Three Powerful Innovation Skills That Writing Songs Can Teach Us
In my book, The Reason For The Rhymes: Mastering The Seven Essential Skills of Innovation by Learning to Write Songs, I cover seven skills that are critical for all innovators. But, as time goes on, I’ve come to realize that there are, in fact, quite a few more innovation skills that learning to write songs can teach us. To significantly paraphrase my book, the seven essential skills are lateral thinking, creativity, communication, empathy, collaboration, risk-taking, and the diffusion of ideas. To these seven, I’d like to add resilience, layered thinking and building emotional connections. I’ve expanded on these three additional skills below.
Learning Resilience Through Iteration
The craft of songwriting is not only a process of creation but also one of editing and multiple rewrites before a polished song can emerge. While harnessing our inspiration is a big part of writing songs, it is by no means the only part. What I’ve learned over decades and over a thousand songs is that once the creativity has run its course, it’s up to us to revisit our work - often multiple times - to make absolutely certain that our vision and intentions are coming through for the listener. The perseverance required to complete rewrite after rewrite mirrors the same iterative process for any and all innovations. Building those muscles requires the kind of hard-won resilience that all great innovators possess.
Thinking in Layers
Part of the dance of writing songs is balancing lyrics with phrasing (the way the phrases rise and fall) and emotion. Part of what makes song lyrics different from poetry is that they’re designed to be sung. In other words, it’s not just the message of the lyric but how the words actually sound. It is the effective mixture of message, rhythm and emotion that makes a song lyric singable and, more importantly, memorable. Training ourselves to think in multiple dimensions mirrors the kind of work innovation projects require as we juggle multiple facets of an idea or product and get them to fit together as a cohesive whole.
Building Emotional Connections
While a close cousin to the empathy skill mentioned in this piece’s introduction, emotional connections run deeper still. It’s not just about putting yourself in someone else’s place but about how you can directly connect with someone and build a lasting, emotional bond. The best songs are more than just clever lyrics and catchy melodies; instead, they’re about deeply touching and connecting us to each other while also reminding us of our shared humanity. A key to impactful innovation is creating solutions that truly connect with others. Those emotional connections are a big part of why people are willing to try something new and spread the word once they feel the emotional connection themselves.
Conclusion
If I’ve learned anything in my thirty-plus years as a songwriter, it’s that the power of writing songs extends far beyond putting a new song out there. We can learn a lot about ourselves and the world around us by leaving our comfort zones and exploring our emotions. This personal journey of self-discovery surprisingly translates directly into the kinds of skills that build cultures of innovation inside of organizations. And I consider it my privilege and mission to spread the word.
Bio
Cliff Goldmacher is a GRAMMY-recognized, #1 hit songwriter, music producer, and author with recording studios in Nashville, TN and Middle River, MD. Through his studios, Cliff provides songwriters outside of Nashville with virtual, live access to Nashville’s best session musicians and studio vocalists for their songwriting demos. Find out more. You can also download Cliff’s FREE tip sheet “A Dozen Quick Fixes To Instantly Improve Your Songs.”
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