Cr8tivity

In a world dominated by McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Apple, creativity is becoming more and more rare and consequently more and more valuable. Today, we are surrounded by the generic, standardized and the automatic. I’m not trying to overdramatize that being creative and an individual is extinct, but there is a trend of uniformity in thinking and in work. I’m not too afraid to admit that even in some of my classes, I tend to study what I need to know just for an exam—nothing more (and hopefully nothing less).

            The biggest lesson I took from the workshop was similar to last week’s lessons from initiative: creativity is not a one step process. Creativity starts at the nexus of imagination, innovation and critical thinking, but continues past that point. Being creative also relies on adaptability and elaboration. It’s about taking an idea, adjusting it to its surroundings and creating a more meaningful, tangible product. For example, in our challenge to create a miniature golf course, our group ran into problems with out to get the ball up a ramp, into our ‘building’ and then down another ramp on the other side. With no one in our group having an engineering background, we tried adding bumpers to direct the ball. It might not have worked due to my putting skills during the demonstration or the bumpers may have been ineffective, but we elaborated perfectly by turning our plain, unrecognizable “White House box” into a mélange of American symbols.

Creativity is essential to BLF and life outside of our challenges. I talked with Don Davis this week, and he underlined the need to be creative in our Operation Feed Campaign challenge and in his profession. Companies and organizations get swamped with calls and requests about fundraisers and campaigns, but he really challenged to take risks. To him creativity is about taking risks to not only create something new, but something memorable and impactful. A major part of his job is to be creative. He makes trips across the world and only has one chance to ‘wow’ clients a year in a one-hour meeting, so he has to make sure that he makes his webinars and presentations stick out and be memorable.

Creativity is ultimately different for everyone in every situation. There is not a formula or method to go about it. I didn’t see myself as creative before this workshop, but after hearing about a lot of other people’s hesitations towards their creative status I know it’s more of a confidence issue than an ability one. Being creative was one of the aspects I wanted to work on with my challenge coaches, but I know now it’s not about necessarily about being active and working at it, but it’s about giving myself the environment to be creative. 

That's one small step for man...You Know the Rest: Taking Initiative

              Near the top of my “Letterman’s Top Ten Things to Learn List” is growing my initiative skills and has been an area I’ve tried to challenge myself in BLF (it is also one of those words I cannot spell on the first time for the life of me).  Initiative is multidimensional and more than simply taking a first step and starting something. I’ve learned that it’s more than just a one-stop shop and is a process.

In a lot of experiences, initiative is usually accompanied by discomfort at the outset. We don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, or we don’t know how what the outcome will be, so there is an inherent level of risk by taking initiative. On the other side, I hear a lot of advice of people saying, “take initiative to step out of your comfort zone”. I think that initiative and comfort are tightly connected. Initiative in most cases forces us to step out of our comfort bubbles, while comfort doesn’t give us the spark to change anything or start something new.

Initiative also has a long-term component: it requires taking responsibility and following through.

   This week I called Dave Wilson for insight into our challenge strategy and also took the initiative to ask him a few questions on his thoughts on initiative. As someone who has started his own company, I figured he would know a thing or two—or a dozen—about taking initiative. He first defined initiative as “the willingness to start and maintain momentum to fulfill a given objective”. I think it is important to not only act, but act enthusiastically and invest yourself in a purpose. Initiative has emotional and goal-driven intentions. More on a personal note I asked Dave how to take initiative effectively in context of my introverted skills. He pointed out that initiative does not always have to spark from a personal level. Rather than taking impulsive initiative, it’s important to come from an informed position to know exactly when and how to take best advantage of the situation.

           Each member of the panel was able to take initiative in different ways, from starting a business to being given huge financial responsibilities, but the overall message was there is a balance between personal relationships and being prepared. Each panelist relied on relationships that they grew to be put in the position to take initiative. They all preached the importance of saying ‘yes’ and being available to every situation given. But there was also emphasis on learning from each situation and in hindsight, being prepared more for those situations that they were presented with.

          I had always seen introversion as an inhibition to initiative. While there is a heavy relational component to it, initiative is also sparked from an analytical and preparation method. It’s also a lot more than just starting something but taking responsibility and most importantly, following through.

From Bowls of Cereal to Iron Chef

Last week a dream of mine came true: I was an Iron Chef. I am in no way, shape, or form a cooking machine and don’t even pretend to be an aluminum chef. I would say my expertise is on the other side of the plate—the eating. Fortunately, the main ingredient of this challenge was teamwork and not cooking. Even though I’ve never worked with Norah, Brianna or even my own partner, Haroun, we functioned like a well-olive oiled cooking machine. I think what gave us the edge was our preparation before cooking. We all went up to the ingredients to get some ideas, came back, brainstormed a ton, and each decided on roles to take that we felt comfortable doing. Brianna’s father took charge of the grill, Norah’s mother owned that soup station, and Haroun and I took the point guard role: dishing out assists to every station by getting ingredients, prepping the vegetables, or cleaning the stations. In the heat of the challenge I don’t think we were focused on winning, we were all just trying to complete our tasks and not let each other down. When we first got started, I thought that the size of the working space would be a huge problem, but since the ingredients and food were moving from station to station more than any of us, there wasn’t a single problem.

