Creativity and the Startup

Worked on two creative projects today, both in line with the needs of the startup, and feel great about it.

First, my colleague Camille and I discussed how she can evolve our monthly newsletter to maximise reach and impact, and to have fun creating each one. Together we came up with some great ideas about starting with an iconic image/photo for readers to look forward to, and to compile the spoken version of the newsletter into a video with watch-worthy visuals.

Second, I spent part of my evening writing an "Owl-iday Special" which is an annual tradition we started in 2017. I managed to bang out nearly twenty verses of prose in rhyming Christmas classic fashion. A combo of nerdiness, philosophy and tech trends with a humanistic touch. What a delight!

I recognise that the ability to mix creativity with work so fluidly is something I cherish. I don't think most workplaces, startup or otherwise, would value and encourage this as highly as I do. This aspect of my startup life is very positive and healthy.

TechNoel

Answers to the question from Vaughn and Noor. Art with Eva...

Evolutionary Purpose

Will and I discussed finding the balance of progress and purpose in organisations (startups and otherwise) which reminded me of the book Reinventing Organizations by Frédéric Laloux which was recommended to me by one of my mentors. We found the clip above on YouTube (if you're not familiar with Laloux, it's a nice short summary of his work) and one element stood out for me: what he called Evolutionary Purpose . How I understand this concept is that the purpose (or soul) of an organisation evolves over time, rather than an individual or leadership team directing towards a specific outcome. It's very much in line with the sailboat analogy and the lunch discussion I had with the team. It is very reassuring to me that the people closest to me today all affirmed my feelings on leadership, and interesting that it often took very different paths/context for us to be able to truly connect on the subject.

Sniffles

Of course I pushed too hard and paid the price of feeling that scratchiness in my nose by mid-morning. At best I was gonna carry a mild cold through the holidays. At worst I'd be a write-off for an entire week (which happened to me right after Christmas in 2015). It's not difficult to realise that I pushed too hard. Despite being on Startical with its explicit guidelines , there was just way too much to get done before the holidays. Even my Startical posts for nearly the past week have been placeholders to fill in later. And now that's caught up to me and I'm starting sniffles. The challenge now is striking the optimal balance between preventative care and completing my commitments before Christmas: sending out personalised Owl-iday e-mails including the Owl-iday Special I had worked so hard to create. I think I'll err on the side of preventative care as I really don't want to wrap up Startical feeling sick and useless...

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