Here's an Idea: Let Everyone Have Ideas

[26 March 2006 - New York Times] LIKE many top executives, James R. Lavoie and Joseph M. Marino keep a close eye on the stock market. But the two men, co-founders of Rite-Solutions, a software company that builds advanced — and highly classified — command-and-control systems for the Navy, don't worry much about Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange. Instead, they focus on an internal market where any employee can propose that the company acquire a new technology, enter a new business or make an efficiency improvement. These proposals become stocks, complete with ticker symbols, discussion lists and e-mail alerts. Employees buy or sell the stocks, and prices change to reflect the sentiments of the company's engineers, computer scientists and project managers — as well as its marketers, accountants and even the receptionist. ... According to Tim O'Reilly, the founder and chief executive of O'Reilly Media, the computer book publisher, and an evangelist for open source technologies, creativity is no longer about which companies have the most visionary executives, but who has the most compelling "architecture of participation." That is, which companies make it easy, interesting and rewarding for a wide range of contributors to offer ideas, solve problems and improve products? ... The next frontier is to tap the quiet genius that exists outside organizations — to attract innovations from people who are prepared to work with a company, even if they don't work for it. An intriguing case in point is InnoCentive, a virtual research and development lab through which major corporations invite scientists and engineers worldwide to contribute ideas and solve problems they haven't been able to crack themselves.More

The Problem With Brainstorming

[28 March 2006 - Wired News] From time to time I find myself invited to brainstorm for people. This usually involves coming up with new ways my hosts might "add value to their revenue chain" or "leverage their brand." To be perfectly honest, I'm not very good at it. I'll explain why in a moment. First, though, here's a little history of brainstorming. Brainstorming is a creative problem-solving strategy launched in 1953 in a book called Applied Imagination by Alex F. Osborn, an advertising executive. The basic idea is that when judgment is suspended, a bold and copious flow of original ideas can be produced. It's very much a team effort -- rather than getting bogged down in the judgments, personal criticisms and ego clashes that accompany the ownership of, and investment in, certain ideas, the team acts collectively. When you're brainstorming, ideas belong to no one and come from anywhere. Anything goes. ... I pointed out how Bob Dylan's scattershot liner notes to his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, wouldn't have been possible without Osborn's ideas about suspending judgment to encourage ideational fluency; even the term freewheeling is Osborn's, one of the advertising man's four stages of brainstorming (deferring judgment, striving for quantity, freewheeling and seeking combinations). ... Thinking in teams, and pitching other people's ideas rather than my own, I quickly found my freshest thoughts blending into a kind of generalized banality, a dollar-green cookie dough. Quantity there was, but the lack of a personal moral framework and the impossibility of being negative took quality off the agenda. Like the Sundance Kid, I wanted to ask the facilitator, "Can I move now?" Why, 50 years after Osborn's book, do I find that brainstorming, far from unleashing hidden originality in me, blocks and banishes all my most interesting ideas? Put it down to the most important difference between 1953 and 2006: the internet. More specifically, the way the internet has encouraged games with personality and personae, with avatars and animus. More

Special Project Brings Artists, Ambassadors To the U.N.

[27 March 2006 - Skidmore College] What if Picasso had painted Guernica, — possibly modern art's most powerful antiwar statement — before the bombs fell on the town of Guernica? Might the outcome have been different? Can art and the creative imagination have the force to effect change? These are some of the questions that inform the most recent work of artist Richard Kamler. A longtime artist, activist, and curator Kamler will discuss “Seeing Peace: Artists Collaborate with the United Nations,” at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 28, at the Tang Museum. “Seeing Peace” seeks to bring artists to the table of the General Assembly, seated along side their respective ambassadors, from each of the 191 member nations of the United Nations. They will enter the General Assembly, pair by pair, the artist and the ambassador, declaring the presence of the imagination as a crucial element in international dialogue. Kamler's work, including public installations, sound pieces, events, drawings, sculptures, and public presentations, have dealt with many important social issues and environmental considerations. They have been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues ranging from Art Space in New York to the Experimental Video Festival in the Netherlands to Alcatraz Island. Kamler currently chairs the Visual Arts Department of the University of San Francisco, where he also directs the art outreach program, Artist as Citizen in Contemporary Society. He has been in residence at Blue Mountain Center for the Arts in New York, Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, and Millay Colony for the Arts in New York.

