The Student Leader Blog

School Killed My Creativity but I Got It Back!

I'm hooked on listening to the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Podcasts. Every time I travel, I download a few to bring with. Each podcast runs about one hour and are presented by top thinkers in the entrepreneurial world. I think of them as my free weekly Stanford classroom lessons.

My latest lesson was "Young at Heart: How to Be an Innovator for Life" by Tom Kelley of the world-renowned design firm IDEO.

Through some great personal stories, Kelley gives a series of suggestions to make sure we remember to play in the right brain (our creative side).

- "Think Like a Traveler" - I recently traveled to SE Asia and when I first stepped off the plane in Bangkok, all my senses came alive. I noticed what the airport smelled like, the lighting, the advertisements, the bathrooms, the money, the coins, the door handles, the stores, the air, the trees, etc etc etc. At home, I'm much different. My senses operate on autopilot because I've "been there, done that." Thinking like a traveler allows us to be more present in the moment and to notice our surroundings. Even the stuff we think we know really well. And, in noticing, we'll start to discover new ways of thinking. Kelley also says that thinking like a traveler allows us to hold up our world view against what's actually happening.

- "Be Childlike" - Being creative is about releasing your inner child. School does a great job of focusing on the left brain, and so it's our job to keep the right brain open and fresh. As a student leader, all of your "out of the classroom" work provide great opportunities to use the right brain.

- "Think of Life as an Experiment and be Willing to Fail Forward" - Scientists get excited about failing because it means they've crossed off another possible solution. Be willing and excited about failing as long as it means it allows you to check another possibility off your list so you keep moving forward. Kelley tells the story of WD-40. WD stands for Water Displacement which makes sense, but what does the 40 stand for? Bonus points to the first person to share the answer in the comments below.

- "Finding Your Creative Hour" - I don't drink caffeine, but when I wake up in the morning I'm wired for action. I often do most my reading and writing in the first two hours after waking because I feel amazingly creative. When's your creative hour? Kelley says finding your creative hour is like finding gold, but so many of us waste our best creative hour on our inbox. I don't open my email or internet until two hours after I wake up. Those two hours are my golden creative hours and a gift that is lost if I don't use them.

If I had to pick one of these four tips as the most important, I'd pick the last one. Spend some time over the next couple days to figure out when is your creative hour (and post it in the comments below). Then, once you've found it, grab a book or start a blog and never let go of that time.

The Point of Happiness

I'm teaching a class on happiness tomorrow and the thought of it is telling my brain that it's 3PM instead of the 3AM that it really is. I'm awake. I'm very much awake, and I'm trembling all over. My couch is covered in books, my notepad is full of scribbles, and up until I sat down to write this post, I couldn't stop pacing around the apartment. My cats got tired of watching me and fell asleep.

I don't know if happiness is something one can teach and, even if it is, whether I can teach it. I don't know whether this class will have any impact on anyone or anything aside from my sleep cycle, but it seems that there's a possibility that it may, and so long as that possibility exists I need to take it very seriously.

Why? What's the point of this class? What's the point of happiness?

The simplest answer is that it feels good. In the book A Primer in Positive Psychology (the best textbook ever written), Chris Peterson points out that happiness has also been shown to predict things like long lasting relationships, financial success, and physical health. But what makes it so God damn important in my eyes is the realization that you can either live a life bursting with joy and radiance or you can live your life as though it's a homework assignment. An entire life cherished, or an entire life simply, spent. You only have one teeny life, and how you live it depends entirely on your perspective.

When I think of the point of happiness, I also think of the point at which my own perspective shifted forever. It was in high school, and I had been depressed for over a year, maybe a lot longer. Then in one instant, I suddenly snapped out of it. I don't know exactly what did it (though I'm sure the antidepressants helped), but suddenly I was exuberant, and I'll never forget the contrast between those two mental states: like lying under a pile of bricks one moment and then floating up on a cloud of balloons in the next. Being mentally present for that transition taught me how to recreate that feeling voluntarily, but more importantly, it taught me that life can feel terrible, it can feel like nothing much, or it can feel wonderful. And if it can be wonderful, why not work to make it wonderful?

Feeling wonderful makes us want to do wonderful things - to create, to build, to nurture, to solve, to take risks, and to make others feel wonderful. And that's the point; isn't it?

How paying attention can change your life.

One of my students wrote a post on our class blog that reminded me why paying attention can change everything.

She said that the 5 minutes of class for which she was fully conscious (thanks) led her to reconnect with two friends she otherwise would have given up on. That's one friendship rebuilt per 2.5 minutes of paying attention. She writes: "What would have happened if I hadn't attended class at all? I shudder to that thought."

