input. Every single human
being is a native improviser. There is a
jazz player inside all of us, ready to help
us to get out of troubles creatively.
It is time to acknowledge that jazz
player’s role!
Non-trivial machines know how to
perceive the links, how to bisociate,
how to make the constraints at function
work as per their needs. Moreover, non
trivial machines know how take
advantage from each other, how to
cooperate in order to maximize existing
resources, how to empower solutions
through intangible assets like love, hate,
discomfort, empathy - the kind of thing
trivial machines are completely unable
to manage.
There is however, only one problem:
we’ve been trained to behave like trivial
machines. Over the years in schools, in
business schools, in offices, and even in
R&D departments, we’ve been told to
be rational and straight, and not lose
our time on thin and barely noticeable
links between existing things. And for
centuries, our companies have been
organized in order to avoid bisociation
and to exploit trivial associations. This
is scientific management, a black page
full of trivial artefacts and humans
beings forced to behave like them - this
is why we need the White page of Art.
Leonardo
Previ
is
passionate
about
what
he
does.
And
if

one
is
Leonardo,
who
does
so
many
things,
it
is
difficult
to

find
something
he
is
not
passionate
about.
A
doctorate
in

architecture,
Leonardo
has
been
teaching
since
1989
(he

continues
to
teach
Human
Resources
Management
at
the

Catholic
University
in
Milan).
Founded
in
1996,
his

company
Trivioquadrivio
is
among
the
foremost
training

firms
in
Europe,
focusing
on
experiential
learning

initiatives
and
events.
Leonardo
is
a
Lego
Serious
Play

Certificate
Facilitator,
one
of
the
founders
of
the
Jazz
for

Business
learning
approach.
A
keen
biker,
he
travels

across
Europe
with
his
motorbike
(a
venerable
Moto
Guzzi

850
T3)
to
train
managers
in
aesthetic
intelligence.
He
has

written
five
books
and
is
working
on
the
sixth,

successfully
exploring
the
confluence
of
Art
and
Business.

41

Source: McKinsey Quarterly, May 2015
The Simple
Rules of
Disciplined
Innovation
Donald
Sull

When it comes to innovation, the
single most common piece of advice
may be to “think outside the box.”
Constraints, according to this view,
are the enemy of creativity because
they sap intrinsic motivation and
limit possibilities.
Sophisticated innovators, however,
have long recognized that constraints
spur and guide innovation.
Attempting to innovate without
boundaries overwhelms people with
options and ignores established
practices, such as agile
programming, that have been shown
to enhance innovation. Without
guidelines to structure the
interactions, members of a complex
organization or ecosystem struggle to
coordinate their innovative activities.
How, then, can organizations embrace a
more disciplined approach to
innovation? One productive approach is
to apply a few simple rules to key steps
in the innovation process. Simple rules
add just enough structure to help
organizations avoid the stifling
bureaucracy of too many rules and the
chaos of none at all. By imposing
constraints on themselves, individuals,
teams, and organizations can spark
creativity and channel it along the
desired trajectory. Instead of trying to
think outside the wrong box, you can
use simple rules to draw the right box
and innovate within it.
Simple rules cannot, of course,
guarantee successful innovation— no
tool can. Innovation creates novel
products, processes, or business models
that generate economic value. Trying
anything new inevitably entails
experimentation and failure. Simple
rules, however, add discipline to the
process to boost efficiency and increase
the odds that the resulting innovations
will create value.
Simple rules are most commonly
applied to the sustaining kind of
innovation, often viewed as less
important than major breakthroughs.
The current fascination with disruption
obscures an important reality. For many
established companies, incremental
product improvements, advances in
existing business models, and moves
into adjacent markets remain critical
sources of valuecreating innovation.
The turnaround of Danish toymaker
LEGO over the past decade, for
example, has depended at least as much
on rejuvenating the core business
through the injection of discipline into

