Category Archives: Commentary/Opinion

The Day the Monster Visited Martian Colony

{Author’s Note: This is a special blog post featuring my 12th short story. This Thursday will also feature the story on my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for those different audience members. Hope you enjoy it and Happy Mardi Gras!}

Maggenta.com/Martian landscape 31st Century

 

It was an unassuming place by all accounts. It stood there off the beaten path but welcoming to those wanting of a beverage or two. Or so it seemed. John and Terry were on their way home after a series of meetings during the day when they drove by in their hovercraft and decided to stop. As soon as the pair walked up to the entrance, they were met by the Bouncer who unemotionally proclaimed that only Terry was really welcomed here.


When the two inquired as to why, they were told that no one of blue skin was allowed inside. When the two pressed the issue, saying it was ridiculous in this day and age, they came nose to barrel with an old fashion, but still lethal, shotgun. The Bouncer simply stated that should they try to enter, they would be blown to bits. Both of them. When Terry asked why both of them, he was told, “Because you brought Blueskin with you!”


Feeling rightly discriminated upon, the two attempted to gain entrance. John immediately grabbed for the shotgun when it went off right in John’s face. As his head rolled down the steps, the gun went off again in Terry’s direction and in seconds only his torso remained standing. The bouncer just stood there, unemotional, and called for “cleanup at the entrance.” Soon, the bodies were quickly carried off and all was back to “normal.”


The Monster was alive and well.


Star Date 3096.14


Water on Mars! It used to be a pipe dream. That was back centuries ago, in the 21st Century to be precise.

Now, in the 31st Century, 1,000 years hence, the landscape has indeed changed. Over the years, discrimination, while not usually this horrid, was rather commonplace. In a large, multicultural city like Sandstone, the disease was still rampant. It was as if the citizens were living in the 20th and 21st Centuries, not the 31st.


Cities now stand where thousands of years ago only a sand swept landscape existed. It is very much a multicultural metropolis now with inhabitants from across the galaxy. Travel to and from the Red Planet now only takes a matter of hours whereas long ago it could take months to get here.


To the casual observer, the planet’s development seems normal enough. Progress and scientific achievement have been on a steady pace to deliver to the masses what has been needed. Though there have been ups and downs amidst the socio-cultural wars over the past fifty years or so, mostly any upheaval has been kept to a minimum.


Much of this relatively calm state has been the result of actions and governing legislated by one Admiral Martin Alvarez, current governor of the Sandstone Colony and a descendant of Vulcan heritage. He is joined on the Leadership Council by Commander Suzanne Coppersmith, whose descendants arrived from Earth on the third mission to Mars.


Not too far from Sandstone is another, more recently developed region, called Mariah. It’s not as developed as Sandstone and has a much more rebellious culture and population. It seems hellbent on disruptive behavior and disdains progress, both tenets loathed by Governor Alvarez and his leadership council.


Even though the two regions have yet to clash in war, neither are prepared to do battle with an unknown force, so powerful that destruction is imminent. The Monster is already here.


Fighting a known, visible entity is one thing, but this version is unseen and unheard. Its invisibility is seemingly invincible. It creeps into the valley of the countryside not caring what’s in its path. Those who come in contact with it are forever changed. The colony Mariah found this out the hard way.


Once embedded into the colony, the Monster made itself at home. Even though the residents were used to being selfish and rather brutal, they were no match for the Monster. Over time, and a very short one at that, they were overcome and, eventually, destroyed by self-inflicted madness.


Then, the Monster moved on. Next in its path was Sandstone Colony, population 8 million. An established city of respectable size, at least by Earth standards, Sandstone had obtained a status of refinement, culture, leader in education and every modern refinement one could think of. Its residents were progressive minded and forward thinking. Just the kind of tandem the Monster loved to obliterate. Given time, it would.

Now, in the 31st Century, 1,000 years hence, the landscape has indeed changed. Over the years, discrimination, while not usually this horrid, was rather commonplace. In a large, multicultural city like Sandstone, the disease was still rampant. It was as if the citizens were living in the 20th and 21st Centuries, not the 31st.


Cities now stand where thousands of years ago only a sand swept landscape existed. It is very much a multicultural metropolis now with inhabitants from across the galaxy. Travel to and from the Red Planet now only takes a matter of hours whereas long ago it could take months to get here.


To the casual observer, the planet’s development seems normal enough. Progress and scientific achievement have been on a steady pace to deliver to the masses what has been needed. Though there have been ups and downs amidst the socio-cultural wars over the past fifty years or so, mostly any upheaval has been kept to a minimum.


Much of this relatively calm state has been the result of actions and governing legislated by one Admiral Martin Alvarez, current governor of the Sandstone Colony and a descendant of Vulcan heritage. He is joined on the Leadership Council by Commander Suzanne Coppersmith, whose descendants arrived from Earth on the third mission to Mars.


Not too far from Sandstone is another, more recently developed region, called Mariah. It’s not as developed as Sandstone and has a much more rebellious culture and population. It seems hellbent on disruptive behavior and disdains progress, both tenets loathed by Governor Alvarez and his leadership council.


Even though the two regions have yet to clash in war, neither are prepared to do battle with an unknown force, so powerful that destruction is imminent. The Monster is already here.


Fighting a known, visible entity is one thing, but this version is unseen and unheard. Its invisibility is seemingly invincible. It creeps into the valley of the countryside not caring what’s in its path. Those who come in contact with it are forever changed. The colony Mariah found this out the hard way.


Once embedded into the colony, the Monster made itself at home. Even though the residents were used to being selfish and rather brutal, they were no match for the Monster. Over time, and a very short one at that, they were overcome and, eventually, destroyed by self-inflicted madness.


Then, the Monster moved on. Next in its path was Sandstone Colony, population 8 million. An established city of respectable size, at least by Earth standards, Sandstone had obtained a status of refinement, culture, leader in education and every modern refinement one could think of. Its residents were progressive minded and forward thinking. Just the kind of tandem the Monster loved to obliterate. Given time, it would.

Now, in the 31st Century, 1,000 years hence, the landscape has indeed changed. Over the years, discrimination, while not usually this horrid, was rather commonplace. In a large, multicultural city like Sandstone, the disease was still rampant. It was as if the citizens were living in the 20th and 21st Centuries, not the 31st.