This line of thinking makes my head explode with infinite configurations of could'ves-would'ves. What if I hadn't overhead that there was an advertising club in my high school? Then I would not have connected with a video company I went on to work for (on and off) for six years. I almost certainly wouldn't be teaching video research to middle school kids now. I probably wouldn't have met my boyfriend (since we met because of my camera), and we wouldn't have two fuzzy little cats and an apartment together.

What if I didn't look at the flyer someone handed me about a student leadership retreat at Hunter? Then I would not be teaching first year seminar (because the idea came up in one of our conversations), and I wouldn't be writing this post right now.

So much of life stems from just a handful of occurances.

Obviously, we can't pay attention to everything all the time, but imagine if we all paid just a little more attention. Maybe a few extra minutes would lead you to that one new idea, new relationship, or new opportunity that will determine where you'll be 10 years from now.

I hope you've been paying attention to this blog post :)

Transformational Leadership: Giving Goosebumps and Drinking Your Own Kool Aid

Memorable leaders make us sit up straighter when we’re listening to them, they make us laugh, make us cry, make our pulse skip a beat or two, and give us goosebumps.

Transformational (or inspirational) leadership is probably what most of us imagine when we think of leadership, but in reality, leaders are usually transactional (leading through rules, rewards, and punishment alone). Why is the former more desirable than the latter? Ask yourself what the difference is between Martin Luther King Jr. and your current supervisor. Ask yourself whom you would rather follow: someone who fills you with passion and determination or someone who simply tells you what to do?

So how do you go from compliance to respect? From guide to guru? Researchers say that you need to practice the following:

    - Get very good at the skills necessary in your leadership positions (know how to fill out those damn forms better than anyone).
    - Become a role model (practice what you preach at all times, no matter how tired you feel or how inconvenient it may be).   
    - Have a vision and get others to see it - people don’t want to just do stuff, we want to change stuff and make stuff too.
    - Take positive risks and get creative - do things in a new and unexplored way and encourage your team to do the same.
    - Demonstrate your passion (if you find yourself jumping up and down or trembling while you speak about your group’s vision, you’re on the right track).
    - Notice people - show your team members how much they matter and that you see their strengths.
    - Challenge members intellectually (give assignments and ask questions that make their brains feel tingly).

Inspiring a group also takes a boatload of confidence and enthusiasm (a former employer of mine calls it “the sparkle in the eye” - he actually hires people based on that sparkle). And I think the prerequisite to inspiring others is inspiring yourself first. My friend Kevin calls it “drinking your own Kool Aid” (i.e. being a true believe of your own claims, goals, organization, cult, whatever). It’s only when you can get yourself out of bed in the morning because of your passion, when you find your vision creeping into most of your conversations, and when you can't think of a better way to spend your time than working toward your goals, then you can start pouring the Kool Aid into other cups. Bottoms up!

 

Break Rules At School - I Did, And It Made Me The Leader I Am Today!

    Dealing with the rules and regulations for your club or publication can be a flawed and tedious process, and at times completely asphyxiating to the spirit of your cause. If a student has the will to be a leader, why must the way of execution be so riddled with fine print and miscommunication? At Hunter College, the issue of bureaucracy unfortunately does not end at student activities; merely filing for graduation can be a long and arduous task.  One can imagine how it is for people who request funding for “extra-curricular” activities.
  The flipside of a slow bureaucracy is a lack of oversight and enforcement of policy. During the last Spring 2008 semester, I took advantage of this weakness to create a steady, visual and audible presence within the hallways of my school. The results of the campaign were overwhelmingly positive. Were it not for my disregard of the purported regulations that govern obtaining a permit for tabling, as well as my capacity to guiltlessly deliver a few well-intentioned white lies when necessary, the level of success reached by my publication, Hunter Anonymous, would not have been possible.

