Please give a warm Georgia Tech.

Welcome to our guest
Carnarvon Thank you all and

thanks for coming out.

Before we get started.

I guess I have a couple things to say one
is I realized I had to tell this story.

My grandfather who are called
Pappy from Greenwood Mississippi I

grew up with with understanding that
the deepest disappointment in this

man's life was he applied to
Georgia Tech and didn't get accepted and

so he applied to no other college
because he was so heartbroken.

By the fact that you all
wouldn't let him in.

He went on to be a electrical
contractor and lived a happy life but.

Every time I would hear stories about how

the one thing you want to accomplish in
his life was to come to school here so

I grew up thinking this must be just
the most special place where the most

privileged people get to go to school and
so I got invited to come speak here.

I felt quite odd.

So thank you all very much for
coming out to hear this talk.

Although I guess for many of you.

It's required at your course to class.

Rather I won't get too carried away.

I'm here with some really good news.

And it might be really great news and
the longer I live with this news.

The more coffee and I become that it's
really important news vitally important

news for you all and
I look forward to sharing it with you.

But first I want to get to know you
a little bit better first raise your

head if you're an undergraduate.

That's by far and away the most of it
you graduate student raise your hand.

Well and then other.

Others.

We met.

Another one over here wonderful.

Raise your hand if you are.

A notch.

Nor.

Or want to be.

OK now let's exercise your
imagination a little bit.

You're going to graduate soon many of
you or you're already out of school

he here's what I want you to imagine
that there's a group of friends.

Maybe some family who
are planning a big party for

you celebrate your graduation celebrating
a birthday maybe you just got a big

client for your company with a plan in
this party to celebrate who you are.

And in the course of getting together to
plan this party they're talking about you

and they start to identify certain
attributes that you've got

because they want to try to
capture who you are in this party.

Maybe you could be a themed party so spend
a moment thinking about who these friends

would be and
spend a moment imagining how they see you

how they would categorize you how they
would describe you to each other.

Right now.

Raise your hand if creativity being
creative is one of the things that they

say about you raise your hand
if it's one of the two or

three things they say about you that sort
of a defining characteristic of you.

OK it's one of a sense
of who the audience is.

I like to see myself as a storyteller and
as a storyteller I always want

to have an appreciation for
the audience right so I know what story.

To deliver.

So that's really good news is great news.

I have for
you is rooted in a misconception

that we've had in Western culture for
at least generate for generations and

centuries I think and
that's the misconception that creativity.

Is a gift delivered to
a privileged few of us.

That's how we've seen creativity.

As I say For
centuries the word inspiration.

Sort of suggests some of that right.

The word inspiration suggests
that my creative idea is a gift

from the gods I'm inspired.

The spirit comes within me and
only a few of us had that gift.

I'm here to tell you that
that's just flat out wrong.

Creativity is a basic human quality.

It's as common as dirt and all the more
wonderful because of how common

it is I mean when you're four and five
years old you are so imaginative you're so

curious basic qualities of a creative
person is are you curious about the world.

Do you have a vibrant imagination.

And we all had that that's how we learned
that we all had that those qualities when

we were three and four and five and seven
and maybe we start to lose them a little

bit when we were nine and we start to
lose a little bit when we were twelve.

But we have those basic qualities to
be creative is a basic human quality.

We also like to shape our environment.

To create advantage for
ourselves or for each other.

That's a creative activity
that's a creative activity so

my proposition to you is that
that sense that we've had

that creativity is rare gift that only
a few people have it is flat out wrong.

And so what I want to talk about today is
that I sense that there is a rub Aleutian

area movement building as more and
more people become aware of the fact

that being creatively entrepreneurial and
in just a minute or

two talking about why link those two words
and why I always link those two words

together create of an entrepreneur
to be creatively entrepreneurial.

There's a revolution a movement that's
building predicated on the idea that

each of us and all of us need to
be creatively entrepreneurial and

I sense this revolution is
gaining in its momentum and

I'm here to tell you about the nature of
that revolution and I'm here to show.

There with you some of the content that
we've created in my class to do design to

help you become more creatively
entrepreneurial and be a full participant

in this revolution so let me just tell you
why link those two words together creative

and entrepreneurial if I say
creativity all by itself.

Most of us most of the time see that
as art history as artists are creative.

They paint wonderful pictures that
compose great pieces of music that's what

most of us most of the time think of
when we hear the word creativity.

And certainly when we hear
the word entrepreneur.

Most of us contemplate
that classic start up.

Nor will my proposition is that creativity
is way too important to be left to

the artists or ship is way too important
to be left to the entrepreneur or

is that we need to each and
every one of us.

Become more creatively.

And that by linking those two words
together maybe I give you the opportunity

to think fresh about those two words try
him on in a different from a different

perspective and see that maybe we can draw
a larger circle that allows more of us

inside one of the I'm told time and again
in my classes at Duke that one of the best

things I do for my students is to simply
give them permission to see themselves

as creatively entrepreneurial to see
themselves as creative and entrepreneurial

when they haven't allowed themselves
to see themselves in that fashion.

So here's what I think about this
crazy entrepreneurial revolution.

I consider to be a creative
populist revolution and

I take the word populism
very very seriously.

And I believe this creatively
populist revolution is three things.

It's necessary.

It's logical.

And I don't know that revolutions
are often logical but

I think this one is logical.

It's necessary.

It's logical and it's not just optimistic.

It's wildly optimistic and I'll tell
you why it's necessary because my

proposition to you all is that
the economy hasn't recovered.

Because it can't recover.

