I caught the announcement of a free webinar from MIT entitled "Creative Experimentation: Developing a Skill critical for Managing Complex Operating Systems" via Paul Levy's blog. This offering looked quite interesting, but it conflicted with an important meeting I had scheduled at the same time. Nonetheless, I registered just in case I might have a chance to listen in. And sure enough, I had a 10-minute walk to my meeting and I was able to listen in to the webinar from my phone. I thought it quite interesting how you can learn *anywhere* nowadays – even from a professor at a remote university while you are a college president walking between meetings. Here are my notes from what I heard on the initial minutes of the call:

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I favorited these tweets by Bill Gross from the Davos special session on "Women Power" – I couldn't find an article online that covered the session as succinctly as Bill did:

• "Just last week I saw shirts that said 'Smart Like Daddy' & 'Pretty Like Mommy' at Gymboree" Sheryl Sandberg of #FB #WEF #Davos
• "As a women gets more powerful & successful, she becomes less liked, opposite of men." A passionate Sheryl Sandberg @ #WEF #Davos
• "An extra year of primary school can increase a girl's future wages by 10-20% or more" Michele Bachelet of UN @ #WEF #Davos
• "We don’t raise our daughters to be as ambitious as our sons." laments Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook at #WEF #Davos
• "Imagine if 1/2 of the world's population were allowed to reach its full potential." Women as the Way Forward @ #WEF #Davos
• I've lived in a society that judged me on something I could do nothing about, the colour of my skin. We're doing the same w/women -Tutu #WEF
• “I got to where I was because I only had to compete with ½ the population” Sheryl Sandberg quoting Warren Buffet @ #WEF #Davos

This article from the Guardian is close. I was reminded of one of my favorite commencement speeches from last year by Sheryl Sandberg. -JM

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"If hospitality is heavily qualitative, then service is more quantitative. Service can be scripted and dictated, mechanical, and drilled. You can evaluate service more easily than hospitality. Service is repetitive, efficient, consistent, continuous, tailored, customized, and sustainable. Unlike hospitality, service is much easier to perfect through training, drill, exercise, and continuous commitment. With such practice, service can be taken to the highest level of technical perfection. But for true excellence, service and hospitality must combine. One cannot exist without the other." 

"But for true excellence, service and hospitality must combine. One cannot exist without the other."

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I'm a big believer in acupuncture ever since an episode I had 17 years or so ago where my hands were numb from typing. After seven visits to the acupuncturist I could use my hands again. Since I'm not getting any younger and I still type a lot (witness this post), I've been visiting the acupuncturist again. 

My first acupuncture therapy was in Japan with Dr. Shuichi Katai who is a prominent researcher in the field who made it interesting for me. Dr. Katai would often teach acupuncture outside of Japan, and he suggested that when I have acupuncture done again in the future that I select a doctor who could read Chinese because the way it is practiced in "the West" is less holistic way than the way it is taught in Asia. He explained that in the West, the various needle points on the body (at least 17 years ago) are labelled with letter/number combinations – much like playing the Milton Bradley (now Hasbro) game "Battleship" with "E-17" or "H-22" etc. Whereas if you read the Chinese literature on acupuncture, there's a narrative logic between the various meridians in the body that can describe a more holistic connectivity of all the various points. The Battleship analogy still holds, I believe, because frequency is important with acupuncture because the doctor is trying to metaphysically "sink" a few battleships in your body.

Luckily like Dr. Katai, my new acupuncturist Dr. Z doesn't silently administer her needles – we often talk about the nature of acupuncture and how it all works. I like how she describes acupuncture as being able to address three important health factors: 1) the immune system, 2) blood circulation, and 3) mental and physical stress. She described two situations that I thought have some connection to leadership that I haven't fully connected in my mind, and leave this note for the future.

Dr. Z has many patients that come to try to stop smoking. She described to me how it is much easier to stop smoking when you smoke 30 per day versus someone that smokes just six a day. Her rationale was that in trying to quit smoking, you are going from "a lot" to zero. The attack path is clear, the goal is clear, and it is felt throughout. Whereas when you are trying to quit from six a day, your mind has already acclimated to a "this is just as good as smoking zero" rationale. It reminded me of one of the concepts in the Heath brothers book Switch where they talk about how important "motivating the elephant" can really be. It's like when they say how easy it is to make a change happen in the face of a major perceived need; whereas it's much harder to change when the need is only slight. Nonetheless, Dr. Z is proud that she's been able to help many of her patients quit smoking. How does she do it? Dr. Z coyly smiles and says, "Because I address their immune system, their blood circulation, and their mental and physical stress." She also added, "Because everyone loves to look a little more beautiful – reducing smoking makes their faces look much more fresh."

