The End of Ingenuity

[29 November 2006 - New York Times - Opinion] ... Without a doubt, mankind can find ways to push back these constraints on global growth with market-driven innovation on energy supply, efficient use of energy and pollution cleanup. But we probably can't push them back indefinitely, because our species' capacity to innovate, and to deliver the fruits of that innovation when and where they're needed, isn't infinite. Sometimes even the best scientific minds can't crack a technical problem quickly (take, for instance, the painfully slow evolution of battery technology in recent decades), sometimes market prices give entrepreneurs poor price signals (gasoline today is still far too cheap to encourage quick innovation in fuel-efficient vehicles) and, most important, sometimes there just isn't the political will to back the institutional and technological changes needed. We can see glaring examples of such failures of innovation even in the United States - home to the world's most dynamic economy. ... But in the larger sense, we really need to start thinking hard about how our societies - especially those that are already very rich - can maintain their social and political stability, and satisfy the aspirations of their citizens, when we can no longer count on endless economic growth. More

Intelligence agencies invest in college education

[28 November 2006 - USA Today] The U.S. intelligence community pours millions into higher education, paying for hundreds of scholarships, intelligence-related courses and fellowships at nearly a dozen universities, public documents and interviews with officials show. Last month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) more than doubled the number of schools in its program. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is also developing a program for nuclear scientists. The sponsoring agencies, including the CIA, say the programs help ensure they get enough recruits skilled to wage the war on terrorism. The programs began in 2004. ... The programs recognize that 21st-century intelligence officers need skills that can "translate to a variety of areas," says Lenora Peters Gant, who runs the ODNI's university outreach program. "We want to hire an engineer that understands world cultures and religions and speaks Urdu and Farsi or maybe Korean. That's where (intelligence) is going." ... Intelligence recruiters also liked small Catholic schools such as Trinity University in Washington, D.C., says Robert Maguire, an international relations professor who coordinates Trinity's intelligence studies program. ... Trinity professors received stipends to revise courses and design new ones when ODNI started its first Center of Academic Excellence there in 2004. Intelligence students study creative problem solving, contemporary diplomatic history and social science research methods. More

List of Nation's Top Emerging Gay Ghettos Announced

[28 November 2006 - 247gay.com] Whether or not you subscribe to Richard Florida's "creative class" theory, where the gays go eventually so do higher property values, less crime, better schools, ethnic diversity and growth. In that vane, GayGhettos.com in partnership with GayRealEstate.com, the leading resource for gay-friendly real estate transactions, has announced its inaugural list of the nation’s top up-and-coming "gay ghettos." President Jeffery Hammerberg defines gay ghettos for their "richness of diversity -- like a colorful tapestry -- that makes these neighborhoods such a wonderful place." Many gay ghettos are locations of revitalization and renaissance in the cities where they are located. They are likely more affordable than the present "gay-borhood" and ripe for investment and community building. The list is presented in regional and alphabetical order. More

Dishing: Keep Those I's on the Prize

[November 2006 - Media Magazine] News flash: there may be no "I" in team, but there most certainly is one in media. In fact, there are three: insight, ideas, and innovation. With the sweeping pace of change in the media landscape, this triple-I combo spells the new core competencies in our industry. They are the catalysts for success and the launch pads for the fast track. In other words, they're "must have" ingredients for communications platforms that combine content with context so compellingly that they capture consumer attention amid increasing clutter, noise, distractions, time scarcity, consumer control, and every other sky-is-falling trend bemoaned at media conferences. Fortunately, the three I's are all members of one family - born of the same gene pool, sharing common DNA. That DNA has creativity at its core - the ability to develop a new thought, find new connections, and establish new links between existing concepts. More

