I thoroughly appreciate his creativity for designing it in such a manner; after all, who wouldn’t know Facebook, right? Nobody would have ever seen a card like that, and his wedding will be remembered by a lot of people for a long time, all because of the invite. Most people who saw the card expressed a wow. Some were of the “oh c’mon, Facebook even in a wedding invite?” kind of opinion.

Creativity apart, are we getting so obsessed that we think of Facebook even in a wedding card? Inviting people on Facebook is one thing; designing a card like Facebook is a different thing altogether.

Next, the status updates might read like this:

XYZ updated status three minutes ago:
we exchanged wedding rings
12 comments, 20 likes
XYZ updated status two minutes ago:
wedding solemnized
24 comments, 50 likes
XYZ updated status one minute ago:
I just kissed the bride, or better still,
I am kissing her now!
108 comments, 254 likes

If this was the case, people would never bother to attend weddings and would happily sit elsewhere, hitting the like button for every update posted!

A leading newspaper’s front page article was about a final year B-Tech student of the Allahabad University getting a lucrative job offer even before finishing college. Again, what’s new? Every college or university has campus recruitment programs and thousands of students land themselves in jobs before finishing college. So, this one student got a job offer from Facebook.

The reason it made to the headlines is that, he is going to begin his career with an annual salary package of a whopping $262,500, approximately Rs.1.33 crore! The student requested that his name be withheld for security reasons. Of course he needs security – from all the son-in-law seekers and husband hunters waiting to shoot him down!

People will hardly be surprised if they read another headline very soon:
Millionaire Facebook employee gets a million wedding proposals on Facebook!

The social networking site just got even more popular because of such career options it provides; double thumbs up for this. But looking at the way these social networking sites are storming into our lives, there might even come a time when a spouse will begin posting status messages that would say, “honey come down for dinner, the food is getting cold”! Or rather, has that time already come?

In the slide title, the anagram KISS stood out, but it did not represent the usual sentiment, of Keeping it Simple and Short. Instead it said, ‘Keep Improvising & Synchronize Serendipity’. The new definition evoked curiosity.  Later, a few queries poured into my mailbox. So, I would like to take this opportunity to describe what KISSing your blog, is all about.

Let’s say, you keep writing about Product Engineering (PE), people will eventually associate PE with you. Let’s assume you are writing consistently, about PE for a while, that when people search for ‘PE’ on Google, your name shows up! Your destiny has just taken a new turn. You have now become a brand. People have begun to connect with what you do, for who you are.

Congratulations, your karma has become your destiny. And, that is what I mean by synchronizing serendipity. Karma is not fate, it is what you do; it is an act. You become what you choose. When you write about travel, you are a travel writer, similarly, you write about running because, your sole’s itching to share your marathon experiences.

Indeed, writing is a process of self-discovery. Once you have discovered your calling, there’s no going back. The only way forward is to get closer, till you become one with it.  Subroto’s calling was to nurture an organization, to tend and to reap from that experience. He discovered the Gardner in him and he continues to nurture minds even today.

What is your calling? Some of us are in the process of discovery, others have discovered, but the romance has begun, Go, KISS your blog!

Rahul Bose, an actor, Chetan Bhagat, a writer and Prahalad Kakkar, the veteran ad guru came on stage together last week in Bangalore to speak about guts and entrepreneurship. Different ages, different approaches, different disciplines but held together by the common thread of creative urge.

While Rahul Bose is driven by what he terms his inner moral compass, Prahlad Kakkar is driven by the sheer force of creative instinct, whereas Chetan Bhagat lets his self belief and the breaking of assumptions drive him.

This triad energy of soul, body and mind defines the nature of each creative leader, marking a signature style to creativity. For what else can it be but the soul that gives direction, mind that applies intelligence to seize opportunities and bodily instinct the survivor’s only tool to rely upon when everything else fails?

The moral compass is the one that guides you in your creative journey. It is the one that separates a Hitler from a Gandhi. It’s the one that speaks to you when you are all by yourself, it’s the voice you have been listening to ever since you were a child, the invisible hand that’s been leading you, even if you happen to be an atheist. This is then the moral compass that sets the roadmap for everything you embark on, be it a public endeavor or a private enterprise.

The need to break assumptions, to break rules that are defunct and perhaps destructive as well, is what led Chetan Bhagat to dwell on Five Point Someone, which was later produced into a movie by Amir Khan titled The Three Idiots. The single-minded determination to go on despite getting continuous rejection letters from several publications carved Chetan’s road to success.

As for Kakkar, he’s the life blood of Indian advertising who brought in a touch of humour to the then existing colonial and snobbish nature of commercials. He added a tinge of Indian flavour, mish mashed it with bilinguals, humour and inspired the youth from remote corners of India to dream big despite their impoverished conditions, so much so that even today, the young sing along in unanimity “yeh dil mange more!”

Innovation is all about breaking assumptions, focus is but the single minded approach to your work stemmed from immense self belief, and the courage to go on despite an unchartered territory is what brings glory. This then, is the saga of every creative leader who has been successful.

What kind of a creative leader are you?

When I read IBM’s global study titled Capitalizing on Complexity, I couldn’t help smiling because this means that they have finally recognized that creativity plays a crucial role in leadership quality.

Why is creativity the topic of interest all of a sudden in the Csuites? Because the business challenges that they are seeing today is something that they have not anticipated in the traditional business models.

Everything around is interdisciplinary and calls for diverse skill sets. Too many cooks spoil the broth is an old dictum, today they come together from distant geographical boundaries to produce a distinguished broth that tingles the taste buds of the hungry audience around the globe. Yeah, consumer taste buds have changed; we can’t feed them the same old recipes.

The crucial leadership skill required today is that of innovation on the go, perhaps with Spartan resources which, calls for the spirit of collaboration and sharing of available resources, of being able to deliver with whatever we have in a complex environment.

Indeed capitalizing on creativity to turn complexity into financial advantage is the focus and strategy of progressive companies like in the crowd sourcing arena, for instance. How do we do it? This calls for original thinking. Put on your thinking caps and start doodling your solution to the problems you perceive, one at a time.

Recipe for Creativity

1. Flush your ego in the toilet.
2. Instead of stealing your neighbor’s idea, suggest, and collaborate to produce better and faster.
3. If you still think your idea is better than others, prove it
4. If this idea fails, don’t brood, take a walk and start working on the next one.

What’s your recipe for creativity, i would love to hear from you…