It can only be renewed that can only be
rebuilt and that will only happen when

waves of creatively entrepreneurial talent
come washing over all of our organizations

all of our institutions and by the way
a great part of that wave is going to be

the millennial generation believe the
millennial generation is the first great

creative generation tell you tell
Georgia Tech to invite me back and

I'll talk to you about why I think you're
the first great creative generation.

So the revolution is
necessary because we need

the renewal that will come
with this revolution.

This revolution is logical and
the logic was applied and the momentum for

this revolution is going to grow because
of the logic has been applied by I.B.M.

about eighteen months ago as I described
the study I would be interested to see

a show of hands of who
has heard of this study

about eighteen months ago spring
of two thousand and ten I.B.M.

conducted the kind of research that I.B.M.
is going to conduct the interview.

Fifteen hundred C.E.O.'s.

Thirty industries sixty countries and

they ask the C.E.O.'s What's the employee
quality that you value more than any other

in today's work environment and
the number one answer was creativity.

You knew about that study.

You knew about that say so

is it logical that you should be preparing
yourself to be who these C.E.O.'s.

Want to hire.

I would bet that every one of us in this
room would love to sit across the table

from one of those C.E.O.'s in
a recruiting conversation and

you now know that the number one
quality that they're looking for

is a creative individual and if you read
that research they're very very clear

as to why for I get to the why
they're also very clear about

where they need creativity in
the organization and it's everywhere.

They need it.

So office they need it.

Middle management they need
it in frontline positions.

And they're recognizing that it's time
now to tear down the walls of the little

creative ghetto that they used to
allowed marketing a product development.

Right.

The ball has been created
people over there.

It's time to tear that wall down and
have creativity flow across all

the functional areas the C.E.O.'s
are saying this not me.

The C.E.O.'s are saying this.

So the revolution is necessary.

It is logical and
it's wildly optimistic and

here's why it's widely optimistic it
believes and it's an avid ability.

So that's got to be optimistic to believe
that you're It's another level that you'll

be successful.

But let me share a couple of reasons.

Specifically why the revolution is so

optimistic back in the sixty's when
the space race the Space Age was you know

we thought that was going to be forever
more part of the American cultures and

when NASA was its cultural
significance back in the sixty's.

They appreciated that there was a
particular sort of creative thinking that

was really important in their recruitment
of and juniors and scientists and

it was the quality of creative thinking
that's referred to as divergent thinking

divergent thinking is that process
where when you have a question

that you're trying to answer.

How many answers do you generate
because the idea is that creativity

is a numbers game the more solutions
potential solutions you come

up with the more likely you're
going to find the best one so for

their engineers or scientists
NASA recognized it was important.

They would be really good at divergent
thinking that they could come up

with multiple solutions to a problem
multiple applications to a for a tool.

So it doesn't describe
the entire creative process but

it's a really important piece
of the creative process.

So some research has found out
that NASA had this assessment

tool to measure people's ability
to engage in divergent thinking.

The reason.

Researchers grabbed hold this tool.

Made it age specific for five year olds.

Applied it to one thousand and
five year olds kids year old kids.

Ninety eight percent scored a genius
level at divergent thinking.

Ninety eight percent scored a genius
level at divergent thinking.

Now.

The creative populace revolution says so
what.

When we learned that when they were
thirteen only twenty percent and

scored a genius level and when they
were twenty five only three percent

of them scored at a genius level we say so

what to that because that was a while back
when we were not as appreciative of how

important is to cultivate the creative
qualities of each other as we are today.

So there's one reason to be optimistic.

It's inherent in us.

I'm trying to make the point with you in a
couple different ways that we are creative

beans.

We just have to claim that the other
reason why that revolution is optimistic

is because I don't want to pretend to be
anything other than an interested and

maybe semi-educated
layman on this topic but

I love reading what the neuroscientists
are learning about for

instance how incredibly plastic Our brains
are most neuroscientists think that that's

like one of the defining characteristics
of our brain is it just seems to be so

prepared so ready like yearning to change

based on how your mind wants to use it
when I was your age we were told that your

brain is the best it's ever going to be
when you're twenty years old so be careful

what you eat drink or smoke because you
might accelerate the deterioration.

But that's all you've got
left is that your ration we

now know that that's not true.

What fires together wires together.

If our minds apply our
brains towards particular.

Cognitive processes.

Those cognitive processes will
change the shape of our brain.

And so

if you exercise your creative abilities
you will grow your creative abilities

see your brain as much more like a muscle
than perhaps you had ever seen in.

Before that.

So the nature of the revolution.

It's necessary it is logical.

If you accept that premise for
logic for the logic of it and

it's wildly optimistic as I've
worked in my classes over the years

developing content to help prepare
students to be more creatively

entrepreneurial initially as I was working
on this continent I reckon as well.

What a wonderful sort of test
kitchen write that I get to play

with content here how
students respond to it.

Adapt based on how they respond to it
continually improve the content that's

what I thought I was doing initially
was sort of testing my ideas.

What I've come to understand was
that while it sort of felt like that

that wasn't what was going on at all.

What was really going on was that
what we were doing the students and

together they were sort of
revealing common ground.

We were coming to understand
there were certain

concepts certain principles about
being creative about enhancing and

developing your creative abilities that
would be consistent with Samuel Johnson

the seventeenth century English literary
figure who had an aphorism that

was man doesn't need to be informed
as much as he needs to be reminded.

And because I take the populist
aspect of the stuff so seriously.

I like content that you already know
that as I share it with you you'll be

nodding your head saying well yeah I
guess I knew that I guess I knew that.

So that's what we've done here.

I think it's found some common ground
where we can all start together in

the journey of developing our
creatively entrepreneurial talents.