Creative industries forum kicks off in Singapore

[27 November 2006 - People's Daily Online - China] A global forum for creative industries, Beyond 2006, one of a series of events of month-long Creative 2006 programs to showcase and promote Singapore's creative sector, was kicked off in Singapore Monday. "Many countries see the creative industries as a key competitive advantage in the globalized economy. Ideas and imagination have become valuable assets and drivers of economic opportunities and growth," Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, said at the opening ceremony of the forum. "Singapore cannot be any different," he said, adding "We must harness creativity and the power of innovation to forge ahead in a globalized economy." The two-day forum of Beyond 2006 is a platform to provide opportunities for the domestic and international leading creative icons to exchange creative ideas. More

Pressing need for creative economy

[27 November 2006 - China Daily] First there was the "new economy," then there was the "knowledge economy," and now we have the "creative economy." Call it what you will, but the nation is arguably attaching more importance to "chuangyi" (creativity) to restructure its economy. In big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, massive material and political resources have been devoted to what leaders term "Chuangyi jingji" (creative economy) as a key strategic element for advancing the cities' development. As a name, the "Chuangyi" economy is hardly as clear as knowledge economy, but "Chuangyi" does points to one important dimension that the nation needs to pay particular attention to. More

Bill Cosby on Teachers

[7 November 2006 - Teacher Magazine] Bill Cosby made headlines last week after giving a speech in Los Angeles about education, with news outlets reporting that he had criticized teachers and parents for not doing enough to help kids. The comedian, who holds a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts, has been outspoken in recent years about what the black community needs to do to close the racial achievement gap. But Cosby says his comments about teachers were taken out of context. Rather than attacking teachers, he says, he meant only to urge them to explain to kids why they love the subjects they teach. Cosby gives his side of the story. More (in audio interview)

Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness

[17 July 2006 -New York Magazine] More and more psychologists and researchers believe they know what makes people happy. But the question is, does a New Yorker want to be happy? More

It IS About POWER and CREATIVITY

[31 October 2006 - Change Agency blog] It is about power. Passive reception of information for the sole purpose of regurgitation is extremely uninspiring and unengaging -- and disempowering -- because it doesn't challenge students on deeper levels. But, even more so, passive reception of information reinforces traditional power structures. What David is describing is creative work — students working with information in a creative manner that allows them to feel empowered. They are able to work with the information using tools that have the potential to allow students to be authors, artists, architects. I have had similar experiences in the classroom with students becoming/feeling more empowered by the technology. I have seen students who "create problems" in other classrooms, become "creators" of multimedia products, animations, video productions, and graphic design products when provided with the tools and the knowledge of how to use the tools to manipulate and communicate information to an audience. I’ve seen students who are otherwise uninterested in school stay after school for hours in order to produce documentary videos for a history class or -- even more powerful -- to develop marketing presentations and videos to market our school to incoming students. ... Of course, I expect to hear the argument that “if the students don't know basic facts and information FIRST, then they can’t work creatively because creative work involves analysis and synthesis of information!” However, so many people in education are relying so much on that argument that pushing students to be more critical and creative isn't even on their radar screens. We are settling for the minimum instead of pushing our students more deeply into their learning.We need to stop settling and begin engaging our students in more empowering, creative, and meaningful learning/work. More

Cities known for creativity working to attract visitors worldwide

[6 November 2006 - USA Today] Representatives from nine places designated as "creative cities" by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization met in Santa Fe in late October to brainstorm about "creative tourism," according to the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. ... "It's not passive tourism," says Santa Fe City Councilor Rebecca Wurzburger. "You're coming to engage in a community, to learn about its culture experientially. That's been a very strong theme with every single one of these cities." More

Innovating With ... Google for Educators

[Google] Google recognizes the central role that teachers play in breaking down the barriers between people and information, and we support educators who work each day to empower their students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. This website is one of the ways we're working to bolster that support and explore how Google and educators can work together. As a start, we're inviting you to share your best ideas for using technology to innovate in the classroom. More

