The Zen of Business - 7 Habits of the Highly Creative

8/2/2019 The Zen of Business - 7 Habits of the Highly Creative

1/14

Ino 1/14

T he Z n of B u i n :

7 Hbi o Hig l

Criv matthew e. may

ChangeThis

No 78.02


2/14

Ino 2/14

Frank Zappa once said: T o iporn ingin r i r. For pin, lirll.For or r, gurivlbu, ioui ubl pplin, ou n kno

r r op nd rl orld bgin.

What hes saying is that how we rame something, like an idea or a problem, or example, haseverything to do with how well it turns out. Hes saying that there is an art to raming. That raming

is an art.

Frank Zappa had it right. And the reason I believe that is because how I view the world changed com-

pletely a ew years ago, during an eight year long engagement with a very large and very successul

Japanese company. The ocus o my engagement was essentially to help unite two distinctly dierent

culturesEastern and Westernin a common approach. This meant I had to straddle two dierent

ways o looking at the worldtwo completely dierent ways o looking at the same thing.

And I must coness I had a dicult time o it. Somewhere in the middle o my tenure, I ound mysel

up against the proverbial brick wall, at an utter loss as to what to do in a particularly challenging

project. And in the midst o that struggle, thanks to a ew precipitating bits o wisdom rom a variety

o sources, I had one o those moments.

All o a sudden, everything became clear. I elt wide awake, connected and balanced, and everything

made sense. I knew exactly why I was there, what was needed, and what I wanted to do.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


3/14

Ino 3/14

It was a breakthrough moment. It was beyond fow or being in the zone. Both terms are

inadequate to capture the essence o the moment. It was moment oshibumi.

Shibumi is a Japanese word, the meaning o which is reserved or just these kinds o experiences.

With roots in the Zen aesthetic ideals o art, architecture, and gardening, it has no direct translation

in English, but has come to denote those things that exhibit in paradox, and all at once, the very

best o everything and nothing: Elegant simplicity. Eortless eectiveness. Understated excellence.

Beautiul imperection.

James Michener reerred to shibumi in his 1968 novel Iberia, writing that it cant be translated

and has no explanation. Soetsu Yanagi in his 1972 book The Unknown Cratsman talked about

shibumi in the context o art, writing that a true work o art is one whose intentionally imperect

beauty makes an artist o the viewer. The author Trevanian (the nom de plume o Dr. Rodney

William Whitaker) wrote in his 1979 best-selling novel Shibumi, Shibumi has to do with great

renement underlying commonplace appearances.

The pursuit o shibumi in business, work and lie is guided by several key concepts, seven o

which t neatly under the heading o creativity.

Sibui i ... Elgn iplii.Eforl fcivn. Undrsd xlln.Buiul iprcion.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


4/14

Ino 4/14

Koko (uri)The rst principle is that okoko, or austerity. Koko emphasizes the disciplines o restraint,

exclusion, and omission. Koko involves things that seem spare, even Spartan, yet impart a sense

o ocus and clarity. Examples abound.

W. L. Gore and Associates, recognized as one o the worlds most innovative companies, does not

give job titles and rerains rom the typical corporate hierarchy in order to release the creativity

o its sta employees. Product designers o Toyotas youth brand, Scion, reused to advertise and let

out hundreds o standard options on its vehicles to allow ad-averse Generation Y buyers to make

a personal statement by customizing their cars with trendy accessories. Europes do nothingdeault on organ donationsmeaning you are an organ donor unless you opt outresults in nearly

quadruple the participation seen in the United States. The British bank First Direct has no physical

branches, yet is the most highly recommended bank in the United Kingdom.

There is a wonderul picture widely available on the Internet o the young Steve Jobs, circa 1982,

sitting in the middle o the ully urnished living room o his Los Altos house. There isnt much in the

room, save an audio system and a Tiany lamp. No urnitureSteve is sipping tea, sitting yoga

style on a mat, with but a ew books around him. The picture explains a lot about his buttonless

aesthetic and sensibility, and the motive driving virtually every Apple product designed under hiscommand. Ater all, the keyboard or the original Macintosh had no direction keys or the cursor;

until 2005, the Mac mouse had only one button; desktop Macs had no traditional i/o power buttons.

He had removed buttons rom elevators in multilevel Apple retail stores, along with standard retail

queues and counters. Rarely i ever can he be seen wearing a shirt with buttons.