Cities now stand where thousands of years ago only a sand swept landscape existed. It is very much a multicultural metropolis now with inhabitants from across the galaxy. Travel to and from the Red Planet now only takes a matter of hours whereas long ago it could take months to get here.


To the casual observer, the planet’s development seems normal enough. Progress and scientific achievement have been on a steady pace to deliver to the masses what has been needed. Though there have been ups and downs amidst the socio-cultural wars over the past fifty years or so, mostly any upheaval has been kept to a minimum.


Much of this relatively calm state has been the result of actions and governing legislated by one Admiral Martin Alvarez, current governor of the Sandstone Colony and a descendant of Vulcan heritage. He is joined on the Leadership Council by Commander Suzanne Coppersmith, whose descendants arrived from Earth on the third mission to Mars.


Not too far from Sandstone is another, more recently developed region, called Mariah. It’s not as developed as Sandstone and has a much more rebellious culture and population. It seems hellbent on disruptive behavior and disdains progress, both tenets loathed by Governor Alvarez and his leadership council.


Even though the two regions have yet to clash in war, neither are prepared to do battle with an unknown force, so powerful that destruction is imminent. The Monster is already here.


Fighting a known, visible entity is one thing, but this version is unseen and unheard. Its invisibility is seemingly invincible. It creeps into the valley of the countryside not caring what’s in its path. Those who come in contact with it are forever changed. The colony Mariah found this out the hard way.


Once embedded into the colony, the Monster made itself at home. Even though the residents were used to being selfish and rather brutal, they were no match for the Monster. Over time, and a very short one at that, they were overcome and, eventually, destroyed by self-inflicted madness.


Then, the Monster moved on. Next in its path was Sandstone Colony, population 8 million. An established city of respectable size, at least by Earth standards, Sandstone had obtained a status of refinement, culture, leader in education and every modern refinement one could think of. Its residents were progressive minded and forward thinking. Just the kind of tandem the Monster loved to obliterate. Given time, it would.


Over the years, Sandstone had evolved into a thriving metropolis and an enticing tourist mecca that attracted people from all over the galaxy. Tourists came from as close by as Saturn and Uranus, not to mention as far away as Vulcan and Romulus, two favorites of Earth.


Even in the 31st Century, evil still exists and can run rampant in the streets. The Monster is sometimes mistaken for the evil it really is. It can only be felt, sensed as in a horrid nightmare, terribly gone awry. Only those very sensitive to it might recognize it and be able to try and combat it.


Admiral Alvarez was one such person. He and his ancestors had been witness to it centuries before. They did not defeat it; they only minimized it for the time being.


Hearing rumors and listening to dangerous, idle talk, the Admiral advised the leadership council that circumstances would have to change and significantly if they were to avoid what happened to Mariah. For all they knew, the Monster had not only arrived in the city but had been present for some time.


Although this was a Martian colony, they knew they had to rely on their Vulcan heritage of logic and level headedness to get the best of the Monster. Whether or not they could defeat it was another matter entirely. The fate of Martian civilization was at stake.


The Council was quite proud of all the diseases they had eradicated over the centuries. However, discrimination had not been eliminated, much to their chagrin. What to do with it now and how to best deal with it was the question.


Meanwhile, the Monster was spreading far and wide.


In the spirit of social enlightenment, a crowd started to gather at Colony Centre for a political rally. Soon it began to have the look of a group of intellectual, progressive and civic-minded folks who only wanted sound and civilized suggestions for the next political race at hand. They appeared not in the mood for tyrants of the past nor any negative discourse that would run afoul of logic and even temperament.


In short, they wanted to support the candidate with the best ideas for solving pressing issues of the day. They wanted to leave personalities and emotions out of it. A purely Vulcan stance.


Still, a small group of detractors in the crowd began to verbally and loudly question everything the moderator wanted to say before introducing the candidates for Mayor. Their outbursts were just the opposite of what the majority of the crowd wanted to hear.


“Get that pink-skinned son-of-a bitch off the stage,” they shouted.


“We don’t need no blue-skinned bastard leading this city. All they want is only what’s good for their people,” insisted one protester.


As one of the candidates rose to speak, a bright beam of light from a phaser erupted from center stage right and the candidate crumpled to the stage, dead in a pool of blood.


This sent the crowd screaming and running in all directions for fear of what might come next.


Then, the sound of another phaser was heard and the moderator succumbed to the stage floor, his head split in two.


The dissidents scrambled through the crowd and out of sight. Their mission accomplished. Disruption became the order of the day. Murder was the side show. The Monster was the main attraction.


The Leadership Council, having witnessed the ordeal, was in shock that something this abhorrent could take place in mid-day in this society. They saw the monster first hand and couldn’t stop the deed. They had no idea of its presence and intent. What would they do? What could they do?


The dissidents were being pursued and when caught would be taken to the Death Colony on Saturn to be put to death. No trial, no sentencing. Just death to any dissident, especially to those who murder.


The few times the Mars Colony had to deal with situations like this, death to the violators had been the only viable solution. It may not have been the best but it was the only deterrent they had come up with thus far. As a result, crime, particularly murder, was down to practically nothing.


The Leadership Council was still distressed that no other non violent measure had been tried to counter the actions of the few dissidents who apparently were obsessed with disruption. It was their way or no way. Sensing that this monster was beginning to gain strength left the Council perplexed. They were dealing with an uprising they hadn’t faced in centuries.


This was particularly disturbing to Commander Coppersmith, who had experienced the Monster first hand years ago even on a progressive, but troubled planet like Earth.


During an emergency meeting of the Leadership Council that afternoon, following the assassinations at Colony Centre, Commander Coppersmith, an historian of ancient Earth, recalled a prolific writer of mid-20th Century Earth, Rod Serling, who said this about civilized societies . . . “No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized.”


The Leadership Council held this truth above all else.


The Commander continued “Serling went on to say this about a darkness that pervades the landscape, a society’s inner soul if you will, ‘A sickness known as hate. Not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ – but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.'”


But, it was not just hate.


Coppersmith declared “We must initiate a continuous counter offensive, starting with this council. Then we spread it to our people and let it grow until our darkness morphs into light and becomes unwanted by the Monster.”