Re-inventing invention: new tendencies in capitalist commodification

[May 2006 - Economy and Society - By Nigel Thrift, Oxford] This paper argues that a shift is taking place in the fabric of capitalism as a  result of a change in how the business of invention is understood. Using theoretical approaches that rely on the notion that capitalism  increasingly tries to draw in the whole intellect, in the first part of the paper I argue that the new understanding of innovation currently shows up as three associated developments: as the mobilization of forethought, as the deepening of the lure of the commodity through the co-creation of commodities with consumers, and as the construction of different kinds of apparently more innovative space suffused with information technology. The second part of the paper then argues that these disclosures are leading to new forms of value, based on generating moments of rightness. There is a brief conclusion. More (PDF)

International collaboration to transform education announced

[8 September, 2006 - Futurelab - on eGov Monitor] Futurelab, the UK's leading education innovators, and the Singapore government agency, Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), have announced a two-year partnership today to develop ground-breaking digital learning resources that support new approaches to teaching and learning. This international collaboration, known as iLAB 2015, draws on the creative talent, educational experience and technical expertise in both Singapore and the UK, and will lead to a range of educational tools that make learning an engaging and rewarding experience for learners of all ages and abilities. The collaboration will develop new digital learning resources as well as implement Futurelab's existing prototype technologies and research programmes in Singapore. In practice, this means that innovative resources such as Racing Academy, which uses gaming to teach engineering, and Space Mission: Ice Moon, which transforms the classroom into an Emergency Response Centre to enable collaborative learning, are likely to be introduced into Singapore schools. ... Annika Small, Chief Executive of Futurelab says: "Singapore and the UK share a vision around the potential of new technologies to radically transform educational practices by enabling more diverse and compelling learning experiences. I am delighted about the Futurelab-IDA partnership which will ensure that innovative ideas for learning resources are put into practice. Together we will produce practical examples of digital tools that foster the development of the creative, problem-solving skills needed in the 21st century." More

A Definition of Creative Thinking

"my brain looks like a carousel on fire" (Melissa Ferrick) = the creative brain at work?

Book Review: Improvisational Negotiation - A Mediator's Stories of Conflict

[3 August 2006 - News Blaze] Whether you are at loggerheads with your teenaged son or daughter over household chores or with your co-workers because they are a noisy lot, the problem is the same. How do you explore the difficulty you are having and come up with a compromise? Maybe, reading Jeffrey Krivis's Improvisational Negotiation: Stories of Conflict About Love, Money, Anger And The Strategies That resolved Them, by Jeffrey Krivis, can help you more creative problem solving. More

Politics of possibility

[10 August 2006 - Jerusalem Post - Opinion] Sir, - Millions of us worldwide, especially women, of every race and religion grieve for what is happening in the Middle East. We believe this violence is a failure of leadership by shortsighted men in the US, in Israel and in Arab countries who insist on using barbaric solutions. The truly courageous among us in every nation must use creative, problem-solving, human kindness and faith-filled wisdom to articulate the politics of possibility. Let it begin today. -- ANNE McCRADY, Henderson, Texas More

'Hogwash' lets kids fill in the baloney while teaching them a lesson in creativity

... [8 September 2006 - Seattle Post-Intelligencer] If you've ever been to a Theater Sports or Comedy Sports show, you understand the wacky charm of improvised theater. Now, your children can have that same experience through 'Hogwash: An Improvised Tall Tale for Small Children' at the Historic University Theater every Saturday through Oct. 28. ... 'The show is originally based on the old 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books that I used to read,' Anfinsen explains. 'You would read to Page 10 or so and it would basically ask you if you want the main character to go here or there? If here, turn to Page 40, if here, turn to Page 30. Nowadays everything is so laid out. We don't want anything to do with that. We want the kids to say 'This is what we want to happen. Don't feed us any baloney. We want the good guy to do that and the bad guy to do that.' The idea of 'Hogwash' is to encourage creative problem-solving and early arts appreciation. Kids naturally want to be part of the action. More

Company pays for creative problem solving

[16 October 2006 - The Detroit News] Q . I read an article several weeks ago about a Web site that posted questions or problems companies had for scientists and researchers to try to solve. If scientists came up with a solution, they could send it in and the Web site would contact the company. One example was a scientist who came up with a more efficient way of filling toothpaste tubes. Could you provide me with the name of the site? - S.K.E.

