WEBVTT - How Art World Improvisation Can Work in the C-Suite 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.600 You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:08.039 Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, there's 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:10.719 a new book out. It's by the art advisor Maria Brito. 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.280 It tells executives to emulate jazz musicians and painters to 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:18.520 respond to constant change and uncertainty. Maria Brito joins us 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:20.759 now she's the art an art advisor, a curator, and 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:24.320 an author, including the new book How Creativity Rules the World, 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.080 The Art and Business of Turning your Ideas into Gold. 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.520 She joins us to be a zoom from New York City. Maria, 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.919 how are you hi? Thank you so much for having me. 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.200 I'm well, with a beautiful day out in New York City. 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:39.559 How can I not be happy? It is a beautiful 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.599 day today. Word on the street is Katie Grafeld even 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.160 went for a run outside this morning because it's so nice. 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:47.680 I did, even though the sun rose a lot later 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.479 than I'm used to. That's that's you can talk to 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:56.160 Senator Rubio about that, Okay, I'll take ye. Well, Maria, 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.240 I I was really eager and I am eager to 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.240 speak to you. I think in the business world and 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.080 I think you know, we often hear about the idea 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:06.560 of poets versus quantz and the artists versus the numbers people. Um, 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:11.760 where do executives look to when it comes to making 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:14.399 quick decisions and when why do you argue that artists 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.640 are the right place to look. Well, in the times 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:21.360 that we have been living and experiencing, particularly in the 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:28.280 past years, we have had to experiment, pivot, and improvise. 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.840 So I think that it is important for executives to 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:37.920 look at strategies around creativity. Is the way artists do it, 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.840 because there is one thing about artists that we can 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.560 all learn from, which is how nimble their operations are, 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.400 how quickly they are to react, and how unafraid they 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:55.480 are too post questions, look for answers in unusual places, 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.160 which is something that a lot of people do not 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.600 necessarily do. And if you happen to be doing the 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:05.680 same thing that you have been doing trying to obtain 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:10.400 different results, you know that the the definition of insanity, right, 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.760 And I think that a lot of people do not 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:17.640 necessarily look for the right places to either find a 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:22.280 new solution or to see their problems from different angles. 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.080 And so a lot of the things that I write 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:29.880 in this book have to do with how to improve 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.840 your creative thinking, how to really become an innovator instead 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.000 of following the hurt and doing what everybody else is doing. 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.360 You know, it's a very difficult thing to innovate in 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.560 an industry if you are following the mainstream or what 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.639 everybody is doing, and you're never going to find the 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.560 answers that you're looking for if you're just reading a 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:53.800 trade magazine. And that's the truth. And so this book 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:58.320 encourages people to look at their problems in business, their 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.959 problems in their companies, in their markets, from a very 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.440 different perspective. And I think that's the value of this 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.720 is if you keep looking at everything the same way 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.760 you've done before, it's it's not necessarily going to be 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.880 a place of progress imory. You have data on your 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:17.799 side here in the book, I mean you look at 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:24.200 several studies, right. Yes, absolutely is very heavy on data, 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.440 because I went after every study that I could look 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:33.400 at and every publication, peer reviewed, everything that I could 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.360 actually get my hands around that confirmed many of my 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:41.320 different points here. For example, the data that has been 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.080 shared on LinkedIn for the past three years shows that 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:49.760 eight hundred and eighty million professionals are talking about creativity 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.360 as the number one skill that they are looking for 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:56.240 to have in their businesses, and actually it is the 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.760 hardest to get and that this scriptancy is actually frightening 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.840 if you think about it, because be creative and innovative 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.520 is nothing that is out of the range of ordinary people. 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.680 It's just that requires a lot of skills that you 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.720 have to hone on a daily basis. Okay, Maria, we 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.280 only have a minute with you for now. Then we're 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:17.960 gonna come back. We're gonna do some more with you. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.560 But what would you say to somebody whose immediate reaction 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.440 is you know, I'm I'm not a creative person. I'm 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.279 somebody who doesn't think that way. How can they be 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.279 trained to be a creative person? Well, the problem is 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.279 that creativity is not just for artists. There every every 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.560 new solution that you come up with that is build 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.080 on the heels of what has already been done and 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.919 that serves a purpose and is relevant for today, is 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.680 that creative solution. Everybody is creative. In fact, there have 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.640 been so many studies that prove that. But we just 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.320 put this barriers and what I suggest people to begin 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.440 with is to to start experimenting and asking questions that 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:02.600 they have not asked before on the boardroom, on day 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.320 to day operations. This are the type of things that 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.880 actually bring the best results. And that's what I want 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:10.760 to get into. And we actually we can keep going 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.720 with you for a few more minutes breaking down those barriers. 