Summing up, she said “I know this will take time, more than we realize, probably. However, I’m confident we can accomplish what we have to. We’ve not only Mars’ present society to consider but future generations as well. The Earth during the 20th Century had a rough time surviving.


Here on Mars in the 31st Century, peaceful and progressive as it is, society is being challenged by the Monster. Discrimination and racism still menace our people. Will the Monster ever be defeated? Who knows. A democratic and diverse society, however, must have the final say.”


After a resounding standing ovation, the Council set about forming a long term plan to overtake the Monster. Not surprisingly, the Commander was put in charge.


Even then, with the Monster, in all its ugliness and vile nature, not bound by normal parameters, its existence may be for all time. As it was back on 20th Century Earth, racism raised its abhorrent head in corporate board rooms, on playgrounds, in the grocery store and now has spread out into the galaxy. The Martian Colony Sandstone is merely the latest stop on this nightmare train to society’s destruction.


The Martian people didn’t quite know how to deal with the Monster, just like the people on Earth before them. Try as they might, logical thinking and clear-headed behavior proved insufficient. But being aware of the Monster may be the difference maker now. Even though it would spread its evil intentions throughout the galaxy, the Monster would be leaving Mars, the damage having been extensive, and seeds planted.


 


 


 


 


 

Creative Trends for 2023

This being the first part of the year, I’ve come across several articles that portend various trends and forecasts for 2023. Below is the most recent one I’ve read from someone within the creative industry. Please note this is an edited version of her original contribution. Emily Cohen is an avid reader, speaker, author and brutally honest operational and organizational consultant to creative teams.

Based on Emily’s consultations with clients and conversations with industry colleagues the past few years, she’s identified five trends that we need to learn from and adapt to now.

Trend 1: A new, employee-forward approach to “culture”.

The state of the world has had a real and tangible impact on many employers as they continue to evolve their understanding of the importance of addressing employees’ escalating — and more openly expressed and talked about — cultural demands and mental health challenges as well as shifting priorities. As a result, building a healthy, flexible workplace culture has become priority number one for our industry and has moved well beyond having a written mission statement, organizing “team-building” activities, and having a dedicated people operations person (a must-have for any team).

What these new cultural changes look like is something that we really need to rethink industry-wide. We need to be more transparent with our peers and colleagues so that we can learn from both our collective successes as well as failures. We need to get creative, involving our entire team to explore and build the type of culture that best fits their needs and the vision we have for our firm. We need to realize that the nature of work is shifting and take bold steps to shift with it. Beyond caring about our team’s happiness, health, and welfare — which, above all, is most important — changes to how we think about our culture are also critical to improving retention, recruiting, and even productivity/profitability.

Trend 2: Paying ourselves and our employees what we’re worth.

In order to attract new candidates, increase morale, and retain staff, many creative firms are realizing the hard way that what they’ve been paying their staff and themselves isn’t competitive or sustainable. And, given the pressing challenge of a competitive talent pool, candidates and employees have the power to demand what they deserve more than ever.

Thus, many firms have updated — and increased — their pay scales, often making them transparent to their team and, as needed, have raised salaries for their existing team to reflect industry standards. This is long overdue. In the past, we were expected to love what we do and prioritize this love over profit or money. This simply is no longer the case and rightly so. We should pay everyone — including ourselves — a fair, equitable, and livable wage.

Trend 3: Pricing based on our worth and value.

With a much-needed increase in salaries across our industry and a rise in our overhead costs because of inflation, we must increase our rates. Yet, instead, because we are working in a saturated and highly competitive industry — along with our desperation to win, often at any cost, and the misconceived “lack of work out there” mentality — our rates continue to plummet instead of rise.

We have to stand our ground and remember that the more clients pay us, the more they are going to value what we do and this changes how they engage with us — i.e. shifting from a “we need this” or “do this” relationship to a “what do you think we need” and “how can you help us?” mentality. Raising our rates industry-wide will move us from being perceived as an on-demand service to a more consultative, advisory business.

And, yes — this does mean we will lose some projects but it also means we will win more valuable, desirable ones, and, ultimately, our focus should be on the quality over the quantity of those wins. Everyone in the industry should raise their prices across the board. (Rates) that are fair and realistically reflect the true cost of running a business as well as the value of our experience, expertise, insight, time, and how our work directly translates to and positively impacts our clients’ businesses (think: return on investment).

Trend 4: Evolving and shifting partnership relationships.

Previous unresolved tensions — as well as new ones — have bubbled to the surface and forced many partners re-think how they work together and, in some cases, partnerships have crumbled. In some cases, partners have moved away physically and are therefore no longer working together in person, putting a strain on interpersonal relationships. And, in other cases, partners re-think their own personal career path and choose to leave the industry entirely or move to another, less “risky”, full-time role in-house or elsewhere.

While partnership-based relationships have always been notoriously difficult to manage (like many marriages), these challenges have escalated even more due to the current global pressures. If you are in a partnership, take the time to have honest, open conversations and resolve any challenges you do have, before they continue to escalate. And, if you’re thinking about entering into a new partnership, be very thoughtful — ensure you’re being honest with yourself and your partner(s) on personal and professional priorities, goals, expectations, challenges, etc.

Trend 5: Nervousness about inflation.

There is rising nervousness among firm owners and their teams about 2023 and the impact of inflation on their firms. We are all worried and have seen a slight slowdown of new work, but that’s because all our clients are also nervous and are in a wait-and-see mode and are therefore taking a bit longer to reach out and make decisions.

So, what can you do? What you should always be doing: having at least 3 months of overhead saved (as cash in the bank), 3–4 months of committed revenue, and signed contracts with all clients. Ultimately, those that struggle with maintaining this level of financial security have bigger problems than just inflation.

On the other hand, when our clients and companies implement hiring freezes and, in some cases, layoffs, there often is the opportunity to do the work that their reduced in-house teams can no longer handle. There is work out there but it may not be coming to you as quickly and easily as it once did. That is why firms should always be reaching out and shifting their business development strategies from being reliant only on inbound opportunities to a relationship-building mindset focused on outbound opportunities and “building the love” with potential prospects, existing and past clients, contacts, etc.

Emily concludes by saying . . .

Our industry is at a critical crossroads as we encounter new challenges, shifting priorities, and a complete rethinking of our personal and professional priorities. Change will take gumption, fortitude, and some degree of risk but, as a result, our firms will be more financially stable, our employees will be happier, and our industry will thrive.

