Exploring Your Creative Genius: Episode 71
John Lowe was the guest of the most recent episode of Exploring your Creative Genius. He was a pioneer in high tech sales into higher education as one of the first Apple employees and has lived a continually emerging creative life.
He spoke about how he would make his most valuable contributions to an organization when he was only told what the end goal needed to be, not how to get there.
My experiences are consistent with John’s. Back in the 90’s when I headed up FGI, the marketing services firm here in Chapel Hill, I found time and again that the best way to get to the top of the mountain was for me to show folks why we wanted to scale it as I let them know that it was their decisions as to how we got up there, what the expedition strategies and vibe would be.
It allows folks to bring their best. When you frame a challenge but don’t overly direct talented folks on it’s execution time and again you’ll find you get more than you expected.
This concept, Open Endedness, has another important application. Research shows that if you are making a presentation and want to include visual support for your message, don’t create PowerPoint slides in advance. Use a white board or easel pad and write or sketch the visual support as you are presenting it. This will cause your audience to lean in more, anticipating what you will draw or write next. As a result folks believe a visual created in their presence more than one already produced.
“Exploring Your Creative Genius” takes an expansive view on what it means to be creative and entrepreneurial in an ongoing conversation led by Carl Nordgren — entrepreneur, novelist, and lifelong student with decades of experience growing his own creative capacity and assisting others to do the same in exciting new ways!
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