Collective Creativity

Four simple and profound steps to make a company more creative

Sep 27, 2023

Rei at work at I&CO — I&CO at work | Image: Frame Photography

Memories

“When did creativity first show up in your life?”

A while ago, Charles Day, an executive coach and the host of the acclaimed “Fearless Creative Leadership” podcast, asked me on his show.

From a very young age, I was inclined towards the arts, particularly visual art. I can specifically recall a painting that I did when I was five years old in kindergarten. We were each given a paper plate and were asked to paint whatever we wanted on it. I painted a pair of dogs, a mother canine and a puppy, specifically, the Irish wolfhound as I later discovered by tracing and searching online for the piece of my vivid visual memory. My memory of this particular painting is so vivid that I can still visualize the colors I used, the composition I made, and even down to the expression of the dogs I painted.

I think I remember this for two reasons. One, the wonder of bringing something to life. There was something so satisfying about making something from scratch and making it visible. Two, and perhaps more importantly to me, the unexpected reaction of the teacher who was so impressed with what I painted and showed it off to other teachers at the kindergarten.

At that moment, I inherently and intuitively learned that art is an act of making something and moving people emotionally. I didn’t articulate it this way, of course, at the tender age of five. But I do remember having this feeling. The fact that I can still recall this so clearly means that it must have had a profound effect on me.

Another lesson of a creative act was from Mr. Kuwatani, my fifth-grade teacher.

In his fifties, he was old enough to have been born during the war and used to tell us stories of his childhood memories when US fighter planes would fly in the night sky to bomb a Japanese city where he lived. Japan was—and still is even to this day—a conformist society. Imagine the kind of discipline and strictness that only his generation in Japan who had experienced war would have.

Yet, when it came to art, he was surprisingly free-spirited.

One day, on an art field trip we had, he looked over my shoulder while I was painting an outdoor scene.

“Rei, your paintings are always so precise and perfect. Seeing with your eyes is good but also, break the rules more. Like this.”

He took a pink paint tube, squeezed it onto my paint palette, and painted a thick brush stroke of pink on the trunk of a tree that I was in the middle of painting. I was horrified.

“See how something like this can bring your painting a whole different feel. Anyone can copy what they see. Only you can paint what you feel.”

He was teaching me that art wasn’t just about skillfully executing something but expressing something that no one else could express. My paintings from that point became more expressive. They evolved from being imitations to interpretations and expressions.

When we are growing up as kids, we are encouraged to be creative as individuals.

I was lucky in that both of my parents were into art and music. Despite the fact we lived in the countryside with very little, if any, cultural exposure, they introduced my siblings and me to such artistic and creative worlds through books, events, classes, and trips.

This kind of upbringing as well as being lucky to have had teachers like Mr. Kuwatani did nudge me to choose art as my major in college. I did add computer science as my second major also which allowed me to expand my creative expressions and opportunities. From kindergarten through college, there were various ways I was taught to be creative, sometimes explicitly and often implicitly.

However, I was never taught to be creative as a group.

Collective creativity

Although part of education’s value is in group learning, we don’t learn about what it means to be creative together until we enter the workforce.

Joel Podolny calls this “collective creativity.” Individual creativity is inherently a selfish act. Collective creativity, on the other hand, is a selfless act.

After getting a Ph.D. from Harvard University in sociology, Joel taught at Stanford, Harvard, and Yale, eventually becoming the dean of the Yale School of Management. He says he thought he would be a career academic but that changed with a phone call from none other than Steve Jobs.

Jobs asked Joel to help him start an internal training program to preserve and strengthen Apple as a company known for its ability to innovate. Joel became the founding dean of Apple University, designing curriculums for Apple’s employees and codifying what it means to “think different.” After 12 years, Joel left Apple to start his own company, Honor Education, an online education platform.

He is someone who knows a thing or two about teaching, and particularly, collective creativity.

Defining creativity

The word “creativity” is a suitcase word.

Suitcase words, coined by Marvin Minsky, a pioneering (but disgraced) computer scientist at MIT, mean "nothing by itself, but holds a bunch of things inside that you have to unpack.”

In addition, everyone has a slightly different interpretation of the word. As such, it is refreshing to hear a succinct definition of creativity from Joel. Here’s how he articulates in my recent conversation with him:

Creativity = Original thought + Skillful action

This is at an individual level. So my next question, naturally, is: How can you make a company more creative?

Turns out, there is a simple, 3-step answer to making a company more creative.

Company as a Creative Act

Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: The Way of Being” is an introspective meditation on creativity in the form of a book. It talks about individual creativity extensively and how any individual can become an artist in a broad sense.

One of the phrases that I found most useful and memorable is the following:

“If you know what you want to do and you do it, that’s the work of a craftsman.

If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of an artist.”

—Rick Rubin

Throughout human history, great brands, businesses, and endeavors that have endured the test of time are more artists than craftsmen.

Since Joel was the Dean of Apple University AND Apple is the most valuable company in the world, it would be convenient for him to use the company to illustrate his method. Instead, he cites Central Park to make a point and explains that there are three crucial steps in fostering collective creativity in a company.

1. Common purpose

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were the two American landscape architects who collaborated in envisioning and creating Central Park in New York City. Building an urban public space wasn’t necessarily their end goal.

They started with a question: Can democracy sustain great public spaces?

They used this question to guide an adventure of discovery. In other words, the real purpose wasn’t the park itself. It was to create sublime feelings in the senses by enabling peaceful co-mingles of the classes.

Companies need to have a clear common purpose everyone is aiming for.

2. Culture of debate

Olmsted and Vaux had complementary skills - Olmsted provided grand visions and landscape design expertise, while Vaux contributed formal architectural training and engineering knowledge.

However, they also had their differences. So much so that they broke up their partnership. They did reconcile after a few years. Despite disputes, they shared a common purpose of bringing beautiful, naturalistic open spaces to cities. This unified purpose enabled them to work together to pioneer landscape architecture in America.

To create innovative work, creative tension is almost necessary. Establishing a culture of debate can help you get there.

“Without a common purpose, however, you just have a debate society,” says Joel.

3. Reverence for expertise

Olmsted and Vaux had complementary skills. Olmsted provided grand visions and landscape design expertise, while Vaux contributed formal architectural training and engineering knowledge. This allowed them to collaborate effectively.

Joel does mention that at Apple, it is this reverence for expertise in various fields that come together to create its product under a common purpose.

4. Codifying our creative act

In addition to the three steps, one thing I would like to add is codifying our value system.

Within the first few months of starting the company, we thought about not only what kind of company we wanted to become but how we would behave to get there. How we verbalized our values became the guiding principles for our creative act as a company.

They became the I&CO Maxims.

This is the one thing that has helped us the most over the years. I didn’t realize how powerful it can be until several years later.

Our Maxims represent the values and virtues of I&CO as a company and as a collective of individuals. They are the filters for the actions we take and the decisions we make.

When in doubt, subtract.
Never say “No” without offering “Yes.”
Be tough, not rough.
Risk nothing, change nothing.
Seek the invisible.
Quality is a habit.
Magic > Logic
Be just. Do right.