So what do you think? Do you agree with Emily’s take? Do we alter our plans for 2023 or stand pat?

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for personal insights on life and its detours.

 

Creativity Predictions for 2023

Well, a new year is upon us, for better or worse. What will happen, nobody knows for sure. I came upon a recent article that provides some insight as to what may occur. These predictions come from a variety of sources, all tied into the world of creativity in some form or fashion.

I concur with the author of this article when he indicates that the beginning of this new year doesn’t feel so exciting or filled with promise. We’ve had three especially tough years, dominated by the pandemic, collapsing supply chains, a war in Europe, an energy crisis, political chaos, and recession. What fun!

Tom May of the UK publication Creative Boom has gathered the best predictions for what will happen to the creative industry in 2023 from some leading voices. While this is UK focused, it no doubt has resonance with US counterparts. This may be considered a lengthy read but well worth it.

1. The economy will contract

There’s no way of sugar-coating it: we are in for hard economic times. Jesse Reed, co-founder of Order is among those predicting that 2023 will see a continuing contraction in marketing spend globally, as spending power is sucked out of the economy. And unfortunately, that means that creatives will have to work even harder to secure business. But it’s not all bad news, he believes.

“Smarter brands don’t see marketing spend as discretionary and will know that in a downturn, their creative marketing can help them to take up a bigger spot in the shop window,” says Jesse. “So in many ways, it’s a positive opportunity for creatives to maximize the impact of their work in grabbing a bigger market share for their clients’ brands.”

And it’s not like there isn’t room for improvement. “The last few years have been characterized by brands throwing spend at digital advertising, which has become less effective every year as platforms become saturated, customers wise up or simply struggle to differentiate,” says Jesse. “Good creatives with an empathic understanding of their audience and a talent for taking ideas where their client’s competitors fear to tread should have no fear of 2023. They’ll be in high demand.”

Above all, then, it’s about being flexible and ready to react to a fast-changing world: not just now, but for the foreseeable future. “2022 will be defined as the year everyone realized 2020 wasn’t a blip,” says Jesse. “We’re now in the epoch of the perma-crisis. For brands and the creative industries that serve them, it’s highlighted the importance of continuously being agile in calibrating tone and messaging in their creative campaigns and advertising. Brands need to understand what’s prominent in their customers’ minds and what’s leading their decision-making – something that is in constant flux at the moment.”

2. Prompt invoicing will prove crucial

While there may be opportunities in a spiraling economy, that doesn’t mean there won’t be multiple dangers lurking. And Geoff Bretherick, creative director at Fablr, offers a cautionary tale from the last 12 months.

“2022 was a year of witnessing major shifts within our clients’ industries,” he says. “A lot of ups, but a few downs. Everyone’s been reshaping from the pandemic, and from what we’ve seen, taking more risks with bigger opportunities. In theory… great! That said, we had an unfortunate experience with a couple of partners that started as major contracts, and then suddenly, the organization lost their CEO, CMO, and over 50% of staff. Where does this leave graphic designers? Not in a great spot!”

The lesson Fablr has learned is the importance of keeping your output in sync with invoices. “In one case, we had let three months of invoicing go unpaid because we thought there was mutual trust in our partnership,” Geoff explains. “Indeed, maybe it began as so. But when C-suite personnel start dropping, their ‘word’ means very little. To that end, we still highly recommend, if you don’t already, billing at a consistent monthly rate, as opposed to the percentage of work done to date. Because right now, ‘We’re good for it’ means peanuts.”

3. There’ll be a tight focus on costs

John Ramskill, executive creative director at BrandOpus, echoes many agency leaders in thinking that the bottom line will be all-important in 2023, both for studios and the clients they serve.

“Increased costs have resulted in our clients wanting more for less – even more so than previous years,” he points out. “This has meant that we are getting better at focusing our thinking sooner and aligning our teams so as not to waste time and money.

“Fast and fluid lines of communication have been made easier by being back in the studio and having quick conversations on the fly, rather than having to schedule calls over teams. Being more efficient AND effective allows us to meet the needs of our clients while still delivering the high quality of work that BrandOpus has always produced.”

Jo Barnard, founder and creative director at industrial design consultancy Morrama, has also been feeling the strain. “The brief feeling of relief seeing the back of Covid at the beginning of the year was short-lived,” she recalls. “2022 has been another challenging year with cuts in creative spending as businesses look hesitantly towards an unpredictable 2023.

“This pressure can quickly translate into exhaustion and burn-out as we fight to keep the pipeline of work flowing and hit our own growth targets,” she continues. “So in 2023, we will instead be seeing creatives focus on growth in other ways: working on internal projects, deepening their education and building a culture of support and well-being both within their teams and their network.”

4. Retaining talent will be a real challenge

On that last point, studio heads must strike a careful balance: motivating creatives to do more and better without driving them away. Because as Abb-d Taiyo, co-founder of design and impact agency Driftime, says: “The great resignation is real! It has become increasingly harder to find great talent, let alone keep them fulfilled in the team and company dynamic.

“In the UK, a fifth of workers are expected to leave their roles according to a study by accountancy firm PwC,” he adds. “Although there are many reasons, two of the primary ones are purpose and balance. When we look to invest in our people, it’s going beyond the obvious of ‘increased pay’ and starting an open conversation with your team on what they want.”

For Driftime, this investment has been actioned in the form of complete autonomy, four-day work weeks, unlimited paid holidays, well-being perks, and incentives for each employee towards the cost of living crisis.

5. Employees will get more power

Is one way to retain talent giving it more power and influence within the agency? Rachel Cook, managing director at Thompson, believes so. “This year, tired of everyone agreeing with each other, we disbanded our non-executive board, binned off our leadership forum, and introduced an employee board,” she says. “The aim was to introduce a healthy challenge, diversify the voices in the room, and give the whole team a chance to decide how we do things. And it’s been a roller coaster, with learnings at every turn.

“2022 taught me if you ask for honesty, you’ll get it, and you need to be ready for that,” she continues. “The first meeting was about employee benefits, and the team turned up with a ten-page printed, stapled document of feedback, asking for loads more holiday, flexible working and heaps of other great ideas. I admit I wasn’t quite ready for it, but the feedback was great, and I’m so glad they took it seriously. We needed to hear it.”