  I began my promotions for Hunter Anonymous well before the initial printing. The success of the publication relies solely on the participation of students and faculty at Hunter, so getting off to a strong start was top priority. I had observed, in my previous two years of attendance at Hunter, that many school organizations would set up their signs and posters and flyers and people behind these long tables that were located at major hubs of foot traffic. To do this, I learned that I needed to obtain a tabling permit from the Student Services department of the school. Besides the fact that the person in charge of scheduling and permitting these licenses was stubborn and uncommunicative, the available slots for tables was extremely limited. This came as a bit of a surprise to me. Rarely had I seen all the tables vacated, even during the most heavily trafficked days and times. Wednesday was always a clear slot because there are no classes in the afternoon, so basically a worthless time to be propagandizing anything. When I did in fact get some prime real estate, it was scheduled for at least two weeks in advance.
    I can't recall exactly when I chose to ignore this whole permit process and just plop my butt wherever I felt like, but it certainly wasn't more than a month after the semester began. In addition to handing out flyers urging people to send me their submissions, I would rent out audio equipment under the auspices of the Media Board, and proceed to blast music throughout the hallways of the school. In order to get equipment from the Audio/Visual department, a club needs authorization from the Undergraduate Student Government, as well as a copy of the tabling permit. Fortunately, as a publication and a member of the Media Board, I needed no such authorization past the ink of my own signature. So in my initial attempts at hijacking the A/V department, I would play it cool and tell them "yes, there is Media Board event in the West Building, 3rd floor, from one to three, so I need the biggest amplifier and speaker system you have." (Forgive me, Tania.) Since I was oftentimes confronted by people who had absolutely no idea what the Media Board was, I often had to explain the very nature of it. So my publication acted as sort of a diving board into a deeper conversation that required me to answer many questions past the subject of Hunter Anonymous (which was a hell of a thing to sell to people in the first place), such as - the publications are free, this for Hunter College students only, a portion of your Student Activity fee goes towards this, and yes, even YOU can start your own publication!
    After doing this many, many times throughout the course of the the semester (if there was a "Most Enthusiastic Tabler" award, I would have gotten it), the folks at A/V got to know me well and I became friends with a good portion of them. It was kind of like frequenting your favorite bar and having the tender throw you your favorite drink, without request -  a CD/tape combo, with a big PA speaker, on the rocks.
    (Side note - I believe in the power of music to transform people, regardless of their taste or personal hangups. Music, and good music especially, is an undeniable force that will leave an impression on all within earshot. I regard DJ’ing as an important social tool that has the potential to bring people together, if the sounds are chosen with utmost respect to the circumstances.  Most of the clubs at Hunter College seem to lack my interest in this arena, functioning no farther than a device to inspire some mildly curious rubber-necking. Commercial pop-rap, -reggaeton, and –rock are the most commonly audible offerings, resulting in a blandness that, to my delight, can transform the simplest offering of diversity into a throbbing sore thumb amongst the most well-manicured digits of your campus life. I should note this tactic does not end with music, but has the ability to be applied to any sort of media; audio, visual, or otherwise.)
    So I played a whole bevy of music that you simply would never hear in such a setting. The eclectic and ever-present music became synonymous with Anonymous. People who enjoyed it would stop by the table to hang out and help pass out flyers. I met a bunch of cute girls. I met a few patronizing assholes. I managed to wrench a few smiles out of even the most hardened, antisocial apathetic passerbys. I mean, who can resist not laughing at some poofy-haired kid bopping around to the sounds of Curtis Mayfield or Sly and the Family Stone, standing in the middle of the hallway with a stack of flyers proclaiming anonymity through a megaphone? My shameless enthusiasm and zeal seemed to leave a mark on those willing to be open to it. The only complaints I ever received were from this one particular cranky old lady, who claimed the volume of music was hazardous to the health of the Hunter Community and therefore illegal. I would turn it down as per her nagging, and then immediately turn it up once she was done trying to suck the very spirit out of my youthful shell; a spirit she needs to consume in order to prevent immediate decomposition, like a vampire, or witch. I even won the hearts of the maintenance staff and security there, who generally appreciated the music I was playing (heads bobbing, frowns 180'ing) and on the rare occasion would very politely ask me to turn it down just in case it might disturb nearby classes. I was once asked for a permit, but I somehow brushed that off. And to my greatest satisfaction, the aforementioned manager of the tabling schedule once walked by while I was doing my thing. We met eyes and a mutually understanding smile. I handed him one of my flyers. He mentioned something about me receiving an "F" for something. I laughed, not really hearing or understanding his underhanded accusation, and he moved along without a hitch. 

    The first publication in Fall '07 received a little over 40 submissions. The Spring 2008 issue yielded almost 90. At this rate, I hope I can muster up a very sizable, respectable encyclopedia's worth of Hunter College's most frank and unique writing by the time that I graduate next year. I don't feel any inclination to halt my hallway dance parties any time soon.
    I feel that it's a very valiant and respectable thing to feel a sense ownership towards your school. Your school is one of the few places in your life where you will be able to have direct influence amongst a large group of people. We are subject to the rules and regulations of various systems at all times, and I think we have forgotten how to not only demand something, but act without fear of reprisal by the police, or security, or administration. If a rule is not being enforced, it isn't a rule. When considering defying a rule or regulations at your school, instead of asking yourself "will I get in trouble," ask first of your conscience "am I causing trouble for others, and, if so, at what cost?" This is also assuming that what your are pushing at your school is, in your mind, truly serving the best interest of the campus body. I am not instructing people on how to manipulate the system for one's own selfish benefit. I am trying to inspire people who have fresh, bright ideas to let them grown and shine, by any means necessary.