The other story I enjoyed from Dr. Z was her take on Chinese medicine and herbs. She felt that there's a problem with medicine in general where people believe that if they take more, it's proportionately more better for them. As an example, she said that it's long been known in China to prescribe 10 milligrams of Vitamin C as herbs. But she finds it odd that we believe here in the States that 100 mg or even 1000 mg will be ten or one hundred times better for us. It made me think of how there's a limit to the power of a solution. And if you can't see that limit, and stop at the right moment, then you've actually made a new problem instead. It's an argument that supports the classic, "Less is better than more." Or perhaps said differently, "Enough is more than good enough – it's great."

This post is not in a fully organized state, and I leave it as a note for myself. I hope that someone out there can use it somehow. -JM

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I learned of an interesting story about the Korean loach fish from a long time friend when we were sharing thoughts about how large organizations exist. Our conversation eventually centered around a common friend who unfortunately had a boss that was making this person's life miserable. So he brought out the loach fish to help me see the world in a whole new way that I wanted to share with you.

Apparently, according to tradition this fish is a special delicacy to be enjoyed freshly caught, but only during summer months when they are particularly scarce. They can't be caught in Seoul anymore and must be transported many hours away from the countryside. There was a longtime issue with transporting these fish because not only were they scarce, but they would often perish during the trip into Seoul during the hot summer months.

My friend then introduced the catfish into his story, "You know that the catfish is a carnivore -- it eats other fish." I didn't, but I took note and wasn't sure about the relation to the challenges of the loach fish that die before they get eaten (we can argue later which form of demise is better). He further described the solution that was introduced to assure that more loach fishes make it from the countryside to cityside: put a catfish in the tank of loach fishes.

"Huh?" I thought. This method of placing a loach-hungry catfish in the presence of lots of friendly, law-abiding loaches apparently improves their survival in transit by over 60%. What does this say? I think it confirms that old adage of, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." So if you out there may have the apparent fortune of having a "catfish boss" -- ie one that is out to eat you -- congratulations! You will be luckier for the experience, and are more likely to survive for another day (or at least between a few more meals). -JM

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With the year winding down, I'm reminded of how forgetful I can be. But luckily we are all connected and we all help us to remember everything, together. So I was delighted to just now receive a message from the uniquely gifted Mukara Meredith. The subject line was "Re: The Tenth Person" – taken from an email interchange I had with her loooong ago. 

Mukara pointed out, to me, how often times within the workings of a team, the leader is often fixated on the many individual and group relationships/dynamics within the membership. Her point was that we so often look for "teamwork" and yet we don't give it a role on the team itself. In other words, we don't often enough write the job description for the "invisible" member of the team, and then hold him/her/it accountable for the performance of the overall team. So as a practical example, for a team of nine you want to call out the "tenth" member of the team as someone/something that needs a performance review alongside everyone else as representing the id of the team's teamness. 

As a concept, this might seem a bit uncomfortably ethereal – because it is. And yet it helps to make the intangible quality of "teamwork" entirely tangible, and accountable with the human resources instruments that we are already employ. Thanks for reminding me of the extra, invaluable member of every team, Mukara! -JM

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Author Douglas Huh is working on a book on passion in work life, and he sent me a list of 18 interesting questions on the topic. One of his questions reminded me of an episode in my life that gave me a different perspective on things.

13. I believe people can acknowledge their level of passion when they are “truly moved by their own efforts”. Borrowing this aspect, could you share with us your experience of being truly moved by your own efforts?

I disagree. When you allow yourself to be moved by your own efforts you can easily become complacent. So in answer to your question, I've never been moved by my own efforts. It allows you, sometimes, to see something else of greater importance that you may have missed.

Long ago, I was nominated for an award at a multimedia festival that used to be held in Cannes. I brought my oldest daughter, who was 9 at the time. For fun, we went to McDonalds together -- which was special to see the French version with her. The award ceremony opened with a massive production that was Cirque de Soleil style and over the top. Then there was the big moment where the nominees were being announced, and my producer was getting us all psyched to go up to the podium for the win. But my name wasn't read. We went back to the hotel, and my daughter wrote a fax to my wife, Kris, to report the day's events. It read, "Dear Mommy, We went to McDonalds and I got a Bugs Life toy in my Happy Meal! We ate Indian food for dinner. Daddy's producer made someone eat a hot chili pepper. There were acrobats and clowns. And Daddy lost. Good night!" I was reminded how children help us notice what truly matters in life.