Ze reatvt habt #1: Rera rm ag what s t absltel eessar

the frst lae.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


5/14

Ino 5/14

Kanso (iplii)I wouldnt give a fg or simplicity on this side o complexity, but I would give my lie or simplicity

on the other side o complexity. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Weve all heard the clich, keep it simple, stupid. And this is the principle o kanso. Kanso

dictates that beauty and utility need not be overstated, overly decorative, ornate, or anciul.

Kanso imparts a sense o being resh, clean, and neat.

The Flip video camera created by the designers at Pure Digital Technologies is a great example o

product kanso. The Flip is wonderully simple and elegant. In much the same way the ubiquitous

Google splash page does with search, it takes all o the complexity o a very complex thing here a

high denition video cameraand hides it behind an amazingly simple and user-riendly interace.

There is no misunderstanding how to use this little number. There is no power adaptor or sotware

on CD or incomprehensible manual to read. It plugs in to your USB port to charge, and the sotware

sel installs rom the camera. It does one thing and one thing only. And it does it very well, taking

great high-quality video thats easy to view and share. which should be the primary value adding

eature o any HD camera, no matter how many bells and whistles it might have.

Ze reatvt habt #2: Elmate what est matter t mae mre rm r what es.

Kno dic bu nd uili nd no bovrsd, ovrl doriv, orn, or niul.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


6/14

Ino 6/14

Shizen (nurln)I we observed frst, designed second, we wouldnt need most o the things we build.

Ben Hamilton-Baillie

The principle oshizen seeks to achieve a balance between being o nature, yet distinct rom it

to be viewed as being without pretense, without artice, not orced, yet intentional rather than

accidental or haphazard.

When UK-based urban designer Ben Hamilton-Baillie goes about designing the kinds o shared

spaces ound at Kensington High Street, Sloane Square and Exhibition Road in London, he is

taking a page rom the redesign o high-trac intersections in the Netherlands that have been

artully redesigned to be void o trac controls.

Shared space design is the brainchild o the late Dutch trac engineer Hans Mondermann,

who believed, and proved, that the busier a street is, the saer it becomes. In the 1970s,

Monderman began to realize through his investigation o accidents that trac controls robbed

motorists o their intelligence. Monderman once said that trac lights and signs are basically

telling you to go ahead, drive ast, dont worry, we have it under control or you. Thats a

very dangerous message.

In a shared space intersection such as those in Drachten and Oostervelde, curbs have been

eliminated, asphalt replace with red brick, and there are ountains and trees and ca seating right

where you think you should drive. When you come into this intersection, you have no choice

but to slow down, have human interaction, and use your intelligence. The result is an organic,

naturally sel-organizing order, with hal the accidents and nearly twice the vehicle fow.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


7/14Ino /14

The only rule is driven by the context: rst in turn with all due respect to the most vulnerable.

The naturally emergent sel-organization is ar better and ar more powerul than anything

we could articially impose. Its like looking at a crowded ice skating rink or the rst timeit looks chaotic but theres a natural order to things.

Hans used to like to demonstrate his premise that things are saer in the presence o danger

by walking into the middle o the intersection backwards.

Ze reatvt habt #3: Bere tag at, l r atrall rrg atters

a rhthms, a strt r eas t ft them.

Yugen (ubl)The poet must be able to end a thought so masterully that a rich space o suggestions unolds

in the imagination o his audience. Fujiwara Teika

The principle oyugen captures the Zen view that, because the human spirit is indenable, the

power o suggestion is exalted as the mark o a truly authentic creation. Finitenessdotting every i

and crossing every tis thought to be at odds with nature, implying stagnation and loss o lie.

T prinipl oshizen k o iv blnbn bing o nur, disinc ro i.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


8/14Ino 8/14

Two examples o Zappas art and the real world are on point: In art, The Mona Lisa. And in business,

the launch strategy o the iPhone in 2007.

Leonardo da Vinci recognized the power o yugenthat when things are let open to interpretation,

we inject ourselves in the equation and use our imaginations. He knew that limiting inormation

seduces the viewer. The reason the Mona Lisa looks dierent each time you look at her isnt because

o some secret code or conspiracy. Its because he deliberately blurred the corners o her eyes

and mouth, the two most expressive parts o the human ace, thus leaving her look completely

ambiguous, indistinct, and uncertain.

In Apples case, i you recall, the iPhone was hailed as the most hyped hi-tech gizmo in history.