Rachel has also learned that it pays to act fast. “We’ve stayed true to our promise to action something from every Employee Board within six weeks of the meeting; within a couple of weeks, we rolled out an extra three days of holiday per year. The positive repercussions weren’t just because of the free days off, but because it helped build the trust and confidence of the team that we weren’t just smiling and nodding, but actually acting.

“Finally, I’ve learned that the benefits of doing good stuff are bigger than you might imagine. The Employee Board told us that they thought the forum would be good for them to get insight into how business works, give them confidence, look good on their CV, and be a great recruitment message, too. And I love hearing the team telling potential recruits or clients about the employee board: they took a small idea I had in the shower and made it much more awesome.”

6. The creative profession will redefine itself

Typically, in a recession, big companies see design and other creative services as an easy cost to cut, to help balance their budgets. So Max Ottignon, co-founder of Ragged Edge, believes the industry must counter this by reframing itself. “We need to change the perception of creativity from a luxury to a necessity,” he argues.

“In 2022, we’ve all had to get pretty good at thriving in adversity,” he continues. “2023 doesn’t look like it’s going to offer much respite, so the onus is on us all to demonstrate that creativity can give businesses a vital edge when times are tough. It’s time to prove how valuable our skills are. That starts with asking the right questions in the first place. It means digging deep into the underlying business challenges and genuinely solving those issues in ways that feel tangible and devoid of marketing bullshit.”

Max believes this is in our power to do so, as long as we strike the right attitude. “This is a time for clarity, rigor and a healthy dose of pragmatism,” he says. “But it’s also a time when creativity can be the difference between success and failure. And if we can prove we’re irreplaceable when times are tight, just imagine the possibilities when things pick up.”

All that, of course, is easy to say, difficult to do. But Kirsty Minns, executive creative director at Mother Design, offers some advice on a personal level. “We entered 2022 with such uncertainty after the pandemic and have since navigated even more global challenges, from economic unrest to the climate crisis,” she explains. “And a lesson I used this year is to adopt a beginner’s mind.

“A client of mine was obsessed with this idea called shoshin, which originates from Japanese Zen Buddhism,” she explains. “It refers to the idea that the more you know about a subject, the more likely you are to close your mind to further learning. My interpretation of this was to challenge how things were done before, embrace unorthodox ideas and test new ways of working. New working models in the office were tested, new methods of coming up with ideas were embraced, and new ways of inspiring the team were implemented.”

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Quotes for the Soul and Wherever!

It’s that time of the month again! Time for assorted quotes from a variety of folks. Take them to heart and add them to your diet as food for your soul. Enjoy.

It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one. — Alex Osborne, Advertising Hall of Fame

The heart of creativity is discipline. — William Bernbach, Advertising Hall of Fame

Consumers are statistics. Customers are people. — Stanley Marcus, Advertising Hall of Fame

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. — Benjamin Franklin, Advertising Hall of Fame

Human beings must involve themselves in the anguish of other human beings. This, I submit to you, is not a political thesis at all. It is simply an expression of what I would hope might be ultimately a simple humanity for humanity’s sake. ― Rod Serling

Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in art, in music, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.  – John Steinbeck

Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It’s more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack. – Dr. Seuss

You can’t be a creative thinker if you’re not stimulating your mind, just as you can’t be an Olympic athlete if you don’t train regularly. – Sir Ken Robinson

Success or failure in business is caused more by mental attitude than by mental capacities. — Walter Dill Scott, Advertising Hall of Fame

Our job is to simplify, to tear away the unrelated, to pluck out the weeds that are smothering the product message. — William Bernbach, Advertising Hall of Fame

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for a different kind of playground for creativity, innovation and inspiring stuff.

How do stress and anxiety impact us as creative people?

What can we do to change our responses? In a recent article posted on his Talent Development Resources site, Dougles Eby features several professionals who address anxiety and creativity. I don’t know anyone among my creative colleagues who has not dealt with anxiety in one form or another. This post may give you some insight into the world of creative anxiety.

 

Heidi Hanna, PhD is the Executive Director of the American Institute of Stress. She writes in an article on her site about one way we can help ourselves deal with stress: humor

“A few years ago, thanks to my friends at the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, I was introduced to a new type of “mental massage” – one that enhances circulation to parts of the brain that often get left out of our day to day activities, such as perceiving amusement, irony and joy.

“Healthy humor is like massage for the brain. It initiates the relaxation response, shifting brain chemistry towards positivity, creativity, and collaboration.

“Physically, humor decreases levels of toxic cortisol and inflammation in the brain and body, while increasing neural efficiency, energy production, circulation, and overall health.

“Our current chaotic and constantly connected society is filled with stressful triggers that keep our brain-body systems stuck in a state of chronic stress, speeding up the development of both physical and mental disabilities and illness.”

 

In his book Mastering Creative Anxiety, creativity coach and psychologist Eric Maisel, PhD asks,

“Are you creating less often than you would like? Are you avoiding your creative work altogether? Do you procrastinate? That’s anxiety.

“Do you resist getting to your work or marketing your work? That’s anxiety.

“Do you have trouble deciding which creative project to tackle? That’s anxiety. Do you find completing work hard? That’s anxiety.”

In his many years of counseling as a psychotherapist, he has found, “Anxiety regularly stops creative people in their tracks and makes their experience of creating more painful than pleasurable.

“It stops would-be creative people entirely, preventing them from realizing their dreams. Anxiety is the number one problem that creative people face — and yet few even realize it.”

In his book he describes “many of the sources of anxiety in a creative person’s life” and provides “little-known anxiety-management techniques” to help you manage that anxiety.

One of the challenges creative people face that affects anxiety is meaning. One related video clip:

One measure of fighting anxiety I have found to help is to break up my anxiety into pieces. Since I may not be able to deal with the entire problem at a single sitting, I’ll be more likely to deal with the individual pieces. What’s really worrying me and why? If I can answer this, I’ll know how to better deal with the factors that make up the problem . . . and my worry.

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for a different kind of playground for creativity, innovation and inspiring stuff.