You know creativity can be as common as
dirt but it's unique to each one of you.

Each one of you has your own creatively
entrepreneurial personality and so

I see this common ground as nothing
more than a starting point for

you to develop your own template
of content that serves you

cultivate you develop your
crave that real talent.

So this content that we've developed
to do in my classes has got three core

components to it.

Of a creatively entrepreneurial attitude
that we all have control over attitude.

That's a populist
proposition that attitude.

Is a avenue towards being more creative
and I'll also like the fact that so

often again we think about
creativity as magical and

I've had moments when
felt like it was magical.

But it's delightful to know that
it's the exercise of my will

that gets me to that magical place.

And I have to wait again to be inspired.

So there's a creative way
entrepreneurial attitude.

There's a creative way
entrepreneurial technology.

It's always nice to have a technology that
is extending my reach leveraging my work

but it's going to populist it's got to
populist technology has to be available

to everybody.

And there's a creatively
entrepreneurial science.

To study.

So here's what they are the creatively
entrepreneurial attitude is intentionality

all the great faiths have known that
it was important for pilgrims for

novices to declare their intention.

Because they know that in that moment
of declaring your intention you change

you begin to see the world
differently in that instant.

And so much of creativity of course is
perspective it's about how you view

what's going on outside and around you.

So in that instant of declaration of being
intentional and saying intentionally to

yourself begins to be part of the internal
conversation you're having about who you

are that becomes part of the conversation
you're having with your friends and

family around you that you are creatively
out to be a person in that instant that

you declare that intentionally your
view of the world begins to change.

Along with that intention
that will declaration.

We offer some behaviors
to practice behavior.

The word behavior means
how I present myself.

And the hand is part of that early
early definition the word behavior.

You are presenting yourself
in your hand to the world.

So it's behaviors or

how you act how you present yourself
throughout the course of the day.

We have identified four creatively
entrepreneurial behaviors

I'm going to ask you to.

Pick which one of these four you would
like me to tell you a little more about

because of time restrictions so

the four crave without parole
behaviors are being generous.

Being humble.

Being playful and being enthusiastic
in your search for beauty.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU WANT TO ME talk
about an example of how being generous

serves you as a creatively
entrepreneurial person.

Looks like good decent number.

About humility being humble.

Well that looks like maybe one or
two more so being humble when so far.

How about being playful while you
guys want to be playful that's that's

kind of ironic and I think maybe we should
use playful enthusiastically searching for

beauty looks like it's being playful and
maybe I can hit on a couple of others.

Why it's sort of ironic to pick being

playful is because all
the research suggests that your

generation your millennial generation
of the least playful generation ever.

Your parents loved you so
much that they never gave you any spare

time you came home from school and
there was a schedule there for you.

More classes teams all kinds of activities
but you had less opportunity to engage

in open ended play than our generation
did it's not that we were enlightened.

We had no choice.

We had all this time to fill and
with our human quality magination we

filled it with hope and to play and
here's the beauty of open a play.

Ladies and gentleman beauty of open ended

play is that it's not just
taking a couple of sticks.

And a tarp and making a fort.

It's that pretty soon after that
you're bored with that right.

So you take the stick and the TARP and
the stick becomes your telescope and

your TARP becomes your cape and you see
the new world through the telescope and

you have to populate that world.

With your imagination it's the continuous
reimagining it's not having imagined.

It's the continuous reimagining and
when you think about something like.

Management students what's hotter and
forever more will

be hotter than continuous improvement
does not feel like sort of continuously

A magine in what should be coming next
the other thing that's nice about being

playful as a creative the entrepreneur
attitude is who wants to stop playing.

And don't you want to keep on playing and
so

when you're working on a creative process
try to generate ideas engage in divergent

thinking about all the options that
could solve this particular problem.

You're not going to stop with
the first one when you're playing

when you're having fun.

You're going to keep working your way
through and finding more solutions and

more options.

Another reason that being playful is
such a wonderful attitude to practice is

that again you'll see
the world differently.

You don't go through life most
of the time feeling playful.

But if you can conjure that up in yourself
if you can in fact adopt that as a point

of view the world around you.

Looks different when you're being
playful it gives you another fresh

perspective on the world.

So there's places to discipline yourself

intentionally to take on that intentional
attitude and discipline yourself in

these ranges of particular behaviors
other places to practice intentionality.

Is in the language that you use.

But of course we understand how
our thoughts shape our words.

But let's be a little more
mindful about how our words.

Shape Our subsequent thinking and
of course not just our thinking.

But the thinking of the people around us.

You hear the words that we choose I
learned this lesson might be in retrospect

I guess maybe the first business lesson
I learned was the importance of language

because it did occur in the first job
that I had as efficient last two summers

a high school first two summers of college
as when I was up in Canada as a fishing

guide in fact the first summer I was in
the guide that first summer I went up to

be a camp laborer.

To sort of apprentice my way towards
being a God and the first day or

two that I was there.

This occurred and some fifteen years
old I met this wonderful fishing camp.

Fishing Lodge and.

The camp owner and

this amazing place is a place where
John Wayne used to go before I got there.

Folks with gray hair like
me will be impressed that

I got to meet Natalie Wood The actress
when I was there.

Ernest Hemingway son was there.

I mean it was an amazing
amazing operation and so

the camp owner Barney is having a
conversation with the camp Foreman Dutch.

About the fact that this great dock
that crosses the bay is no longer of

sufficient size for the size of the camp
and so they're going to build a new

Dr on the point and they've been
planning on building this new doctor on

the points of the previous summer
not the plans are all in place.