A . You are thinking about InnoCentive (innocentive. com), a company paying cash to creative folks who solve specific problems. Both problem solvers and solution seekers are courted by InnoCentive. Solvers must register. Some challenges are specific ('A chemical method is desired to measure carbon steel corrosion presence in a non-intrusive manner'); others, general ('A sugar substitute is needed.') More

The Workplace as Solar System

[28 October 2006 - New York Times] CLEARER THINKING Just the word “brainstorming” elicits a lot of eye rolling in most offices, writes Michael Myser in Business 2.0.

But the problem, he says, is not with the concept of brainstorming, but the way it is done.

“Most often, modern brainstorming involves a group of people sitting around a conference room, staring into space, and waiting for ideas to come. But in its true form, it’s a rigidly structured process,” he writes, adding that Alex F. Osborn, who coined the term in his 1953 book “Applied Imagination,” laid out three vital steps.

First, there needs to be a facilitator trained in drawing out the best ideas. Groups using a facilitator come up with 600 percent more ideas than those that don’t, said Scott Isaksen, founder of the Creative Problem Solving Group.

Second, there need to be clear guidelines — for example, the session will last no more than 45 minutes and criticism or judgment of the ideas that emerge should wait until the session is over.

Third, participants should prepare in advance for the session.

Given how badly it is usually done, it sounds as if most companies could use a brainstorming session to figure out how they should brainstorm. More

Nurturing inquiring minds

[28 October 2006 - Kansas City Star] “Kids look at science as something that they read and they do problems,” said Melinda Merrill, an advanced-science and gifted-education teacher at Center Middle School. “They don’t realize that it is a creative, problem-solving area that, even if they don’t go into a science career, what they learn … they can use in all their careers." More

The Right to Be Creative – In Schools, In Prison and In Life

[3 November 2006 - By Steven Dahlberg, Principal, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, Willimantic, Connecticut, USA] Inmates forfeit many rights while they are in prison. But their “right to think and be heard” – to think creatively and express their ideas – can’t be taken away.

As artist M. C. Richards once said, “we have to realize that a creative being lives within ourselves, whether we like it or not, and that we must get out of its way, for it will give us no peace until we do.”

Educator Berenice Bleedorn’s idea about the “right to think and be heard” is a fundamental belief that we all possess creative potential, that our creativity seeks expression, and that we can deliberately unleash and harness our creative thinking for the common good.

Our creativity makes each of us individual. Applying that creativity is how we connect with others to live out our purpose in the world.

This, in fact, is what education should be helping our children discover in themselves. But anyone who cares about creativity in education knows that few schools have enough resources to support high-quality (and quantity) programs in creative thinking and the arts. And this problem has gotten worse under the testing-outcome obsession of No Child Left Behind.

At the same time, vast amounts of research and experience continue to demonstrate the positive impact of creativity on learning, understanding, engagement and development.

There is a huge disconnect between what we know to be true and helpful and good, and what we actually support and encourage. We know that creativity matters – from the childhood classroom and innovative workplaces to economic development and positive aging. The National Governors’ Association even spent an entire day earlier this year focusing on creativity and education. Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is focusing the coming year of her NGA leadership on the “Innovation America” project. Though it’s great to see these examples on the national level, creativity is rarely a priority in policies, funding and training.

Last night I witnessed the positive impact that creativity had for a group of incarcerated women. Through a creative writing program, their creative spirits were nurtured, supported and given a voice – where previously they’d been trampled, stifled and shredded.

“Time In” explores the stories of women incarcerated at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Connecticut. This collaborative dance, song and spoken-word performance encompasses the stories of female prisoners’ lives before conviction, the ceaseless presence of time in their lives on the inside, and the new lives and language they must learn as convicts.

