Escape From Excellence

OK, we all know by now that the US economy has evolved over the past few hundred years from agriculture, to manufacturing, to technology, and now to creativity. Apparently, even in this tech-driven era, so much technology work and innovation can be outsourced or replicated globally, that our sustainable core competitive advantage, our national Dynamic Essence, is being labeled “creativity.”

Creativity is challenging because, like math, many people think it’s a specialized skill or, worse, a talent we’re either born with or we’re not. Many people hear, “Creativity Economy,” and think, “Uh-oh, I’m in trouble. That’s not me.” Often their bosses don’t help much, simply saying, “OK people, get creative! Let’s see those ideas!” But while some people are born with an extraordinary capacity for non-linear thinking, most people can learn to be creative. And jazz masters, those masters of our own national home-grown music, can teach us a lot. In fact, if sustainable U.S. prosperity requires us to be creative, then our own jazz musicians are the first place we should look for guidance. Here’s why:

Jazz musicians improvise. They compose on the spot (innovation), play what they hear as soon as they hear it (agility), respond to thier immediate situation (market conditions), listen to what it going on around them (culture and competition), find and express thier own unique voice (branding), do it in a team setting, i.e. a band (organization), and must reach and move a listener (customer). They are walking creativity, always channeling what’s inside into something new. What they do is both extremely creative, and also not unlike what people working to succeed in a creativity economy must do. (By the way, blues, country and rock musician’s also often improvise, but they are less defined by it, and they do it in a less complex context. So let’s stick with the jazz example.).

Here’s how: The best jazz musicians, the real masters, first achieve excellence. Then they escape from excellence. (more…)

We’ve all heard the old saying about how success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. That’s true, but it’s really only true if you’re in the excellence trap! Sure, it takes work to bring a good idea to life. And it takes skill. The Big Book of Failure is full of ideas that never saw the light of day because their creator had no idea how to take ideas from concept to reality. But when in the excellence trap, inspiration really is front and center only 1% of the time. And that’s too little. Only 1% inspiration keeps innovation rare, change small, and growth incremental. And worse, most people in excellence don’t really know how to be inspired, only driven. And there’s a difference!

Think about it. Drive is about commitment and effort, two of the virtues of excellence that get corrupted into entropy and fixation, and so become costs of excellence, specifically depletion and misalignment. On the other hand, true inspiration is about both unexpected, non-linear, innovative thinking, and genuine enthusiasm to do something with it. It comes from the Five Virtues of Mastery (energy, expression, perspective, intention, and wisdom).

The masters I know are about inspiration 70% of the time, and the rest of the time they bring it to life, more efficienlty and effectively, with lower costs and greater results. Look at the efficiency of the perfect golf swing, the effortless expression of the great saxaphone player, and even the lose-track-of-time quality of doing what you love.

Do these people look like they’re working? We’ve all known people who say, “That’s why they call it work.” But I have never met a master who says that! Only failures and mediocrities say that. They may be nice hard working people, salt of the earth, but they’ve lost the plot. Instead, masters say, “All work in sacred.” If you interrupted, say, Tiger Woods or Charlie Parker during a training or practice session, they’d likely tell you how hard they are working, and they are. Then ask them if they’d rather be doing anything else. Anyone want to guess what they’d say? (Hint: rhymes with snow). Their work and their inspiration are one. That is sacred work. That is mastery.

Each 1% increase in inspiration can create an exponential return. So let’s maximize return on investment by increasing Return on Inspiration.