They're fine tune the plans all the boats
are out for the day for fish and

those of us are in the camp for

the rest for the day are going
to start working on this duck.

And as Duchess start to walk away
with me as work crew Dutch stops and

turns to Barney and
says well you know after all.

Barney.

The devil's in the details and
Barney said it with such passion and

such certainty that I was just riveted
at the moment and just thought wow.

He said No Dutch we're running this place
with the idea that God isn't details and

aspect the some are trying to figure out
what he meant by that I knew he meant it

was important to him and
of course I kind of got what he meant but

what I fully understood that he meant
as I spent the full summer with him is

that I got to observe a man who was
generous in the inches in the minutes.

Who was humble in
the inches in the minutes.

Who was always going to
over deliver to his guests.

I can't help but see guests with a capital
G. when I say it when I talk about Barnes

can't because every place guest
was written in that camp.

It was with a capital G. and so this camp
printed such a rich rich environment.

Not because of just big.

Both things that the camp did but
because every detail was attended to

with that you can use a capital G.
or a small g for those God if you like but

with a god is in the details
attendant to the details and so

I suggest to my students that if you're
part of a creative collaborative team.

And especially if you haven't known
each other very well before you maybe

are working together for

the first time if you spent just
a couple of minutes talking about.

What's the difference between us taking
this project on with the devil is in

the details work attitude or
God is in the details work attitude.

How might the project feel differently at
be attended to differently a place where

the language that you use can make
a difference here is another place.

Raise your hand if you like being taken
advantage of you know you came close.

OK so why do we say we don't like
being taken advantage of right

it's a pleasant thing to contemplate.

So why when an opportunity comes along.

Do we say we're going to take
advantage of that opportunity.

Now please listen because
there's you know those are some.

This is this is this is online.

To say you're going to take advantage of
an opportunity doesn't necessarily mean

I'm going to take the best and
leave the rest for you.

It doesn't necessarily mean that I'm
going to distort what's going on here so

that I see it better and new and fresh and

you see it differently doesn't necessarily
mean those kinds of behaviors.

But that's what you would call that
if I were to take the best and

leave the rest you would
say I'm taking advantage.

What if instead we said when
an opportunity comes along

that we're going to create
advantage from this opportunity.

Once again it doesn't necessarily
mean that I'm going to nurture it and

I'm a cultivated and
I'm going to invest in it.

But I'm going to bring the best folks I
know and we're going to surround it in.

We're going to make sure that this
is sustainable and beautiful and

healthy growth doesn't necessarily
mean that kind of behavior but

doesn't point you in that direction and
so once again when that creative

collaborative team comes together if you
decide not to talk about the difference

between God it's in the detail a devil's
in the details maybe you want to

talk about the difference between how we
would take advantage of this opportunity.

Or how we would create advantage
from this opportunity.

And as I share the stuff with my students
maybe one of the best examples of how

language can make a difference came
from a student who raises hand back and

said OK nor

going to five buy into what you're saying
about the economy needs to be renewed.

It will only be renewed with a lot of
creatively entrepreneurial talent.

If I buy into all that then shouldn't we
stop calling ourselves a developed nation.

Right.
That's one of the you know sort of binary

categorisation we do have countries
there's the developed countries and

then there's the developing countries.

So I don't recall us a developed country
who wants to be where we are right now.

We want to be a developing country.

We want to know the best is come and
we want to be so dynamic and with so

many wonderful initiatives emerging that
we want to see ourselves as a developing

country call ourselves that So
we see ourselves that we act that way.

So it's more likely that in
fact we will become that I said

I will do even he got an A plus.

So there was no place to practice
intentionality Here's one more place to

practice intentionality it will
move on to the technology and

that is I urge you to be intentionally.

Sensual and in my classes and

get a little bit of giggles right there
because of course in the Western culture

and certainly in America we so often
conflate sexual with sensual right but

they're really very different realms
you can have a full conversation about

being sensual without ever
addressing sexuality and so

intentionally being censored
will means to take the moment.

And feel the surface right.

Just feel the surface or take a moment
when you're stroking the dogs for

real as how how the texture of
the changes from the front of his

torso to the back of his torso and
how his body sort of responds to it right.

Take in the senses develop your stance
you will perceptions because that's what

creativity is of course it's
how you perceive the world and

if you refer improve all of
the receptor is that you've got.

Then possibly you develop this thing that
folks will often refer to as your sixth

sense which certainly means this
wonderfully orchestrated combination

of all of the senses that you've got
that's there's there's an intuitive

aspect to that there's a very highly
creative aspect to being a more sensual

sensual person who doesn't
want to live the life.

That has greater sensual cent
sure will appreciation to it.

So there is the creatively entrepreneurial
attitude of intentionality the creatively

entrepreneurial technology.

Is story and I have no problem seeing
the story as a technology hopefully

I'll be able to recruit you to the point
of view that story is technology.

It was fifty thousand years ago
that we develop the capacity for

language that I think was
fifty thousand years ago or

two weeks ago I think was the anniversary
of the development language.

That old people laugh at that young
people don't laugh at that I don't

think that's funny.

It's roughly between fifty and
seventy five thousand years ago that we

developed language I like to think
language I think it's easy to

think of language as the first
open source software.

And if in fact you want to see languages
the first open source software story was

the first killer app absolutely right
before we develop the capacity for

language.

I mean like right before we develop
the capacity for language our technology.

Up until that point was
disposable technology.

We call it disposable technology.

Because we did so little to it.

Our tools that there was no point.

Keren around with us.

We just disposed them after we used them.

