Month: May 2008

art, crayola, creative, creative process, creativity

Crayola – elevating creativity to art

Christa Avampato

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. ~ Scott Adams”


I loved my visit to Crayola. The town is charming, residents friendly, the Crayola team beyond gracious, and the natural setting in the stunning Lehigh Valley. Somehow Crayola has absorbed all of this into its culture. I understand now why people stay for so long. 

My boss and I went out there to discuss innovation and the process Crayola has gone through – it has been a long and winding road. What struck me most poignantly is that about 5 years ago, Crayola was not an innovative company. They made crayons. And some washable markers and outdoor chalk. And they thought that way – with blinder on – and operated that way – in silos. 

Today, the story there is radically different. They are a company that had been on the right of peak on the trend curve and made the difficult and arduous journey to reinvent who they are and what they do. In three words, they are a company that “inspires limitless creativity.” To have a mission and reason for being that concise and powerful has such far reaching effects on product, on customers, on culture. 

At the crux of their reinvention was a commitment by their extraordinary CEO, Mark Scwab, and his ability to give team members permission to try new things, take risks, and then, even more incredible, permission to cut their losses on an idea that didn’t work in its current form. They have the support to try and fail, and because of that support, they have succeeded in not only limitless creativity, but limitless art.   

friendship, New York

Be proud of yourself because sometimes you’re all you’ve got. ~ Denis the Menace

Christa Avampato

On Tuesday I was exhausted from a very late flight from Nashville last night, followed by a long day at work, combined with a tough commute in each direction. But still I had to drag myself out of my apartment at 11pm. Trevin, one of my very close friends, is leaving NYC in a few days and Tuesday was my only chance to see him before he leaves. 

Whenever Trevin introduces me to a friend of his, the friend invariably asks how we met. Trevin always replies, in a very distinct voice, “Christa was my BOSS.” Emphasis on the boss. And I smile, and I say, “Yeah” with a very distinct accent.  Truthfully, I don’t think Trevin nor I could have done our jobs without one another. He’s someone who’s so comfortable in his own weirdness that he makes everyone else around him comfortable in theirs. He is committed to one thing – to being who he is. His authenticity is undeniable. We should all be so lucky to be so proud of who we are and what we stand for. 

So it is with sadness that I said good-bye to Trevin after sharing a couple of chocolate milkshakes with him at the City Diner. Trevin and I moved here about the same time last summer and we would sometimes talk about how we’d be sharing chicken noodle soup at the Edison Hotel Cafe when we were two old-timers. We’d be swapping stories that started with, “Remember back in 2007…” And maybe we’ll still be that way, though for now Trevin’s adventures are taking him to other cities. 

Even though New York City won’t be his home, at least not for now, he knows he’ll always have a place to stay as long as I make my home here. It’s one of the great things about friendship – it can help you make a home in any place your friends happen to be, even if you travel many miles from it.     

art, business, producer, theatre

Cubby Bernstein

Christa Avampato

You’ve got to hand it to those wacky producers over at Xanadu. They’re young and fearless, and finally they are starting to crack the crusty old wheels of Broadway and the marketing of Broadway shows. My friend, Dan, pointed me to Cubby Bernstein, a fictional character who makes his bones by getting people Tony Awards. Cubby’s about 10 years old though he behaves like a grown theatre promoter with an attitude problem. (Sorry – was that redundant?) While antics like his are often deplored in adults, when Cubby behaves this way, it makes for good comedy in that very Doris Roberts sort of way.

What I love about Cubby is how completely unconventional and creative the entire campaign is, and how little money it cost to produce. I follow him on Twitter, and you can friend him on Facebook. On Broadway, the use of social media is practically unheard of so to step out like this is a big change for the industry. From the creation of Cubby’s character to the episodic nature of his YouTube segments, he is a little man with a plan in a class by himself. And maybe that goes for the brave producers of Xanadu as well. They may prove that being a little bit wacky can get you everywhere.

I haven’t seen the show, and I haven’t heard glowing reviews either, but this campaign has so piqued my interest from a business perspective, that I may just walk myself down to the Helen Hayes. After all, if I’m interested in having the theatre industry do more innovative work , I need to support new thinking. And maybe I’ll get a chance to meet Cubby.

adventure, art, journey

Traveling like Paulo Coelho

Christa Avampato

I’m hoping that the breezy days of summer have finally arrived. Though I don’t like the heat, the summer does bring with it a sense of dreaming and imaging our lives in new places. In many ways, it’s more of a renewal than spring – graduations, weddings, vacations. I find that a lot of my happiest memories happened during this season, and many of them happened when I traveled on my own.

