The Reason for the Rhymes

Home , Every Breath You Take, I Write the Songs

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Cliff Goldmacher

The Reason For The Rhymes

Mastering the Seven Essential Skills of Innovation by Learning to Write Songs

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

This edition published by MBS Press, Sonoma, California

For more information e-mail: [email protected]

First edition: September 2020

Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-578-67333-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020906361

Cover design by Ashley Scott Interior layout and design by Peter Amirault

Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Dedication

For Mom.

Contents

Dedication ...... vii Advance Praise for The Reason For The Rhymes. . .xi Preface...... xv The Opening Line...... 1 Why Songwriting? ...... 5 The Seven Essential Skills of Innovation...... 25

Advance Praise for The Reason For The Rhymes

“Cliff Goldmacher masterfully shows anyone how they can unlock innovation and creativity through songwriting— even if they’ve never written before, or even thought that they could. Priming the pump of creative thinking through insightful exercises and examples, this is a book for anyone in tech, start-ups, or Fortune 500 companies looking for an edge to productivity.”

— Daniel J. Levitin Neuroscientist, author of This Is Your Brain on Music, four-time NY Times bestselling author and producer with 17 gold and platinum records

“Cliff’s in-person workshops provide a fresh approach to encourage clients to think more creatively about the processes we use to explore and untangle complex business issues. This book thoughtfully captures the spirit, intelligence and opportunity of Cliff’s message.”

— Diana O’Brien Global Chief Marketing Officer, Deloitte

Advance Praise for The Reason For The Rhymes xi xii The Reason For The Rhymes

“Your book brings clarity and process to an art and craft that’s sometimes hard to put your finger on. It’s hard to describe how to “do art,” yet you’ve done it here. Not only does this benefit people who normally wouldn’t write a song but it also takes away some of the mystery that can put fear in a songwriter or creative’s heart. This book can help all of us think through the way we write songs and make it more approachable. Thank you and great work!”

— Lisa Loeb Platinum-selling, GRAMMY Award®-winning singer-songwriter

“The Reason For The Rhymes is a unique and insightful exploration of improved innovation through learning to write songs written by a master of his craft. I’ve experienced Cliff’s songwriting workshop in person and I can say with complete sincerity his approach really works.”

— Kim Scott New York Times Bestselling Author of Radical Candor

“Brilliantly jumping the chasm between music and business, Cliff’s book sings new life into the innovation axioms of cross-pollination and adjacent-thinking. For teams who need to problem-solve fast, this book is a complete innovation jam-session. Read it and riff!”

— Dan Roam International best-selling author of The Back of the Napkin Advance Praise for The Reason For The Rhymes xiii

“It’s incredible to see the power of songwriting to take seasoned executives to the edge of their comfort zones, unlocking new ways of thinking and communicating. We’ve found both the theory and the application to be powerful tools to address business challenges.”

— Kim Christfort Co-author of Business Chemistry: Practical Magic for Crafting Powerful Work Relationships and leader of the Deloitte Greenhouse

“I’m loving the book! Well-written. Easy to understand. Direct. Straightforward.”

— Troy Tomlinson Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville

“Give it a read…it will be the most enjoyable few hours you will ever spend”

— Bob Donnelly Music attorney for GRAMMY-winning, multi-platinum and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artists

“Cliff distills the essence of creativity and breaks down the songwriting process in a way that proves without a doubt that not only can anyone do it but that everyone should be.”

— Lorna Sheridan Managing Editor, The Sonoma Index-Tribune xiv The Reason For The Rhymes

“As a talented and acclaimed songwriter, it would be easy for Cliff to keep the secrets of his success to himself. However, he understands that songwriting, and really all business, is at its core a collaborative art. His meticulously researched description of the connection between creativity and inspiration is a breezy read that encourages readers to explore the inherent artist that is inside all of us, sometimes hidden by our inhibitions. Those willing to give into the process and the exercises will be rewarded with the keys to an important new set of talents to help them in their everyday lives.”

— Chris Chamberlain Author and former marketing executive Preface

“In these days of political, personal and economic disintegration, music is not a luxury, it’s a necessity; not simply because it is therapeutic, nor because it is the universal language, but because it is the persistent focus of our intelligence, aspiration and goodwill.” — Robert Shaw

“The leader of this team has been skeptical all day, they’re pretty much afraid of him and they do whatever he says. Oh, and before this job he was a prison warden for almost twenty years.”