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.520 I don't know, I just feel like, uh, you know, 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.279 there would be some resistance to that, So talk to 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.480 us a little more about, you know, how people can 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.960 break down those barriers. Barriers and you know, recognize that 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.840 I am creative. Actually, one of the studies that I 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.599 quote in my in my book is one that was 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:39.039 conducted by professors from London School of Economics and they 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.520 were hired by a variety of different tech companies and 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.919 one of them was lagging behind the competitors. And what 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:50.240 they discovered was that there was an emotional safety in 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.560 that company, so nobody could really speak up about issues, problems, 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.119 the ideas that they had, the things that they thought 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.400 could be blemented. And so if you're a manator and 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.560 you're listening to this, just think about that for a second. 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.280 How can you actually allow your people to speak up 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.960 and to express the realities of what they are going 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.159 through or seeing at work. And when you actually kill 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.760 the original phase of creativity, which is having the sessions 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.360 where people say whatever they are thinking about to figure 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.680 out what are the ideas that they are going to 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.280 end up taking. If you annihilate the first part, which 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.279 is the freedom of expression, you killed the whole entire 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:37.840 process of creativity. So I really encourage managers to allow 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.400 this freedom of expression, no matter the industry, no matter 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.160 where you are, if you really want to see enormous 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.719 benefits around the ideas that you bring to the table. 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.000 When I was in graduate school about five years ago, 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.640 ish UM in orientation. We did this is business school. 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.560 We did orientation, We did UM actual improv training. Those 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:05.120 are very expensive improv classes. I'm just gonna say that 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.400 is a really good point, Katie. Uh, yeah, that is 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:10.280 a good point. I didn't think of it like that, 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.440 but that you know, the whole orientation process is like 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.320 a conversation for a different time because it's totally wild 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.160 and I think it's a little infantilizing, but I think 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.560 they do that on purpose. Anyway. I want to talk 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:25.400 about UM the improv portion of it because I always 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.160 thought about it from the perspective of kind of an 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:31.120 icebreaker and getting to know people you know who you've 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:32.760 never met before that you're going to be spending two 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.760 years with. But you argue that this this yes and 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.760 language that you use with improv is is really one 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:43.520 that business executives away that they should be thinking absolutely, 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.120 And it is because the yes and technique, which was 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.440 actually borrowed from Delle coach the Dell Clothes who was 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.200 an acting coach. It's because it allows the conversation to 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.280 keep going. And so when somebody asks you, can you 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:02.480 do this incredibly difficult thing for tomorrow, you say yes, 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.120 and let's review this cope of that to see if 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.840 it's possible. And so the important thing about yes and 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.160 and expanding it to other areas of your business is 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:16.400 that it puts managers in a place of possibility, in 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.680 a place where you can actually think about that there 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:22.840 is a chance that there is something you haven't considered, 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.200 that you can actually continue that conversation in a different 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.000 place and perspective that you didn't not that you didn't 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.360 consider before. And this is something that a lot of 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.599 people are so ingrained with their ideas. A lot of 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.280 people sometimes are so fixated with just one answer that 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.439 they miss a lot of what's happening in the periphery, 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.559 a lot of what's happening that could actually bring an 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.600 innovative solution to a problem. Right, And we have had 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:58.080 to really think so fast and react so fast in 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.440 you know, all is But in the past two years 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.280 it's been accelerated. So what would it be if you 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.720 throw this technique in your repertoire and instead of saying no, 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:14.400 instead of like dismissing ideas from your employees or your clients, 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.120 you actually go with yes. And and we're gonna talk 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.480 to us about how you've used that in your own 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.320 professional life. Because what's interesting about your book is you 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.000 have a lot of you know, personal anecdotes in there. Well, 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:28.959 you know, I get a lot of clients who come 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.439 to me with incredibly difficult requests like can I get 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.800 this piece of art? And that I know is something 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.280 really really hard to get or almost impossible. Right, So 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:43.080 I when