Remixing Community: Interview with Jono Bacon

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Each Wednesday, we post an interview with someone who is living, exploring, or championing aspects of thrivability – people at the forefront of cultural, organizational, or individual change.

Jono Bacon is a changemaker in a seemingly paradoxical sort of way.  He’s a headbanger and a diplomat.  He plays rhythm guitar, swims in big ideas, and has an infectious “Let’s do it!” attitude.  He sometimes screams into the mic, but speaks and writes persuasively.  As the author of The Art of Community, he shared his experience working for Ubuntu, one of the largest open source online communities.  As a musician, Jono recently launched Severed Fifth, an “open band,” that was recently featured in O’Reilly Radar for its potential to reinvent the music business.   Jono sees a new music industry emerging, and he wants Severed Fifth to serve as an example.  The band is in the final stages of crowdfunding their studio album.  (You can help).  But it’s about more than the music.

Todd Hoskins:  Jono, you’ve worked in the open source software business, as well as the music business for a number of years.  What can the music industry learn from the growth of open source?

Jono Bacon:  Open Source has brought tremendous change to the IT industry. Fundamentally it has closed the gap between content provider and content consumer. In the older world, content consumers have little interaction or opportunity to influence the content provider, and this often caused the relationship to feel strained. Open Source changed that: no longer did a programmer rely on a publisher to get their work seen, and no longer was the consumer unable to express feedback to the programmer.

The same thing has affected the music industry: bands would produce content but the content was fed to listeners via the labels. The world I am advocating, via the example of Severed Fifth, is one in which bands are closer to fans, and fans feel they are an integral part of how the band works.

Todd:  You’ve said the uniqueness of Severed Fifth is your community, not that you openly give away your music for free (which others do also).  Why are people motivated to join your Street Team, be your advocates, and send donations for producing a studio album?  Why is the Severed Fifth model thriving?

Jono:  Community has taught us that when people feel empowered by a mission, by an ethos, and by a goal; they will feel an overwhelming sense of unity in contributing their skills and abilities to that mission, ethos, and goal.  We have seen countless examples of this — be it software freedom with Open Source, public availability of knowledge with Wikipedia, or political resistance with various forms of activism.  When a community feels empowered and has the tools and venue to contribute their efforts, great things happen.

Of course, the mission and ethos needs to be one that people genuinely care about. “Getting Jono weekly bagels”, while interesting to me, would not be interesting to most people. I believe that we have seen Severed Fifth gain momentum because this is a problem that many passionate free culture folks care about, but it is also easy for other people to understand and care about too. My goal is to get as many people as possible to understand the mission and ethos we are empowered by — a more open music industry — and to get people on board the Severed Fifth train to produce a great example of success in the new industry.

The challenge is that culture-changing goals such as these can often sound incredibly ethereal and difficult to understand.  My goal is to produce a concrete example of something everyone can point to that demonstrates that a band who harnesses their work with professionally produced music, free access to content, empowered community, and fair financial contributions decided by the fans, will be successful. This is what I want Severed Fifth to be – so other bands can point at it and say, “If they can do it, so can we.”

Todd:  There is this Creator’s Dilemma . . . people have creative power, but often limited ways to make an income without making sacrifices in integrity.  How do you see this becoming more resolved in the future, for artists as well as engineers?

Jono:  Music isn’t any different than software.  When Open Source first came into focus, people were asking the same questions about that too.  On one hand we are giving the music away for free, but free content lowers the bar for listeners to enjoy it – more people can download it, share it with their friends, put it on YouTube and elsewhere.  Therefore, the fanbase grows naturally as people like to share and recommend great experiences to others – it is what makes us human.  A bigger fanbase means more potential customers.  This is a big part of the experiment, and I have a series of ideas of methods for generating revenue that fit into the wider ethos of Severed Fifth.

Todd:  Even with Radiohead’s successful In Rainbows experiment in 2007, it seems bands are still waiting for labels to court them.  With Rock n’ Roll’s history of breaking rules, rebelling against cultural norms, and exerting independence, why has this taken so long to take shape?

