If you only read one book about creativity, I tell my clients, make it The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

It contains the distilled wisdom of a bestselling novelist and Hollywood screenwriter, who has both the scars and trophies of a life spent wrestling with creative challenges.

This book has been an inspiration to me for years, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak to Steven and record an interview with him for Lateral Action. In the course of an hour, we covered a range of topics relating to creativity, work, entrepreneurship and life in general, including:

• Why is it so hard to pursue our dreams, and get started on the creative challenges that mean so much to us?
• How can we overcome our inner Resistance to doing the things that matter?
• What rewards can we expect from persevering in the face of difficulties?
• What are the creative opportunities — and pitfalls — of social media and digital publishing?

As you’d expect from an accomplished novelist, Steve is a great raconteur; I was spellbound in his company and I think you will be too.

You can listen to the interview with Steven Pressfield over at Lateral Action.

Make sure you check out Steve’s website, StevenPressfield.com, which should be very appealing to Wishful Thinking readers.

Finally, ‘conversations’ plural wasn’t a typo in the title — Steve has very graciously returned the favour by interviewing me about creativity, productivity and entrepreneurship. It’s a slightly surreal experience being interviewed by one of your heroes, but Steve asked me some very stimulating questions that made me think about things from a fresh angle, and I hope you’ll find the interview of interest.

Many thanks to Steve for his generosity and inspiration.

cm 27 Mark McGuiness Interview from Creative Momentum on Vimeo.

I recently recorded this video interview with Philip Patston, an entrepreneur, consultant and comedian from New Zealand.

Philip did a great job of drawing out my thoughts, and we covered a lot of ground in the 30-minute conversation. Here’s Philip’s summary:

we caught up with Mark via Skype and canvassed a vast array of subjects from secret societies, fads, Michelangelo and brands, to Van Gogh, freezers and poetry! And beware – Mark advises against being too unique.

Philip has compiled a rich collection of creativity resources on Creative Momentum, including video interviews with other creative people including Sir Ken Robinson.

Twitter users – you can also connect with Philip on Twitter.

Thanks Philip!

I’ve just been interviewed by author and entrepreneur Rajesh Setty, about my e-book How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself).

Rajesh is a very thoughtful and creative guy who has not only achieved success himself, but works hard to help others achieve their goals. He asked me some great questions about the e-book and my reasons for writing it — as I say in the interview, he made me look at my own motivations afresh!

The interview appears on Rajesh’s blog Life beyond Code, which is a great read for creative and entrepreneurial people — highly recommended!

Regular readers of Wishful Thinking will know that I hold the work of Roger von Oech in high esteem. Roger was one of the original sparks behind the creative revolution in business; his books and card decks, and more recently his blog and Ball of Whacks, have brought inspiration to thousands of people worldwide.

Roger’s classic A Whack on the Side of the Head is always the first book on creative thinking I recommend to clients. So when he e-mailed me a few weeks ago to let me know he had prepared a revised 25th Anniversary Edition of A Whack on the Side of the Head, I couldn’t resist asking him for an interview. Roger kindly agreed – you can read his answers to my questions below.

Regarding the book itself – if you haven’t yet read Whack, this is definitely one you should have on your creative bookshelf. It’s a thoroughly good read – funny, challenging, useful, unsettling and inspiring. If you already own a copy, then you’ll be pleased to know the new edition is still recognisably the same book, with all the old favourites still in place – but with new ideas, techniques and ‘Whacks’ added for good measure. My experience of reading the new edition was an enjoyable combination of familiarity and surprise. I was also delighted to see that I make a cameo appearance in the book – in a footnote on p.115 (I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you what it’s about).

1. A Whack on the Side of the Head is a classic. Why is that?

Roger von Oech: Whack is about the ten “Mental Locks” that prevent most people from being more creative. These locks include such beliefs as: “There’s one right answer,” “To err is wrong,” “Don’t be foolish,” Avoid Ambiguity,” and “That’s not my area.” These ideas make sense for a lot of what we do, but when we’re trying to be creative they can get in the way. Most people have an intuitive understanding of these ideas, and so it’s easy for them to think about them.

