Donald Miller's Blog, page 128

Do You Work in an Environment that Fosters Creativity?

"One of the things I love about this place is the ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) methodology. We try to create an atmosphere here where creative people are free to share their opinions about things. If somebody has an idea about a shot, they say it. And when people are honest about what they think, the work is better." -John Knoll, Visual Effects Supervisor, ILM

I heard this quote recently while watching a documentary about Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects company that pioneered CGI and other technologies that work together to create movies such as Star Wars and Avatar and hundreds of movies in between. ILM spun off Pixar, another creatively free environment that gives their storytellers years to create their narratives.

The quote struck me, though, because of what John Knoll said about ILM is true for any creative environment. One of the reasons a community can fail to be creative is if thought is over policed.

Here are some things to remember:

1. Many pioneering creators who's work have lasted centuries, including Michelangelo himself, were often enemies of established communities. For Michelangelo it was both the church and the state, though both loved and hated him, to be honest, depending on who was Pope. Their critics are not remembered, but their work remains, and thousands are invited to worship when engaging their work.

2. Criticism will not stop your success, but enhance it. Have you ever noticed that when a bully pastor criticizes a book or movie it only increases in success? Paul Young and Francis Chan have both caught heat, recently, from bully fundamentalists, and both are selling millions of books. Pretty soon, authors are going to start sending their books to these pastors begging them to take a stand against their work.

3. If you are in a position of leadership within a community, strongly express to your staff that it is okay to be wrong, that they won't be attacked. The freedom to mess up a few times is the only way a creator will figure out how to do something great. Creative environments are not governed by egomaniacs or control freaks, they are governed by leaders who love the work more than themselves.

If you find yourself in an environment where you fear expressing your opinion, then as a creator you should consider leaving. I'm not saying you should leave, but you should certainly consider finding a place where your gifts can be used in an ego-free environment where creativity and expression of thought can flourish. There really is a community where you can be yourself, you just have to do the work to find it. If in the next community you aren't appreciated either, then move again, and if it happens again, it's probably time to ask yourself if you're just an annoying person. Sorry, it had to be said.

Go and create!

Do You Work in an Environment that Fosters Creativity? is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Sunday Morning Music, Roger Bobo

So when I was a kid I played the Tuba. Our high school band was renowned throughout the state of Texas as one of the best. We were forced to practice for hours. I played the Tuba and took lessons from a local classical tubist. We really got into it. Our hero was a guy named Roger Bobo, the greatest living tuba player alive, and the only tuba player to ever solo on late-night television. I've also included a little master-class lesson from Mr. Bobo. Enjoy Roger Bobo:

Sunday Morning Music, Roger Bobo is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

How Wise is Honesty

I traveled recently with Derek Webb, who I greatly admire. We spent about a week on a bus in a traveling circus with Robbie Seay, who was shot out of a canon, and myself, who juggled plates, and Derek who put a knife through an apple sitting atop his wife Sandra's head. It was a great week. Nobody was hurt.

Anyway, I found it interesting how Derek lives his life regarding communication. Derek is a humble, honest, non-showy kind of person. He is who he is and there is no pretense. He is brutally honest with his fans on twitter and in his music. That said, he ticks a lot of people off. He shares how he is feeling and if he changes his mind he says that he changed his mind and has no problem with the change. If it's raw honesty you are looking for, follow Derek.

Another friend I greatly admire is Max Lucado. If you are wondering if Max really is as genuine as he seems, then I'll tell you he is. He's my hero, in many ways. Max' philosophy about blogs and twitter and for that matter, his own tongue, is not not to say anything that would interfere with somebody interacting with God. Max is very careful. That said, he's no politician. I've seen Max take some uncomfortable stands and I would imagine he's received some flack for it, but still, he's much more careful with what he communicates, and I'd imagine he's careful with what he allows himself to think.

I find myself somewhere in the middle. I hold my tongue a great deal, but not always. If somebody offends me, I tell them, where as Max would probably turn the other cheek. If somebody offends Derek, he just retweets their criticism for the world to see, and allows people to police themselves.

Now I have to tell you I don't believe either of these approaches are right or wrong. In fact, both seem very genuine to both Derek and Max. Neither comes off as fake in the slightest bit. In fact, knowing both them, they strike me as guys who would be fast friends. So this isn't about them.

What I'm wondering is how honest do you want people to be? If your pastor is steaming mad one night, venting to his wife about what some jerk at the church said, do you want him to tweet about it? Do you want to know? And if you don't, is it because that wouldn't be wise, or because you want to think your pastor is somebody he isn't?

Thoughts on the wisdom of honesty?

How Wise is Honesty is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Want to be Productive? Turn off Your Phone

I've said it before but it bares repeating…If you want to get some quality work done, turn off your phone. Of course, this may not apply to some of you. If you work at a call bank, obviously, or if your job requires you are able to be contacted, then you have to keep it on. But if you do creative work, or if you are able to go two to three hours without a phone, I think you'll find the time remarkably productive.