That was the last thing my liaison said to me before she introduced me and I walked up on

Preface xv xvi The Reason For The Rhymes stage in front of a team of senior executives at a Fortune 500 company who had no idea I was about to ask them to write a song.

As I explained to the team who I was and why I was there, I kept an eye on the faces in the crowd. Generally, when I tell a group of business people that I’m going to get them to write a song, I get a mixture of responses from nervous laughter to disbelief to confusion but the team leader—let’s call him “the warden” from now on—could have been playing high stakes poker for his lack of facial cues.

I spoke for about twenty minutes laying out the ground rules but no matter what I said, the warden remained stone-faced. I’ll admit I was getting a bit concerned that there was no way we were going to make a connection.

Then, as I broke up the group into smaller teams of six to write their songs, I noticed that—as predicted—the team the warden was on was deferring to him as they began Preface xvii writing their song’s lyric. I checked in several times nudging them in this direction or that to help them refine their message but still there were no outward signs from the warden of anything but a businesslike desire to get through yet another “exercise.”

In my songwriting workshops, once the teams have written the lyrics to their song’s verse and chorus, I ask them what genre they think their song should be. Country? Blues? Pop? Jazz? When the warden stated that he’d envisioned this song as a heavy metal ballad in the style of the Scorpions, I got my first indication that maybe there was something going on beneath his stoic facade. As I started playing chords and creating a melody for their song, it was like someone flipped a switch and—truly out of the blue— the warden became animated, engaged and totally immersed in what he and his team were doing.

If ninety minutes earlier, someone had told me that this taciturn business executive would xviii The Reason For The Rhymes be up in front of his assembled colleagues enthusiastically singing his newly written 80s-style heavy metal ballad, it would have been my turn to be skeptical.

The power of songs to challenge, transform, communicate and connect is equal parts inspiring and humbling. It’s why I write songs and why I now teach others to do the same.

But don’t take my word for it. Let’s try a short experiment. Bring yourself back in your mind to the summer after your senior year in high school. You’re driving, the radio is playing and your favorite song comes on. If you were to hear that song right now, my guess is you’d be back in your car and every one of your senses would be alive with the emotions and memories of that time. For me, it was Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” which I’d performed in a talent show with some friends earlier that year. The acoustic guitar riff that signals the start of that song can still—over thirty years later—put me back in Memphis in that long, sticky summer before I headed out Preface xix west for college. Still don’t believe me? Go to YouTube, find your song and listen. I’ll wait . . . Now that you’ve done that, I’m almost certain I don’t have to tell you how powerful songs—and songwriting—can be.

Preface xix

The Opening Line

“Innovation is the calling card of the future.” — Anna Eshoo

Innovation. It’s one of those words. We hear it again and again in business and while the need for innovation is clear, improving your ability to innovate is not.

In my research, one of the better definitions I found is that innovation is “the creation, development and implementation of a new product, process or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage.” But an even simpler definition is that innovation is “the commercialization of creativity.”

Whether your goals are to create game- changing products like Apple did with the iPhone in 2007 or simply to improve an

The Opening Line 1 2 The Reason For The Rhymes internal process in your day to day business, innovation matters.

The problem, as I see it, is that the ability to innovate is perceived as some mystical, inspired activity available only to a select pool of creative geniuses. In fact, when broken down into its component parts, innovation— like songwriting—is simply a combination of skills that we already possess. That being said, to perform those skills well they need to be nurtured and developed.

On a meta level, using songwriting as a tool to enhance innovation is already innovative but as you’ll see in the coming pages, it is the seven specific skills that songwriting develops—lateral thinking, creativity, communication, empathy, collaboration, risk- taking and the diffusion of ideas—that make learning to write songs the ideal exercise for anyone in any business intent on improving their ability to innovate. The Opening Line 3

Innovation, to me, is anything but an abstract concept. On both a micro (writing songs) and macro (navigating a career in music) level, I’ve been innovating for my entire working life.

As a professional songwriter, I came to learn early on that not only was I competing against anyone writing songs today but also against every song that has ever been written. What I mean is that it’s not unusual for recording artists to record songs written close to a hundred years ago (think about any contemporary artist who records a jazz standard written in the 1920s). As a result, I have to think of each song I write as a mini innovation so that it improves upon and, in some way, differentiates itself from the competition.