Whack has a lot of unusual and off-beat stories and anecdotes. It’s got weird drawings that capture our imagination. Also, Whack is an accessible and interactive book. People seem to like that. There are a number of exercises in it. I think that we improve our ability to be creative by using our creativity, not by being lectured at. Whack is also fun. I guess people respond to all of these things.

2. Why change a classic book?

I’ve always considered Whack to be a living book, that is, one I could update and revise over time. This 25th Anniversary Edition is actually the fourth edition I’ve done since it first came out in 1983. The last previous edition, however, was in 1998, and there were a number of insights, exercises, and stories I wanted to add and I’ve gone ahead and done so. I hope that it reaches a new generation of creative people!

In addition, my last book was Expect the Unexpected, which came out in 2001. This was a true labor of love and dealt with the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus whom I consider to be the “world’s first creativity teacher.” This book was well-reviewed but unfortunately it was published a few days before September 11, 2001 and thus, got lost in the strangeness of the post 9/11 period. (What a cosmic irony considering this book’s title!) As a consequence, I’ve taken some of my favorite Heraclitus insights and incorporated them in the new Whack. I’m very happy with the results.

3. How are you different from twenty-five years ago?


At age 60 (me today), I’d like to believe that I have a little more perspective than I did when I was 35. In the intervening years, I’ve (helped) raise a family, had a successful business, and have had a few more life experiences. I think all of that enters into my tone. But, I’ve tried to keep it fun. For example, I’ve added a “Breaktime” chapter between chapters five and six. This allows the reader to “Pause for A Bit,” which is always a good thing.

4. Whack was one of the catalysts of a creative revolution in business. These days the Creative Economy and Creative Industries are all the rage, and the most admired companies are often those that excel at creativity and innovation. Was this what you had in mind?

I think that the “most admired companies” of just about any age have excelled at creativity and innovation. What’s changed though is that today there’s an expectation that a higher percentage of a company’s employees should be creative than was the case twenty-five or thirty years ago. It’s gone from maybe 3% up to 25%. This is a very good thing.

When I started doing “creativity consulting” in 1977, there were probably only four or five other people I was aware of who were doing it. It was a difficult sell to companies. Now, there are thousands (if not more) creative consultants, and business certainly seems receptive to the idea of innovation. I’d like to think that my seminars, workshops, books, and other products have played a small role in this changing creative landscape.

5. A while ago you wrote a funny post in the voice of your books, who complained that you were neglecting them in favour of blogging. How’s your relationship with your books these days? Did your experience of blogging change the way you approached re-writing Whack?

I have a “love-hate” relationship with blogging and some of the other social media (such as Twitter). I felt that blogging was a big help during the 8 months I was re-doing the new “Whack.” I could test out my ideas by writing posts about them. This helped me think them through. It also allowed me to meet new people from around the world (you, for example!).

On the other hand, social media take time. For example, I have a good blogger friend who is well respected in the design and marketing communities because of his social media involvement. But the downside is that he has read only one novel in the past year.

Perhaps I’m old school, but I believe that “reading paper” – as opposed to “reading screen” – is still a worthwhile activity.

6. In an interview for the launch of the new edition of Whack you say that you’ve ‘come to appreciate more the value and importance of constraints and limits in stimulating the creative process’. What prompted this appreciation?

Probably working with companies with limited budgets – as opposed to those who could just throw lots of money and resources at a problem. I think it’s better to have a policy to “out-think” the competition than to “outspend” them.

I’ve also had this experience with my own entrepreneurial activities. This has been true whether I’ve been producing conferences or creating new products that are manufactured in China. When I have a tight constraint, it forces to think more deeply about the problem and look for alternatives.

7. Can you give me a specific example in one of your products?
The “Creative Whack Pack” card deck is a good one (the same applies to the “Innovative Whack Pack” as well). Each card in the deck contains a creativity strategy, an illustration, a story that exemplifies that strategy, and finally a question for the reader to apply the strategy to a problem.

When I’m writing a book, I can take multiple paragraphs to develop and expound on a particular point. But when I was writing copy for a card’s story, and there was only room for eight or nine lines (that’s the constraint), I had to boil my thoughts down to just the basic points. The constraint forced me cut through the story’s clutter to get to the essentials. As a result, I came to understand the basic idea in a fresh way. Of course, if you cut too much, you lose the point of the story, so you have to be aware of that extreme as well. But I’ve found that adding a constraint makes me think.