Creativity Comes to B-School

[26 March 2006 - BusinessWeek] As more institutions set up courses stressing innovation, students are learning all sorts of techniques to help them think outside the box. ... Innovation and creativity courses were slow to catch on but have spread like wildfire. Only 29% of MBA and EMBA programs have freestanding courses in creativity and innovation, according to a Kennesaw State University study released in November, but the number of schools offering these courses has doubled in the past five years, and nearly 92% of those that did not have a course or module said they were at least somewhat likely to offer one in the next five years. Clearly, schools are trying to keep up with the real world. The best job candidates in the future will possess a creative ability that comes from working with different kinds of people on challenging projects, says Bob Sutton, professor of engineering at Stanford and author of the book, Weird Ideas that Work (Simon & Schuster, 2002). "If you just have an MBA, that's nice, but it's not enough," he argues.
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Creativity should be weapon of choice in war for talent

[24 February 2006 - Personnel Today] HR professionals need to identify more creative approaches to talent management to stay ahead of the competition, a new report suggests. The survey, by HR consultancy Hewitt Associates, asked senior HR professionals at just under 140 organisations how they believe economic, demographic and technological developments will affect the workplace. While it is clear that some HR professionals are already rising to the challenge, only a few are coming up with the far-reaching solutions needed, the survey says. One of the key findings is that the battle for talent is intensifying, with 60% of companies currently experiencing significant problems in recruiting key talent from traditional sources. More

Robert Greene: Teacher remembered for humor, commitment

[25 February 2006 - Press & Sun-Bulletin - Greater Binghamton, NY] Robert Greene put a rug in his home for his wife, but when he was done there was a small lump in the middle. Thinking it was a pack of cigarettes, he beat on the lump until the rug was smooth. Soon, he discovered his pet bird was missing. That was one of the jokes Mr. Greene used to tell, a staple of the humor he used to teach people about thinking creatively and gathering all the facts. Mr. Greene - whose friends joked that his hometown, Greene, was named after him - died Wednesday at Wilson Memorial Hospital in Johnson City at the age of 79. ... A close friend and professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, Frank Maraviglia said Mr. Greene's sense of humor made him a superior professor. "A great sense of humor unlocks a certain creativity in the human brain," Maraviglia said. Maraviglia first met Mr. Greene through the Creative Education Foundation's Creative Problem Solving Institute. Maraviglia said Mr. Greene had a subtle approach to teaching creative thinking and always tried to set a good example. More

Forging a Creative Community for the New Creative Economy - Government Technology

[17 February 2006 - Government Technology] Creating a twenty-first-century city is not so much a question of technology as it is of jobs, dollars and quality of life. A community's plan to reinvent itself for the new, knowledge-based economy and society therefore requires educating all its citizens about this new global revolution in the nature of work. To succeed, cities must prepare their citizens to take ownership of their communities and educate the next generation of leaders and workers to meet the new global challenges of what is now being termed the "Creative Economy." ... But at the heart of such efforts must be a recognition of the vital roles that art and technology play in enhancing economic development and, ultimately, defining a "creative community" -- a community that exploits the vital linkages among art, technology and commerce. A community with a sense of place. A community that nurtures, attracts and holds the most creative and innovation workers. More

EU urged to take radical action on research & innovation 'before it is too late'

[23 January 2006 - PublicTechnology.net] The European Commission has received a final report from an independent Expert Group which calls for a Pact for Research and Innovation to be signed by political, business and social leaders to show their commitment to creating an Innovative Europe. The experts state that current trends are unsustainable in the face of global competition. Therefore a new vision is needed to address a series of productivity and social challenges faced by Europe. The group was set up by the European Commission following the European Council held at Hampton Court in October 2005 and asked to advise on ways of boosting the EU’s research and innovation performance. More - Read the "Creating an Innovative Europe" Report

World Economic Forum closes with new initiatives that seize "the creative imperative"

The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2006 has closed with participants detailing new projects in disaster relief, hunger, anti-corruption, financing for development and public-private partnerships. "I was particularly impressed by this notion of 'I will'," said Founder Klaus Schwab. "That's what the purpose of this meeting is. The Forum will provide platforms for collaborative efforts so the new initiatives or ones that have been enhanced will be implemented," he told participants in Davos. Held under the theme "The Creative Imperative", participants used workshops and discussion groups to generate innovative solutions to global challenges. "There was a new effort to bring together people to discuss the big themes, and brainstorm action," reported Laura Tyson, Dean of the London Business School. Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé, urged participants to take individual responsibility to act. "I think sometimes we are not translating what we are discussing in virtual terms into action which would really reflect the 'spirit of Davos'. I think the Forum is here to help us to find out what the main issues are and then it is up to us to act individually," he said. "Some of what we achieved in the trade sessions, discussing the education divide and others, we got excellent inputs to create a more balanced world," added Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries. The panelists agreed that the rise of the developing world is changing the balance of power. This makes it imperative that social imbalances are redressed, said James Wolfensohn, former head of the World Bank. "If we don't do that, we will not have a stable planet… and I think Davos is approaching these questions," he said. Webcast

WEF puts on its creative-thinking cap

[25 January 2006 - swissinfo] Ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting, WEF managing director Ged Davis tells swissinfo there needs to be greater creativity in problem solving. Davis says all possibilities must be exhausted to successfully meet the challenges of a shifting global landscape. More

Creativity Survivor at Davos

[26 January 2006 - Fast Company Now] In yesterday's post, I described a creativity face-off at Davos. Participants were asked to describe their vision of the keys to creativity, and the audience voted on those ideas until two finalists remained. As promised, here's the outcome.