On a larger level, making a living in the music business is all about finding innovative ways to generate income using your musical skill set. Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve relied on innovation even in the ways my songs are marketed. For example, I co-wrote a song 4 The Reason For The Rhymes about Coco Chanel that I pitched directly to an unsuspecting Chanel executive so that they ended up licensing the song to use at one of their marketing meetings. But even beyond writing and placing songs, I depend upon innovation to run my Nashville recording studio. Instead of competing for local clients directly with the many hundreds of recording studios in the Nashville metropolitan area, I’ve developed a system of streaming studio sessions to clients who live anywhere in the world. All this to say, innovation to me is not an abstract concept but, rather, an essential part of my livelihood. Why Songwriting?

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein

I’ve written over a thousand songs and I’d be lying if I told you I could remember the writing of each of them but I can certainly remember what it felt like to write my first one. I was completely transported. I’d put something brand new into the world. Not only that but I’d found a way to take what was important to me and translate it into a medium that would connect with others on a deep emotional level. All of a sudden, I had a way to process my feelings, thoughts and ideas in a new and incredibly powerful language that people actually wanted to hear. I was hooked.

Of course, I’ve had thirty years to think about the power of songwriting to spark innovation

Why Songwriting? 5 6 The Reason For The Rhymes and you might be thinking about it for almost the first time as you read these pages.

To give you a hand, let me take a moment to explain how songs—and songwriting—are not a luxury but a fundamental necessity to all life on earth.

From religious hymns written in Sumerian over three thousand years ago to the songs, quite literally, of birds and whales, songs are one of the very oldest means of creating meaningful and memorable communication. It is these qualities among the others I’ll soon describe that will make developing your ability to write songs an essential arrow in your innovative quiver.

Over the past several years, it has been my pleasure—and privilege—to guide hundreds of executives through my songwriting workshops. My favorite part, without a doubt, is showing people who are not conditioned to thinking of themselves as creative that they are absolutely, positively capable of innovating Why Songwriting? 7 and that all they’ve been missing are the proper tools.

Often when I’m discussing my workshop in advance with my corporate clients, I’m asked what happens if one—or more—of the teams involved isn’t able to write a song. I’ll tell you what I tell them. Songwriting is simply a matter of giving already intelligent people the tools they need to enhance their innovation skill set. Every team writes a song. Every time.

“Above all, innovation is work rather than genius.” — Peter Drucker

This book is designed not only to break down and explain the benefits of the songwriting process as it applies to innovation but also to give you, the reader, the tools you’ll need to write songs yourself. In learning how to do this, you’ll be equipped with a brand new set of creative, problem-solving 8 The Reason For The Rhymes and communication skills that will help you innovate in powerful and compelling ways.

To be clear, I’m not saying that you’ll be presenting your future ideas as songs but, rather, by using the metaphorical and emotional language of songwriting as a lens to explore your concepts, you’ll be better able to creatively communicate any message to any audience. Also, in order to gently ease you into the creative world of songwriting, I’m going to start with a few of the significant parallels between songwriting and business.

And, by the way, take a look at the appendix of this book to read about what noted neuroscientist and best-selling author Daniel Levitin has to say about how songwriting is one of the best ways to boost workplace productivity.

“Changes call for innovation, and innovation leads to progress.” — Li Keqiang Why Songwriting? 9

Writing Good Songs Is Like Doing Good Business In the process of designing a workshop to teach songwriting to corporate clients, it became clear to me that the same things that make for good songs make for good business. I thought I’d cover four specific areas where experienced songwriters and effective businesspeople share common ground. Also, I’ve excerpted lyrics from a few well-known songs to illustrate my points.

1. Balance the emotion and the story The best description I’ve ever heard of songwriters is that we are all “emotional nudists.” In other words, there’s something about the way we’re built that makes us want to share the “uncovered” totality of our feelings with anyone who’ll listen.

That being said, there’s nudity and there’s nudity . . .

If a song has too much emotion and not enough story, that’s akin to being a flasher 10 The Reason For The Rhymes which is the kind of behavior that will most likely get you arrested. If, on the other hand, a song skillfully interweaves a story with just the right amount of emotion to make people care, that’s more like a striptease which—I have on fairly good authority—people are willing to pay for.

As beginning songwriters, we don’t yet have the tools to communicate meaningful and emotional ideas in a compelling way. This means that most of our early songwriting efforts are long on emotion and short on detail and story. In other words, they’re basically just saying “I love you” or “I miss you” in some form over and over again. These are certainly powerful—and meaningful—emotions but without a story to give them shape they lack the kind of impact that would make anyone other than the person we love (or miss) want to listen.

