The Friday Thing #800
Thanks for all the notes on last week’s edition. Clay’s talk seemed to hit the spot with many of you.
The Friday Thing #800 is a milestone I suppose…but that’s never what this has been about. It’s always been about sharing and sparking ideas in others (and myself). Which is why I hope you will like ideageneration as much as I do. It’s an Instagram account that collects short nuggets of inspiration – often from famous, successful, people – but also just from across the web. This is one of my favourite entries from the account – on creativity.?
I have been thinking about creativity this week following an observation someone offered me about my office recently. After spending some time looking at all the things in my office, a mentor of mine said “wow, you’re really a collector, Steve….I didn’t know that about you”. We continued talking and a while later they observed that although I work in communications, they saw me as a “creative”.
On my bike ride later that day, I thought a lot about this conversation. I am definitely a communicator (I find and tell stories, remember?). And I am definitely a collector. I also like to think I am a creative but that is for other people to judge. All of this made me think about my answer to last week’s edition and adjust my “what do you do?” answer very subtly from I find and tell stories, to “I collect and tell stories”. I like the notion of collecting things, ideas, inspiration, and having them all get remixed in to the stories I tell. Is that creativity? Maybe….
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And with that in mind, two other favourites from ideageneration. One from Matt Damon, the other from Jay Z. They both made me smile a lot this Friday.
That’s all I have for #800.
Cheers and happy Friday.
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-Steve?
community leader on hunger issues..food and beverage consultant for stadiums arenas convention centers fairgrounds
1 年Great piece! I love
High Performance & Leadership Coach | Satya Nadella’s Former Head Innovation Coach | CEO Advisor | AI Strategist | Innovation Advisor | Bestselling Author | 25 Years of Microsoft Leadership
1 年Beautiful stuff! I think you creatively “curate.” And your power of synthesis rises above the noise. I’ve been an avid collector and curator of insights, starting back in developer support when I realized quotes put wisdom of the ages and modern sages at my fingertips. I realized quotes are the simplest way to stand on the shoulders of giants, and I’m always fascinated by how someone, somewhere, sometime, said something insightful about something. Well framed and well said is, well, enlightening.
Best Selling Author + Business Coach featured on ABC, FOX, FORTUNE, Newsweek, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Psychology Today
1 年Love your insight and your process on how you define what you do!
Strategist, bestselling author of "Autonomous Transformation" and founder of The Future Solving Company, former Microsoft, Accenture
1 年Congratulations on #800, Steve! I would definitely argue that you are a creative. Somewhere along the way the definition for “creative” in the business lexicon got an asterisk *Not for serious business people The opposite is true- creativity is one of our most essential human attributes, and sets apart leaders who create the future versus those who only react to it. You use creativity in finding stories, in telling them, in mapping them to broader narratives, in setting the business objectives, designing the strategy, and in leading your organization.
Enterprise Account Director | Sales Leader | Management Consulting Executive | Stanford GSB
1 年I agree, it is very much how the creative process works. I liked the way this book expands on this topic - Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative (Austin Kleon) https://amzn.eu/d/iGA8kLG. On a broader level, this book builds on the topic of creative thought process very well - The Act of Creation https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1939438985?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share