Here's how I structure my phone-free time:

1. I wake up early. I'm usually awake by 5 or 6AM. I respond to e-mails and text messages using my phone. I check the news on my phone too. Then, even before people can respond, I shut the phone off. This marks the beginning of my phone-free hours. Because the hours are so early, few people are trying to reach me anyway. Most people, even on the east coast, don't start calling till 8AM or even 9AM, after which I've already gotten a couple hours work done.

2. I am very intentional about the phone-free hours. I go for a walk to start the morning, letting the dog do her business. Then I come back, sit at the desk, and enjoy a few hours knowing it isn't possible to be interrupted. It's amazing how much mental clarity is freed up when you are not able to be contacted at all. There's no question I'll get more done in the next two hours than I will for the rest of the day. Try it and you will see. I think this is so true that if I had a company, I'd make everybody turn off their phones for the first two hours of the day. My guess is productivity would go through the roof.

3. When my brain is done writing, usually when I've got a thousand words or more into the computer, a couple blogs written and I'm getting sloppy, I turn my phone back on. I normally have a couple text messages and a few e-mails and rarely a voicemail. When your phone is off, people tend to find a solution that is smarter than you could have come up with.

4. I respond to everything immediately. People have been waiting, so I get it all done at once. This work is normally completed in about ten minutes. No kidding. An entire morning of interruptions that would have derailed my work is taken care of in minutes. I've never had anybody dissatisfied with having to wait a couple hours for a clear, focussed response.

5. I leave my phone on for the rest of the day, handling calls and text messages as they come in. The rest of the day I deal with side work, stuff like getting a package out, a letter written, a meeting with a lawyer or something like this.

Since I've adopted the phone off morning, I've noticed I am less stressed throughout the day. In fact, if my morning gets derailed by an interruption, I can't help but think I didn't get enough written that morning, and well into the evening, when I am with friends, I am still thinking about how much I have to catch up on the next day. But now, I am not thinking about work at all. If the writing is done, and if I gave it a focussed few hours, I am a much better friend, and I'd even say a better person in general.

To Follow or Unfollow?

I've been using twitter for about three years now, and as I said yesterday, I'm enjoying it. I use it primarily to keep tabs on my friends, on bands that I like, on a bit of news (though that hasn't proven very beneficial) and a sports team or two. You can see who I follow over at @donmilleris.

That said, there are a few people I've followed and then stop following. Everybody has different preferences…here are mine:

1. If people tweet more than two or three times a day, every day, I usually unfollow  them after a while. It's nothing personal. And if you're trying to gain twitter followers, I hear you should tweet more, not less, but there's rarely two or three things worth tweeting about a day in my book. Do I want to know what you ate for dinner? Actually, I do. I mean I want to know what my friends are up to, about twice a day!

2. I stop following people who try to be funny. It's so, so painful to read a bad joke.

3. I stop following people who use too many cheesy religious quotes. Sorry. I know that makes me a bad person, but I do.

4. I block people who are disrespectful. I don't do this out of principle, or even to be vindictive, I just block them because, well, I don't want to read insults.

5. I drop people who disrespect others. Got a blanket statement about how a politician is an idiot? I'll probably drop you, mostly because it's likely that he or she finished Westpoint first in their class and chances are they aren't an idiot, even if they don't see the world the way we may see the world.

6. I've plenty of friends who sign up for twitter and then don't use it. I respect that. But I do unfollow them, eventually, simply because it keeps things clean as I'm scrolling through the old tweet deck.

What are your guidelines for who you follow and don't follow?

Handling Digital Clutter

A couple years ago I killed my Facebook account and haven't looked back. I've greatly enjoyed having one less web page to check. These days I check comments on the blog, twitter feedback and my e-mail. That's about it. This frees up space to work on other writing that isn't instant but takes a year or more, and that's the world I enjoy most.

I learned a good lesson spring cleaning my house years ago, and I've continued to apply it. Whenever I go through the house on a deep clean mission, I place anything I haven't used in a year in a pile on my bed. Clothes, shoes, electronics, cooking utensils, anything. The first time I did this, I had a valuable pile of perfectly good stuff on my bed. It was hard to do what came next: I gave them all to Goodwill. Yes, I could have sold the stuff in a garage sale, but honestly, the work days lost hosting a garage sale would have cost me, and a few other charities, more than the garage sale would have made. I got rid of all the stuff. I remember holding separate pieces wondering how I was going to live without them, then realizing I'd not used it in a year, I took them away.

Here's what I found: I didn't miss anything I gave to Goodwill. Nothing. And my closets were leaner, my space were more organized, and my desk was sparse, save work. My life felt better. As I type, I can't remember a single thing I threw out.