Jono:  I believe part of the challenge is that bands traditionally have not had the tools or skills to get out there and build awareness on the back of the free availability of content.  It is hard enough trying to persuade a label to give the content away for free, but then you need to develop a set of skills to really raise awareness of this. Finally, you have the final complicating factor that record deals are so romantic – they hold so much promise for so many bands.  Unfortunately the reality in these economic times is often in conflict with the fantasy.

For years bands have pushed their music in their local areas, but it is only in the last few years that we have seen people developing skills in the area of global community growth and empowerment.  While I am not suggesting for a second that I am an expert, I have been working on this a lot over the last ten years in Open Source, and I think we are starting to see more and more focus being placed on communities and growth – this is another area in which Open Source has led the curve.

Part of the goal with Severed Fifth is expose many of these techniques and approaches and transition them from Open Source and technology to music. Down the line I want to write a book explaining how all of this worked in a format that other bands and artists can harness. focused on musicians and creative types. We have already seen the impact of digital sharing on the music industry, and I think we will next see the impact of sharing this knowledge about building your own fanbase, and this will contribute to the change.

Todd:  We see an aspect of thrivability as self-evolving and self-organizing, requiring an openness to experimentation.  How do the Severed Fifth experiments apply to businesses outside of the music industry?

Jono:  The key point is that software and music are links to other commercial opportunities.  Take Open Source for example – we have huge companies who have successfully built businesses around giving their primary products away for free.  They have instead generated revenue from other areas such as support, training, commercial sales, custom engineering, etc.  It’s happening everywhere, but you have to look for it.

Todd:  On your dream tour, who would be headlining?

Jono:  I would love the exposure of touring with a number of bands, but I’ll say Iron Maiden.  Up the irons!

Todd:  Thanks, Jono.   Good luck with the album and the mission.

Directing Change: Interview with Malachi Leopold

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Each Wednesday, we post an interview with someone who is living, exploring, or championing aspects of thrivability – people at the forefront of cultural, organizational, or individual change.

Malachi Leopold is an award winning film director who runs the full service production company Left Brain/Right Brain Productions.  His 2009 short documentary, 22 Years From Home, followed the return home of Kuek Garang, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Seeking to have his company embody his personal values, Malachi has been proactive in communicating the company’s mission to enact positive social change.  By inspiring others to overcome adversity, combating poverty, advancing education, and taking care of our planet, we can make a living and make the world a better place at the same time.

Disclosure:  Left Brain/Right Brain Productions is a client of Thrivable, Inc.

Todd Hoskins: With the diminishing returns of “messaging” and the return to more authentic “storytelling,” where does film fit in?

Malachi Leopold: Well, I think that it’s a really cool way that humans continue telling stories from generation to generation.  But in essence, they still function as part of a society’s or culture’s way of communicating a vision, passing on values, relating humor, rallying people to a cause.

It’s an interesting question because, in my opinion, there are a lot of films that are very much geared towards a “messaging-oriented” audience.  A 90-minute feature film that is created for an audience with a [perceived] attention span of 30-seconds.  I think that approach often leads to films (actions and comedies, especially) which feel much more about special effects, gimmicks, and so forth rather than substance – less about the craft of storytelling and more about 90 minutes of eye candy.

There are films that have a bit of a “guy talk” (“American Pie”) or “girl talk” (“Sex and the City”) vibe, others that have a more serious, parable kind of tone (“Michael Clayton”, “Children of Men”);  others that simply spark the imagination (“E.T.”, “Inception”), others that document history (“Saving Private Ryan”) or collective history (“Social Network”).

I think that we can see trends that point to greater appreciation and usage of telling great stories.  From traditional :30 TV advertising to the increased popularity of documentary films, I think there’s an awareness that telling a great story that inspires people is a great way to connect them to your cause, your brand, your product or service.