8. Whack has been rightly praised as an inspiring book. I also find it quite disturbing – there’s something deeply unsettling about the way it undermines all our assumptions and replaces them with ambiguity and paradox. A bit like meeting the Sphinx. George Willet’s illustrations capture that spirit perfectly – charming, playful and slightly macabre. Do you recognise this disturbing quality in Whack, or is it just me?

I agree with you. The creative process can be incredibly messy. It’s a place where there’s no “one right answer,” and paradox and ambiguity prevail. I think one has to appreciate this when he or she enters into their own creative place. Once you’ve done it, it’s a lot easier to get your bearings.

9. Do you think the challenges facing creative people have changed significantly over the past 25 years, or are they fundamentally the same?

I guess the glib answer would be, “Oh, these are the most challenging of times.” But I think it’s always challenging. Creative people of every era have had to deal with their own personal demons, and also deal with negative people, and constraints of all types (time, money, resources). And no matter who you are, you still have to be able to sell your ideas to other people. So, a lot of stuff hasn’t changed. The main limits are usually in our own heads. And that’s why a “good whack” can be beneficial to your thinking!

10. If you had to reduce the advice in the book to a single ‘Whack’ which one would you pick – and why?

I guess if I had a motto or a mantra, it would be: “Look for the Second Right Answer.” This has been my guiding principle for over thirty years.

I find that looking for the second right answer is an incredibly easy way to open my mind. For example, When I’m looking for information, this mantra tells me to go beyond the right answers that have worked in the past and look for others. When I’m trying to be creative, it playfully advises me to put my ideas in unusual contexts to give them new meanings.

When I’m evaluating concepts, it implores me not to get stuck in the negative, and not to fall in love with one particular approach. And, when I’m implementing ideas, it reminds me that if one idea doesn’t work, a different one just might, and to act accordingly.

Thanks for your interest, and best wishes to your readers.

Thank you Roger!

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If you enjoyed the interview, there’s plenty more inspiration on Roger’s blog and of course in the 25th Anniversary A Whack on the Side of the Head.

UK readers – get your copy here.

Photo by -bast-

Fellow coach Ed Batista has published a three-question interview with me. I always think you can tell good coaches by the questions they ask, and Ed’s questions prompted me to reflect on my work and explain some things I hadn’t consciously thought about before – thanks Ed!

As well as enquiring about my work and use of technology, Ed held me to account by asking how my New Year’s Resolution is going – if you want to find out whether I’ve kept it, you’d better head over to Ed’s blog.

PS – If you were following my Twitter feed you’d have heard about this interview last week, as well as the Jill Bolte-Tayor video and free tickets for Charles Leadbeater’s talk about creativity and the internet. On the other hand, you’d also have heard about me watching football on TV and using the wrong end of my Wacom pen, so I guess it all evens out.

I’m very pleased to share with you this interview I recorded with Tina Brazil, People Director of the digital marketing agency Profero.

In 2006 Profero won a Special Award for Most Innovative Initiative at the Excellence in CPD Awards of the Institute for Practitioners in Advertising. (CPD = Continuous Professional Development.) If you remember my interview with Jill Fear, CPD Manager for the IPA you’ll know that Jill and her colleagues have high standards when it comes to professional development – so Profero have obviously been doing something special to win the award.

When I spoke to Tina, Profero had also just won a coveted Gold Cyber Lions Award at Cannes, for its Mini – Follow the White Rabbit campaign – the only UK agency to win Gold at Cannes this year.

In the interview, Tina spoke about why people development is so important to Profero and how they inspire ‘boundless creativity’ in everyone at the agency – not just the creative department.

Profero’s award-winning CPD initiative included the following elements:

• An ‘inspirational speaker’ series including Lord Puttnam, Greg Dyke, Neil Christie of wieden + kennedy
• A ‘lunchtime speakers’ series on practical industry topics
• Boundless creativity projects set for cross-disciplinary teams
• People skills training from Dawn Sillett
• A training intranet to act as an agency blog and raise awareness of available training options

For more details of the programme, you can download the Profero case study from the IPA website.