We took a stone and

chipped a little piece off the stone with
a stick and sharpened it a little bit.

It's easier to do that again than is
to carry that stuff around with you.

So all of our technologies before
language were disposable technologies.

Immediately after language.

Historically speaking immediately
after language we have nets.

We have baskets.

We have shelter we have much
more sophisticated clothing.

So here's we're story service so
very very well imagine imagine

the status quo mindset of
a prehistoric person trying to figure

out you describe it and
you know we build in a basket and

the rudimentary baskets that we would have
created why would we want to do that.

Why do we want to do that right.

That's work that's challenging and

again why would the status quo
be any easier to overcome.

Back then than it is today.

And so what story did was not

only encode the directions
on how to build that basket.

But provided the story as to why
the utility story as to why the value of

doing as why you want to invest yourself
in mastering this craft could also be

captured in story and we realized that
story could carry that purpose for us not

only deliver specific information that's
valuable to me but put in the context that

makes me really understand the value
that I'm going to get from it.

Well then we all became storytellers
it was the first populist technology

then we learned as we became a that

much more comfortable in our primitive
worlds that we start to contemplate.

Why are we here and
what this world all about and

we start creating stories about human
aspiration about what humans are becoming.

Those stories were stories right we

the the the the images
the models of what the highest

levels of human aspiration we could
imagine would be were captured.

In our stories.

So what that means is that for

fifty thousand years of told you
about the plasticity of our brains.

For fifty thousand years our brains
have learned had been shaped

by us being storytellers for
fifty thousand years are our

brains are storytelling machines we're
really adept at delivering story.

And we've got to hear information as story
story is such an insistent technology that

if you give me some information
without providing me with the context.

I'm going to make up a story myself.

So.

Because our brains are these storytelling
machines that creative collaborative

team that you're getting together with if
you suggest to them that whether we're

starting a company or creating a marketing
program or developing a new product for.

A customer cluster that if we contemplate
this as the story that we're creating

then the creative capacity of everybody
around that table is most likely to be

tapped into most effectively most quickly
most immediately most universally.

So here is I can talk about story for

hours and this is where this is where
Santa Johnson's quote really kicks in.

I could talk about story for two hours and

you guys would say yourself that I knew
that about story to make the point

that you know a lot about story that
you are story telling machines.

Well here's one thing that story really
serves me really helps me with this

is when I contemplate story that makes
me think of an audience for the story.

Right.
There's lots of times where thinking about

a customer as a customer is absolutely
right thing to do if you do a lifetime

analysis of the value of that customer and
you do in some administrative work you

want to think about them as customers
my proposition is that you will.

More likely get the customers that
you want both quantity and quality.

If you first treat them as an audience.

So what a storyteller knows
about an audience is that

there's no point telling the story.

Unless you have the audience's
attention and where.

When I was young marketing guy I could
occasion convince the bosses to give me

twice the budget that they wanted to give
me but you know if I could prove to them

that man I would use that money so
wisely to buy an audience's attention.

You won't find many bosses these days or

give you twice the budget
that you'd like to have so

I think that the most effective way for
you to attract an audience's attention.

Is to be attractive but
the best way to be attractive.

Isn't to tell the audience isn't for
me to tell the audience my story.

But for
me to tell the audience your story.

Nothing is going to be more
interesting to you than a story about

something that's really important to you

some extra you know aspiration that
you have that defines who you are.

If I tell you a story
about that you're want to

hear that story you're going to work just
as hard as I'm working for us to be in

relationship together if you're if there's
somebody here that wants to go to N.Y.U.

Law School and I start telling
a story about how to get into N.Y.U.

Law School and I walk down the stairs and
start to walk out the room.

All of you who want to go to N.Y.U. Law
School are going to get up and walk with

me but you know work hard to participate
in that story because it's your story and

so when I approach in a market when I'm
approaching an audience by a moment.

That I know I want to
tell them their story.

I want to insert the D.N.A.
of my value proposition.

I would look upon that story
as the delivery vehicle for

me to encode with the D.N.A.
of my value proposition.

So that I'm promising that I'm going to

help you a civi your great aspiration
that I can help complete your story.

But it's all related to your story.

So again I could talk about story for

a while but we want to make sure
that there's time for Q. and A here.

So the third.

Note here in his.

It is the creatively
entrepreneurial science.

It's a very new science.

You know the word you may not know it's a
science about twenty five year old science

of science of complexity who
knows complexity as a science.

You've been introduced to
complexity as a science.

It doesn't mean complicated.

Right.
We often use complexity.

To when we mean complicated.

Complexity was a science that
came about when scientists

from many different scientific
perspective is physics chemistry

econ were some of the leaders
that got into this first.

Realize that from their various
professional perspectives they were

increasingly interested in the same
thing which is to not know more and

more about less and less but
to begin to understand why from so

little the such amazing things occurred.

Why in universe of entropy were all these
partial forces are saying neutralize

neutralize drain the energy rust.

Deteriorate.

Why in the force of that universal force.

In fact does life occur do
things grow do things of all.

And so
it's the study of the forces that cause

creativity to occur creativity in
the most basic sense creation to occur.

And here's a couple things about and so

you know some the concepts
that get captured.

In creativity emergence.

But you can't go to an entrepreneurial or
creative conference and

be there for very long without hearing
the word emergence time and time again.

Things are merging in this
you know this complexity

studies how things MURTAUGH things become.

The C.E.O. those who say that they need
creativity say they need creativity.

Because they understand that their
business environments I've become so

complex that the only way
to navigate that complexity

is with a creative mind so
emergence is a concept of complexity.

Increasing return.

Urns is a concept of complexity.