Todd:  How do you balance or shift from working commercially to working for a cause in which you believe?

Malachi:  I want every day to be spent driving our mission of creating positive social change.  For me, it’s not about “giving back.”  I don’t want to spend my time working and then “give back” what I have left over in terms of time or money.  So we proactively seek out relationships that allow us to support the missions of others, and through those relationships we leverage our impact.

For example, I could volunteer once a month with an organization and it could make a difference for perhaps one person or perhaps a handful of people.  Important?  Absolutely.  Meaningful?  Without a doubt.  But what if I spent my time collaborating with an organization that takes the work of the volunteer organization further?  What if I create an actual change, a shift, that is sustainable, big?  It’s now a true, sustainable change.  And I believe that, for myself, to create sustainable change, it has to be my day to day – it has to be my life’s work.

And there is another dimension to it.  If we’re doing a TV ad for a fast food company, someone might say, “How is that promoting a cause, creating change, etc.?”  It’s a good question.  Here’s my answer to that – I believe in active engagement.  If I won’t do business with someone, I’ve effectively put a stop to a possible dialogue, a possible conversation about sustainability and food systems, nutrition and so forth.

But if I am open to doing business with them, I have the chance to build a relationship and potentially have a strong influence on a company that has enormous reach, and enormous consequences connected to the decisions of their day to day operations.

Todd:  So, your mission remains the same regardless of who is financing the project?

Malachi:  Yes, we don’t really separate working commercially and working for a “cause.”  To me, it’s not so much about “cause” as it is “this is just what I do.”  My day to day is about driving mission.  Creating change.  If it’s a TV ad about carpet or a documentary about sexual violence in the Congo, I’m actively finding ways to make the world a better place.

Todd:  You have been working on projects in the Middle East and Africa.  In a war-torn or impoverished region, is there thrivability?

Malachi:  There is evidence of a unique development of a civilization in the Niger delta where, for about 1600 or so years, a complex society of specialists collaborated for mutual benefit in relative peace and prosperity.  I say it’s unique because the traditional way I think we in the West have thought of the development of civilizations and urban centers has been more about exploration and conquest, conquering, victors and spoils, a concentrated few ruling over many.  However, this was an example a “thriving” society that occasionally had evidence of clashes, but not the type that we think of today as “ethnic rivalries” or “inter tribal warfare.”  In fact, there seems to be a lot of evidence of there being an emphasis placed on the importance of differentiating oneself and one’s culture through pottery, music, food and food production, dance, weapons, tools, physical marks, clothing, while at the same time celebrating and appreciating the diversity and benefits of other cultures and societies and ways of life.

The only way I could see “thrivability” in action in some of the places I have been would be more in terms of being at peace with one’s circumstances, finding peace within the midst of an impoverished situation.  However, I think it’s too easy to sort of romanticize a “pastoral” way of life, a “simpler” way of life.  Living off the land, producing only what one needs, “in harmony” with the environment.  The reality is, that life is extremely difficult.  Every day a struggle.  It’s survival, and difficult for me to think of as “thrivability.”

In the post-conflict and impoverished regions of the world, I think it’s usually about survival.  I look at thrivability as holding a vision of what is next, another branch of our evolution.  But I think the reality on the ground is that, with billions living in conditions of poverty, war or post-war or could-be-war-at-any-time, disease, lack of economic opportunities or means – sustainability doesn’t even enter the picture, much less thrivability.

For example, one of the things I noticed in Sudan was a large amount of trash just blowing around some of the villages we visited.  For me, coming from an environmentally conscious city and way of life, an impulse happened – I judged. I thought “Oh, this is terrible – littering, polluting the environment.” I start picturing birds tangled in junk, animals rummaging through garbage in search of food.  Humans encroaching on the environment around them.

But it’s just an entirely different type of situation.  How can someone worry about recycling a bag when they’re not sure if the one meal they need to have that day is even going to happen?  Or wondering if a violent clash is going to break out?  I’m not saying let’s trash everything, but I do think it’s difficult to address issues such as that when someone has hunger pangs.  Or when someone has been a victim of violence, or lives with a daily fear of being bombed.