Now, to hype something means to push it heavily through marketing and media, but thats not what

Apple did. It used the principle o yugen. Steve Jobs demonstrated it just onceat Macworld 07.

He gave a masterul presentation there in January, but it didnt go on sale until June.

In between? Radio silence: no publicity, no promotions, no leaks to press, no price discounts, no

prototypes to reviewers, no advertising blitz, no preordering. There was essentially an embargo

on ocial inormation with only the Jobs demo online to reerence. The bloggers and Apple loyalists

took over, interpreted and extrapolated, completed the picture as it were, and the iPhone tipped

beore it ever went on sale, with over 20 million people expressing an intent to buy.

Ze reatvt habt #4: Leave smethg t the magat b lmtg rmat.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


9/14Ino 9/14

Fukinsei (iprion, r)Perection is achieved not when there is nothing let to add, but when there is nothing let

to take away. Antoine de Saint Exupery

The goal oukinseiis to convey the symmetrical harmony and beauty o nature through clearly

asymmetrical and incomplete renderings; the eect is that the viewer supplies the missing symmetry

and thus participates in the act o creation.

No better example exists than that o sudoku. Little did Indianapolis architect Howard Garnes

know in 1979 when he modied a 200-year old numerical array (known as Latin squares) into

a numerical brainteaser (that the puzzle magazine Dellwould originally publish as Number Place)

that it would go on to be renamed Sudoku by Japanese publisher Nikoliand become a worldwide

obsession. But thats exactly what it now ismillions play it everyday.

By the end o 2005, the World Puzzle Federation had declared Sudoku the number one logic puzzle

in the world. Today there are online versions, Sudoku radio and television shows and games,

Sudoku clubs, strategy books, videos, card games, and competitions. In 2006, Italy hosted the rst

World Sudoku Championship, with teams rom around the world participating. Being the champion

in ones own country is tough enough, but the competition in these international games is even

more erce.

A Sudoku designer ully employs ukinsei in creating a puzzle. A complete solution is crated

and then the designer symmetrically subtracts lled-in squares to arrive at the starting grid, which

is predominantly empty.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


10/14Ino 10/14

Sudoku could not be easier to learn: you do not even need to know how to count, its one rule can

be explained in a single sentence, it takes but a minute to grasp, and it is universal in nature

(unlike crossword puzzles, which are knowledge-based as well as language-specic) because thenumbers are just symbols. And yet, the underlying complexity behind the logic needed to solve

a Sudoku puzzle can be incredibly challenging.

Will Shortz, the amed crossword puzzle editor or The New York Timesand the only person

in the world with a degree in enigmatology (the study o codes and puzzles), describes himsel as

a Sudoku addict.

Ze reatvt Habt #5: Areate the beat atral meret.

Leave the r e r thers t -reate wth .

Seijaku (illn, quiud, oliud)Stand still when the hippos charge. Boyd Matson

The principle o seijaku emphasizes the undamental Zen theme o emptiness, which implies an

inexhaustible spirit. It is in states o active calm, tranquility, solitude, and quietude that we

nd the very essence o creative energy. Silent pauses in music, as well as motionlessness in

dance and theater, illustrate the power o seijaku.

The idea here is this: doing something isnt always better than doing nothing. In other words,

instead o dont just stand there, do something, its dont just do something, stand there.

This is ar more dicult than it sounds. Doing nothing is actually quite hard, because we have

a ght or fight mechanism built in.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


11/14Ino 11/14

I learned a very valuable lesson rom National Geographicadventure journalist Boyd Matson.

A lie-saving lesson as a matter o act. I learned how to stand still when the hippos charge.

I dont care i youre an Olympic class sprinter, youll die i you run.

I I told you to do nothing or the next ve minutes, youd have a hard time o it. Unless you know

how to quiet your mind through, or example, meditation.

For 20 years neuroscientists have been studying Buddhist monks in Tibet. Why? Because the most

experienced practitioners, adepts theyre called, with over 10,000 hours o meditation under their

tunics, exhibit abnormally high levels o gamma brainwavesthe kind that has been recently shown

to immediately precede the proverbial aha! moment. Maybe thats why so many high perorming

athletes and executives meditate or use neuroeedback training. It seems the brain needs the calm

beore its storm.

Ze reatvt habt #6: Lear t qet r m; esgate a tme a lae

r reatve slte.