Last to be voted off the island was Ideo's Tim Brown, who suggested that creativity is spurred by approaching problems with a beginner's mindset, and by exploring ideas through the use of rapid prototyping.

And the winner is: Google's Marissa Mayer, who argued for "a healthy disrespect for the impossible" combined with the virtues of constraints. In other words, aim high, but focus. Mayer described how an artist friend once told her that it was much easier to paint on a canvas that already had something on it--a mark or a line of some sort--than to begin with an entirely blank canvas. The existing mark is a constraint, something the artist has to think about and work around. And product developers at Ikea begin with a different sort of constraint, she said. They start with a price they have to meet--say $49--and then think about what they can make for that price. More

Secret to future growth: be creative

[27 January 2006 - Richard Florida - The Financial Express] As the world’s elite gathers for the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, the focus is on harnessing creativity to make nations and businesses more competitive. That sweeping question tends to produce narrowly tech-centric discussions. One favorite approach is to project the raw numbers of science and engineering grads into the future, highlighting the rapid rise of India and China. The issue, then, becomes how to keep up. That’s true, as far as it goes. But the economic advantage of the US, in particular, derives from much more than technical prowess. The real key is the rise of its creative economy, in which growth comes as much from entrepreneurship and entertainment as from engineering. More

What Is Happiness?

[28 January 2006 - Newsweek] World leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, couldn’t quite agree on the answer.: Enough of weighty questions of global economics, finance and geopolitics. Once in a while, even hard-charging CEOs and statesmen at the Davos global talk-fest need to kick back and relax. So what do they do? Why, change the subject and talk some more, of course. The other night the topic was happiness. What is it, how to find it, and what to do with it if found? More

World Economic Forum: Interview with Kenneth Rogoff, Thomas D Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics, Harvard University

[January 2006 - World Economic Forum] Harvard University: Thomas D Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics, Kenneth Rogoff, says there is a greater premium than ever on creativity in all walks of life. More

World Economic Forum: Leaders urged to seize "The Creative Imperative" at Annual Meeting

The Creative Imperative, 25-29 January, Davos, Switzerland
[January 2006 - World Economic Forum] A working list of Annual Meeting sub-themes is listed below:

* The Emergence of China and India
The shift of gravity to Asia and the challenges and opportunities for the global community

* The Changing Economic Landscape
Managing and dealing with economic imbalances, increased oil prices, excessive demand for natural resources, disruptions

* New Mindsets and Changing Attitudes
Global freedom and democracy, the impact of technology and digitalization, the emergence of the open society, responding to extremism, expectations of the next generation

* Creating Future Jobs
Understanding the changing nature of growth and job creation, global employment, new skill requirements, labour mobility, and resulting social and economic consequences

* Regional Identities and Struggles
Political crisis in Europe, instability in the Middle East, the future of Latin America and Africa

* Building Trust in Public and Private Institutions
The need to reconnect with constituents, build trust and legitimacy, and demonstrate effectiveness

* Effective Leadership in Managing Global Risks
Addressing the leadership deficit; fresh approach to complex issues; resisting short-termism

* Innovation, Creativity and Design Strategy
Business, government and social innovators are taking on new creative capabilities and innovation strategies in response to a rapidly changing global landscape

Scientists debate culture's role in creativity

[9 December 2005 - The Daily Yomiuri - Japan] In trying to imagine how the 21st century will evolve and how the problems that will arise can be overcome, it is perhaps best to listen to the wisdom and experience of experts from various fields. This was the subject of the 17th annual forum 'Creativity in the 21st Century with Nobel Laureates,' which brought together six laureates in science. The series was jointly organized by The Yomiuri Shimbun and NHK. The forum series began in Kanazawa on Nov. 8 with a session on science and was followed by further science sessions in Tokyo on Nov. 17 and Kyoto on Nov. 26. More

Design Centres: Emphasis is on fostering innovation and creativity

[6 December 2005 - The Independent (UK)] A national network of 'innovation centres' is to be set up to help foster new design talent. It will include a showcase for British design in London. But there will be also reforms to tax credits for research and development to encourage early and innovative use of design in manufacturing and industry. ... The Chancellor said: "The design of new products and services is now such an important sector that we propose a network of creativity and innovation centres - one in each region offering start-up help to new design talent and supported by an expanded national centre in London to showcase British design." The Lighthouse in Glasgow already acts as a design talent showcase. More