Only a few more days left in the year of 2011. Reflecting. -JM

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I attended a lecture at the RISD Museum in October by the British artist Bob Smith (Roberta is his alter ego). It was dark in the Metcalf auditorium, but I scribbled some notes that I've always wanted to transcribe because much of what he said was at the intersection of being serious, funny, obvious, contradictory, over-the-top, and downright inspiring:

• "Artists, poets, dancers, architects built America and they will rebuild America with art at its center."
• "Artists are people who speak out. So being an artist is a tough, dirty job."
• "Art is the economic stimulus that the world needs right now."
• "Everybody needs/enjoys/consumes images."
• "The art world is a gated community."
• "I need to think that art can help."
• "Artists are people that want to add something that they see missing."
• "Creativity is about a certain kind of rebellion."
• "Everything is made."
• "While art is being accepted into society, it's important for art to retain a critical underground."
• "Make your own d*mn art!"

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I enjoyed this quote from Joi Ito in a recent article in Fast Company: 

"The Japanese government once asked me to be on a committee about taxes and information technology. The first thing I said was, 'Let's figure out a way to use resources more efficiently to lower taxes.' And they said, 'No, no, no--this committee is about using computers to collect more tax.' So I asked, 'How do we reduce costs?' And they said, 'Oh, there's no committee for that.' [Laughs] That's the problem with large organizations. They create roles and constraints, and sometimes people forget why they're there."

It's similar to something I overheard recently, "Your customer doesn't really give a **** about your silos or internal politics." In essence, we so easily forget why you/we/they're here. -JM

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Andrew Crawford.m4a Listen on Posterous

Sculptor and "iron" entrepreneur Andrew Crawford introduced me to a uniquely extreme thought regarding the creative process, as described in this little audio interview. His sculpture work is visible at: http://www.ironisking.com/ -- the pieces there help to explain his intense psyche quite clearly. -JM

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Last week with the loss of Steve Jobs I'm a bit off balance like many out there. I shared some of my thoughts with NPR's Morning Edition: http://risd.cc/naPMp2 but am still way bummed right now. I clip a lot of things out of magazines and the likes and put them in my wallet, and rifling through it this morning I found something that gave me a needed smile. It's from an interview with actor George Clooney on the topic of failure from Parade Magazine: http://risd.cc/q4Ux1h

You’ve talked about how lucky you are. What have you learned from your failures?

Thanks George. Thanks Steve. -JM

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David Kelley.m4a Listen on Posterous

A few years ago I was in the habit of asking random creative leaders the question, "What should future artists and designers know?" straight onto my iPhone. I'm certain that I will lose all these recordings someday (given that my computer's hard disk failed recently) so I will try to trickle some of them here. This is a 3-minute piece where David Kelley (co-founder of IDEO) expresses the desire for more designers to know how to communicate better with executives as their time has come to address the C-level-folks. Personally, the reason why I got my MBA was to understand "best practices"- and "quad-chart"-speak to demystify what I heard from many business colleagues, and was relieved to know we were essentially saying the same thing -- just in different languages. -JM

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Today I had my first teleconference with a new council I've been invited to join – the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council (GAC) on New Models of Leadership. I had previously served on the GAC on Design, and it's interesting to be within this new space of leadership where "creativity" is usually perceived as not a norm (as it is in the design field). I'm on the council to contribute my perspective on what we can learn from art and design in leadership, and can see how I was completely wrong about how experts on leadership are adopting creativity as it pervaded our discussion today. One of the experts on entrepreneurship shared the notion of "failure" as an especially important aspect to manage for a successful entrepreneur where risks are usually enormously high. An innovative CEO shared how he requires all managers that apply to work with him to submit their "failure resume" – because he wants to evaluate their own self-awareness. I shared the art and design world perspective as voiced by Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts" on how artists teach us how to "productively fail" as exemplified by the critique process they learn in art school. But my absolute favorite was from a member of the council that is in the sports arena: 

"Many times leaders in the public sphere are criticized for some mistake or failure as if it was the worst thing imaginable to happen. But as a coach of a hockey team I've learned that if you as a leader are not willing to feel any pain you are not willing to risk anything -- you are not reaching high enough and far enough. I tell this to my players all the time -- if they're not failing, they're not trying hard enough."