But it also explores the life of the mind and spirit – something that isn’t given over to confinement in cells and boxes, like the rest of their lives are in prison. For some, the freedom of the mind is a way to maintain sanity; for others, a way to begin to imagine life after prison.

Some come to this awareness naturally. For others, it comes through prison programs, such as the writing workshop at York run by Wally Lamb, the Connecticut author of She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True.

This performance – along with the commentary before and after with the artists, director, Lamb and two former York inmates – demonstrates what happens when you find and express your creativity:

• It shows the value of another person believing in you and your creative potential. “If you want to see somebody change, believe in them,” said a self-described ex-convict following the performance.
• It provides a strong argument for teaching creativity and arts in school so that students discover their true selves and can find a place for positive expression in school, rather than exploring negative self-identities and illegal expression on the streets. After teaching creative thinking to men in a Minnesota prison in the 1980s, Bleedorn recalls that “I cannot forget the men who, in some cases, may be paying the high price of failure of schools and society to recognize and value a multiple of thinking and behaving talents.”
• It suggests that if we want to rehabilitate offenders so that they become productive, contributing citizens, then we need to help them discover who they are, who they want to become and how to begin living that new vision. “Hope you can see the good inside of me,” sang the performers.

Most people’s encounter with creativity happens by chance – whether in the classroom, the workplace or in prison. They randomly find themselves in the presence of a great teacher or manager who realizes that simple, “one-right-answer” approaches aren’t going to create individuals who are capable of living in our complex, interconnected and challenging world.

The time has come to develop “creativity by choice, not by chance.” Lamb’s original choice was to teach one, 90-minute writing workshop at York. “What I wanted from them was whatever they needed to write – two pages minimum,” Lamb told the audience before the performance. This provided the chance experience for the women who ended up in his workshop, and the chance for Lamb to keep returning.

The choice has come in dedicating himself to more than seven years of working with these women. The choice has come in helping the women produce several books of their writing. The choice has come in partnering with other artists – such as the dancers from The Judy Dworin Performance Project and the singers of Women of the Cross – who also started working with the York inmates. These collaborators worked with the inmates to bring movement and song to the prisoners’ own words. Lamb describes the outcome, “Time In,” as “victory over voicelessness.”

Lamb reminded the “Time In” audience, as he taught the inmates, that creativity is hard work. It takes “revision, revision, revision … and patience, patience, patience.” But if you hunker down, find your voice and give your creativity its due effort, Lamb said you can see patterns, move out of dead ends and find your way out “to understand your history and rehabilitate yourself.”

These women “struggled their truths onto the page,” Lamb said. We can, too. And we can help the young people in our communities do the same.

Bleedorn reminds us that “the freedom to express individualistic, spontaneous ideas in appropriate, planned activities and in a supportive climate for some part of the school day could satisfy creative energies positively rather than relegating them to experimentation with negative behavior.”

The closing scene of “Time In” conveys a similar message of the freedom, hope and courage that comes from expressing our creative selves. It’s a strong reminder that we have a choice to recognize the creative potential rather than the destructive core of who we are. We have a choice to tap into what is most purposeful and meaningful in our lives. We have a choice to express ourselves and make our creative desires real in the world.

And we have a choice to develop creativity in both schools and prisons now, so that one day, we are only doing so in schools. How will you use your right to think and be heard?

"Time In" runs at Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, Connecticut, November 2-4, 2006.