Emotional intelligence creates climate, enabling creativity

Creativity is all around us. We can’t escape it. There are those of us whose livelihood depends on creativity, the designers, artists, writers, etc. There are countless others who are affected by creative surroundings and may not realize it. Whether or not we do, we all have emotions that definitely affect creativity.

But what if we feel creatively deprived? What if a designer feels one day that he/she just doesn’t feel inspired? What if we feel we’re having an “off” day?

A recent study in the Journal of Creative Behavior shows the power of emotional intelligence to make creativity happen. The study from the Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence found that emotionally intelligent supervisors create a climate that benefits creativity and innovation in those they work with.

Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D., provided the synopsis of the study, highlights of which are outlined in this blog post. Dr. Pringle is a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. She studies the role of emotion and emotion skills in creativity and well-being, as well as how to use the arts (and art-related institutions) to promote emotion and creativity skills.

What do emotionally intelligent supervisors do? First, they are skilled at reading employees’ emotions, such as realizing when someone is upset or disappointed or when they are worried about changes at work. They not only can read emotions but acknowledge them explicitly.

Second, they help employees channel their feelings toward achieving important goals. They inspire enthusiasm and they model decision making that takes into account both optimistic and pessimistic voices (and concerns and hopes behind them).

Third, emotionally intelligent supervisors understand how different decisions or events affect people’s experiences at work. And finally, they are able to successfully manage their own emotions, as well as help employees when they are upset or frustrated.

The just-published Yale study asked three groups of questions: One group of questions asked people to describe their supervisors’ behavior. Another group of questions asked about people’s emotional experiences of work. Finally, the third group of questions asked to what extent people have opportunities to grow and make progress at work and how often they are creative at work.

The study results show that when supervisors acknowledge that employees have feelings and that these emotional experiences matter, the work climate becomes more positive and supportive. Employees described dramatically different emotional experiences if they had supervisors who acted in emotionally intelligent ways or not.

The quality of relationships spilled into feelings about employees’ duties and tasks, and that, in turn, affected creativity and innovation in what they accomplished. Our study suggests that supervisors’ emotional intelligence is a job resource for their employees that helps both their wellbeing and successful performance at work.

When people were asked how they feel about work in their own words, two-thirds of the top feelings mentioned by those whose supervisors were emotionally intelligent were positive, while 70 percent of the top feelings mentioned by those whose supervisors were not emotionally intelligent were negative.

Those whose supervisors were emotionally intelligent mentioned being happy three times more often than being stressed. By contrast, those whose supervisors do not show emotional intelligence most often said they were frustrated and stressed. 

How do supervisors and leaders make a difference for their employees’ ability to be creative? Organizational behavior scholars Jing Zhou and Jennifer George have shown that emotionally intelligent supervisors know that emotions provide information about ourselves, the environment, and those around us.

Emotionally intelligent supervisors are able to notice employee dissatisfaction, recognize that dissatisfaction conveys information about a real problem, and can find a way to approach this problem as an opportunity for improvement. Emotionally intelligent supervisors can manage their own and employees’ emotions to help with creative work. They can recognize when people are overly optimistic and can provide informative feedback to prevent settling on ideas prematurely and inspire persistence.

The Yale study shows that supervisors can create a climate where employees have opportunities to grow and are inspired and motivated in their jobs. Supervisors who acknowledge that employees cannot leave emotions at the door, who recognize employees’ feelings, understand where they are coming from, and who help employees manage their feelings, will have both happier and more creative employees.

The results are relevant for anyone who influences others, such as teachers working with students or parents with their children. The emotional climate we create will influence both how those around us feel and what they are able to do.

This holds true for various sets of employees and those independent contractors whose specialties involve creativity and positive emotions. Indeed, the corporate world needs to be aware of this more than ever, especially when an increasing number of employees are rethinking a return to the office.

Here’s to positive re-enforcement of emotions amidst a favorable environment of creativity!

 

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for a different kind of playground for creativity, innovation and inspiring stuff.

 

 

 

The Power of Creative Excellence and the Loss of an Icon

Every once in awhile it’s nice to get another perspective on creativity and its influence in the advertising industry. So this week the creativity blog focuses on an interview with Rob Reilly, the creative lead of WPP. We also acknowledge the passing of an icon who truly embodied the power of creative excellence, Dan Wieden. Below are some excerpts from that interview conducted by Carly Weihe.

In sitting down with Reilly, his passion for creativity and the high quality standards he puts into his work is clear. Under his creative lead, WPP won the Most Creative Company of 2022 at Cannes. Animated and engaging, it’s no surprise he is the chief creative officer for the largest advertising company in the world. With a little over a year under his belt at the company, his outlook on the future is a positive one, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and brand consistency as key factors for continued success.

I have a photograph of the Fearless Girl in my room. I discovered that you had a hand in bringing it to life.

That’s one of the best things someone’s ever started an interview with. I think the accomplishment you can have is to create something that has an impact long after you leave this earth. When the stock brokers come out, they have to face her and remember to do the right thing the next day. The City of New York wanted to move her into a park because she was causing a lot of traffic. We were like, ‘no, we’ll move her to Tokyo or London instead because everybody wants her.’

So, we showed them the comp of the only place we would accept, State Street, and that’s where she is today. We don’t know what the return on investment is on that piece of work, because who knows if it inspired, some president or someone starting a company or finding a cure to a disease, because they were inspired to be a bit fearless.

You’ve been a part of other social justice campaigns such as #NYCSaysGay. How do you leverage real problems to inspire people?

Well,if you’ve seen anything that I’ve done or any presentations I’ve made, I really talk about creativity being today’s most valuable asset. So yes, the NYC Love was a campaign that we did against the Don’t Say Gay issue that they had in Florida. (The campaign was digital billboard advertisements strategically placed across Florida that emphasized NYC’s commitment to the LGBTQ+ community, in partnership with New York City’s mayor Eric Adams.)The idea is great. But the media placement is what makes it really great.

The creative headlines are fun and interesting and pretty punchy, but it’s a fact, that you’re able to buy the media in the States basically telling people to leave Florida, and the state of Florida couldn’t stop it. You need some real ingenuity and real creativity to do that. I have high hopes for creativity being taught to children in schools eventually. We’re teaching our kids a lot of things, and we should be teaching them to use their brain and creative ways to solve problems.

