“In 28 days, the country will elect its 44th president, said Professor of Political Science Kyle Dell in Isaacson’s introduction two hours before the second presidential debate. “I’m struck that Walter has a gifted insight to the values and the qualities that our best leaders have and should abide by.”Isaacson is a distinguished journalist whose resume includes being the 14th managing editor of Time magazine and the CEO of CNN. Isaacson is now the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, an organization where continuous dialogues for developing leadership are held.
Isaacson’s lecture focused on the importance of humility and creativity in good leadership, and he based it around two of his biographical subjects: Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.
Franklin’s puritanical father planned to send his young son to Harvard to be a minister, but decided it was a futile attempt when his son offered to efficiently grace all of their stored winter food at once instead of blessing the food meal by meal.
“Benjamin Franklin was not exactly cut for the cross,” Isaacson told the audience. “He had a cheeky impertinence that was part of his creativity.”
Isaacson then talked about a time when Franklin wanted to write for his brother’s newspaper, The New England Courant. After being rejected by his brother, Franklin decided to write anyway under a fake name. Franklin used the pseudonym ‘Silence Dogood,’ and claimed to be an elderly widow courted by a minister. He then wrote essays that addressed patriotism, made fun of Harvard and criticized the mixing of church and state.
One passage from Franklin’s Dogood essay states: “Anybody who goes from the clergy into government will certainly steal your money in two different ways.”
“It was a triumph of the imagination, said Isaacson about Franklin’s alias. “Because he was a fourteen year old kid at this point who had never left Boston. but there he is writing in the voice of a widowed, elderly woman.”
Isaacson went on to talk about Einstein–his pick for Time’s man of the century because of his advanced imagination.
“Einstein was no Einstein when he was a kid, stated Isaacson. “He was great not because he was the smartest or best educated scientist around.he was a genius because he thought out of the box.”
Isaacson outlined Einstein’s education at Zurich Polytech where he gained the reputation of a rebel. After one of his teachers refused to address electromagnetism in class, Einstein began to refer to the teacher as “Mr.” rather than “Professor.” Another teacher referred to Einstein as a “lazy dog” in a report.
In one of Einstein’s lab classes, he intentionally ignored instructions. The young student instead decided to make his own instructions, which led to him blowing up the lab equipment and leaving him with three stitches.
“All through my career in writing biographies and my career in journalism, I have discovered that what we need most in our leaders is value based openness,” said Isaacson. “And also an ability to think imaginatively and creatively.”
Isaacson then spoke about the current need for creativity in post 9/11 world affairs. He named a few examples of endeavors a creative leader could pursue–creating a NATO-like organization for the Middle East and better defining the goals of the war on terror.
He also emphasized that solutions to most problems can be solved with diplomacy.
“If we all sat together we could probably figure out common sense solution to 70 percent of our problems,” sad Isaacson. “In the middle ground, we could all agree on, instead of polarizing ourselves the way our politicians and the media try to do.”
In an interview after the presentation, Isaacson spoke about other current issues that he hopes creative leadership can solve. One of the top issues on the Louisianan’s list was education.
“I think the reason our education system is not as good as it should be is that we’re not innovative enough. We don’t look for creative ways to do things and we don’t have good measurements of standards at times,” Isaacson. “If we’re going to be a strong nation in the 21st century, we have to have an education system that’s the best in the world and allows every kid to get an equal opportunity.”
Because of his concern for education, Isaacson has become a board member of Teach for America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to putting high achieving college graduates into teaching positions.
“If the smartest kids graduating from college go out and become teachers in underserved school districts, those thousands of minds will help solve the problem.