That said, I used Facebook a lot more than once a month, but the question I ask myself with digital communication is different: Did I or anybody else benefit from this the past year? That's a harder question to answer. Did anybody benefit from seeing my pictures from that retreat? Maybe. Did I benefit from knowing it was so and so's birthday, or that so and so was in a relationship? Maybe, but probably not, to be honest. I'd rather find out that so and so was in a relationship when they came through town, stayed in the guest room and we caught up while listening to whatever music we discovered. So I decided Facebook should go.

Twitter, I'll keep. It's a great way to keep in touch with people. It keeps us all on the short and genuine. It also takes almost no time away from my work or your work. Comments on the blog, I'm debating. I may take a couple months and disable them to see how it goes. There's a small community that have found each other through the blog, and I'd not want to see that go, but at the same time, when you are moderating hundreds of questions, it becomes a full time job, and that takes away from the quality of whatever book I'm working on. And for that matter, it takes away from whatever you are working on too.

My question, as a creator, are you benefiting from all the digital media? Are you scared to let it go because you'll be out of touch? In my opinion, you will gain more creative time by throwing it out than you'll gain by knowing that your friend Mike is dating some girl he met at Sea World.

Lead by Being Yourself

I'm not much of an outline guy when it comes to writing. And I don't ask who my readership is going to be. I write what I think is interesting and hope there are other people out there wired the same way I'm wired. It's a lesson I learned from William Zinnser, and I wonder if we can apply it to more than just writing. We can apply it to business, if you will, and even leadership. When we are ourselves, we tend to find the people who understand us and there is a natural chemistry and so productivity. When we read a business book and try to become what the writer says we should become, we lose something in the translation. That's not to say we shouldn't read business books, but that those books should shape who we are organically, and we should continue to be ourselves leading from authenticity.

Sunday Morning Music, Devotchka

If you liked the movie Little Miss Sunshine, you may have discovered the band Devotchka. Not sure if Michael Arndt, who wrote the brilliant little movie intended for the soundtrack to sound Greek or Slavic or Romani, but alas the music worked. And lots of us got to discover a new favorite. Enjoy Devotchka:

Welcome to Portlandia

It's Saturday so I'll plug something. Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein have a show launching January 21st on IFC about life in Portland. The trailers have gone viral so you've seen them, but I wanted to remind you it starts next week, at 10:30PM. Ill be setting my DVR because unlike my fellow Portlanders I get up before noon and therefore go to bed early. Two things happen in Portland: Hipsters act stupid and people make fun of hipsters. So that's what the show is about. But it looks like it's also about consumers posing as creators, which is also funny. Here's an official blurb from IFC:

Are Evangelicals Getting Dumber?

Forgive me for being judgmental, because I am about to be judgmental.

This past Christmas season, I visited a church in Houston. It was a large, mega-church on the outside of town. I liked the service very much. The music was simply incredible, and the people were very friendly. I have family friends who attend the church, so I was excited to go. It was a Christmas Eve service.

When the pastor and his wife came up to deliver the sermon, they were amiable people, attractive, intelligent, very good communicators. They sat at a table and just kind of talked about the Christmas story from the Bible. What struck me as they talked, however, was that they were speaking to the audience, literally thousands of people (the church sat thousands and had several Christmas Eve services to deal with the traffic) like they were a group of nine-year olds. That sounds like a judgmental comment, but I don't mean it to be. I am trying to be accurate. As they spoke to the congregation, I tried to decipher how old a person would need to be to understand what they were saying, and the age I came up with was nine. One of the points was that the wise men were seekers, and we need to be seekers. And another was that they followed a star, and God always provides a star, maybe the star is the person who brought you to church tonight? Then the pastor asked the congregation to circle a word in their notes, not unlike an elementary school teacher might ask his or her class to do the same in a vocabulary study.

I should say I don't fault the pastor or his wife. They were terrific, and they were speaking to an audience that understood what they were saying (the idea we are each given a star I found absurd, and completely unbiblical and a radical misrepresentation of a historical text, but that's beside the point) and were touched and moved by the presentation.

My question in leaving the service, however, was whether or not Evangelicals are having to dumb down their messages for an American audience. Fill in the blank notes? Circle the word on the page? There's a star out there for you somewhere?

To say evangelicals are dumb is to say too much. It's hard to imagine a greater academic culture than evangelicals enjoy. We literally have thousands of schools and even more annoyingly combative scholars, always at each others throats over whether the anti-christ rise on a thursday.

So here is what I surmised: American culture has become a consumer culture, and a large demographic within the culture simply does exactly what they are told, as long as what they are told promises a pay off of some sort. They do not ask questions. They trust you if you seem trustworthy. Many evangelical leaders, then, simply become info-mercial-type salesman, selling their understanding of the truth to this large demographic. Most of them are extremely well intentioned, and do remarkable ministry around the world for the poor. It's just a sign of the times.

Thoughts?