42

the company’s new-product
development engine as it has on radical
innovation.
Simple rules can also be used to guide a
company’s major innovations. In the
early 2000s, for example, Corning set
out to double the number of major new
businesses it launched each decade. A
team evaluated the company’s historical
breakthrough products, including the
television tube, optical fiber, and
substrates for catalytic converters. By
identifying the commonalities across
these past advances, the team
articulated a set of simple rules to
evaluate major innovations: they should
address new markets with more than
$500 million in potential revenue,
leverage the company’s expertise in
materials science, represent a critical
component in a complex system, and be
protected from competition by patents
and proprietary process expertise.
What simple rules are (and
aren’t)
Simple rules embody a handful of
guidelines tailored to the user and task
at hand, balancing concrete guidance
with the freedom to exercise creativity.
To illustrate how simple rules can foster
innovation, consider the case of Zumba
That company’s fitness routine was
developed when Alberto Perez, a
Colombian aerobics instructor, forgot
to take his exercise tape to class and
used what he had at hand—a tape of
salsa music. Today, Zumba is a global
business that offers classes at 200,000
locations in 180 countries to over 15
million customers drawn by the ethos
“Ditch the workout. Join the party.”
Zumba’s executives actively seek out
suggestions for new products and
services from its army of over 100,000
licensed instructors. Other companies
routinely approach Zumba with
possible partnership and licensing
agreements. In fact, it is deluged by
ideas for new classes (Zumba Gold for
baby boomers), music (the first Zumba
Fitness Dance Party CD went platinum
in France), clothing, fitness concerts,
and video games, such as Zumba
Fitness for Nintendo Wii. Zumba’s
founders rely on two simple rules that
help them quickly identify the most
promising innovations from the flood of
proposals they receive. First, any new
product or service must help the
instructors—who not only lead the
classes but carry Zumba’s brand, and
drive sales of products—to attract
clients and keep them engaged.
Second, the proposal must deliver FEJ
(pronounced “fedge”), which stands for
“freeing, electrifying joy” and
distinguishes Zumba from the “no pain,
no gain” philosophy of many fitness
classes.
These two principles for screening
innovation proposals illustrate the four
characteristics of effective simple rules.
First, Zumba’s rules are few in number,
which makes them straightforward to
remember, communicate, and use.
They also make it easy for the founders
to describe the kinds of innovations
most likely to be chosen and to explain
why specific ones weren’t. Capping the
number of rules forces a relentless
focus on what matters most, as well.

43

Zumba’s success depends on the
passion of its instructors and the
differentiation of its offering from less
playful exercise options. The rules
encapsulate the essence of the
company’s strategy.
Second, effective simple rules apply to
a well-defined activity or decision (in
Zumba’s case, selecting new products
and services). To promote innovation,
many executives embrace broad
principles—like “encourage flexibility
and innovation” or “be collaborative”—
meant to cover every process. To cover
multiple activities, rules must be
extremely general, and often end up
bordering on platitudes. These
aspirational statements, while well
intentioned, provide little concrete
guidance for specific activities. As a
result, they are often ignored.