The diversity of the group is incredible, and I'm looking forward to learning more. -JM

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Almost ten years ago I was vacationing on Cape Cod with my family when I was reading through the obituaries (the beauty of vacation is that you can get so bored that you read absolutely all parts of the newspaper at least five times) and found this story about the late Professor Martin Deutsch. He was someone who was long reputed as having missed the opportunity during his life to win the Nobel Prize, but having done amazing things nonetheless. His attitude towards this prevailing attitude was particularly endearing: 

"My attitude to prizes is peculiar, not clearly pathological but peculiar," Deutsch wrote. "I'm really glad that I did not get the Nobel Prize in 1956. It would have spoiled my life."

He recalled a story from when he was a child on summer vacation with his family and how his mother had entered him in a potato-sack hopping race for children. He had the chance to win, but he lost intentionally:  

"I was leading. I recall that I deliberately slowed down in order to come in second. The reasons for this action were quite complex but an oversimplified description could be that I did not want to give my mother the satisfaction of saying, 'My son, the sack race winner.'"

To be ultimately known for the quality of your work, instead of the quality of the prize for your work, seems like an elegant way to aspire to live one's life as someone who makes things. -JM

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The urgency of communication between community and innovator breaks down *all* the time.

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I saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while and was gladly reminded of how she serves as an inspiration to me because of a specific event almost a decade ago. 

There was a big event in Boston, to which I had a few of my students come and exhibit their work. It was one of those big gatherings where there were over ten thousand people from all around the country. One of the students had just given a presentation together with me that went well -- it was her first such presentation and was still only a college sophomore so it was a real point of achievement and excitement for her. And when we returned to the exhibiting area she quickly turned pale because her purse appeared missing -- we were all so exhausted with the preparations for the show, and so only naturally her sense of unfortunate surprise turned to unhappy tears.

And then something quite special happened. One of my other students, an exceptionally sturdy freshman (who I hear is getting married now -- oh how time flies), walked up to her in a matter-of-fact kind of way and said softly, "Do you need a hug?" "Yes," was the happy/sad reply. The two students didn't know each other that well, and to see this kind of supportive camaraderie on our budding team was quite rewarding as a leader. It all felt right, but what was even more rewarding and humbling came a few seconds afterwards.

The friend I mention at the head of this post was walking the exhibition floor at the end of the day. She was in charge of logistics for the event that year -- a gargantuan task that she was still on day two of three days. I waved to her as she walked towards us -- she noted the comforting but sad embrace between the two students. "What happened?" she asked. I explained the high, and then the low, and then the hug. And I immediately saw her hand unhesitatingly reach into her own purse as she walked over to the two young women while saying, "Well ... a girl's got to have some cash. Can I lend you some money until you find your wallet?" I was struck by her absolute kindness for someone she didn't even know. But for my friend, despite her long day of countless forms of triage with the large event and her accompanying fatigue, it seemed like helping out a complete stranger with such plainhearted kindness was an absolute given. She led without the pretense of "leadership" -- she simply did the right thing. I jumped in and explained to my friend I would take care of the situation and thanked her for her kindness. My entire world changed that day.

So the unsolicited kindness from one student to another, with a spontaneous and supportive hug. And the kindness from a stranger to another person in need without any hesitation at all, were two real treats that day -- both exhibiting the most elegant form of leadership: giving and serving in unhesitating ways. It was a humbling, formative experience that I was happy to remember this week. -JM

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A close friend recently shared an enlightening story about her mother -- a woman who raised a family of three all on her own during the sixties. In the last few months of her mother's life, my friend would go and visit her at the hospital on a daily basis to honor one important request by her mother. It was so that her bedridden mother could stand on her own -- if only for a minute. She recalled how everyday she would lift up her frail mother, and just hold her up with both arms while with each visit her mother successively couldn't stand on her own.

My friend explained what she thought, a few decades later, about what was meant by her mother's inexplicable desire to stand up everyday. She elegantly interpreted it with the following, "Standing up means being present for the experience of life. It means you need to go through it, not around it, nor just waiting for it to end while lying down in bed. She wanted to stand up, and take it, and own it." The idea that the action of standing up -- an action we often take for granted -- can mean *so* much more has profoundly changed my perspective. Definitely for both my altitude and attitude. -JM

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A favorite, inspiring quote by George Bernard Shaw via Matt Goldman of blueman.com:

This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as I live it is my privilege - my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I've got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

-George Bernard Shaw

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