Innovation, creativity needed to sustain growth

[6 December 2005 - China Daily] Are local Chinese industries ready to design and innovate, or is it easier and more cost effective just to copy others like other Asian economies are doing? Those were the questions raised by delegates at the 20th China Daily CEO Roundtable meeting held on November 30, 2005. The questions provoked ardent discussion at the "Next Generation Design, Innovation and Creativity for China" meeting, co-hosted by China Daily and the Illinois Institute of Technology. More than 30 CEOs and senior executives from prestigious companies in the design, media, lifestyle, technology, communications, education and legal sectors sat down at the Peninsula Palace Beijing with one objective: to exchange views on China's capacity and challenges in rising to the global stage of design and innovation. Mary Ma, a former national model and now president of her own fashion design company, was among the distinguished delegates that attended the prestigious event. More

Creativity Lab: Where some dreams come true

[6 December 2005 - Taipei Times] Founded last year, the lab answers Taiwan's need as it struggles to move from being simply a manufacturing hub to a creative force in the business world ... Some of us probably had the experience of walking during a heavy downpour and struggling to stay dry in our raincoats while trying to look out for oncoming vehicles through our rain-drenched vision. What if we had a raincoat that is able to sense how heavy the downpour is and glow in different shades of color and varying intensity. This would surely be a good device to catch the attention of passing cars and greatly enhance pedestrian safety. Many single ladies living alone probably find it hard to do their hair at times, because of the constraints of their bathroom mirror. What if we had a bathroom mirror that allowed us to see the back of our torso or even magnified parts of our faces, making it easier for ladies to apply their make-up. These ideas, impractical though they may sound, are totally encouraged at the Creativity Lab (³Ð·N¤¤¤ß), a division under the quasi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute. More

RESILIENCY: WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

[2 December 2005 - PEN Weekly NewsBlast] Ten years ago, resiliency theory was relatively new to the fields of prevention and education. Today, it is at the heart of hundreds of school and community programs that recognize in all young people the capacity to lead healthy, successful lives. The key, as Bonnie Benard reports in this synthesis of a decade and more of resiliency research, is the role that families, schools, and communities play in supporting, and not undermining, this biological drive for normal human development. Of special interest is the evidence that resiliency prevails in many extreme cases. In most studies, the figure seems to average 70 to 75 percent and includes children who were placed in foster care, were members of gangs, were born to teen mothers, were sexually abused, had substance-abusing or mentally ill families, and grew up in poverty. In absolute worst case scenarios, when children experience multiple and persistent risks, still half of them overcome adversity and achieve good developmental outcomes. An understanding of this developmental wisdom and the supporting research, Benard argues, must be integrated into adults’ vision for the youth they work with and communicated to young people themselves. Read sample chapters online.

Not All Innovations Are Equal

[5 December 2005 - HBS Working Knowledge] So many bright ideas fade away at the execution stage—but it doesn’t have to be that way. This excerpt from a new book, 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators, tells how to forge ahead based on four different types of innovation. ... There is no shortage of published ideas on how best to manage innovation. Empower employees. Encourage initiative. Cultivate risk taking. Overcome mindlessness such as, "We do it this way because it has always been done this way." But managers need more than such generic advice because there are many different kinds of innovation, and each requires a profoundly different managerial approach. This book focuses strictly on strategic innovation, which differs sharply from three other categories of innovation:
* Continuous process improvement.
* Process revolutions.
* Product or service innovations.
* Strategic innovations.
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CHILDREN OF BIPOLAR PARENTS SCORE HIGHER ON CREATIVITY TEST, STANFORD STUDY FINDS

[8 November 2005 - Stanford University School of Medicine] Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder score higher on a creativity index than healthy children. The findings add to existing evidence that a link exists between mood disorders and creativity. The small study, published in the November issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research, compared creativity test scores of children of healthy parents with the scores of children of bipolar parents. Children with the bipolar parents—even those who were not bipolar themselves—scored higher than the healthy children. More

Oliver Sacks speaks on power of creativity

[20 October 2005 - The Dartmouth] Oliver Sacks, the acclaimed author of "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat," spoke to an enthusiastic crowd in Moore Theater Wednesday. The speech, entitled "Creativity and the Brain," was sponsored by the Montgomery Endowment. "There are innumerable sorts of creativity," Sacks said as he listed perceptual, natural, individual and communal creativity, along with "creative driving" and "creative cooking," as examples. Sacks emphasized that creativity provides inspiration to all people. "Creativity is universal," Sacks said. "We all dream, and in dreams we have fantastic adventures unrestrained by reality." More

Creativity Key to Better Retirement

[14 October 2005 - The Korea Times] Retirement is so often defined negatively and individualistically, as the end of a career and the cessation of work. However, an American specialist on the subject said that retirement can also be a creative time - a period of renewal and rejuvenation. "Most people never fully prepare for this abrupt change. Organizations do not help them. Employees and employers generally do not consider retirement life-planning as an extension of career development," Steve Dahlberg, general manager for the Creative Education Foundation in the United States, said in an interview with The Korea Times. More

Mary Catherine Bateson comments on creativity, life and improv

[26 June 2005 - Creative Education Foundation's Creative Problem Solving Institute] Anthropologist and author Mary Catherine Bateson wove a rich tapestry of themes about life as an improvisatory art. Her message included:

Practicing improvisation is not an oxymoron. Improvisation -- creativity of many kinds -- is something you learn to do. And it's a kind of coming full circles.