And so the idea of complexity and
I urge you to study it.

My study is fairly recent.

My immersion in an immersion
in it is lifelong

because the most complex system of all
of course is the natural world and

if you've spent time hiking hunting live
in natural world you're surrounded by

the forces of complexity all the time and
in as when I was a fishing guide.

Most of the gods were Jubilee Indian.

United States were more
used to call him Indians.

And I was introduced.

I remember while I was introduced
to a word there word for

wisdom the word for wisdom is Minogue and.

And as I got to know.

This an old of do that I was up there in
the sixty's and in the sixty's there was

a still a large clan of a Jew Boy Indians
who had never lived on a reserve before.

So they were sort of analogues you
know that I mean they were clearly

living the life of their ancestors but
they hadn't adopted modern ways either.

And so that population you plug in that
population they will tell you what

Minogue means it's something more than
wisdom that what Minogue means is and

this would be the wisdom.

When all of our ancestors were
in our Aboriginal States.

What wisdom would have been more important
than the cognitive ability to understand

the patterns of nature.

And patterns in fact is right right.

All the patterns of nature and

how they enter a late with each other and
how cyclical they are how they

are constantly changing constantly in
flux understand the patterns of nature

especially the patterns the promise
abundance and opportunity.

And then learning to live your life in
accordance with those patterns of nature.

That's what Minogue means.

That's a subconscious knowledge
that we had because we were

actually pretty conscious at the time
that that would have all been so very.

For us to know how to do that and

so now that knowledge that
capacity that cognitive capacity.

Now resides in our subconscious mind and
so

it's the complexity is the study of
the forces that are seen as bottoms up

bottoms up self organizing how
independent but interrelated units.

What they bottoms up self
organizing simple set of rules

will continue to emerge form
relationships between each other

those relationships change
the nature of what was before.

And it continues and it continues
emergence means that that which we see at

the macro level transcends the micro
pieces that created this new emergence.

And so that's creativity right wouldn't
that's that's the creative process.

And so I tell my students all
the time that when you when you're

setting off on a creative project.

You want to have a sense of how complexity
is going to influence this because you

certainly don't want to fight against
those rules right you want to use that

force in your favor.

You want to use that to work with you.

And so my thinking about
this is that if you study

complexity as a science or

if you live it by spending
time in the natural world that

either of those activities will help
to your subconscious capacity for

seeing patterns for managing patterns for
learning how to deal with the nuances of

ambiguity that occur in these
mutants emerging systems.

And that sort of kept that with a another
quote from another old European.

German named Garrett day who has a quote
that says thinking is better than knowing.

But not as good as looking.

When I introduced that quote with
my students I usually stop there.

Halfway through as if thinking is better
than knowing a man man i'm mad Duke

students don't like that at all.

They don't like at all.

The idea that thinking is better than
knowing right they want to know how do you

get a on a test unless you know what
the aspect of emergence suggests that

what you know is really only useful to

the extent that it helps you
think about what's going on here.

Because again it's emerging it's
constantly changing what it was yesterday.

Is it what it is today.

So what do I know what I
know is continually in flux.

So the way I'm thinking about it is that
it's going to provide the greatest service

and benefit to me and my thinking
about it will improve dramatically.

If I spend some time looking
at it just looking at

it one of the things that
complexity has done for me.

Is it.

Urges me influences me to change all
of my verbs to active tense verbs.

But if everything's emerging.

I want to be a merge you know I want
to be active tense because otherwise

I'd be left behind.

So one of the examples of
this is that I'd never

again I'm ever going to talk
about somebody being recruited.

Businesses will recruit you.

And then as soon as you're hired.

They stop recruiting you.

And if you're really a talent the business
made a mistake because they're now

the only person who isn't recruiting you.

You know the rest of companies
are still recruiting you.

I want to be continually recruiting I want
to I need to be continually recruiting

because I need to because what
we're going to do tomorrow is

different than what we
were doing yesterday.

Another place where changes my thinking
into more active tense thinking is I used

to be really good at planning
marketing campaigns.

Now I want to do market campaigning and
a market campaign begins and then.

But what happens after Ned's market
campaigning means I'm continually engaged

in nurturing nudging pushing
my objectives along.

So I want to always be finding places
to try to make my verbs active tense

verbs to stay with us.

Emergent quality.

So real quick last piece and
then we'll get into Q. and A So

I show you this template of content
that's got three notes to it creatively

out barrel attitude of intentionality
technology a story complexity a science.

That's all designed to help you.

Help you emerge as a more
creatively entrepreneurial

person to help you emerge as agreeably
more creative person but that of time is

going to come are going to have to do
something creatively entrepreneurial So

we also offer one application of your
creatively entrepreneurial abilities.

I've kind of mentioned some of it but I
may change the language and I talked about

divergent thinking in the ninety eight
percent of us when we're five years old.

Regina is that divergent thinking.

I really don't want to call it divergent
thinking I'll call it divergent discovery.

I think calling it divergent discovery
helps me think about the thinking that I

need to do better than calling it more
than calling it divergent thinking

helps me realize that it's
about the discovery process so

divergent thinking again is the top of the
funnel right is getting as many ideas as I

possibly can get my arms around as I'm
trying to solve this particular problem.

The second half of
the application is convert and

again traditionally It's
called conversation thinking.

I like alliteration like improving
the language I call that.

So it's divergent discovery and
then convert creation.

I find these best ideas that I've
got I start to play with them and

gauge in kaleidoscopic thinking I
probably don't need to say too much

of it to you about what kaleidoscopic
thinking would be right.