There were three courses in the lesson I took away from this competition. The appetizer is communication. Before we started cooking, we all took a look at what we had and came up with a plan. Each of us openly shared their cooking experience (or lack there of) and at the ingredients that we had to work with. We knew what we wanted to make after learning what we could make. The main dish was emphasizing and playing off strengths. As much as I would have loved to been at the stove or on the grill, I knew that’s not where my team needed me most. The division of labor for this competition really allowed the entire group to flourish and we each put ourselves in a position to succeed. One of the overarching lessons learned in BLF is recognizing and using strengths, and I think that this competition allowed everyone to find their niche in the kitchen. Finally for dessert, we have accountability and encouragement. Everyone was dependent on each other to complete the dish, so we each looked after each other. Whether it was cleaning up for someone after they finished or showing them how to slice and dice onions, no one was just focused their own task. 

Oh, Dip

I wouldn’t consider myself having a keen eye for art. I am still scarred of getting a B in art class in high school. It’s not to say that I don’t appreciate the arts, it’s just my ability to constructively dissect and analyze a piece is a little less profound than what my high school art teacher had wanted—or so I thought. I came in a little out of my element and a little overwhelmed by the artistic juices just oozing from the walls. But I left with confidence and ownership in what I observed. 

I am a huge sucker for acronyms, so the ODIP lesson really caught my attention—to get a complete understanding of something we have to observe, describe, interpret, and prove. Observing and describing—no problem! We do that subconsciously with everything. But to get the full experience and perspective, we need to actively engage in interpreting and proving.

The workshop for these lessons was really helpful in the art museum because it’s pretty easy to ODIP; choose a piece, look at it, ask why the artist created it in a certain way, and then prove why the artist created the piece. It’s pretty simple in this setting because the piece isn’t physically changing and the interpretation is subjective. Applying this to life gets a little bit stickier because the world isn’t a stagnant piece hanging on a wall and our the lenses which we view the world also change. The mastery of ODIP and critical thinking is a cardinal virtue to development in anything. To successfully gain understanding of how to lead, we have to first observe and describe our strengths, interpret how we can use those strengths and then put them into action.

I came out of the workshop not with a newfound knowledge of art—but with the ownership and skills of systematically breaking down what is presented in front of me, whether that is a painting, a challenge, or myself. If it took us almost a half an hour to ODIP a painting, looking at the world in a critical way will be a never-ending cycle of observing, describing, interpreting, and proving.

For the past two and a half years, I’ve tried to avoid going to North Commons…but with little time to wait in line anywhere else I have unregrettably compromised my morals (I realized the food is actually top notch). So since it has become a new part of my life, here goes ODIP on NoCo, one in the morning and one during dinner.

Observe: North Commons in the morning

Describe: Lots of empty seats, weary and tired students eating or cramming before class, lots of light, pictures of fresh fruits and vegetables on the walls

Interpret: Students who eat in the morning are coming in for a rushed bite right before class and don’t have time to socialize.

Prove: Mostly everyone is sitting alone and reading a textbook, rushing to do homework, or haven’t even taken their jacket off.

Observe: North Commons at night

Describe: Much more crammed, dinners are breaking bread with friends

Interpret: People linger here much longer, having conversations and eating more.

Prove: Tables are mostly full and implicitly, this meal costs twice as much as breakfast.

G-360 Recap

Right after I finished my G360 I was anxious to check my scores. So I had to see how I saw myself with data. I had a few areas with pretty low scores--I wasn't surprised I had areas that I needed to work on, I expected that--but I was surprised that some of my personal scores were rock bottom low. Kind of like checking exam scores at the end of the term , I had to peel myself away from the computer and refresh button. So when the day came to hear back from my peers I was excited for a (hopefully) fresh, new opinion. Although my low self-scored areas were still the areas that others felt I needed to improve more, they were still higher. Likewise, my high self scores correlated with the high scores that I received. By this I know I have a pretty good grasp on what I need to improve and what I do well. But without the input of my team members I wouldn't have concluded this and may have just said some cliché like "I'm my harshest critic" or not having the full perspective of what my true strengths and weaknesses are. I think that the view that we should have about ourselves should be on our perspective but reinforced and checked by those around us. Also by evaluating others, I think we value them more. Rather than passively accepting the people around us for who they are, giving feedback forces us to actually THINK critically about who this person is.

The feedback without action or reaction is useless. However, much like gaining a complete perspective about my strengths and weakness,  I will need the help of others to make sure I am making progress in areas that were lacking and making sure that I don't neglect areas that need less attention. I think that having a few people assembled in to illicit feedback and give feedback will provide accountability. Having an accountability group (henceforth known as the A-team) will really develop the skills to communicate and discover what you are driven by, what works, and what doesn't work.

Actually, after having my first meeting with my challenge group since break there was a noticeable difference in the way that each of us participated and ran the discussions. We were all much more vocal and engaging in building off of one another's ideas and all seemed to be on the same page. Afterwards we all admitted that we were purposefully trying to work on the feedback that we received, so we have already purposefully put into action what we learned.