The world is changing so fast that we are all on stage without a script. And it isn't going to help to memorize a script. We're going to have to learn the skills of making it up as we go along.

If you view your life as continuities, you are likely to seek continuities and avoid change. If you look at the discontinuities, you may be likely to move on too quickly.

About fear and the failure of imagination ... you can't prevent something which you can't think about.

It's only when you move to multiple narratives that you begin to see possibilities and get away from thinking things are just going to go on the way they are. That's an essential element of creativity ... alternative ways of understanding; alternative ways of seeing.

Creativity is sparked when cultures meet -- when they meet with open imaginations and full curiosity.

With the demographic changes and the aging population ... there is a group of people who have not yet discovered in the changing currents of time the range of their possibilities.

Education is about making people think for themselves. ... What we tell our children while their minds are open and impressionable ought to be the key for the changes that need to be brought about, and I think at the moment we are moving in the wrong direction.

We all need to work very hard to reinforce those aspects of the educational system that make people open to differences, to alternatives that stretch their imagination.

What thoughts do these quotes spark for you? Or did you hear Bateson's keynote yourself at CPSI 2005? Click the "Post a comment" link below and share your reflections.

Read more reports online about Bateson's keynote and CPSI 2005 in general. Plus, if you missed CPSI 2005 and want to check out materials from some of the programs and sessions, you can do that on the CPSI Web site. Also, you can purchase books by CPSI keynoters and presenters - including Bateson's latest, Willing to Learn - in the online bookstore. Your purchases help support CEF.

Trend-watcher sees moral transformation of capitalism

[3 October 2005 - The Christian Science Monitor] ... People no longer want that spiritual part of themselves to be abandoned when they work and are searching for meaning and morals in the workplace. And corporate leaders now recognize that we live in a technologically based society where, in order to be consistently innovative, a corporation has to draw on the creativity of its employees. Even the old-fashioned business types have to grudgingly agree that we find creativity, inspiration, and innovation within, from that deep spiritual part of ourselves. More

Creative economy: New England's future success may depend on the arts

[2 October 2005 - Foster's Online - New Hampshire] Can New England's creative arts help to sculpt the region's economy for the century? Five years ago, the business-led New England Council, executives from such fields as manufacturing and banking, took a bold step. In a special report, they celebrated the region's growing "creative economy"" They saw that the region's fine arts, music and drama fields were not only growing, but inspiring such other fields of imaginative design as architecture, photography, film and Web design. The resulting 245,000-job sector, they reported, was growing twice as fast as New England's overall economy. More

The Power of Dumb Ideas: The solution to marketing’s current ills is not more creativity. It’s less.

[30 September 2005 - strategy+business - Booz Allen Hamilton] Forget what the advertising gurus say about big ideas and differentiation. The solution to marketing's ills is not more creativity, it's less. A study of 1,300 U.S. companies by Chuck Lucier, senior vice president emeritus at Booz Allen Hamilton, reveals that only four broad ideas, copied again and again across sectors, accounted for 80 percent of the breakout businesses created between 1985 and 1995: power retailing, megabranding, focus/simplify/standardize, and the value chain bypass. The big idea doesn't have to be brand new. In a world overwhelmed by complexity, it's the context that gives dumb ideas their power to galvanize a team, create faith, and build the world's greatest marketing department. More

Nurturing creativity and innovation - Leaders must show the way

[29 September 2005 - TODAY - Singapore] Recent speeches by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and other ministers have put innovation back into the spotlight. While the research and development emphasis is understandable, innovation cannot be confined to the laboratory or limited to technological advances. In fact, just as important is the ability to turn innovations into viable reality - in other words, commercialisation. That takes creativity too. More

Curiosity and the pleasures of learning: Wanting and liking new information

[September 2005 - Cognition & Emotion] This paper proposes a new theoretical model of curiosity that incorporates the neuroscience of “wanting” and “liking”, which are two systems hypothesised to underlie motivation and affective experience for a broad class of appetites. In developing the new model, the paper discusses empirical and theoretical limitations inherent to drive and optimal arousal theories of curiosity, and evaluates these models in relation to Litman and Jimerson's (2004) recently developed interest/deprivation (I/D) theory of curiosity. A detailed discussion of the I/D model and its relationship to the neuroscience of wanting and liking is provided, and an integrative I/D/wanting/liking model is proposed, with the aim of clarifying the complex nature of curiosity as an emotional‐motivational state, and to shed light on the different ways in which acquiring knowledge can be pleasurable. More