Insd o don jus snd r, do oing,i don jus do oing, snd r.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


12/14Ino 12/14

Datsuzoku (brk ro rouin)Best New Years resolution? A stop-doing list. Jim Collins

Closely related to seijaku is the principle o datsuzoku, which signies a break rom daily routine

or habit, a certain reedom rom the commonplace. It involves a eeling o transcending the ordinary

and conventional. The result o datsuzoku is pleasant surprise and unexpected amazement.

Tony Schwartz, CEO o The Energy Project, wrote his new book, The Way Were Working Isnt

Working, using a pulse method, working without interruptions or three 90-minute periods, and

taking a break between each one. He had breakast ater the rst session, went or a run ater

the second, and had lunch ater the third. He wrote no more than 4 1/2 hours a day, and nished

the book in under six monthshal the time it took him to write his previous book, at which he

toiled or 10 hours at a time.

Numerous research studies show that our bodies operate in 90-minute rhythms during the day.

When were awake, we move rom higher to lower alertness every 90 minutes. And heres the thing:

our bodies clearly signal that rhythm, in the orm o restlessness, hunger, drowsiness and loss

o ocus. Generally we either ignore or override those signals, because we have a lot to do and many

ways to articially pump up our energy with various supplements. The problem is that ater working

at high intensity or more than 90 minutes, our brains begin to shut down. We become more

reactive and less capable o thinking clearly, creatively, and refectively, or seeing the big picture.

In act, human beings are designed to pulse, to move between spending and renewing energy

to meet our our key needs: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

Ze reatvt habt #7: Re-eergze r reatvt b tag reglar tmets

ever 90 mtes.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


13/14Ino 13/14

Take these seven concepts together as a cohesive set o principles to guiding your own

pursuit o shibumi. Think o them as the Zen o business, or, as I reer to them,

The Shbm Seve.

Hun bing r dignd o pul,o ov bn pnding nd rning nrgo our our k nd:pil, oionl, nl, nd piriul.

ChangeThis

No 78.02


14/14

Ino 14/14

ABouT THE AuTHoR

Matthew E. May is an internationally recognized innovation author, design strategist, and columnist or the

American Express OPEN Forum Idea Hub. He is a popular speaker and master kaizen coach, working withorganizations all over the world. His previous books include In Pursuit o Elegance, and The Elegant Solution.

He lives in Southern Caliornia.

SEnd THiS

Pass along a copy o this maniesto to others.

SuBScRiBE

Sign up or our ree e-newsletterto learn about our latest maniestos as soon as they are available.

BoRn on dATE

This document was created on January 20, 2011 and is based on the best inormation available at that time.

ino

Buy THE Book

Get more details or buy a

copy o Matthew E. Mays

The Shibumi Strategy.

ABouT cHAnGETHiS

ChangeThis is a vehicle, not a publisher.

We make it easy or big ideas to spread.

While the authors we work with are

responsible or their own work, they dont

necessarily agree with ever ything

available in ChangeThis ormat. But you

knew that already.

ChangeThis is supported by the love and

tender care o 800-CEO-READ. Visit us

at 800-CEO-READ or at our daily blog.

copyRiGHT ino

The copyright o this work belongs

to the author, who is solely responsible

or the content.

This work is licensed under the Creative

Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-

NoDerivs License. To view a copy o this

license, visit Creative Commonsor send a

letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan

Abbott Way, Stanord, Caliornia 94305, USA.

WHAT you cAn do

You are given the unlimited right to

print this maniesto and to distribute it

electronically (via email, your website,

or any other means). You can print out

pages and put them in your avorite

coee shops windows or your doc tors

waiting room. You can transcribe the

authors words onto the sidewalk, or you

can hand out copies to everyone you

meet. You may not alter this maniesto

in any way, though, and you may not

charge or it.

ChangeThis

No 78.02
http://www.changethis.com/78.02.ShibumiStraegy/emailhttp://changethis.com/subscribehttp://800ceoread.com/book/show/9780470769508-The_Shibumi_Strategyhttp://changethis.com/http://www.800ceoread.com/http://800ceoread.com/blog/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/http://800ceoread.com/blog/http://www.800ceoread.com/http://changethis.com/http://800ceoread.com/book/show/9780470769508-The_Shibumi_Strategyhttp://changethis.com/subscribehttp://www.changethis.com/78.02.ShibumiStraegy/email

The Zen of Business - 7 Habits of the Highly Creative

Documents

Transcript of The Zen of Business - 7 Habits of the Highly Creative