Todd:  Kuek, featured in 22 Years from Home, is a resilient man.  What qualities have made him thrive?

Malachi:  I think the quality that allowed him and the rest of the Lost Boys of Sudan to survive was a strong sense of family and community.  Coupled with a will to live, to overcome the adversity, and then to come back and make things better.  A generosity of spirit.

Todd:  So, what would be your dream project?  What would you love to film?

Malachi:  If I could be sitting in a theatre next to Terrence Malick, and at the end of my film he turns to me, nods his head, and with a smile says, “That was pretty good.”  Whatever that film is, that’s my dream project.

Todd:  Thanks, Malachi.  I look forward to viewing more of your storytelling.

Creativity & Emergence : Interview with Michelle James

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Each Wednesday, we post an interview with someone who is living, exploring, or championing aspects of thrivability – people at the forefront of cultural, organizational, or individual change.

Michelle James has been pioneering Applied Creativity and Applied Improvisation in business in the Washington, DC area since 1994. She is CEO of The Center for Creative Emergence and founder of the Capitol Creativity Network – an Applied Creativity community hub since 2004 – and Quantum Leap Business Improv. Her mission is to integrate the worlds of creativity, service, meaning and commerce, and cultivate whole brain, whole-person engagement in the workplace. Recently, she was recognized for Visionary Leadership in Fast Company’s blog, Leading Change, for “her commitment to bring creative expression into the work environment in a very deep and meaningful way.”  Michelle is a business creativity consultant, facilitator and coach who has designed and delivered hundreds of programs for entrepreneurs, leaders, and organizations such as Microsoft, Deloitte, GEICO, NIH, World Bank, and Kaiser Permanente among others. Her original programs have been featured on TV, the radio and in print. She produces the DC-based Creativity in Business Conference – next one in Oct. 2011 . Michelle also performs full-length improvised plays with Precipice Improv, paints, and is a CoreSomatics Movement and Bodywork Master Practitioner.

In our Five Point Model, the Creative is one of the primary elements in facilitating thrivability.  At Thrivable, we are influenced by, and grateful for the work of Michelle James in the domain of the Creative.

Todd Hoskins:  Michelle, you have led conferences, workshops, and done coaching around facilitating creativity in business. How do those in business organizations, beyond the design team, work towards fostering creativity?

Michelle James:  The most effective and meaningful changes I’ve observed have come from both embracing creative practices and also establishing new foundations: generative principles of engagement, expanded mind sets, new frameworks, and entering into a “co-creative partnering” type of relationship with each other, and with the unknown. For example, weaving improv-based principles as the rules of engagement in meetings can transform both the energy and outcomes. One client transformed their meetings – which were either boring or contained continual battles for whose idea was best – into Discovery Sessions just by setting three of the improv principles as the foundational container for each meeting: yes-and, make everyone look good, and serve the good of the whole. Their once dreaded meetings, where little got done and all felt drained, became lively, co-creative sessions where new and different ideas and applications emerged in the meeting itself by just adhering to new principles of engagement. People began building on each other’s ideas instead of only defending their own.

Another example: an aspiring entrepreneur may have three different passions or business ideas and believes he or she has to choose one. By engaging emergence by conscious pattern breaking, whole-brain and somatic creative techniques, and deep immersion into the question, a new and completely unexpected pattern can emerge that reveals a coherent structure that could not have been predicted before that exploratory deep dive. A new coherent business structure can emerge that contains what is most alive and relevant of the three previous ideas, along with surprising new qualities. I have seen this so many times with entrepreneurs who are creating a business that doesn’t fit neatly into a current business model, my own business included. One level of thinking’s either/or question becomes the next level of thinking’s both/and solution. It often requires hanging out in “not knowing” for part of the process.