‘Creatives’ are our leaders of the future

[29 September 2005 - Business Day - South Africa] The information age has come — and stayed. Those with the skills for the age have prospered. The last growth curve was driven by business services. Now research points towards a shift to the creatives — the leaders and builders of the future. More

Creativity is the key to economic success

[22 September 2005 - Times Argus] Thanks to its creative people and artsy folks, intellectual centers and funky buildings, the Capital City is an attractive place to live and work. If Montpelier can capitalize on these benefits, it can improve its economy and sustainability, according to organizers and panelists at a forum exploring the "creative economy" held at Union Institute & University's Vermont College Wednesday night. Fostering the creative and the unique can enrich the economy and the quality of life, agreed the approximately 70 participants, both audience members and panelists. ... Representatives from many sectors of the city sat on the panel, including Patty Casey, a singer-songwriter, Sonia Rae, manager of Artisans Hand Craft Gallery; Tom Macleay, CEO of National Life and CEO Richard White of the Community National Bank. ... Rae explained how the creative sector is essential to Vermont's economy. "We feel very strongly that our job, not just as a shop, but as a place where people can gather, is to promote creativity within our community but also educating the public about what we do, what the great people around us are doing, what kind of crafts they're producing," she said. "But if we're exhibiting the work of 130 people, and selling the work of 130 people, that means that we're helping to keep 130 people employed in the state of Vermont." Rae added that Artisans Hand, a downtown store which showcases solely Vermont artists, is proud to be a self-sustaining for-profit venture that doesn't rely on grants. More

Here, There and Everywhere: Four companies look for creativity beyond the product development lab

[September 2005 - CMO Magazine] When most people think of innovation, their minds likely focus on one of two things: cool new products or whiz-bang technologies. While those areas have certainly yielded success for many a company (and will probably continue to do so), today's strategic marketer is taking a more holistic view of innovation. As marketing becomes more integrated and cross-disciplinary, so too has the idea of what constitutes a marketing innovation. If you think of innovation as anything that yields a fresh idea or a novel approach, then virtually any aspect of marketing becomes rife with possibilities, from how you execute customer research, to where you communicate your message, to whom you're targeting with that message. To illustrate this broadening definition of innovation in marketing, we've assembled a sampling of companies that are leading the way. More

What Does It Mean To Be an Educated Person?

[September 2005 - American Association of School Administrators - Publications - The School Administrator] The task is to draw attention to what is important and ask the central questions that give meaning to teaching and learning. One of the most fundamental questions is: What does it mean to be an educated person? What should a high school graduate be able to do upon graduation? The answer guides instruction. The art of teaching is to challenge and encourage students toward this vision.

A Dozen Ideals: In a good school both teacher and student define the right challenge. Here are 12 educational ideals worth pursuing. They become powerful when we apply them not only to students but to everyone in a learning community of students, teachers, parents, administrators and staff. Students should be ... More

Philosophical Toys - Exhibition at Apexart, New York, until August 6

[By Writer Sina Najafi] On Wonder and Pain: There are two paths in pedagogy. One is the Path of Pain, and the other the Path of Wonder. Like many people, I have experienced both. ... Viewers will be happy to know this exhibition is concerned with an alternative tradition, the more palatable Path of Wonder. I say tradition because it is neither the twentieth century nor the nineteenth nor even the Age of Enlightenment that recognizes the place of wonder and curiosity in learning, though it is true that eighteenth-century philosophers like Rousseau did much to rethink the idea of pedagogy from ground up. ... The idea of a formal pedagogical system based not on the memorization of facts and information but on the development of the "natural" curiosity inherent in every child emerged out of the eighteenth century. One book above all signaled the sea-change that education was about to undergo—Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Émile, where we find the following summary: "Remember that this is the essential point in my method: Do not teach the child many things, but never let him form inaccurate or confused ideas." ... The Path of Wonder is always in the process of producing new devices. Juxtaposed with artifacts from Fröbel’s original system of kindergarten, the Logic Alphabet devised by Shea Zellweger and the computational origami innovated by Jeannine Mosely both follow Fröbelian principles where the tactile, the visual, and the conceptual are merged into one. Playing with Zellweger’s beautiful devices and with Mosely’s seductive paper confections is an object lesson in the structures of logic and geometry respectively, a pedagogy that happens as much through our fingers and eyes as it does with the mind. Or as Rousseau puts it in Émile, "Our first teachers of philosophy are our feet, our hands, and our eyes." More