I keep changing the dial I keep changing
the relationship between these things that

I've identified to find new relationships
between them just like I find

something new every time I turn the dial.

On a kaleidoscope and I keep working
with these and I begin to distill

the essence of the very best ideas
that are converged to my solution.

So a last quick story about converging
to a solution and then we'll get into Q.

and A How much time do
we how much we good.

OK So here's the story and then and
this will take just a couple minutes I was

four five six years ago
I was driving home.

Early one morning.

And I was driving down a country
road two lane road and it was low

swap before cellular sat in a slow sloppy
would swap the woods of the Saturday I

looked up the road and I could see
two shapes walking across the road

with a very distinctive locomotion
I was looking fused by the path.

You know the way they were crossing
the road and they were small.

So I pulled the truck off the road and it
was too could have been more than two or

three day old baby snapping turtles.

As I picked them up.

One of them disappeared totally inside her
shell totally disappeared inside her shell

the other one stuck his neck out as far
as it would go open up his mouth as

wide as it could go and threatened me
perfectly the minutes or minutes there.

So I put him in my truck.

It's a really unpleasant side to
see a thirty pound snapping turtle.

You know killed on the side of the roads
have put them in my truck drove to a place

where I knew there was a path that would
take me about a mile down the path to

a creek so they'd be well off the highway
and as I got to the creek put them down

in the water just right and you know just
right next to the shore right in the water

and in an instant they both disappeared
in an instant they were both gone.

One of them burrowed into the soft mud.

The other one darted as fast as
it could into the deep water.

And I was just I just thought that
was the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Regardless of what the Predator
was one of the mode of escape and

there was such beauty in that.

And so here's where I'm going to apply
this now to converse creation and

that is that as you're bringing all these
wonderful ideas that you've been playing

with with your playful attitude.

But you've been playing with as you're
bringing them into the solution for

your problem.

What's going to happen more than once.

Is that ideas that you really like are
going to be in conflict with each other.

Idea that you really
thought was really cool and

an idea that your partner thinks is really
cool are going to be in conflict with

each other and what's our inclination or
inclination is to compromise

my experience in this creative process is
that so very very often a compromise means

you wind up with something less
than let's think about but.

When you're trying to find the answer.

Let's think about both reimagine
the question that you're asking reimagine

the strategy that you're considering so
that both can be the answer.

Both of these strategies.

Were impressive affective necessary.

So what question do I need to ask
to make sure that both of these

diametrically opposed behaviors
are still both the right answer.

So that's the divergent discovery
congregant creation application for this

wonderfully creative way out per person
that you're in the process of becoming.

As you join the greater
populist revolution.

So time for questions.

Thank you.

Hey this is Francis Lui some of
this is in the college management.

Thank you for coming in.

Chang your time with us.

My question relates actually
to your name again.

I'm sorry.
Francis Francis.

Yeah.
My question actually relates to you

a concept developed by Dr Barry Schwartz.

The idea is called Paradox of Choice and

the idea is that kind of in society in
business in individually our surrounded

with sort of a multitude of choices of
like decisions that we can make and

we're almost sort of paralyzed by
the idea that we can't make a decision.

I kind of want to see how you really did
your idea of having complexity being

a good thing and how you sort of downside
between becoming paralyzed not being able

to make you know action oriented
steps in business or what not.

I mean that's just
that's a great question.

Start this off with.

Because I don't know that
I got just the right.

Precise answer for you but this concept
of choice in fact my first draft for

my talk today I was going to hit choice
right the top and I was going to choice.

In exactly the way that
you're hitting it right.

I mean in one of my
classes we are studying.

The evolution of technology.

And in that study of the evolution of
technology progress becomes part of

the conversation right one way to measure
if the significance of the evolution of

technology is.

It's creating progress.

And so
in the classroom discussion about that.

We used choice as one of the key
measures of progress right.

Just a couple three generations ago you
had no choice about who you married where

you work where you went to school.

Those are all decided for you will now we
make those you know we decide who we're

going to marry five times in a lifetime
and we've got a lot of choice now.

And so generally we have the sense
the choice is this marvelous freedom.

But when I was part of a mobile
communications company that was

introducing voicemail for the first time.

The company that I was consulting with
entered his voicemail created a grid of

all the different options along with the
voice mail message be along would stick.

You know just like there are five or six
different options and they created this

extraordinary grid that finally gave
the consumer about forty different choices

of what voicemail product they wanted
to have and they couldn't figure out

why they couldn't sell any of those
products it was because man I have a want

out of about thirty not out of forty
chance that I make the wrong decision.

So and indeed you're right.

Many times where.

Come pressing.

Choice down to just a few
good better best right that's

certainly sort of the test of time.

Is the more appropriate
would offer up a choice.

I haven't looked through.

I haven't looked at choice.

Specifically through
the lens of complexity.

That's my best riff on choice if
you've got something to add to that

that that indeed engages some
of your sense of complexity.

I get smarter.

Because I hear smart students
a smart thing so lay it on me.

No I don't mean to put you on the spot but
I mean what's.

Although I guess I did anything

else isn't is pretty I
think paralyzing as well.

Very scary.

So I don't know that's kind
of where I am right now and

that's why I brought it up like it
a little bit more than two that that's not

on the question of complexity but on that.

On how you've bracketed this is you as
a student contemplating your future.

You're not going to make a wrong choice.

I mean you're just not there.

There's been many times in my life
thought what am I doing here.

Why am I here.

Why have I made this choice was this the
right place to be this doesn't feel like

the right place to me only to discover a
year three five seven years later while my

experiences in that place have really
enriched what it is I'm trying to do now.

So.

So that's great.