Profero

Profero is Europe and Asia’s leading independent full service digital marketing agency. Since it was founded in 1998 it has delivered over 5,000 effective and innovative campaigns for clients, more than any other agency of its kind. Profero specialises in advertising, web development, media buying and relationship marketing solutions. Its client base includes Mini, Astrazeneca, Western Union, Johnson and Johnson, Central Office of Information, Channel 4, Expedia.Over 200 imaginative people work as one team out of London, Hong Kong, Paris, Munich, Milan, Madrid, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney engaging clients with the world of digital communications by demonstrating its creative, connective and brand building capabilities.

Tina Brazil – People Director

Tina Brazil is responsible for ensuring Profero’s award winning people practices retain its talented team and attract untapped talent to the agency. This forms many guises from training and development, benefits, and maintaining Profero’s all-important culture by making sure people have fun along the way.

Tina started her career as a PA in Publishing before realising that she’d like to do her job in a more creative environment. After joining Redcell as a PA Tina moved to Profero as an Office Manager where evidence of the development culture can be seen with her appointment to the operational board as People Director.

Tina’s moto is: ‘It’s not what you do it’s the way that you do it!’

Click the icon below to listen to the interview.

Chris Ritke of 49Sparks has just posted an interview with me we recorded last week. We talked about Wishful Thinking, coaching, people and creativity – including the use of online tools to facilitate co-creation.

Chris is developing some very interesting tools for project collaboration at 49Sparks – you can sign up for free to check them out – and has a great series of audio and video podcasts. I originally noticed Chris’s site when he posted an interview with Neil Tortorella of Business of Design Online (where I’m a guest author).

As well as project tools 49Sparks offers social networking for creative professionals – Chris explains it better than I can, have a look at this video to see what it’s all about.

Last week I travelled to Brighton to talk to David Amor, Creative Director at computer games developer Relentless Software, for the latest interview for my research on Perceptions of Coaching in the UK Creative Industries.

In an industry where, according to Gamesindustry.biz, “insane crunch times and endless overtime hours … are considered to be a standard part of working in the development sector”, David and his business partner Andrew Eades are remarkable for having had “the crazy idea of a development studio that works 9 to 5 with no overtime”. Not only that, they strictly limit internet and e-mail access during working hours, and recreational games are banned from the office. Their approach has elicited protests about such ‘draconian’ measures, mixed with incredulity when they explain that in 3 years of production they have never missed a deadline or asked their staff to work evenings or weekends.

David and Andrew founded Relentless Software in 2003 to make Social Games on traditional games consoles such as PlayStation2. Their first product, DJ: Decks & FX, was published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) in September 2004 to critical acclaim and was subsequently nominated for a BAFTA. DJ: Decks & FX is a music-mixing product that gives users a virtual DJ rig and a set of over 100 genuine dance tracks to play. It allows the user to perform live at parties as well as record their perfect mix for later sharing and playback.

In 2004 and 2005, Relentless worked on SCEE’s London Studios titles, EyeToy: Groove, EyeToy: Kinetic and SingStar. PopworldEyeToy and SingStar are SCEE’s internally developed social games that have collectively sold tens of millions of units. SCEE are world-leaders in developing and publishing this genre of products and Relentless is pleased to work closely with SCEE in this increasingly important market segment.

In October 2005, Relentless Software and SCEE released Buzz!: The Music Quiz, a music based quiz game set in a TV studio that includes four bespoke buzzer peripherals. Buzz!: The Big Quiz was released in March 2006 and Relentless continue to develop new Buzz! games for PlayStation platforms including Buzz!: The Schools Quiz and Buzz! The Mega Quiz. The Buzz! franchise has sold 4M units in its first year and continues to be an important brand in the Sony catalogue.

Relentless was honoured with Best New Intellectual Property and Best Innovation in conjunction with SCEE at the 2006 Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Later in 2006 it went on to win a BAFTA for Best Social Game. Relentless was also named 3rd highest UK independent game developer in the recently published Develop 100 which lists the top 100 developers by revenue generated in the UK. At a global ranking of 43 with a single Buzz! product, above Microsoft and Sega, this demonstrates the potential of social games and the ability of Relentless to achieve success in this area.

