Category: creativity

Toward the Unexplored

https://youtu.be/rUUVaOkUcS0?si=Cxn9UzmqDHB53lJ0&t=722 In this clip (12 min. in) Herbie Hancock describes his experience in 1968 playing an electric piano for the first time. Going into the studio, Hancock saw that there was no piano in the room. Confused, he turned to Miles Davis and asked, "What do you want me to play?" Miles looked at an … Continue reading Toward the Unexplored

Creativity and Mise en Place – Pastry Edition

a dessert by Jordi Roca My introduction to the execution side of creativity was in my mother's catering business that she ran out of our home when I was a kid. She called the business Gorgeous Food and the vision for the business was true to its name. The focus was on presenting fresh, seasonal ingredients in … Continue reading Creativity and Mise en Place – Pastry Edition

How to Run a Process Critique

A process critique is a short meeting in which you present your work-in-progress with the goal of gathering feedback. It's a tricky thing to navigate because many of us feel more comfortable presenting finished work where we sell every decision we've made with confidence. But a process crit requires us to be vulnerable. And that's … Continue reading How to Run a Process Critique

Our Lives Are Full – Martin Short’s 9 Categories

Our brains are wired to focus on negative thoughts. This is why we wake up in the middle of the night and ruminate on that awkward conversation that happened months ago. It's why we zoom in on that one bad grade or that one negative comment.While this wiring used to serve us when we were … Continue reading Our Lives Are Full – Martin Short’s 9 Categories

Businesses and Complex Adaptive Systems

trillium in an old-growth forest Can businesses be designed like complex adaptive systems? This is the question that Roger L. Martin explores in his new book When More Isn't Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency. The book opens much like Mariana Mazzucato's The Value of Everything--it opens with a long critique of our current … Continue reading Businesses and Complex Adaptive Systems

Solving the Wrong Problem

I once had a figure drawing instructor who would playfully swat my drawing hand if I were working on a detail of a figure without first mapping out the entire body. Zoom in too soon and you might be drawing a perfect hand but in the wrong place. I love it that she did that.