44

Third, simple rules should be tailored
to the unique culture and strategy of
the organization using them. Many
managers want to transplant rules from
successful companies without
modification— a big mistake (see
sidebar, “Pitfalls to avoid when making
rules”). Finally, simple rules supply
guidance while leaving ample scope for
discretion and creativity. Zumba’s
simple rules provide a framework for
discussing and identifying which
innovations are attractive but are not
mathematical formulas where you enter
the inputs and the answer pops out.
The best simple rules are guidelines,
not algorithms.
Simple rules to select
innovations
Zumba’s rules illustrate a common way
that simple rules facilitate innovation—
by helping companies select and
prioritize the most promising new
ideas. McKinsey research shows that
the choice of which innovations to
pursue is a critical factor influencing a
company’s ability to innovate
successfully (see “The eight essentials of
innovation,” McKinsey Quarterly, April
2015, on mckinsey.com).
Although Zumba may seem like a
quirky example, even the most serious
research labs can use simple rules to
select innovations. The Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA), for example, is one of the
world’s most innovative organizations,
routinely producing breakthroughs
such as brain-controlled prosthetics
and climbing gear that allows soldiers
with full combat loads to scale vertical
walls without using ropes or ladders.
DARPA’s achievements are even more
impressive when you consider that the
agency has a technical staff of only
120—about half the size of the Pentagon
cafeteria staff. The agency uses two
simple rules to evaluate which
innovations to back: a project must
further the quest for fundamental
scientific understanding and have a
practical use.
Simple rules can also help ensure that
creativity is aligned with strategy, for an
innovation process unmoored from
strategy often produces intriguing ideas
that fail to leverage corporate resources
and capabilities. These innovations,
viewed as risky distractions, rarely
secure the support and resources
required for execution. The strategy of
the sportswear business Under Armour
is to compete on technical innovation,
DARPA’s achievements
are even more impressive
when you consider that the
agency has a technical staff
of only 120—about half the
size of the Pentagon
cafeteria staff. The agency
uses two simple rules to
evaluate which innovations
to back: a project must
further the quest for
fundamental scientific
understanding and have a
practical use.

45

and its simple rules reflect this. Every
year, it hosts its Future Show, where
thousands of entrepreneurs vie for a
chance to pitch their ideas to
management. The most recent Future
Show, the Connected Fitness
Innovation Challenge, was aimed at
building “the next generation of game-
changing digital experiences through
apps and wearable technology.” The
rules for the competition, reflecting this
strategy, require that an innovation
should integrate with MapMyFitness (an
exercise-tracking company 6 Under
Armour acquired in 2013), emphasize
inspiration and insight over
information, and address a customer
need within select areas, such as
wellness or team sports.
In addition, simple rules can help
ensure that innovations create value, by
balancing novelty with the need to keep
a lid on costs.
The Zátiší Catering Group runs three of
the highest rated restaurants in Prague,
as well as a high-end cafeteria business
serving the Czech operations of
multinational clients. In the past, the
chef at each cafeteria enjoyed complete
autonomy to introduce new dishes,
which proliferated so much that the
company produced almost 1,000 distinct
ones a year. This culinary creativity
came at a cost. The chefs often used
exotic, out-of-season ingredients. They
rarely coordinated meal planning across
cafeterias, which prevented the
company from capturing economies of
scale in purchasing. The relentless
drive for novelty meant that the chefs
rarely repeated popular meals, even
when customers requested them.
The CEO wanted to make sure the
chefs weren’t generating novelty for its
own sake but rather innovating in a way
that created value. He assembled a team
of chefs and cafeteria managers, who
developed simple rules to guide menu
selection. One rule was that three of the
five dishes offered every day must be
proven bestsellers, which built demand
for meals. (This was important because
customers could always go out for
lunch if they didn’t like the cafeteria
food on offer.) Others were that no
fewer than two dishes a day had to be
available at all of the company’s
cafeterias and that 90 percent of the
produce must be fresh and sourced
locally. Chefs could still experiment
with new dishes, but their creativity fell
within parameters ensuring that the
overall menu was profitable. Within a
few months, revenues were up by one-
third and profits doubled.
Rules requiring the reuse of existing
materials or components are a
particularly helpful way to balance
efficiency with novelty. LEGO, for
example, insists that designers reuse a
certain number of existing pieces when
developing a new play kit. That rule
balances the need for novelty with
control over the number of unique
pieces (and the associated
manufacturing and logistics costs).
Simple rules for how to innovate
Zumba and DARPA use simple rules
to select innovations. Other
organizations use them to decide how
to pursue innovations. Individuals,
teams, and organizations can codify
their experience and data into simple
rules to guide the innovation process
in the future.

