Creative Rebellion Essays: Creativity, Inspiration, and Design
Rotman BDX Zoom call with Angele Beausoleil, Clay Chandler and Bruce Mau
On November 20th, I participated in the inaugural Rotman Business Design Initiative event by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. The theme was Decoding Design for Innovation. The session I was involved in was moderated by Clay Chandler, (Executive Editor, Asia Fortune Magazine), and the legendary designer Bruce Mau and the wonderful Angele Beausoleil (Profesor of Business Design and Innovation at the Rotman School of Management).
It was an early morning for me. I was up at 3 am and the actual conversation started just around 6 am Pacific Coast time, in order to accommodate the time differences between Clay (Hong Kong), Bruce (Chicago), and myself. Even though I’m grateful for video conferencing, one of the disadvantages of not being in the same physical location is accommodating for global participants. High-class problem during a pandemic, nonetheless.
I’ve been a fan of Bruce’s for a long time. When I first moved to LA about 20 years ago, one of the first design events my wife and I attended was the launch of Bruce’s Lifestyle book. His books are massive and wonderful. So it was a thrill to see him hold up my book, The Art of Creative Rebellion, during the Zoom call.
Bruce’s latest book is called MAU MC24. It contains 24 principles for designing “massive change” in your life and work. All 24 principles in the beautifully designed book (no surprise) are practical and applicable across so many facets of any person’s life, whether you’re a designer or businessperson. But the one that I appreciated immediately was the first principle:
Inspiration is the Foundation of Design – Without It, Nothing Happens.
Inspiration is especially challenging during tumultuous times like we are all experiencing. When getting through the day is hard enough, how can we inspire ourselves? But inspiration, as Bruce says, is “the birthplace of massive change.” We need to change our perspective from an everything-is-in-tatters mindset to understanding that anything is possible (within the laws of physics) if we move from a low-energy state of pessimism towards a high-energy state of potential.
The power of an inspired mind taking action, for me, is exemplified in the actions of 17-year old, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. I just watched the new Hulu Original documentary I am Greta and was blown away (full disclosure, I work for Hulu). We see the power of, at the time, 15-year old Greta, a brilliant girl with Aspbergers, who realizes clearly that the world is in a liminal moment – we either address the clear and present dangers of climate change in the coming decade or we pass a tipping point of no return. She started by simply going “on school strike” by sitting outside of Parliament in Stockholm. In very short order she started a movement that brought her in contact with world leaders and the United Nations Climate Action Summit where she gave a scathing, direct speech that was powerful and inspiring.
In a sense what Greta accomplished is very much “life-centered design” – a concept that Bruce prefers over human-centered design. We are here as a life form on planet Earth. We are very human-centric in our thinking, designing things that increase toxicity, pollute, and deplete the planet. Our thinking must change towards thinking about life holistically. Life thrives on our planet but we, as humans, are just one part of a much larger, complex interconnected ecosystem that we need to design for going forward.
We covered a lot of ground during our conversation and I found myself quite inspired as well, in spite of being groggy from lack of sleep. We spoke about how to deal with uncertainty, something we are all struggling with.
Design embraces uncertainty. As a creative person, I step into the unknown on a daily basis and learned how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. I find that there are, broadly speaking, two reactions to uncertainty: fear or inspiration.
It’s natural to feel fear when things change. As humans, we are wired for stability, dependability, and routine. But life changes constantly, especially during these times. if you can expand and move through the fear, there is the ability to aikido the situation into something great. To be inspired. Possibilities open up and energy builds.
Fear saps vitality, while inspiration creates energy.
As we move into this season of shorter days and colder nights, leading into the holidays, consider that which you want to launch as we move out of this most challenging of years in recent history and into 2021.
John
Podcast:
The Mojo Sessions – Gary Bertwistle interviewed me for his great podcast. He’s the author of six books, including Who Stole My Mojo? He’s a wonderful interviewer and a brilliant mind.
What I’m reading:
The Archer – Paulo Coelho’s short but poetic book discusses the connection between mastery and how to live a meaningful life by courageously embracing all aspects of existence from failure to success.
Zen in the Art of Archery – Eugene Herrigel’s masterful work, published in 1948, was based on his time in Japan in the 1920’s when he studied Kyūdō, the way of archery, under a master. Clearly an influence on the Coelho book, it’s worth reading this wonderful tome.
Saturday – Ian McEwan. I picked up this book in a thrift shop and was immediately taken in by McEwan’s masterful prose.
The Wind from the Sun: Stories of the Space Age – Arthur C. Clarke. Picked this book up in a used bookstore in San Luis Obispo. Clarke was a prolific writer and futurist and influenced so much modern science fiction, taking it out of the realm of pulp and into the world of literature.
What I’m watching:
I am Greta – Such an incredibly engrossing and powerful documentary about a truly courageous young woman who has made a difference in such a short period of time in the climate awareness movement.
The Queen’s Gambit – Just beautiful. Everything in this mini-series by Scott Frank, from its masterful cinematography to the acting of the lead actress, Anya Taylor-Joy. Based on Walter Tevis’ book of the same name, the story follows the life of a chess prodigy from her orphaned childhood up into her young adulthood.
Tiny World – Paul Rudd narrates this series which covers the truly miniscule world of animals and insects. The camera work is breathtaking and the drama that is built up from following the lives of the truly tiny is completely engaging.
We are the Champions – Rainn Wilson narrates this super fun series about eccentric and delightully quirky competitions from “cheese rolling” in Brockworth, Gloucestershire to hot chili eating to a yo-yo competition. It’s a feel-good series to watch when the world feels like it’s falling apart
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