Good luck to all of you this coming semester.

What Randy Pausch has taught us about leadership and life.

On July 25, 2008, one of my favorite people in the world died, and I never even got a chance to meet him and let him know how much he inspired me. Randy Pausch was a professor, a Disney imagineer, a computer scientist, a motivational speaker, a husband, a father, and an extra in the latest Star Treck movie. In short, he was his own dream come true.

I VERY much encourage you to watch his two talks on Achieving Your Childhood Dreams and Time Management, particularly with someone you love and a box of tissues. His philosophy has to do with education, child care, friendship, work, fun, and leadership. Here are a few examples:

1. "The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something" - Student leaders see MANY walls, and often we just sigh and give up (aka burn out). It's important to remember that if there's a wall and there's a will, there is a ladder - and some of the most satisfying memories we have as student leaders are seeing those brick walls far in the distance when we look back.

2. "Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you" - This is good to keep in mind when dealing with bureaucracies where people's best is tucked away beneath a stack of files somewhere. Getting to know the best in the administrators you have to work with as a student leader will make you and them happy, and they might even come to see the best in you.

3. "Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted -" Being a student leader is being a leader and a student. When things work out we're leaders; when things don't work out we get to learn a valuable lesson in leadership.

4. "If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it" - I wrote a post about this a few months back.

And last but not least:

5. "Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it." No explanation needed.

Word of Mouth Marketing: free advertising and a heck of a pillow fight.

Word of mouth marketing is the least understood and most coveted promotional technique perhaps since the dawn of mankind. It's free, it's fast, it's powerful, but--alas--it is as mysterious to us as the nature of human consciousness and the evolution of the platypus.

According to the recent Word of Mouth Marketing Conference in NYC, the average person has about 11 intimate contacts, 150 social contacts, and 500 to 1,500 "weak ties." That's a lot of potential people your message could reach in less time than it takes you to say, "viral, viral, viral."

As student leaders, we should be trying to leverage the power of word of mouth, though I can't tell you how. The huge pillow fight last weekend (see above) was entirely word of mouth and apparently awesome. So for this post, I'm just going to use the pillow fight as a case study and thought experiment to try to figure out what it takes for a message to travel and stick.

Pillow Talk (hehe):
My thinking is that news of the fight spread like goose feathers on a windy day because:
a. It's weird. People are likely to look up and pay attention because it's not an everyday phenomenon.
b. It's a little mysterious. What will happen? Who will come? What kind of pillow should I bring?
c. It gives people something fun to do together.
d. It's inclusive (pretty much anyone can enjoy it and be a useful contributor).
e. And lastly, people are scared to go alone because they don't want to look stupid. So they enlist as many acquaintances as possible in case no one else shows up.

Again, this is not my field of expertise (or even experience), but I'm pretty darn sure that creating a viral messages requires a certain degree of risk taking and outside the box thinking. First and foremost, that's what gets people's attention and fills the streets with feathers. If anyone has other ideas, I'm very much up for hearing them (and, hey, maybe even spreading them out).

Student Leaders Around the World - Venezuela's Yon Goicoechea

Modern human history is filled with examples of student protests that led to larger cultural shifts. Venezuela may be the next country to undergo a student led revolution.

Wall Street Journal reporter, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, covered the story of 23 year old Yon Goicoechea's student movement in Venezuela to confront the unchecked power of President Hugo Chavez.

Yon believes that Mr. Chavez runs a dictatorial government that is against the will of the people. Some of his protests drew up to 200,000 people. The government is well aware of the power of Yon's group, but Yon, in a very V for Vendetta way, is quick to pass the credibility on to the idea, not the person.

"We have generated a consciousness in the youth that doesn't depend on me. I could be dead or living in another county and it would go on. We have already won the future."

Many adults talk about the apathy of students now and how there is a lack of protesting like they had in the 1960s.



I'm not so sure current students are more apathic, but instead are active in different ways, e.g. on the internet rather than out on the street. Voter turnout among 18-25 year olds in national elections suggests that current students are actually more engaged now than in the past. I think the real question is what form of activism is more effective, or is it a mix of both?