46

Consider the case of Tina Fey, who,
with eight Emmy Awards, is one of the
most successful comedians of her (or
any) generation. In an insightful (and
very funny) New Yorker article, she
distilled the lessons she learned from
working on Saturday Night Live into
simple rules she used to produce her
next show, 30 Rock. (from Tina Fey,
“Lessons from late night,” New Yorker,
March 14, 2011, newyorker.com.) The
rules, largely focusing on managing
creative people, include “never tell a
crazy person he’s crazy,” which
acknowledges the link between
eccentricity and creativity and the need
to handle such people carefully.
Another rule is “when hiring, mix
Harvard nerds with Chicago
improvisers and stir.” The former
experiment with clever ideas; the latter,
such as members of Chicago’s famed
Second City improvisational-comedy
group, have a keen sense of what will
work in front of an audience. While
CEO of Burberry, Angela Ahrendts
followed a similar rule to ensure that
key teams balanced analytical
employees with creative types.
Companies can also codify innovation-
process rules based on the experience
of others. ONSET Ventures was a
pioneer among accelerators designed to
help early-stage start-ups. (Michael J.
Roberts and Nicole Tempest, “ONSET
Ventures,” Harvard Business School
Case 898-154, March 1998.) When the
founders established the firm (in 1984)
they tried to identify which criteria
were important to success by gathering
information on 300 early-stage
investments, both successful and failed,
that had been funded by existing
Silicon Valley venture capitalists. They
found that a handful of variables
accounted for over three-quarters of
these outcomes and codified the key
insights into five simple rules to
incubate start-ups.
The best predictor of failure, according
to this research, was sticking doggedly
to the original business plan. The
business models of successful start-ups,
in contrast, nearly always underwent at
least one major revision (and countless
minor tweaks) before they stabilized.
This culinary
creativity came at a
cost. The chefs often used
exotic, out-of-season
ingredients. They rarely
coordinated meal planning
across cafeterias, which
prevented the company
from capturing economies
of scale in purchasing. The
relentless drive for novelty
meant that the chefs rarely
repeated popular meals,
even when customers
requested them.

47

This insight led to the first rule: all
start-ups must fundamentally change
their business model at least once
before receiving their next round of
funding. Research also taught
ONSET’s founders that start-ups were
more likely to succeed if they waited
until after the business model had
stabilized before bringing a new CEO
on board. That way, the founders and
investors could specify the precise skills
and expertise the CEO would need to
scale the business.
Techstars, a top-ranked accelerator with
18 programs around the world, also uses
simple rules to help start-ups get off the
ground. The program in Chicago, for
example, insists that portfolio
companies can have only five key
performance metrics at any point.
These measures shift over time as
companies develop, but the hard cap on
five forces a ruthless prioritization at
every step in the process.
Help members of a community
innovate together
Innovation is rarely the product of lone
inventors. More frequently, it emerges
from the interactions of members of a
community or ecosystem, who extend
and build on one another’s ideas.
Communal innovation entails a deep
conflict, however. By freely sharing
ideas, members of an ecosystem can
collectively create more value through
innovation. Yet the open exchange of
ideas can make it harder to protect
intellectual property and potentially
dampens incentives to innovate. Legal
intellectual-property protection, such as
patents or copyrights, mitigates this
tension in many industries but doesn’t
work in all settings. Simple rules can
protect intellectual property in
situations where legal remedies don’t
apply.
Consider the case of magicians, for
whom secrecy is everything. (This
wonderful example of simple rules
among magicians comes from Jacob
Loshin, “Secrets revealed: How
magicians protect intellectual property
without law,” Yale Law School working
paper, July 2007.) If another magician
steals your tricks, he steals your unique
selling point, especially if he doesn’t
credit you. Even more worryingly, if the
public learns how tricks are performed,
the illusion is ruined for the audience.
So it’s essential for magicians to ensure
that others can’t use their proprietary
magic and that the public doesn’t know
how they perform tricks widely shared
within the professional community.
Magicians cannot rely on the law to
protect their intellectual property—they
would have to reveal the details of a
trick to patent or copyright it.
Instead, magicians rely on simple rules.
The rule prohibiting the use of a trick
that has not been widely shared,
published, or sold to you protects
magicians who want to keep their magic
proprietary. Another rule—an old trick
that hasn’t been used for a long time
belongs to the person who rediscovers
it—revives classic magic for new
generations. Finally, and most
important, the golden rule of magic is
Too much constraint can stifle
innovation, but too little is just as
bad.

