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Creative pause

Hoy todo mundo habla de “Engagement”. Pero este arículo habla da importancia de su contraparte: el siempre sano “Disengagement”. Chéquenlo creativos…

Interruption-free space is sacred. Yet, in the digital era we live in, we are losing hold of the few sacred spaces that remain untouched by email, the internet, people, and other forms of distraction. Our cars now have mobile phone integration and a thousand satellite radio stations. When walking from one place to another, we have our devices streaming data from dozens of sources. Even at our bedside, we now have our iPads with heaps of digital apps and the world’s information at our fingertips. There has been much discussion about the value of the “creative pause” – a state described as “the shift from being fully engaged in a creative activity to being passively engaged, or the shift to being disengaged altogether.” This phenomenon is the seed of the break-through “a-ha!” moments that people so frequently report having in the shower. In these moments, you are completely isolated, and your mind is able to wander and churn big questions without interruption.

However, despite the incredible power and potential of sacred spaces, they are quickly becoming extinct. We are depriving ourselves of every opportunity for disconnection. And our imaginations suffer the consequences…

http://bit.ly/y5lLL4

Creative pause

Crea.Da.Toma.Circula

“How can I get more website visitors?" This is one of the most common questions I hear from clients, frustrated at the lack of business their website brings them…

Often, there isn’t much wrong with the site iteslf – it’s professionally designed, and the portfolio is full of gorgeous work. But it just sits there, in an obscure corner of the Internet, being quietly ignored.

Taking a website from zero to a few hundred or even a few thousand visitors a month is not easy, but it’s eminently doable – as long as you recognize a harsh truth about the Internet:

The online world is an attention economy. Attention is finite, and therefore scarce. So if you want people to pay attention to you, you need to earn it.

You can’t expect your work to speak for itself. Most of the time, it won’t. You need to accept that marketing is part of your job, just as much as making.

But the game changes when you start applying your creativity to your marketing – it becomes more fun as well as more effective. Here are four ways to use your creativity to attract the right kind of visitors to your website…

http://bit.ly/pjQgWv

Crea.Da.Toma.Circula

Can’t buy creativity

Cómo tener feliz a un creativo con su trabajo (y hacer que él te tenga feliz a tí)… Las empresas generalmente se enfocan más en las motivaciones extrínsecas. Pero la clave, según este artículo, parece encontrarse más en las intrínsecas…

Why You Can’t Buy Creativity

From a conventional management perspective, it probably sounds like common sense. But to anyone who understands the nature of creativity and what motivates creative people, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Rewarding people for hard work is a great thing to do, but it’s no guarantee of loyalty – and certainly no guarantee of creativity. And using rewards as an incentive – or even a threat – has been proven not to work when it comes to complex, challenging, creative work.

There is a large body of research evidence – from the work of Harvard Business Professor Theresa Amabile and others – that relying on extrinsic motivations (a.k.a. rewards and punishments) has a negative impact on creativity. While it may seem obvious that the stick has a negative impact on creativity, it’s counterintuitive that the carrot has the same effect.

But when you’re focused on a reward, you’re not focused on the work itself. And as any creative will tell you, doing outstanding creative work – whether solving a technical problem or creating a work of art – requires 100% focus on the task in hand, to the point of obsession. You have to love what you do.

Of course companies need to pay people well. If they don’t, compensation becomes a bone of contention, and a distraction from their work. But if you really want outstanding creative performance, you need people to focus on intrinsic motivations – factors inherent in the work itself. Things like challenge, interest, learning, meaning, freedom, and creative flow. They are what really motivates creative people – and the research demonstrates a strong link between levels of intrinsic motivation and creativity…

http://t.co/DVdGcZA

Can’t buy creativity