The Rise of the Testing Culture

[10 October 2006 - Washington Post] The testing culture "has a lot more momentum than it should," agreed Harvard University education professor Daniel Koretz, an expert on assessment and measurement. He said a lack of solid research on the results of the new testing regimen -- or those that predated No Child Left Behind -- essentially means that the country is experimenting with its young people. More

Using Robotics to Teach Creativity

[24 October 2006 - Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute] The CMU Robotics Institute has released a new paper titled, "Teaching technical creativity through Robotics: A case study in Ghana."The problem faced by the CMU researchers was how to teach creative use of technology to students in developing regions who tended to think of technology in very narrow terms (for example thinking of computer software only in terms of databases or business applications). They presented the students with robotic challenges that required students to use local resources and develop a broad understanding of technology. The result was that students left the class with a better understanding of how technology could be improvised and applied in their everyday lives. They also learned the importance of testing when improvising with technology. More

Arts make big impact on local economy

[25 October 2006 - Denver Post] Metro Denver's cultural institutions in 2005 attracted 14.1 million people who spent $785 million, according to a study released Tuesday by the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts. The group calculated overall economic activity at $1.4 billion, including $597 million in operating expenses and $44 million in capital expenses by cultural organizations. More

The art of science

[25 October 2006 - Telegraph (UK)] ... So catastrophic has been the decline in numbers of pupils taking physics and chemistry that Britain now faces a manpower crisis in scientific research and engineering that will have to be remedied by importing expertise from abroad. ... Brighter pupils can too often gain the impression (especially in the early years of study) that scientific subjects offer no scope for imagination or creativity: that they are simply closed bodies of facts to be memorised and predictable "experiments" to be replicated in the classroom. There is little sense of a wider context, or any exploratory dimension, even to a subject such as physics, which should offer endlessly fascinating insights into the order of the universe. More

Ambivalence linked to more creativity

[8 October 2006 - UPI] Those with ambivalence, feeling positive and negative emotions at once, are more creative than those who are happy, sad or lack emotion, says a U.S. study. Christina Ting Fong, an assistant professor at the University of Washington Business School, says this increased sensitivity for recognizing unusual associations, which happy or sad workers probably couldn't detect, is what leads to creativity in the workplace. More

A Nobel for New York

[10 October 2006 - New York Sun Editorial] It's hard to think of a more delightful and satisfying piece of news than word that the Nobel prize in economics has gone to Columbia University's Edmund "Ned" Phelps. He and his wife Viviana are not only wonderful individuals, as we learned on several occasions in the past few years, but in a career spanning more than four decades, there are few economic puzzles to which Mr. Phelps has not turned his intellect. He earned the prize for his work on the particular problems lying at the intersection of monetary policy, inflation control, and employment, but for the past few years he has been speaking regularly about the importance of that quality, which almost defines the city where he and Viviana have made their home — "dynamism." ... So he began dusting off von Mises, Hayek, and Schumpeter and presenting them to modern economists. We have the sense that Hayek would have been thrilled; twice, in the years before his death, he told us, between his pinches of snuff, of the importance of understanding precisely the nature of the choice between socialism and capitalism. This is no doubt how Mr. Phelps latched onto the importance of "dynamism," which can be defined loosely as the qualities in a country's economic system that create work, allow talent to shine, and encourage creative problem solving. Mr. Phelps has recognized that America's dynamism has been the key to its economic success, while many European countries have stalled for lack of it. More

Scholar sees bleak future for Europe

[7 October 2006 - Boston Globe] What could bring out 600 people, including a cardinal, on a beautiful fall night in the middle of the week? At St. Paul Church in Cambridge Wednesday, the draw was a leading Catholic intellectual with a pessimistic prognosis for the future of Europe and maybe the United States. George Weigel may not be as famous as actor George Clooney, but as a senior fellow at Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center, a syndicated columnist, and a prolific author who wrote a popular biography of Pope John Paul II, he commands attention among the intelligentsia. Weigel's talk, the first lecture this season sponsored by St. Paul's lay Committee on Spiritual and Public Concerns, was elaborately planned and regimented. ... Asked what could be done about the European demise he forecast, he cited a suggestion Pope Benedict XVI made in a book when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Ratzinger, Weigel said, called for a "creative minority" of religious believers allied with those nonbelievers who agreed that there are universal moral imperatives. He hoped that such a coalition might reform public life. "That's the most interesting suggestion along those lines that I've heard so far," Weigel said. More