Unlocking Your Creativity

[27 July 2005 - American Chronicle] People who think they aren't creative are what you might call "creatively locked." They likely just haven’t dug far enough to find the treasures buried within. If being creative locked describes you, here are suggestions for unlocking your creativity, for uncorking your bottled up creativity. More

Stirring the Creative Juices

[July 2005 - US Airways Attache magazine] Looking for fresh ideas? Inventive ways to solve problems? Read this. ... “Most of us will never be Einstein or Picasso,” acknowledges Steven Dahlberg, general manager of the Creative Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Hadley, Massachusetts. “But that’s not the issue. All of us have the ability to apply more of our creativity than we typically do. Creativity-oriented tools and techniques aren’t about pushing creativity into people, but allowing it to come out.” ... The Creative Education Foundation has encouraged use of this approach at the Creative Problem Solving Institute, a one-week total-immersion experience offered every year since 1954. Systematic applications of the process run through the courses offered by the ICSC, which since the graduate program’s start in 1975 has awarded master’s degrees in creativity to well over 200 graduates—teachers, corporate executives, and a diverse group of counselors, artists, and entrepreneurs. ICSC faculty members also apply these rules in consultation and training for Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. More

Jeff Immelt: A candid conversation with the CEO of General Electric about leadership, creativity, fear -- and what it's really like to run the world

[July 2005 - Fast Company] What's the idea behind imagination breakthroughs? ... We had to have some way to pull ideas out of the pile, make sure they were funded, and really try to redefine what it meant to innovate in a big company. We started two years ago. We tested the time-honored tradition of pulling things out of the pile, putting good people on them, and finding ways to share ideas. In the beginning, we said, "Let's start with ideas that could generate more than $100 million of incremental revenue." We had 30 ideas. It was almost nothing for a company of our size. About 20 of them turned out to be good projects, from a dual card for consumer finance to a hybrid locomotive for GE railcars. What's magical about them? We picked who would lead them, and every penny is funded. Our leaders know they have to pony up. So I now have 80 projects inside the company that are fully funded with the best people we can find. The big difference is that the business leaders have no choices here. Nobody is allowed not to play. Nobody can say, "I'm going to sit this one out." That's the way you drive change. More

Entering a dark age of innovation

[2 July 2005 - New Scientist] SURFING the web and making free internet phone calls on your Wi-Fi laptop, listening to your iPod on the way home, it often seems that, technologically speaking, we are enjoying a golden age. Human inventiveness is so finely honed, and the globalised technology industries so productive, that there appears to be an invention to cater for every modern whim. But according to a new analysis, this view couldn't be more wrong: far from being in technological nirvana, we are fast approaching a new dark age. That, at least, is the conclusion of Jonathan Huebner, a physicist working at the Pentagon's Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California. He says the rate of technological innovation reached a peak a century ago and has been declining ever since. And like the lookout on the Titanic who spotted the fateful iceberg, Huebner sees the end of innovation looming dead ahead. His study will be published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. It's an unfashionable view. More

British Government Unveils Creative Sparks, A Government Plan To Ensure That Every School Child Gets The Chance To Take Part In Arts And Culture

[29 March 2005 - British Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport] The Government today made a commitment that, within the next ten years, no child will leave school without having had access to high quality arts and culture. Creative Sparks, a key part of the Culture Department's Five Year Plan for the nation's artistic and creative life, aims to deliver that commitment. ... Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said: "Creativity will be at the heart of this nation's success in the future. Already it accounts for around eight per cent of our GDP, and is the fastest creator of jobs in the whole economy. The Government is determined to ensure that our young people get the best possible preparation for this bright future. Where they live, or their social circumstances, must not be allowed to hold them back. We want that spark of creativity that lives in every child to be recognised and nurtured." More

So Giotto drew on rocks … Children’s Art, Creativity, and Everyday Democracy

[8 July 2005 - Demos Greenhouse - UK] This is an essay on children's art which formed the basis for Tom Bentley's recent speech at 'How old do you have to be to be an artist?' on Children's Art Day (Tate Modern, 30 June 2005). ... Children’s art is thus not solely about learning how to draw, paint, sculpt or work in any other media. To see the child as producing 'art' is to think of him or her as a conscious participant in what is essentially an adult process. Far better, instead, to think of what the child is getting out of its creative engagement and what, consequently, the effect might be as the child grows up. More

The Art of Making Change Stick

[Summer 2005 - MIT Sloan Management Review] Often it seems like the vast majority of change initiatives are doomed to failure. In fact, there are four critical processes -- that rely on understanding emotions and behavior, not numbers -- that will give employees a visceral sense of the need for change. These process will motivate them to maintain their change efforts long after management attention has turned elsewhere. More

Tapping Into "Underground Innovators"