48

“never expose a secret to a
nonmagician.” Those who violate these
rules are ostracized by the magic
community, including the owners of
clubs, who book acts. Simple rules are
common in communities (including
those of chefs, stand-up comedians, and
crowdsourcing) that rely on innovation
but do not or cannot use the law to
protect their intellectual property.
Sometimes innovation requires working
with partners, and simple rules can
help here too. Consider the case of
Primekss (pronounced “preem-ex”), a
European construction-supply company
that is trying to disrupt one of the
world’s most traditional industries—
concrete—with a product that not only
allows for thinner layers and less
cracking but also cuts the carbon
footprint by up to 50 percent. (The
production of cement, the critical
ingredient in concrete, is the third-
largest source of greenhouse carbon
dioxide.)5 After Primekss won a
construction-industry innovation
award, the founder was approached by
over 100 contractors, but he estimated
that the company could evaluate, train,
and support only a few new
relationships every year.
To select partners, the company
developed a set of simple rules. Instead
of putting new partners into head-to-
head competition with existing ones,
Primekss decided to select them in
geographic markets with no current
operations. A second rule was that a
potential partner should have a Laser
Screed machine, a stateof-the-art
concrete-spreading system that signaled
technical sophistication and
commitment to quality. Another rule—
partners must sell the concrete within
three months of signing a contract with
Primekss—ensured that the
relationship would be a high priority
for partners. In the first year after
implementing these principles,
Primekss doubled its rate of new
partnerships that succeeded and
quadrupled its licensing exports.
wwwwww
Too much constraint can stifle
innovation, but too little is just as bad.
A blank sheet of paper sounds nice in
theory. In practice, pursuing novelty
without guidelines can overwhelm
people with options, engender waste,
and prevent the coordination required
for collective innovation. Simple rules
can inject discipline into the process by
providing a threshold level of guidance,
while leaving ample room for creativity
and initiative.

Don
Sull,
an
alumnus
of
McKinsey’s
Cleveland
office,
is
a

senior
lecturer
at
the
Massachusetts
Institute
of

Technology’s
Sloan
School
of
Management.
This
article

builds
on
ideas
in
his
recently
published
book,
Simple

Rules:
How
to
Thrive
in
a
Complex
World
(Houghton

Mifflin
Harcourt,
April
2015),
which
he
coauthored
with

Kathleen
Eisenhardt.

49

Book
Review:

Ed
Catmull’s
Fantastic

Personal
Guide
to

Creative
Leadership.

The
Risks
and
the
Rewards.

50

Andon Management, a little know
concept outside Japan, is
a manufacturing term referring to a
system to notify management,
maintenance, and other workers of a
quality or process problem. Japanese
companies in the 1940s improved their
productivity with this simple idea:
rather than giving only senior managers
the power to halt the factory assembly
line, all workers could stop production
by simply pulling a cord if they saw a
problem. Workers thus felt pride when
they fixed problems on their own rather
than waiting on management’s solution.
The simple implementation of the cord
also boosted efficiency because it led to
fast problem solving.
This, and many such gems adorn Ed
Catmull’s brilliant book, Creativity,
Inc. The book tells the story of Pixar
and its merge with Disney Studios
through the experiences of Ed Catmull,
Pixar’s co-founder and current
president. Catmull shares his journey
toward becoming a successful manager,
illustrating through examples the
creative power of change and how a
company culture can only be truly
creative when focus is placed on the
people who make it great – together.
These important ideas fromCreativity,
Inc. will get you up to speed on the ways
in which creativity, change, and
business can create beautiful chemistry.
(The concept of Andon spurred
Catmull and Pixar to instate “Notes
Day,” a time for the company to halt all
operations and spend the day working
with each other in teams and giving
their feedback about the company. Staff
engaged in an open dialogue about the
issues they faced. While at the end of
the day, Pixar employees didn’t get a
cord to pull, they got to share and solve
their problems proactively, which left
them with a feeling of greater
ownership over their work.)
Ed
Catmull
(Photograph
by
Deborah
Coleman/Pixar)

