legal sanity

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Inspiration is a great motivator in business and other arenas that derives from a number of sources. When I need to clear my head and gain perspective on a work or personal matter, I often go for a walk in a local nature preserve to enjoy its inspiring calm and beauty. If I’m in a foul mood because of stress, horsing around with my kids provides a healthy dose of inspiration in the form of laughter and lightness. In this spirit of inspiration, I offer a trio of articles I came across in my recent Web wanderings.

Blogger Dick Richards of Come Gather Round points us to his terrific article on The Anatomy of Empathy. Profiling the empathic ways of “three accomplished leaders,” Richards inspires us to access and refine our own ability to empathize with our clients and colleagues by (1) stepping into their emotional world without losing ourselves in it and (2) communicating that we understand and accept their emotions.

In his Wired Magazine article What Kind of Genius Are You?, author and blogger Dan Pink introduces us to economist David Galenson's theory about creative genius. According to Galenson, genius comes in “two very different forms, embodied by two very different types of people.” The first type he calls conceptual innovators. These people “make bold, dramatic leaps in their disciplines. They do their breakthrough work when they are young.” On the other end of the creative genius continuum are experimental innovators who, “like Auguste Rodin, Mark Twain, and Alfred Hitchcock proceed by a lifetime of trial and error and thus do their important work much later in their careers.”

Pink has a way with words and ends his piece with this insightful remark about Galenson’s theory of late-blooming genius: “It’s no justification for laziness or procrastination or indifference. But it might bolster the resolve of the relentlessly curious, the constantly tinkering, the dedicated tortoises undaunted by the blur of the hares.”

Last, but not least, is a csmonitor.com story called Out of the Elevator. It discusses the work and mission of Muzak, a marketing company that provides audio arcitecture and branding services. Recognizing that music’s inspirational force is an “emotional power that can be harnessed,” the company helps clients create a musical atmosphere that gives customers a “warm feeling that ultimately cements loyalty.”

This certainly inspires me to ponder what kind of “aural environment” (aka soundtrack) would best complement the lawyers, law firms and other businesses I work with.