Todd:  How is emergence related to creativity?  What does it look like when it happens?

Michelle:  I’m not sure how to do that question justice in a few sentences without it either being vague or too reductive, and there can be many different answers. After years of working with it, It’s still hard for me to define because I see it as a universal process linked in to how life itself works – and myself as a life-long student of that process. Creativity, for me, is both means to cultivate the emergence – using creativity practices to engage emergence – and the outcome of an emergence. That’s why “creative emergence” resonates with me – the terms are so intimately linked. Creativity generates emergence, and emergence produces creativity – the whole process is an ongoing creative, emergent feedback loop.

A creative, emergent process requires navigating the dynamic balance of listening and choosing; knowledge and discovery; stepping up to create, and letting go to receive – in other words, doing what is yours to do, and letting the self-organization of emergent creativity do its part. Like midwifing any new birth, there is a natural trajectory already happening…and…there are things you can do to help facilitate a healthy birth, and then clean it up and make it accessible to the world.

In groups, you can see this emergence in action in highly functioning improv theater groups, jazz ensembles, sports teams, etc…and in co-creative work teams that have trust at their core.  Often the emergence happens after the “efforting” is released. Something takes over that is greater than any individual’s agenda that has an intelligence of its own. The group “field” produces something unexpected that emerges from the interaction of its members – whether it’s comedy line, a piece of music, a new strategy or business, a world changing idea or the next iteration of solution. In a group, emergence has the after-effect of “Look what WE did!” Something new was created that no one could expect, and each person sees how they needed the others in order to become something beyond any single person’s vision or agenda.

Facilitating emergence in an organization is partly about creating the conditions that allow people to contribute more of themselves than just their job description…to bring their unique creativity out in service of the vision, the team and the organization. People buy into what they help create. To bring out the creativity requires leaving the “control” mindset, and trusting in the natural self-organization of the creative process, while also creating boundaries for that creativity to emerge. One paradox of emergence is that flow needs boundaries.

For both individuals and groups, one activity to practice engaging the unknown is to ask the question, hold it without rushing to answer, then get the right brain involved and start drawing it – with NO recognizable pictures or symbols. Just draw the “energy” as you feel it moment by moment – colors, lines and shapes. This can be uncomfortable at first for some people because all the inner voices of judgment and the fear of the unknown can show up – and it is unfamiliar. Allow yourself to not know what it is. Get in the practice of not knowing…and just keep drawing. With practice, it actually becomes liberating. Research has shown the right brain processes more quickly than the left. And it expresses differently, so working this way can be like learning a new language at first. If you rely only on images you already know, you’re still letting the left-brain dictate the process. After allowing the right brain’s expression, THEN go back and bring in the left brain to try to find meaning through inquiry into the abstract drawing. It’s amazing what patterns and practical, concrete insights emerge just from diverging into the abstract unfamiliar first before converging back into the familiar.

Resistance often show up in the creative process, and it’s temping to turn back to what’s familiar. The act of moving through the discomfort of the contraction of resistance gives more power to the expansion of the new emergence – like the chick’s beak, which gains its strength by having to peck through the resistance of the shell as part of its hatching. The status quo wants to maintain itself; the new birth wants to come forth…and both are essential parts of the dynamic tension within the creative impulse.

Todd:  What other tensions and paradoxes are in the process of emergence? How can an organization move from either/or to yes/and, allowing for these tensions?

Michelle:  Included would be the dynamic tensions/interaction between divergence and convergence, the yin and yang archetypes, planning and improvising, stillness and activity, reflection and action, logic and intuition, using both what is seen and unseen, directing and unfolding, incubating and birthing. There are many more. The creative emergence process itself is paradoxical – what seems opposed or disconnected at one level emerges into something new at another level.  It is learning how to not see these aspects in conflict and to welcome the dynamic tension as a gift of creative process. And, of course, it can still be challenging – and messy – like any new birth while it’s happening. It can feel exciting and energizing at times, and painful and doubt-ridden at others.