Relentless continues to make games that everybody can play and has developed considerable expertise in the new Social Games genre that allows people to enjoy video games without having the gamer expertise required by other products.

Talking to David, I was struck by his emphasis on the hard business value of ensuring his staff have a good balance of focused work and time away from the office. In his view this is not just a case of being ‘nice’ to people, but of providing the optimum conditions for efficient work and reducing some of the uncertainty inherent in creative production.

Relentless are currently hiring – e-mail David if you think his approach to making games could be for you.

Click the ‘AUDIO MP3′ icon below to hear the interview.

I’m very pleased that Mark Earls is the next interviewee in this series on Perceptions of Coaching in the UK Creative Industries, as his book Welcome to the Creative Age was one of the inspirations behind the project – particularly his concept of the “accelerator manager”, whose job is to “help my people get a better job next time”.

Mark Earls is one of the leading thinkers about brands, marketing and consumer behaviour. He has been described variously as “one of the Advertising scene’s foremost contrarians” and “the Christopher Hitchens of advertising and marketing”. But mostly he just refuses to accept received wisdom and is determined to make us all think a bit harder to get better results.

Mark has been an account planner for most of his working life. He has held senior positions in some of the largest and most influential communications companies in the world – his last job was as chair of Ogilvy’s Global Planning Council, prior to which he was Planning Director at the revolutionary St. Luke’s Communications. He was Vice Chair of the The Account Planning Group and has judged a number of awards competitions in the UK and abroad for communications and marketing effectiveness and innovation and even collaboration between arts and business.

His written work has regularly won awards from his peers and is considered by many to be amongst the most influential being written today. His first book, Welcome to the Creative Age, was widely read and discussed and has been translated into several languages. Dominic Mills of Campaign Magazine called it, “the book that Naomi Klein should have written”.

His latest book, Herd: how to change mass behaviour by harnessing our true nature challenges our Western received wisdom about mass behaviour and develops an alternative model rooted in our ‘Herd’ nature and has already received strong endorsement from other leading practitioners and theorists both in the US and the UK. The story continues on Mark’s blog, a welcome recent addition to the conversation.

Mark is in much demand as conference speaker around the world – in recent years he has spoken in the UK, USA, Argentina, France, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Spain. He lives in North London and is currently preparing his next book and doing the odd bit of consulting for interesting companies and people.

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The video is of “the greatest try ever scored”, by the Barbarians v the All Blacks in 1973. Mark refers to it in the interview as an example of both good coaching and the limits of the coach’s influence, pacing on the touchline while the players are out on the pitch.

Mark’s interview is a great way to draw the research project to a close for 2006. Early in 2007 I’ll publish the research report here as a free download. Many thanks to Mark and all my other interviewees for being so generous with their time and expertise.

Click the ‘AUDIO MP3′ icon below to hear the interview.

This interview for my research into Perceptions of Coaching in the UK Creative Industries was with Matt Taylor, Director and Producer at Fat Beehive and Fat Beehive Films.

Fat Beehive is a small web developer based in the heart of London’s New Media cluster around Hoxton Square. Established in 1997, it has built up a strong reputation for creating accessible and engaging websites for charity, NGO, Faitrade and sustainability organisations. Its client list includes The Sustainable Development Commission, Crisis, GamCare, Global Witness, Compass Network, People Tree and Union Chapel.

Matt is one of the founding directors of Fat Beehive – there are now seven members of theteam including fellow director Tom Moreton. They have recently launched Fat Beehive Films, taking advantage of their film-making skills and the growth of the corporate film marketing, driven by the expanding broadband network. As well as the actual filming and editing, Fat Beehive Films offer video hosting and live webcasting services. You can see a selection of their films on their website.

I spoke to Matt in the relaxed surroundings of a cafe on Hoxton Square, where he described the importance of social skills and peer learning in a small new media agency. He also offered some amusing observations about the way management terms such as ‘coaching’ are regarded in the Fat Beehive office!

Click the ‘AUDIO MP3′ icon below to hear the interview.