[Summer 2005 - MIT Sloan Management Review] How should managers respond when a hacker or other underground innovator alters their proprietary electronic systems? At companies like Sony, AT&T and Microsoft, managers have reacted, as one might expect with alarm and antagonism. Yet there is a better way. When enterprises handle unsolicited innovation well, they discover promising new business models and products. Underground innovators may be categorized as "elites"--who are mostly constructive--and "kiddies"--who are usually destructive. When managers harness elites' desire for recognition and persuade them to work cooperatively, as they did at Epic Games and TiVo, they create an all-around win- win. More

Managing for Creativity

[July/August 2005 - Harvard Business Review] Economist Richard Florida and SAS's Jim Goodnight explore ... A company's most important asset isn't raw materials, transportation systems, or political influence. It's creative capital--simply put, an arsenal of creative thinkers whose ideas can be turned into valuable products and services. Creative employees pioneer new technologies, birth new industries, and power economic growth. If you want your company to succeed, these are the people you entrust it to. But how do you accommodate the complex and chaotic nature of the creative process while increasing efficiency, improving quality, and raising productivity? Most businesses haven't figured this out. A notable exception is SAS Institute, the world's largest privately held software company. SAS makes Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year. The company has enjoyed low employee turnover, high customer satisfaction, and 28 straight years of revenue growth. What's the secret to all this success? The authors, an academic and a CEO, approach this question differently, but they've come to the same conclusion: SAS has learned how to harness the creative energies of all its stakeholders, including its customers, software developers, managers, and support staff. Its framework for managing creativity rests on three guiding principles. First, help employees do their best work by keeping them intellectually engaged and by removing distractions. Second, make managers responsible for sparking creativity and eliminate arbitrary distinctions between "suits" and "creatives." And third, engage customers as creative partners so you can deliver superior products. Underlying all three principles is a mandate to foster interaction--not just to collect individuals' ideas. By nurturing relationships among developers, salespeople, and customers, SAS is investing in its future creative capital. More

Read how the online Slashdot ("News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.") community is responding to this article about creativity in organizations.

Dream Jobs Survey Shows Creativity is the Key to Career Happiness

[18 July 2005 - KSBI-TV - Oklahoma] It's not just child's play - most kids would rather grow up to be a doctor or nurse than a famous footballer, new research revealed. Medical professions like Doctors, Nurses and Vets have beaten occupations such as Footballers, Dancers and Pop Stars in a poll to find out what Brits most wanted to be when they were kids. As a sector, the creative industries scored the highest. More than 30 per cent of Brits specified some type of creative career as their dream job in childhood. But just 11 per cent of Brits have managed to achieve these career ambitions. More

Schools, students losing their creativity (Opinion)

[17 July 2005 - The Herald-Mail ONLINE] America is in the midst of a drought of epic proportions. Across the country, well-springs are drying up. The harvest that every American contributes to - one initially of growth and stability - is simply dying out. And yet, you cannot see this drought. ... So, with creativity dwindling in America's high schools, one would think that President Bush would be putting forth more programs to inspire the next generation of artists, musicians and writers, as well as well-rounded individuals. However, in his budget for 2006, President Bush proposed several severe cuts in education funding, specifically for art programs. In all, the president would eliminate 48 education programs. The president plans to terminate programs such as the National Writing Project and Arts in Education. More

An equal and opposite reaction

[July/August 2005 - KMWorld] David Weinberger of Journal of Hyperlinked Organizations (JOHO) writes: "The connectedness of the Net has clearly changed the way our kids learn. The default for many of them is to do their homework with whoever else is on their buddy list. Collaborating on assignments just seems natural. ... Yet, how does our educational system react? Our governments—national and state—impose more and stricter standardized exams that test our children’s retention of standardized content. Weeks of class time are given over to this testing, and, worse, the entire educational system is bent to a very old idea of what constitutes intelligence. ... In short: As connectedness transforms knowledge, our education system is swinging—running—in the other direction." More

What's the big idea?

[22 June 2005 - IBM Global Services] Whatever an idea is and wherever it comes from, its value comes from clearly communicating it to other people. Four steps can help an innovator methodically move a big idea from the concept stage to the point of engaging others in its development. More

Design Minded

[July 2005 - Fast Company] Dan Pink examines some of the causes of the rise of the creative class. ... "You can't automate artistry, empathy, and seeing the big picture. Those are very difficult to outsource. And that's where opportunity lies for the future." More

Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI) 2005 - Followup Resources

Searching for Creativity: Richard Florida on Minnesota Public Radio
[27 June 2005 - Midmorning - Minnesota Public Radio] He first promoted the idea that artists and other creative types could revitalize neighborhoods just by moving in. Now Florida looks at where the next creative class is coming from, and why the U.S. may not benefit from their talents. Guest: Richard Florida is the author of The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent. He's also the author of The Rise of the Creative Class. Listen to story online