The more we write, however, the more we begin to understand how important details— especially visual ones—are to telling stories in Why Songwriting? 11 our songs. I’ll get more into the nuts and bolts of lyric writing later in the book but for now it’s enough to say that the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings especially true in songwriting.

When it comes to balancing emotion and story in the business world, the opposite issue is usually true. Details in any memo, presentation or email without any emotion attached are boring to everyone but the person writing them. The more able you are to infuse your details with the kind of emotion and feeling that makes us human, the greater the likelihood that your message will connect with those who encounter it.

Songwriting is the ultimate tool for learning how to communicate your message with the proper balance of story and emotion. The more you understand and apply the rules of good songwriting to your own work, the better received it will be. 12 The Reason For The Rhymes

In their GRAMMY-winning song, “I Hope You Dance,” songwriters Tia Sillers & Mark D. Sanders strike the perfect balance between details like “stand beside the ocean” and the emotion of a simple wish that the listener of the song “dance” which serves as a powerful metaphor for joyfully participating in life instead of sitting on the sidelines.

This song without the details in the verses would be entirely too sentimental and lacking in substance but, conversely, without the simple, powerful emotion baked into the chorus phrase “I hope you dance,” the song would just be a recounting of random visuals without a unifying theme.

I Hope You Dance VERSES: I hope you never lose your sense of wonder You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger May you never take one single breath for granted God forbid love ever leave you empty handed Why Songwriting? 13

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

CHORUS: I hope you dance I hope you dance

2. Take a fresh angle on a familiar topic Anytime songwriters sit down to collaborate, there are approximately twenty to thirty minutes of chit chat as we settle in and get ourselves ready to work. The fact that we’ll be writing a song from scratch over the next few hours is the elephant in the room but usually we’ll ignore that for those first few minutes as if we’re just getting together that day to shoot the breeze. Then, typically, one of us will say something to signal that it’s time to get to work. I’ll never forget one writing session where my co-writer gave this signal by saying “So, are we going to write another song about love 14 The Reason For The Rhymes and people?” It was such a great and obvious comment that I still smile when I think about it because when it comes right down to it, pretty much every song is about “love and people.”

Given that this is the case, the key is to write songs about “love and people” that feel unique even though at some fundamental level all songs are about the same general topic. A large part of what we do as songwriters is to look for unique ways of saying something that’s been said many thousands of times before.

In business, a similar situation exists. Maybe the topics aren’t “love and people” but the themes and challenges that any and all businesses face when it comes to innovation center around a common core of ideas from launching new products, improving internal processes to designing a successful long- term strategy. The way to create a compelling presentation of these ideas is to stay far away from the business speak and cliché that fills so many PowerPoint decks and memos. Why Songwriting? 15

The solution—just like in songwriting—is to take these familiar topics and make them feel distinctive.

To return to a songwriting example, Sting took yet another song about “love and people” and created a unique, albeit slightly creepy, anthem to love and obsession. While this kind of love might not be your cup of tea, it’s hard to argue with the distinctiveness of the approach or with the fact that radio has played “Every Breath You Take” over 11,000,000 times.

Every Breath You Take CHORUS: Every breath you take, every move you make Every bond you break, every step you take I’ll be watching you

Every single day, every word you say Every game you play, every night you stay I’ll be watching you I’ll be watching you 16 The Reason For The Rhymes

3. Write from what you know/be sincere In songwriting, especially in our early efforts, there’s a temptation to write what we think other people want to hear. The danger with this approach—and the reason that these songs don’t typically connect with listeners— is that they lack sincerity.

The simplest and best way to write authentic songs is to write from your own experience. If you’re writing from what you know, you can speak to your topic in a way that resonates not only with you but also with your listeners no matter what you’re writing about. Ironically, the way this plays out is that often the most personal songs connect with the greatest number of people.

The reality is that sincerity applies to all forms of communication. In business, making sure that your message is genuine and resonates with your experience will greatly increase the chances that it rings true with everyone it Why Songwriting? 17 touches both within your organization and, of course, with your customers as well.

What I absolutely love about this next song example is that it was written by a songwriter and discusses very, very specifically what he does for a living. He writes songs. And yet it won the GRAMMY for song of the year which means that his message connected with a huge number of people most of whom, I’m certain, weren’t songwriters. The sincerity of the message resonates so deeply with listeners that, ironically, Barry Manilow—a gifted songwriter himself—chose to sing and record this song even though he didn’t write it. It was written, instead, by Bruce Johnston who is perhaps better known for being one of The Beach Boys for over thirty years.