51

I heard of Creativity, Inc. from Biren
Ghose, the creative whiz heading
Technicolor Studios in India, who we
interviewd last month (for more on
that, read our last edition of
Concurrence).
In this book which garnered rave
reviews worldwide when it came out in
2014, Catmull makes a compelling case
for why, if they really want to succeed,
managers should be bold enough to
burn the business plan, stop the
assembly lines, and prize a great team
over even the greatest idea.
Catmull was a 1970s computer
animation pioneer (university
classmates included Netscape co-
founder Jim Clark), but his book is not
a technical history of how the hand-
drawn artistry perfected by Disney was
rendered obsolete by the processing
power of machines. Catmull never
became an animator, instead he
designed the technology that made
Pixar’s films possible; this is the
account of a man who has devoted his
career to nurturing creativity in others.
There’s a fair bit of management speak,
and creatives seeking guidance will find
far more on how to interact with their
colleagues than, say, the process of
creating a plot. It must be said, too, that
Catmull’s isn’t always the most
compelling of voices. But he is adept at
quoting others, and what friends he has
to quote; Steve Jobs makes numerous
appearances, as do John Lasseter and
Andrew Stanton.
The writer of Toy Story, Finding Nemo
and Wall-E, Stanton is, apparently,
fond of saying “be wrong as fast as you
can”, and by way of illustration, we
learn that one of the first drafts of Toy
Story contained a Woody so unpleasant
that Disney shut down the production.
And, indeed, Toy Story 2’s initial
screening was deemed by Pixar’s
creative supremo Lasseter to be a
disaster, yet was judged as entirely
acceptable by Disney executives, who
pointed out that there were just nine
months left before the film’s delivery
date, and anyway, it was only a sequel.
That everyone at Pixar so believed their
Color
script
for
Monster,
Inc.
from
The
Art
of
Pixar

52

mantra “Story is king” and pushed on
to create such sublime pieces of film-
making will be of interest not just to
struggling writers, but anyone who has
ever been tempted by the notion that
“fine” is good enough.
Rather, he uses Pixar's triumphs and
near-disasters to outline a system for
managing people in creative businesses
— one in which candid criticism is
delivered sensitively, while individuality
and autonomy are not strangled by a
robotic corporate culture.
As John Siracusa commented in
Hypercritical, “Think of it: the man
who invented texture mapping, made
computer-animated films possible, and
led his studio to release a string of
amazing, Oscar-winning examples of
the form decides to write a book…and
then builds it around an examination of
his own mistakes. Ed Catmull may not
be your kind of hero, but he sure is
mine.”
Caitlin Schiller, who edits Page19 and
handles copywriting and content
marketing at the wonderful blog
Blinkist writes on the 3 Things You
Should Know from Creativity, Inc. It is a
great little list, and wondertfully
captures some of the learnings of the
book.
1. Rigidity is the sworn enemy of
progress
Caitlin point out that we humans “fear
unfamiliar things because they might
cause us to look like failures. What do
we do instead? We try to control for
calamities via planning. The business
manifestation of this is a company
choosing to follow a “safe route,”
creating rigid structures in order to
cope with an uncertain future.
For example, after Pixar and Disney
Animation Studios merged, Disney’s
HR head came to Catmull with a
detailed prescription of activities,
hoping to eliminate instability by
sticking to the plan. But Catmull
refused to sign off on the proposal. He
holds that while businesses do need a
goal to work towards, they should never
be constrained by these goals. Often,
the best hires and most important
inventions happen in the moments that
Color
script
for
Up
from
The
Art
of
Pixar