those things come to me, I always say yes, 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.079 and let me see what can I get out of that? Right, 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.920 Because first of all, every client likes to hear yes, 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.760 no matter who the client is and what industry we're 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:58.080 talking about. So that allows me for a moment to 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.720 actually figure out if I have an hour a day 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:05.280 to to find if I can't actually feel the request 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.320 for my clients, and at the same time I have 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.000 made my clients happy. So in my book, I talk 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.800 about how a very important clad of mine who lived 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:17.040 in London at the time, asked me to get her 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:21.640 a Banksie for her husband's birthday. And I, first of all, 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:25.400 that's a great birthday present. If anyone needs any ideas 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:31.160 for me, right well? And so I you know, Banksy 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:35.320 is anonymous, and it's it's a very is a prankister. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.640 It's a provocateur for people who do not know who 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.920 he is. You know, it's like a guy who has 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.120 lived on this anonymity and he has thrived in that position. 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:48.880 So I said, oh my god, how am I going 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.760 to make her happy? She's very important to me. And 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.719 so I said, yes, of course, and let me get 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:58.520 back to you soon and about that, and I just 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.160 closed my eyes and went with my intuition for like 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.200 ten seconds. And I remember a street artist from Brooklyn, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.280 and I send this personal message and I said, do 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:09.640 you happen to know Banksy and you know, because I 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.880 was like, those banksy even exists, that's a that's a 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.240 fair question. I have that question, right. And so this 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:17.240 person go back to me and say, why what do 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.440 you need? And so I explained the situation. I said, 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.640 the client is very important and she's looking for this, 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.840 and the artists in Brooklyn said give me a second. 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.000 So it was all about everybody was sort of like 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.319 doing yes. And at the same time, if you think 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.880 about this, it was a chain chain of events where 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.080 everybody was like yes. And so in about an hour, 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:38.480 I got an email from the artist introducing me to 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:44.640 uh Banks's manager in London, in East London, a very 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:49.439 fun woman in East London. And after that things sort 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.960 of happened. But if I would have told my client 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.240 from the get go, are you crazy? That's impossible. Nobody 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.200 can never get a banks this technique right, and so 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:03.520 I I encourage people to do it. Maria, I'm wondering, 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.800 after researching this book, you're digging through the data, you're 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.080 going through historical examples, you're using your own anecdotes, your 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:14.160 own expertise. What's one way that you've really changed your 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:18.600 life based on this research. I think spending time alone 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:22.560 and in silence is a very important thing that people underestimate. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:27.199 And I also bring examples that are so crucial for 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:32.160 you meantime alone, away from your phone, away from Twitter, meditating. 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:33.880 How do you how do you mean? Well, you know, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.080 the word meditating has such many different connotations. A lot 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.640 of people like it, a lot of people don't. I yes, 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.640 I like the idea of meditating. But if that sounds 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:48.520 too heavy for people, you know, I would appreciate if 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.520 you can look at it as more like ten minutes 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.959 to think, ten minutes to close your eyes and think, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.640 no music, no noise. And it's not just go for 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.000 a walk, because a lot of people are like bargaining 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:03.960 that with me sometimes, like, well, what if I go 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.480 out for a walk? No, because when you're walking you 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:08.800 have to pay attention to where your stepping so you 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:10.560 don't fall. And if you're in a city like New 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:13.840 York City, you can't really just like walk aimlessly right 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.280 because you're going to get hit back home. So um, 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.600 I mean the whole thing is about allowing your brain 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.120 to have a moment of calm and allow for the 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.960 ideas to marinate. And I do bring the examples of 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.520 Steve Jobs, who, as you know, he was a meditator. Yeah. Yeah, 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.480 he was a huge proponent of meditation. And he told 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:40.600 Walter Isaacson when when when Isaacson was writing jobs biography, 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.040 that the monkey mind is always going to be chattering, 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.479 is going to bring things that are going to distract 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.000 you from your goals or from your where you're going 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.120 to find the next I think I showed this before, 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:53.920 but I have a friend who actually keeps a notepad 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.720 in the shower because that's where he comes up with 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.280 great ideas because he's like not distracted by his phone 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.000 or anything. Like, have a lot of logistical fuss about that. Yeah, 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.040 it's like waterproof. Maria Britto art adviser, curator and author. 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.360 She's the author of How Creativity Rules the World, The 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.480 art and business of turning your ideas into gold. It's 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.199 Bloomberg Business Week for Katie Greifeld. I'm Tim Stanevik and 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.760 the entire team here at Bloomberg Radio. Have a good night.