I'm having lunch tomorrow with one of the most passionately creative people I know, Abu Noaman, CEO of Elliance. He's coming in to guest lecture my Innovation + Technology class on how to integrate innovative ideas, processes, and thinking into the fabric of the organization, and afterwards, we'll grab a quick bite, since I'm then guest lecturing somewhere else at 1:00.
I always love having lunch with Abu because he has great stories, great observations, and a great and wide-ranging passion for creativity in everything from architecture to web design and all the letters in the middle. Like me, he's promiscuous (no, the second, third and fourth definitions) about art, design, writing, business, organizations, processes...and that fuels a great lunch, even when it's a short one.
So don't think about just who you can connect with at lunch. Think about who you can create with. Have lunch with interesting, passionate, wild-eyed, thoughtful, wacky, challenging creative people, at least once in while.
Innovation rarely comes from solitary people brooding behind (mentally and physically) closed doors. Nor does it come from making relationships for the sole purpose of making relationships. It comes, mostly, from people who push you, pull you, jostle you, whip you into a creative frenzy and then allow and encourage you to do the same for them. Ideas beget ideas.
So by all means have lunch with someone. Just make it someone interesting.
(Disclaimer: I'm on Elliance's Advisory Board. I don't know why that should make any difference vis-a-vis the above, but I thought I should tell you.)