Creativity contains both “yes-and,” which is expansion and divergence, as well as “either/or,” which is contraction and convergence. The key is to expand the playing field by diverging (yes-anding) first, before starting to organize and focus on convergence (discerning). I believe organizations need to create space, time, a value system, and set of practices that more explicitly embrace divergence. We need to infuse that into the company culture at every level. The need for exploration without judgment is significant before going into strategizing – it informs new structures. Discernment is necessary in the creative process – we just need to give more time to divergent practices to generate more novelty first before going there.

Todd:   With the yin and yang, what have we been missing within culture and organizations?

Michelle:  Culturally, we have been out of balance. We have focused mainly on the creative yang archetype: outward-focused, production, efficiency, results; forging ahead, focused, driven, goal oriented. When in balance with the creative yin archetype these can be healthy parts of a larger co-creative whole. But we have left out the yin as “too soft” or even “woo woo” so we have experienced a predominant work culture of the yang out of balance. Without the yin for balance, we experience the shadow side of an out-of-balance work culture: cut throat, uncaring, stressful, back stabbing, lack of work/life balance, fear-based, driven to excess or striving to keep up, trying to impress, lack of feeling safe to explore or take creative risks, binary thinking (success/fail, right/wrong), disconnected, etc. I believe many of our challenges in the workplace stem from our over-emphasis on the creative yang and our de-emphasis, or sometimes complete rejection, of the creative yin instead of integrating them.

Creative organizations need both. The yin is relational and includes incubating, being with, integrating, supporting, and yes-anding. More than just left-brain linear thinking, the yin is about engaging embodiment and somatic wisdom, intuition, right brain, non-linear practices. It is experiential and whole-person. It more than just talk, and more than just action – it is a connection to what is most alive in ourselves; a connection to our stories, our inner voice, our senses, our bodies and our hearts. Actions and interactions that emerge from an integrated connection to the yin archetype look different than the actions we’ve seen come form its absence. The yin and yang archetypal energies need each other for generative, whole-systems, meaning-filled creativity.

This integration is something I have been deeply committed to in my work for a long time. Some years ago I created a program on “Creativity and the Yin/Yang Archetypes” about the integration of both for a more engaged, alive, creative workplace. I found – and still do – it’s easier to facilitate and apply it than to talk about it because it needs our whole brain, not just left brain, to engage it. We’re in a time where more whole-brain practices (improvisation, visual communication and thinking, ritual, storytelling, embodiment, movement, etc.) are being brought into the business world all the time. We are also seeing more focus on meaning, calling, passion, aliveness, empathy, finding your voice, deep listening and internal motivation. Our metaphorical landscape is expanding to include more yin-centered metaphors. By infusing more yin practices, language and foundational ways of interacting into the yang workplace, it becomes holistically generative. The creative yin and creative yang are deep, archetypal patterns which, working together, allow exponential levels of creativity to emerge.

Todd:  You’re producing a Creativity in Business Conference in October.  How does the mode of your conferences, retreats, and workshops reflect the purpose?  How does the form follow function?

Michelle:  I believe the most dynamic, alive, creative organizations and individuals are those most in dynamic balance with yin and yang creativity. The intention of my work is to have my all my workshops, events, and coaching session reflect that balance of rich content and whole-brain/whole-being experience; mind and heart integration. They all use multiple dimensions of creative process and they are based in life-giving principles of engagement. At our conference, we used improv principles as our basis of interaction for the day. At our creativity network, presenters commit to doing something new to be on their creative edges. I also constantly create new activities, offerings or programs to keep and me on my own creative and evolving edges. My passion, among other things, is to create structures and conditions to support the balance of learning, wisdom, real-time creativity and emergence that supports aliveness, generative connections and serving the greater good. Part of living that mission is to imagine it, try it, get feedback, and modify. They do not all play out as hoped – some better, some worse – but they all contain seeds of learning and growth.

Todd:  Thanks, Michelle!