I Write the Songs VERSE: I’ve been alive forever And I wrote the very first song I put the words and the melodies together 18 The Reason For The Rhymes

I am music and I write the songs

CHORUS: I write the songs that make the whole world sing I write the songs of love and special things I write the songs that make the young girls cry I write the songs, I write the songs

4. Commit to your cause To accurately summarize what it means to pursue a career in songwriting, my favorite expression is undoubtedly, “writing songs for the money is like getting married for the sex.” What this expression rather indelicately—but succinctly—communicates is that unless you’re writing songs because you’re genuinely moved to do it, you’ll be disappointed.

To be clear, even the most financially successful songwriters write hundreds and hundreds of songs that never earn a single cent. The reason the most committed songwriters get out of bed in the morning and spend their days writing songs has very little to do with the paycheck and almost Why Songwriting? 19 everything to do with the fact that they truly can’t imagine doing anything else. If and when the “money” does arrive, that’s great, too, but it ultimately represents more of a confirmation that they’re on the right track as opposed to the specific attainment of a financial goal.

No matter whether you’re a songwriter or not, your work is simply more fulfilling if you’re committed to your cause. Of course, salary and bonuses are a motivation in the working world but when it comes to putting in the long hours and materially contributing to the success of a specificinnovation or an entire business, it’s the involvement with—and success of—the cause itself that will sustain your effort.

In this final example, it’s not so much a particular song that I want to use to illustrate my point but, rather, the story of the writing of a song and my subsequent relationship with my co-writer, Spencer Day. 20 The Reason For The Rhymes

Spencer and I were set up to write by a record executive friend of mine after he’d signed Spencer to a development deal with Universal Records. By way of explanation, a development deal means that the record label likes the potential of an artist but isn’t ready to commit the necessary finances for a full album deal and, instead, will provide enough funding for some demos of songs and a showcase performance in order to convince the record company decision makers.

On November 5th, 2008, Spencer showed up at my recording studio on West 37th street in midtown Manhattan. We chatted for about twenty minutes as we got to know each other a bit and then, over the next few hours, we proceeded to write a song called “Till You Come To Me.” The song tells the story of a lovelorn protagonist and is set in a film noir version of a New York City summer. We were both happy with what we’d written and it became clear to me right away that not only Why Songwriting? 21 was Spencer a gifted artist but also that he and I had great songwriting chemistry.

Spencer demoed the song and included it in his showcase for Universal Records just a few weeks later. At that point, it seemed like we were off to the races. Then a couple of days after his showcase, Spencer called and, just as quickly, what had appeared to be an auspicious beginning came to a grinding halt. He explained that the execs at Universal Records decided to end his development deal and drop him from the label entirely. He then said that since he no longer had a record deal, he would understand if I didn’t want to write with him anymore. I could only imagine how crushingly disappointed he was and I had no intention of adding to that disappointment. I explained to him that I believed in our songwriting partnership and, as far as I was concerned, we would continue to write songs whether or not he had a record deal.

To Spencer’s infinite credit, he picked himself up and opted to finance his own recording 22 The Reason For The Rhymes project and release his album independently. And this is where things got good.

While Spencer was recording his album, there was a record executive from Concord Jazz named Nick Phillips in the next studio over who, unbeknownst to Spencer, had been listening to the songs coming from Spencer’s studio. Not only did Nick like what he heard but he ultimately signed Spencer to a record deal with Concord Jazz. On top of that, that very first song Spencer and I wrote twenty minutes after meeting each other was the song that the new label chose to release as the album’s first single. “Till You Come To Me” climbed the jazz charts for fifty weeks and ended up at number one.

While I wouldn’t exactly describe this approach as a business plan, it certainly serves as a strong reminder to me that if my head and heart are in the right place, the rest will end up taking care of itself. And it certainly has. Why Songwriting? 23

But enough about the big picture. It’s time to summarize the seven essential skills necessary for innovation and explain how learning to write songs can make you better at all of them.

The Seven Essential Skills of Innovation (And how songwriting makes you better at all of them)

“Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.” — Bill Gates

The requirements for effective innovation can be boiled down to seven essential skills. I’ll begin with a brief description of each skill and then enumerate the way that a specific component of the songwriting process will enhance that particular skill.