Paulo Coelho wrote one of my favorite books, The Alchemist, and I love its celebration of the journey. Coelho seems to prize travel as the most valuable way to spend our time. It’s the best way to learn, about ourselves and the world around us. In addition to his many books on the subject, he now writes several blogs: WordPress (http://paulocoelhoblog.com), Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/paulocoelho) & Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paulo-Coelho/11777366210). He is equally present in media sharing sites such as Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=paulabraconnot) and Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulo_coelho/sets). He shares his thoughts with us, as well as his images.

On Amazon.com, he wrote recently wrote a post with some travel advice, giving us an idea of how he conducts the details of his travels. He avoids museums and hangs out in bars. He doesn’t buy material things, and he invests in the people around him, knowing that he understands them and they understand him, just by virtue of being human. In his quintessential Coelho style, he remains open to the magic that happens when we travel, when we get outside any sense of a comfort zone, and just allow life to happen. More than good advice about how to travel, he provides us with good advice on how to live.

love, memory, Nashville, travel

What, and who, used to be in Nashville

Christa Avampato

During my long weekend in Nashville, my friend, Dan, and I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express close to downtown. It took me a day to realize that the hotel was across the street from the Union Station Hotel, where I stayed back in 2000 during my first trip to Nashville. It was early on in my first theatre tour – a production of Sunset Boulevard. 

Dan I took a stroll over there yesterday afternoon. In the Union Station, I had my first of many meals that I would have with Petula Clark, the star of the tour. I was seated down in the lobby having breakfast and she asked if she could join me. And of course I said yes. To this day, she’s the greatest person I’ve ever worked with. The magnificent stained glass ceiling is the same, as are the rooms around the atrium, but the breakfast bar is gone. Even though I can clearly remember that breakfast with Petula as if it happened yesterday.

Next door to Union Station is a restaurant called the Flying Saucer. In that space, I met Susan Schulman, the director of the Sunset tour, and the first well-known director I had ever met up to that point. It was also the place where I first talked to a man that I would eventually fall in love with and be involved with, off and on, for several years. 5 years ago, that man was in a motorcycle accident that would cause him to become a quadriplegic, though in truth he was lucky to survive at all. And that first conversation with him is so vivid to me that it could have just happened.  

It’s a funny thing about places – they serve as the backdrop of the events that comprise our lives and yet they often don’t retain any of the physical evidence that we were there or that anything significant happened to us in their walls. What’s amazing about Nashville is that every place seems to house a story, or many stories. That city lives, and breathes, and of course, sings.

adventure, career, creative process, creativity, job, technology, youth

Is experience everything?

Christa Avampato
I have been thinking about experience on a regular basis lately. I notice that every time someone mentions wanting to do something new be it a hobby, a job function, or even related to travel or choosing a new city, one of the first questions people ask them is, “Do you have any experience with that?” or “Have you ever been there or done that before?” 
I got asked this question all the time about a year ago as I was interviewing for jobs post-MBA. It seemed that experience counted for far more than my education or my interests. I actually went to one interview in which an interviewer asked me what the hell I was doing there because I had never worked in the industry the the company was in. When I mentioned that the company, in desperate need of a turnaround, needed fresh eyes to look at old problems to find new solutions, the interviewer looked at me as if I had begun speaking in an unknown language. 
And in a manner of speaking, I guess it was a new language – the language of youth and energy and passion, three things the interviewer did not possess. And I don’t mean youth in terms of age, but rather in terms of attitude and thinking. The interviewer refused to believe that any problem could be solved using new methods. It was very much an “I’ve been there, done that” kind of deal. And then I considered the incredible success of Silicon Valley – it is an industry that was largely built by people who had no experience in the areas they were trying to master. They couldn’t have experience because they, and the world for that matter, were venturing into unknown territory. It was a great blessing that no one had the ability to say, “Well, when I was at X company, we did it this way.” With that attitude, we may have never been able to witness the www as we know it. 
I mentioned this concern about “old thinking” to my friend, Dan, recently, and he said that this may very much be a function of just getting older and more experienced. And that got me thinking, and then it got me worried. Am I destined to become one of those people who believes she has seen it all before, someone who will eventually discard the energy and fascination with newness that so many young people have?
No. I’ve decided that I just won’t be that way. I can’t be that way, for the sake of my own success if nothing else. So I keep challenging myself to go places and do things that I’ve never done before. I do things that scare me. Things that I believe are beyond the scope of my ability. And this is critical to retaining youth – because even if I fail at these new ventures, at least it will remind me that I don’t everything about anything. It will remind that there is always, always something new to learn. 
love, movie, New York, New York Ciy, relationships, Sex and the City, single