Thanks.

Hi My name is Ben I'm
a scribe student mechanical

engineering focusing on design theory.

So one of these are talks.

Focusing on design theory
is on three one of

the things that we struggle with in
this field is the idea of creativity.

Because as of yet there's no really
objective quantification for it and

the argument from
the founders of the field and

various experts is that
if we can't measure it.

If we can't quantify it.

How can we know whether we're
improving it or not and

I'm just curious on your
thoughts on the matter.

My thought on that is that I tend to.

I mean that's that's that's that's one
of the core questions about this whole

idea of us all embracing creativity and

creativity is how are we
going to measure it.

How we're going to tell it for
making progress.

I heard a really good answer.

Just a couple weeks ago.

Anybody here no Sir Kenneth Robinson you
know that his work is one of my heroes and

I got to meet him a couple weeks ago and
so he was asked this exact question and

he said Well the assessment shouldn't be
creativity in the abstract the assessment

means the assessment needs to be
creatively applied to what particular you

know to a particular purpose.

And.
We can assess the value of

the effectiveness.

The utility of creativity.

When it's applied to a particular
purpose you can assess

whether a piece of news
one piece of music.

Is better than another piece of music.

Yes it's a subjective measure.

But there is generally some confirmation
right from others around you.

There is some sense that this is a quality
piece and this is a lesser quality piece.

These are the shoes are going
to last forever and

these are the shoes are going
to be less comfortable.

So assessing the creative input.

When it's directed towards a particular
output is not all that difficult to do.

It's not all that difficult to do we
do that all the time were we be not be

conscious that we're specifically
considering the creative input but

we're certainly assessing the creativity's
impact on the output that we're going to

that we're going to acquire.

It's the challenge that it's
the challenge to teaching

creativity is how do I assess it so
I try to be just as transparent as I can

be with my students like knowledge that
live valuations to be highly subjective.

Let's get that out right away.

So that I say I just now I'm going to
be as transparent with my prejudices

I can possibly be.

I may be prejudiced in
favor of big bold risk.

Whether you pull it off or

not I'm going to be prejudiced
in favor of big bold risk.

That's going to be one of my prejudices.

But my view is that I have
enough intimate relationship

with these students over the course of
I guess maybe I should use that word.

I have enough.

Close relationship with my students
over the course of the semester.

That and enough of value of points that
in the aggregate I feel like I can

measure two things I can measure progress.

And I can finally measure.

I can finally make a measurement that sort
of stands on its own as to where they

are as.

Creative individuals
that walk out the door.

So again.

Great great question.

Assessment is the challenge and this
conference I attended two weeks ago was on

innovation in education a lot of really
smart educators there run their hands.

Right.
We don't really have a classic

assessment tool.

There is the Torrance Test.

Anybody know the Torrance Test
the Torrance Test began about thirty

five years ago where they evaluate.

They've gotten many many many different
exercises that they'll take six and

seven year old kids through and
they've done it now for

like four hundred thousand kids over a
twenty five year period of time and Obama.

It's even longer than that I guess
since the sixty's like you forget

in the sixty's or twenty five years
ago anymore or forty years ago.

So again it's really very
very large database of

kids who have taken the Torrance Test and
you probably know about the Flynn effect.

You know that with each generation I.Q. is
are getting higher and higher and higher

initially that was also true of Torrence
scores they were getting higher and higher

and higher one of the reasons why I'm so
passionate and have a sense of urgency

about the importance of this revolution
is that for the last ten years or so.

Torrance tests have
actually been slipping.

The creativity of kids has
actually diminished a little bit

in the last ten years or so.

So there are so there's that assessment.

But again that's of
a specific logic to study.

I mean it was Nicholas science I'm
a fourth year business ministration major

I guess as future business leaders and
managers can you give us a couple key

recommendations on how we can
create a working environment that

postures creativity and that same
conference out of ten a couple weeks so

I'd like to think that this was my
language but I'm stealing this.

It's not commanding control
it's climate control.

It's to create the environment it's
if it's to create the environment

around you that causes other
people to want to step up so.

There's one thing I mean you you.

I've never wanted to be a director
I wanted to be an initiator

that allowed space for

others to complete our understanding of
what it is that we're trying to do right.

They're going to enjoy doing the work
a whole lot more if they've had some

opportunity to shape what the work of
supposed to be as opposed to be dictating

the task.

And so that was that was one thing
that I practiced as a C.E.O.

of the start ups Another was
that I would say to these

folks enthusiasm is really important.

Nothing great is ever accomplished without
enthusiasm it's going to be my job to my

job for you to maintain your enthusiasm.

You've got all this hard work.

You're going to do and
you get disappointed and

you're going to be frustrated.

It's going to be hard for you to maintain
your enthusiasm my job as a leader.

That's that's maybe my
singular job as a leader

was to help you maintain your enthusiasm
another pitch a bit of advice.

I think I might have seen this when I
was looking at your curricula Dysart

course you're on.

Servant Leadership.

Boy you've got to understand servant
leadership and you've got to understand

servant leadership he who who would
lead should first be a servant

to the organisation to be genuinely on
authentically committed to improving

the quality of the people around you to
show that you really care genuinely about.

That not only getting their work
accomplished but learning and growing and

developing their qualities and
their talents as they're getting this work

accomplished to have that point of view
is to now have a group of people who

are going to invest so much trust in you
that you'll find that when you're moving

less from the servant and more towards
the leadership part of that equation.

You can find a group of people who are
quite prepared to be prejudiced in favor

of what your proposition
is what your ideas.

So was that the answer to.

I mean that that's basically it.

Good thanks.