Why Songwriting? 25 26 The Reason For The Rhymes

Innovation Skill #1—Lateral thinking Songwriting Component—The metaphor When it comes to innovation, it can help to remember that in order to create something new and different, you need to think differently about your current product, market or process. Another way to describe this is to think laterally. By avoiding a standard, linear approach to problem-solving, you can avoid the same, well-worn and often suboptimal “solutions.” In his book, “Lateral Thinking,” Edward de Bono makes this point beautifully when he states “the mind is a cliché making and cliché using system. The purpose of lateral thinking is to overcome these limitations by providing a means for restructuring, for escaping from cliché patterns, for putting information together in new ways to give new ideas.”

Songwriting provides the perfect device to help you “put information together in new ways” and escape from the aforementioned “cliché patterns.” That device is the metaphor. Why Songwriting? 27

By learning to reexamine any idea from the standpoint of its metaphorical equivalent, you will empower yourself to think in ways that don’t reveal themselves using the standard problem-solving approach.

Innovation Skill #2—Creativity Songwriting Component—The verse Creativity is at the heart of innovation. That being said, there is a common misconception that creativity is the domain of a specialized group of individuals with a “gift” for it. This is simply untrue. In an article for Fast Company magazine, neuroscientist and author Tara Swart summarizes the keys to creativity as “practice” and “intention.” In other words, you have the ability to be creative if you’re willing to develop it.

Writing songs—and specifically the details required in verse writing—will serve as an important reminder that you are—at your core—a creative being. As you’ll see in the coming pages, writing verses is quite simply 28 The Reason For The Rhymes a concentrated form of storytelling. The more you develop your verse writing/storytelling skills, the easier your access to your own creativity will become.

Innovation Skill #3—Communication Songwriting Component—The chorus Properly highlighting the uniqueness and value of your innovation comes down to the ability to communicate in a way that is both clear and compelling. This communication works both internally as a way to assure buy- in from your colleagues as well as externally when it comes to the marketing of your new product or service.

The chorus of a song is the deceptively simple summary and distillation of your message. Choruses are often very short and highly repetitive so if your message isn’t perfectly refined, you run the risk of missing your opportunity to connect with your audience. The better you become at writing choruses, Why Songwriting? 29 the better your communication skills will be in any situation.

Innovation Skill #4—Empathy Songwriting Component—Observation Another key to effective innovation is the understanding of how your ideas will be perceived both inside your organization and externally by your customers. The more developed your empathy is as an innovator, the greater your ability to connect with those people who most need to believe in what you’ve created.

Similarly, in order to write a song, you need to first consider and observe from the standpoint of the song’s subject. Writing while continuously keeping your subject’s feelings and behavior in mind, automatically strengthens your ability to empathize. 30 The Reason For The Rhymes

Innovation Skill #5—Collaboration Songwriting Component—Co-writing Innovation requires multiple varieties of collaboration from the outreach across silos within a company to simply putting together a team that can leverage the strengths of its individual members.

Co-writing is a microcosm of the exact form of collaboration necessary for successful innovation. Each of the component parts of songwriting from developing the metaphor to storytelling in the verses to refining the core of the song’s message in the chorus requires different skills. When these skills are shared among songwriting collaborators, it can make any song better than the sum of its individual writers.

Innovation Skill #6—Risk-Taking Songwriting Component—Vulnerability Developing new products and processes to replace current ones—even when they’re working—requires a kind of risk-taking Why Songwriting? 31 that is antithetical to most businesses and executives. That being said, in order to stay competitive and grow, this kind of risk-taking through innovation is essential.

Writing—and ultimately singing—songs will require you to make yourself vulnerable in a work context which will feel undoubtedly risky as you will likely fear potential ridicule. However, doing this in a structured, psychologically safe setting will allow you to build up your risk-taking tolerance in a healthy and consistent way.

Innovation Skill #7—Diffusion Songwriting Component—Performance Innovation doesn’t work in a vacuum. In order for an innovation to succeed, it needs to be propagated to those who can most benefit. If this doesn’t happen, an innovation is simply a good idea that never sees the light of day.

In the same way, songs are designed to be shared. Writing a song is only the first 32 The Reason For The Rhymes step. The true power of songs is when they connect with—and move—others. To that end, the performance of your song carries the added significance of reminding you that new ideas need to be shared. To continue reading, click here to purchase the digital version available at Amazon’s Kindle Store.

To contact the author directly, email: [email protected]