You probably don’t know who Jack White is. Then again, maybe you do. So let me say it this way, until earlier this morning I didn’t know who Jack White is. But I’ve recently learned something important from him, something I want to share about creativity through this 2-minute except of an interview with him. It’s actually something I know to be true from my own experience, but I seem regularly to forget, and so I appreciated the clear reminder about the relationship between creativity and freedom. Before getting to his insight, though, consider this description of Jack from Wikipedia: He has been ranked No. 17 on Rolling...

While almost any day seems like a good day to hear from Kid President, Fridays work especially well. And so today it’s Kid President on how to be an inventor. Or, really, Kid President on creativity. Three things that struck me, and then I’ll stop and just ask you to watch and enjoy the four-minute video: 1) You can’t be afraid to make mistakes if you want to invent something awesome. Mistakes come with experimenting. Indeed, you learn the most from your mistakes. As Kid President says, “It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s not okay to give up.” 2) You don’t have to do this alone. In fact, it’s really hard to. The idea of the...

It’s said that once, upon being asked to address a boys preparatory school on the nature of leadership, Winston Churchill offered a brief but valuable speech. “Boys, never give up. Never. Never. Never.” I thought of that when I watched this video illustrating part of an interview with Ira Glass, host of Public Radio International’s This American Life. I’ve been a huge fan of Ira’s for years. His quirky, humorous, generous, and tremendously insightful take on not just issues but life itself has been the heart and soul of This American Life, perhaps my favorite podcast for long drives. In this part of the interview, Glass makes an...

Do you ever wish that annoying colleague or friend who always wants to “improve” your ideas would just go away? You know the one I mean, he (or she) isn’t mean spirited or particularly unkind, just always a bit critical. Well, be careful what you wish for. More and more studies show that creativity flourishes not in an environment devoid of criticism but one filled with supportive critique. “Supportive,” of course, is key. The idea is to improve – to point out the strengths, certainly, but also and more importantly the weaknesses of an idea in order to make it better. This isn’t criticism for criticism’s sake; it’s...

Creativity is in as high demand now as perhaps it ever has been. And I don’t just mean in marketing a product better or preaching a more interesting sermon. I mean that we need creative parents to raise healthy children in an increasingly complex world. We need creative political leaders to help move us beyond partisan gridlock to solve serious problems. We need creative business leaders who can run successful businesses while also putting the larger community and society along side of shareholders as persons to whom they are accountable. We need creative religious leaders who can help us imagine how faith speaks to us in a relentlessly...