Too many people think, “Oh, I’m not creative.” But you don’t have to be an artist to be creative. You just have to use your brain in different and unique ways to solve things. I feel like more and more creativity is going to be used to get us out of sometimes the messes we create as a country and as a world.

How does hiring talent play into that mission?

I think younger people want to work for companies that are doing the right thing. Whether you choose to work at a company or whether it’s the couple of brands you choose to support, you’re watching what they do. But you also want to have a good career and make money and these two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

I think we’ve got to continue to attract unique and different types of individuals by doing the right things for them, and then the right things out in the world. I think where we’re struggling when we get into the diversity and inclusion aspect. I feel like we got to do a way better job of making sure all types of people with all types of opinions and voices and backgrounds are included and this is the business.

Continue reading →

On Imagination – Another’s Thoughts

“To see, to hear, means nothing. To recognize (or not to recognize) means everything.” – André Breton

This week’s creativity blog shares another’s perspective. I’m on her email list and this particular email dissertation I found quite interesting. She goes by the name “The Used Life” and is an artist extraordinaire.

Here are some of her thoughts . . . what are some of yours?

I think of my art as an articulation of my inner life. That all of the scenes that take shape in my collage art (and poetry, too) also exist within me. There is a mystery in that which I love: that is, the mystery of human imagination. Indeed, it is a rare occasion when I am able to explain clearly and succinctly what I believe my artwork means. I like not knowing. No, I love not knowing. It is the mystery that makes it meaningful.

It is also, I think, the element of mystery that creates something akin to a mystical or religious experience—the feeling that, when I am creating, I am acting as a conduit, or channel, for “something else”, something almost otherworldly or unreal.

But, what’s the “something else”? What do I think is really happening in those moments, and what is the role of imagination in that process?

First, let me clarify by saying that I don’t define “imagination” as the ability to conjure images at will. That, I think, is a very small part of what comprises our imaginations. Here are some thoughts.

Imagination is a loss of separateness.

It is the recognition of ourselves in another—in another person, in an animal or landscape, in a character from a novel, a scrap of discarded paper, or a cardboard box. I would suggest that this “moment of recognition” is where the feelings of awe, of ecstasy, or even love that often accompany or precede creativity come from.

“Imagination is the outreaching of mind…the bombardment of the conscious mind with ideas, impulses, images and every sort of psychic phenomena welling up from the pre-conscious.” – Rollo May

What psychoanalysts might call a kind of projection, or a “leaky” subconscious. Imagination is the outpouring of inner images onto the outer world, such that a third image—a new image—may be born.

Imagination is a way of perceiving.

Maslow talks a great deal about what it means to see “unitively”, suggesting that many self-actualizing people encounter the world in a manner that allows them to see the sacred in the everyday. In the essay, “Theory Z”, he suggests self-actualizers may be divided broadly into two groups: those who experience episodes of self-transcendence (i.e., artists, poets, musicians, other creators), and those who are more pragmatic thinkers (i.e., businesspeople, entrepreneurs, politicians, scientists).

The difference between them: pragmatic thinkers deal with the here-and-now, operate within the confines of concrete reality. Transcenders are able to perceive the stuff of everyday life within the context of eternity and, as a result, are able to perceive (or feel they are perceiving) the “sacred” or “miraculous”.

What I think: the latter see imaginatively. What Maslow refers to as the perception of eternity is a function of imagination. It is the natural “outreaching of mind”, the involvement of the subconscious, or preconscious, primordial images and the emotions they carry. That’s where those feelings of “eternity,” “otherworldliness,” “surreality,” or even of encountering “the sacred” in the everyday (or in a work of art) come from.

What’s more: children see imaginatively. We were all, at one time, able to see imaginatively without trying…which leads me to my last point.

Our imaginations transform the everyday into the extraordinary.

Without the imaginative encounter—that is, without the fusion of inner and outer worlds—I doubt we would ever be able to perceive the extraordinary. I think we need those subconscious projections, those “leaky” images, impulses, and ideas. They tell us who we are. They help us make meaning. That outpouring of the unreal is what gives reality its shine.

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for a different kind of playground for creativity, innovation and inspiring stuff.

Nurture Creativity By Building Supportive Environment

Every so often I run across articles on some aspect of creativity. This week I found an article on nurturing creativity by building a supportive environment. It’s a recent study co-authored by professors from Rice University here in Houston and the Barcelona School of Management in Spain. I’ve reflected the study’s findings here in this blog post.

Creativity in children develops their spirits. Playing at or with almost anything spurs their creativity. (I wish this could be said about most adults.) Coaxing creativity from adults is more challenging. Creativity in adults enriches productivity — especially at the office.

Creativity is where ideas come from; ideas form the basis for innovation. In an increasingly competitive world economy, it’s innovation that allows businesses to survive and thrive. This makes creativity a prized commodity in the job market. For managers, cultivating creativity in their workforce is a crucial professional skill. (Note: Yet I think creativity is still a very undervalued skill, if not misunderstood.)

Current academic research takes a more holistic look. By studying the interaction between the character traits of the worker or the team, the leader or the supervisor, and the prevailing atmosphere at the workplace, researchers are unveiling new insights.

Studies show, for example, that the benefits of benevolent leadership expand when workers recognize creativity as an important component of their role. Not only that, creativity is highest in employees who experience high levels of both positive and negative moods and feel supported by their supervisors. Other research finds that leaders who empower their workers get a greater payback in creativity.

To explore these findings further, *Zhou and Hoever developed a typology that sorts out research about workplace creativity based on interactions between the worker (which they call the “actor”) and the workplace (which they call “context”).

The best-case scenario is a positive actor in a positive context, a mix that is synergistic for creativity. Worst case: When a positive actor languishes in a negative context or, similarly, when a negative actor stews in a positive context. At the extreme end of possibility, a negative actor in a negative context is downright antagonistic to creativity, Zhou and Hoever found.

There’s one final type of employee-workplace interaction: the “configurational” experience, which includes factors that are neutral in shaping creativity, but, when combined with other factors, cause a kind of chemical reaction that boosts or blocks creativity.