32 and single is okay

Christa Avampato

With the upcoming release of the Sex and the City movie, the idea of 30-something women in New York City pursuing successful careers, love, and happiness is being brought to the forefront of the minds of women like me. While I would never spend $1500 on a handbag or a pair of shoes, even if I had that kind of money to spend on such things, I certainly relate to some of the pursuits of the characters in that hit show. 

So it was with a little surprise that I went to a party last week and was told by another young woman that if a 32-year old found a man there’s no way she’d ever move to another city just to pursue a job opportunity, no matter how incredible the job. I was a tiny bit hurt (emphasis on the “tiny”), though was more disappointed with the person. For one thing, she knew I was a 32 year old single woman, and her characterization of women my age being desperate to find a man is completely off the mark. Would it be great to find love? Sure. Am I going to pass up incredible career opportunities in the hopes that a current boyfriend is the love of my life? No way. I wouldn’t want him to either, so why would I ask that of myself?

The other point that really gets me is that people who are in relationships often assume that the goal of all single people is to find a mate. It’s as if we must be sitting around hoping and praying that he’ll “find us”. Give me a break! I love my friends, my career, my family, my creative pursuits. They’re my focus. I’m not waiting for my true love to “rescue me” from my single life. Again, would it be great to meet a guy whom I connect with on a deep level whom I love and respect and admire? Yes, definitely. Does it consume my waking hours? No way – it’s a passing thought from time to time. And maybe somewhere down the line it happens, and maybe it doesn’t. And either way, it’s all okay.      

If there’s anything that Candace Bushnell’s characters have taught us it’s that love of self and friends and life is the greatest pursuit of all.

community, Fast Company, social media, technology

Creating your own social network

Christa Avampato

There’s lots of buzz flying around in traditional and new media channels about the proliferation of Facebook. Some people feel it’s not personal enough and that there are too many people registered. They want something more akin to a niche social network. But how do you find these niche sites and and more importantly, how do you find one specifically suited to your passion whether it’s hashing or Barry Manilow or Netflix? The answer: Ning.

The brainchild of Gina Bianchini and Marc Andreesen, two of those Silicon Valley smarties, Ning allows you to join any one of the many niche social networks registered on their site, or if you have an interest that doesn’t yet have a network, you can create one. With the way social networking is going, combined with Ning’s niche network feature and great design, there seems to be no end of Ning’s value. It’s one of those inventions whose value proposition is so simple, you wonder how no one thought of it sooner. But isn’t that the way with all good design?

Check out Ning at http://www.ning.com/.

diet, eating, health, New York Times, wellness

My love for sweets is in my genes

Christa Avampato

I could eat sweets morning, noon, and night and never get sick of them. My sweet of choice: Entenmann’s chocolate-covered donuts. I could easily scarf down a box of those in one sitting. I don’t (or haven’t recently anyway) but it’s within my capabilities. I know this isn’t good for me. I’ve tried every trick imaginable to banish my sweet tooth. I am envious of people who claim, “I’m just not that interested in sweets.” Until I consider how absolutely delicious sweets are, and then I am grateful that I can get more for myself if others don’t like them.

My grandfather was a candy maker and I have always jokingly attributed my love of sweets to my genes. As it turns out, my penchant for sweets is not entirely within my control. There is now scientific proof that my little joke, like most, also holds some truth. In today’s Health section of the New York Times, there is mention of a research studies about a gene variant that allows people to process sugar more quickly than those without the gene variant. When studied in two groups of people, those with the gene variant always ate more sugar, though there was no difference in the amount of starch, fat, or protein that was eaten.