53

no one planned for or scheduled.”Now,
that is incredible idea!
2. Trust is the most fertile soil for
creative roots
Schiller points out that a suspicious,
insecure, second-guessing culture and
management style are disastrous for
companies that are trying to become
more creative. “This approach to
management isn’t just abusive and
annoying: limiting employees’
independence can seriously hamper
their creativity and morale, too.”, she
says.
And that is true, and anyone who has
worked in more conventional
organisations have faced the same. Ed
Catmull’s theory is that people are
hired because their skills surpass those
of their managers. As such, leaders
should treat them like the experts they
are by freeing them to make the
decisions their professional expertise
dictates.
To foster this kind of creative
expression, Pixar created
the “Braintrust:” a group of long-term
Pixar employees and film-production
experts in various fields who regularly
review each film during production.
Though The Braintrust can make
whatever comments or suggestions they
please, taking their advice isn’t
mandatory. Instead, the film’s director
is always in charge, thus leaving the real
expert in control of his project and
allowing his creative expression to
flourish. (Catmul explains the highly
effective concept of the "Braintrust,"
here
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMater
ialInfo.html?mid=3327)
Space
Age!

Early
on
at
Pixar,
meetings
were
held
at
a
long,
rectangular
table
with
place
cards
at
each
seat.
This
setup
created
an
unwanted

sense
of
formality
and
hierarchy.
People
in
the
middle
were
involved
in
conversation
while
those
at
the
edges
felt
marginalized.
By

simply
replacing
the
old
table
with
a
square
one
and
losing
the
place
cards,
everyone
felt
much
freer
to
participate
and
voice
their

ideas,
leading
to
better
communication,
tighter-‐knit
teams,
and
more
creative
problem
solving.

54

3. People are more important than
ideas or processes
I quote Schiller here: “Many people
think that success in business depends
upon groundbreaking ideas. While this
certainly doesn’t hurt, Catmull
contends that a far more critical
component of success is hiring the right
people.
Consider this: almost everything you
buy—from your iPhone to a five-star
meal—is not the result of a single idea,
but the sum of many people’s
cooperative efforts. They are products
of the work of many creative minds, be
they designers of food or hardware,
coming together to share their insights
and create a successful product.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how
phenomenal your idea is, how clear
your goals are, or how airtight your
plan—forging a team that works easily
and freely together is the road to
success like Pixar’s.”
Catmull divides his book into four
parts: “Getting Started,” “Protecting
the New,” “Building and Sustaining,”
and “Testing What We Know.”
Of these, the third section begins with a
thoughtful summary of several
“models” employed by people at Pixar
as their basis for successful creative
work. The section then concludes with
his recollection of the first days after
the 2005 merger with Disney and how
Pixar’s creative culture evolved.
Drawing together the personal and
organizational aspects of creative work
in this way is itself instructive;
describing how he led this evolution
over years yields even more valuable
insights.
Professor David Slocum, Faculty
Director of Executive MBA Program at
the Berlin School of Creative
Leadership, praised the last chapter in
Forbes: “The last chapter titled
“Thoughts for Managing a Creative
Culture,” offers a master class in
creative leadership. From managing
fear and failure in an organization to
protecting new ideas and imposing
productive limits, these are 33 gems.
Yet with characteristic sagacity, Catmull
makes clear how these principles
should be viewed as starting points
rather than ends to be achieved.
Indeed, the book’s last words are to
avoid confusing the process with the
goal and always to remember that that
goal is “making the product great.”
Particularly impressive here is an
insistence on linking ideas about
creative work to behaviors (even ones
that ultimately fail). Many of the ideas
here, from fearless ideation and
collaboration to tireless
communication, are not surprising.
However, Catmull and Wallace make
them compelling through tales of their
implementation. The tenet of intensive,
democratic collaboration appears here
as the belief in anyone being able to
talk to anyone else at Pixar about their
work, for example, and Catmull conveys
it in his memorable recounting of how
Toy Story taught him the value of
bringing together product managers
with artists and technicians.”
Toy Story 2 Story
Of course, ome of the advice flirts with
cliche: Staff must be allowed to fail, and
so on. But the tips are anchored
persuasively in strong examples. The

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