Zhou’s research serves up some bad news and good news for managers. Choosing and hiring employees who are creative is not enough, it turns out. If your workplace is discouraging, creativity will wither in almost anyone. On the brighter side, cultivate a nurturing environment and creative tendrils may sprout even in the most no-nonsense workers. Best of all, good managers can build a nurturing greenhouse environment. Practically speaking, it means that companies can and should train supervisors to cultivate creativity in their management choices. (Hmmm, wonder what an 8-year old supervisor would do!)

Plenty of research gaps remain, however. To fill them, Zhou has outlined an ambitious agenda for future research, including a close look at the impact of workplaces on collective creativity; exploring as-yet unidentified factors in workers and work settings that spark creative thinking; and seeking ways to vanquish the effects of unsupportive environments.

Making creativity happen at work, in other words, isn’t child’s play. It is, in fact, hard work, especially if the environment is less than stimulating.

——

*Identifying the best circumstances to make creativity bloom is one of the driving questions in this study by Rice Business Professor Jing Zhou and colleague Inga J. Hoever, a professor at the Barcelona School of Management in Spain.

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for a different kind of playground for creativity, innovation and inspiring stuff.

New Aspects of Creativity for 2022

Creativity can spring from a variety of different sources, some even unlikely. Behind each scenario is a person or persons developing the idea and following it through to completion. Below is a report on such creativity.

Each year, Fast Company reveals a new list of the Most Creative People in Business. The folks we highlight have accomplished something in the past year that no one in their field ever has before, something that’s already having a discernible and important impact.

As you’ll see, we take a different view of creativity than our fellow business media outlets do. To us, creativity isn’t limited to the fields typically thought of as “creative,” such as entertainment, marketing, or branding. We know that creativity is happening everywhere: science labs, law offices, parliamentary halls, and even the open seas—and thank goodness. Creativity is what leads people to fix the world’s most urgent problems.

The work that’s been done by this year’s cohort of 56 Most Creative People in Business showcases several ways that creativity can lead to bold and substantial change. Here are some of the lessons they offer, for 2022 and beyond.

Just do something

Dismayed by the rise in fentanyl overdoses among recreational drug users, Allison Heller and Dean Shold took action. Their organization, FentCheck, is putting drug-test strips where the users are, and saving lives. Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University of Louisiana, is building a robust academic pipeline that’s creating more Black doctors and health industry leaders. Not content to live with the glaring vaccine inequity across the world, Baylor College infectious disease experts Maria Elena Bottazzi and Peter Hotez developed the first-ever open sourced COVID vaccine, called Corbevax, which has already been administered to tens of millions. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Pavel Vrzheshch redeployed the employees at his branding/ad agency as “creative warriors,” which led to the wide-reaching, Zelensky-endorsed “Be Brave like Ukraine” campaign.

Put people first

After Whitney Pegden noticed that Walmart delivery customers were bonding not just with the service but the delivery workers themselves, she expanded the program accordingly. With various societal needs exposed by the COVID pandemic, Norma Edith Garcia-Gonzalez converted LA’s county parks to health centers, shelters, and food pantries, with great results, and focused on helping (and employing) local youth. Audio engineer Heba Kadry enhances the connection between musical artists—such as Mdou Moctar and Japanes Breakfast—and their fans. Seniors thrive when they’re part of a community, which is why Selfhelp Realty Group’s Evelyn Wolff has built The Atrium at Sumner. As climate change makes hurricanes, floods, and wild fires more frequent and extreme, Resilience Force founder Saket Soni is standing up for disaster recovery workers, and securing them better employment terms.

Protect what’s important

Microsoft’s Tom Burt is calling upon his legal background to safeguard users’ data from hackers, thieves, and foreign adversaries. Through a logistics app called PRoduce, Crystal Díaz is restoring food sovereignty to Puerto Rico, which currently imports 85% of its food. Gina Asoudegan is bringing regenerative agriculture to supermarkets at scale with Applegate Farms’s new Do Good Dog. Knowing that a free (and robust) press is vital to our democracy, New York Times vets Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor have written a book called Chasing the Truth to share what they’ve learned with young journalists and encourage them to “engage with the world and make progress.”

Stand up to the giants

As the behemoths of Big Tech continue to grow even more dominant, several courageous individuals are finding innovative ways to keep their power in check. The EU’s Margrethe Vestager led the passage of two new landmark pieces of legislation that will go further than anything before to level the playing field worldwide. Gretchen Peters is working with lawmakers to expose organized crime on social media. Creative-thinking attorney Jay Edelson is leading winning lawsuits that protect users’ biometric data and more. And while there may be a ton of hype out there about the new world of “Web3,” Molly White sees right through it (and enables us see, too).

Blur the lines

Singer-songwriter Arooj Aftab has made the ancient art of ghazal feel brand new. Sort Of co-creator Bilal Baig positions gender-fluidity in a fresh and sensitive way. Fashion designer Kingsley Gbadegesin channels the queer community’s perspective (and has gained wider following because of it). Former YouTube superstar Casey Neistat chronicles the rise and fall of another YouTube star, David Dobrik, in a revealing documentary called Under the Influence. Puppetmaster Toby Olié figured out how to translate Spirited Away‘s ethereal characters to the stage. Unity’s Timoni West is transporting actual data into immersive digital worlds in order to solve real-life problems.

Run clean

Wind-powered charging buoys that power idling cargo ships at sea? Maersk’s Sebastian Klasterer Toft and David Samad are developing that. An electric speedboat that virtually flies above the water? Candela’s Gustav Hasselskog just built one. Meanwhile, Maxine Bédat wrote a widely read book (called Unraveled) about the pollution-heavy life cycle of a single pair of jeans and is now fighting, through her New Standard Institute, to hold the apparel industry accountable. Sharon Prince is fighting for accountability, too; she’s gotten construction industry leaders and major architecture firms on board to ensure that their materials aren’t produced with slave labor.

Make it fun

Mark Rober is the Willy Wonka of science. Kyla Scanlon uses a spoonful of sharp comedic timing to help to the financial education go down. Walt Disney Studios’s marketing chief Asad Ayaz keeps the multiverses spinning. With Twelve Minutes, Luis Antonio brings character study to gaming. In addition to being a world-class surfer, John John Florence has created a performance-wear and clothing line, Florence Marine X, that lets other surfers in on the creative action.

 

Thanks to Jill Bernstein of Fast Company for contributing the information.

 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog, Joe’s Journey, for a different kind of playground for creativity, innovation and inspiring stuff.