All these years, I’ve been beating up on myself a little for my seemingly endless craving for anything sweet. In actuality, I just happen to have exceptionally gifted genes when it comes to processing sugar. What luck!

business, career, Fast Company, leader, leadership

Anatomy of a Leader

Christa Avampato

My boss and I had a conversation a few months ago about young, bright people who enter large corporations and often feel stifled. They move around in the early part of their career, making a different where they can, and eventually amassing enough experience to get them their own group to manage. In the process, they have accumulated a lot of frustration and an vow that they will never treat their team members as anything less than true partners. And despite their best intentions, they some times fall short and their own young team members begin to see them they way that they once saw their own over-bearing bosses. 


So what’s a young leader to do to uphold their promise to treat their new teams the way they always wanted to be treated when they were new to the world of work? Bill Taylor of Fast Company took on that challenge in a recent article in the Harvard Business Review. I don’t know how long the link to the article will work and the information in it is so critical for young leaders that I have pasted it below. A word to the wise: take notes on Taylor’s comments and when you get that big leadership job, post them up at your desk. Your team will thank you, and they’ll stick around.


I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about the challenges of talented young people frustrated with life inside big organizations—game-changers who spend much of their time questioning authority . In this post, I’d like to turn the tables and address talented young people who find themselves exercising authority: leading a project team, running a product-development group, starting a new business unit.

If you’re the new boss, how do you make sure that you don’t repeat the bad habits of the old bosses who drove you crazy? My advice is to develop solid answers to five make-or-break questions for aspiring leaders.

1. Why should great people want to work with you? The best leaders understand that the most talented performers aren’t motivated primarily by money or status. Great people want to work on exciting projects. Great people want to feel like impact players. Put simply, great people want to feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves.

Early on in their company’s history, Google’s founders made clear that they considered the talent issue a make-or-break strategic issue for the future. So they published a Top Ten list of why the world’s best researchers, software programmers, and marketers should work at the Googleplex—and never once did they mention stock options or bonuses. Reason #2: “Life is beautiful. Being part of something that matters and working on products in which you can believe is remarkably fulfilling.” Reason #9: “Boldly go where no one has gone before. There are hundreds of challenges yet to solve. Your creative ideas matter here and are worth exploring.”

What’s your version of Google’s Top Ten list? Have you set out the most compelling reasons for great people to work on your team, in your division, at your company?

2. Do you know a great person when you see one? It’s a lot easier to be the right kind of leader if you’re running a team or department filled with the right kind of people. Indeed, as I reflect on the best workplaces I’ve visited, I’ve come to appreciate how much time and energy leaders spend on who gets to be there. These workplaces may feel different, but the organizing principle is the same: When it comes to evaluating talent, character counts for as much as credentials. Do you know what makes your star performers tick—and how to find more performers who share those attributes?

3. Can you find great people who aren’t looking for you? It’s a common-sense insight that’s commonly forgotten: The most talented performers tend to be in jobs they like, working with people they enjoy, on projects that keep them challenged. So leaders who are content to fill their organizations with people actively looking for jobs risk attracting malcontents and mediocre performers. The trick is to win over so-called “passive” jobseekers. These people may be outside your company, or they may be in a different department from inside your company, but they won’t work for you unless you work hard to persuade them to join.

4. Are you great at teaching great people how your team or company works and wins? Even the most highly focused specialists (software programmers, graphic designers, marketing wizards) are at their best when they appreciate how the whole business operates. That’s partly a matter of sharing financial statements: Can every person learn how to think like a businessperson? But it’s mainly a matter of shared understanding: Can smart people work on making everyone else in the organization smarter about the business?

5. Are you as tough on yourself as you are on your people? There’s no question that talented and ambitious young people have high expectations—for themselves, for their team or company, for their colleagues. Which is why they can be so tough on their leaders.

The ultimate challenge for a new boss who is determined not to be the same as the old boss is to demonstrate those same lofty expectations—for their behavior as leaders. One of my favorite HR gurus, Professor John Sullivan of San Francisco State University, says it best: “Stars don’t work for idiots.”

So here’s hoping that your team or department is filled with stars—and that they never think of you as an idiot.

The above picture can be found at http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/taylor/2008/05/memo_to_a_young_leader_what_ki.html