Creativity boosts pupils' work

[29 September 2006 - BBC - UK] Pupils who have worked with creative people such as writers and fashion designers are more punctual, better behaved and work better, Ofsted says. The education inspectorate has evaluated the Creative Partnerships scheme that has now been running in 2,500 schools in England. It said pupils developed skills such as improvisation, risk-taking, resilience and collaboration. The challenge now was to get them to apply these skills independently. Ministers said they were pleased at the findings. More

Lack of creativity may stifle education

[2 October 2006 - Desert News - Opinion] What about the students who don't go on to college? Efforts to sell the importance of college may end up demeaning those who don't make it to the ivory tower. Unwittingly, some professional educators are marketing college to K-12 students based on the amount of money as a way to success. This may be a case of good intentions with bad results. By inference, are students being told they are failures because they won't make as much money as college graduates? As a society, do we want to measure success by how much money one makes? ... Most disturbing is that we may be losing a great pool of intelligent, creative and innovative students because they don't fit the mold of how our educational systems — K-12 and higher education — test for academic intelligence. Our K-12 system is not designed to let students use different learning styles such as aural, visual and kinesthetic. Make no mistake, if our nation is to compete with other nations that are graduating more science and engineering students, then we must accelerate our efforts to educate our own. Globalization has changed our world, where creativity and innovation are the talents needed for a nation to compete in today's knowledge-based economy. More and more organizations, including business and the National Association of Governors, are realizing that imagination, creativity and innovation are the currency needed to succeed. The Rainbow Project, a study funded by the College Board, the organization that administers the SAT, found that adding creative, practical and common sense parts to the test better predicted a student's collegiate success and narrowed the scoring discrepancy between ethnic groups (Newsweek, Aug. 14, 2006). More

Most Young People Entering the U.S. Workforce Lack Critical Skills Essential for Success

[2 October 2006 - The Conference Board] As the baby boom generation slowly exits the U.S. workplace, a new survey of leaders from a consortium of business research organizations finds the incoming generation sorely lacking in much needed workplace skills-both basic academic and more advanced "applied" skills, according to a report released today. The report is based on an detailed survey of 431 human resource officials that was conducted in April and May 2006 by The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management. Its objective was to examine employers' views on the readiness of new entrants to the U.S. workforce-recently hired graduates from high schools, two-year colleges or technical schools, and four-year colleges. "The future workforce is here, and it is ill-prepared," concludes the report. The findings reflect employers' growing frustrations over the preparedness of new entrants to the workforce. Employers expect young people to arrive with a core set of basic knowledge and the ability to apply their skills in the workplace - and the reality is not matching the expectation. "It is clear from the report that greater communication and collaboration between the business sector and educators is critical to ensure that young people are prepared to enter the workplace of the 21st century," says Richard Cavanagh, President and CEO of The Conference Board. "Less than intense preparation in critical skills can lead to unsuccessful futures for America's youth, as well as a less competitive U.S. workforce. This ultimately makes the U.S. economy more vulnerable in the global marketplace." ... CREATIVITY IS IMPORTANT TO THE FUTURE WORKPLACE: Looking toward the future, nearly three-fourths of the survey participants ranked "creativity/innovation" as among the top five applied skills projected to increase in importance for future graduates. In addition, knowledge of foreign languages, cultures, and global markets will become increasingly important for future graduates entering the U.S. workforce. When asked to project the changing importance of several knowledge and skill needs over the next five years, 63 percent of survey participants cited foreign languages as increasing in importance more than any other basic knowledge area or skill. And, in separate questions about emerging content areas, half of the respondents noted the use of "non-English languages as a tool for understanding other nations, markets, and cultures," while 53 percent selected "understanding of global markets and the economic and cultural impacts of globalization." Making appropriate choices concerning health and wellness is the number one emerging topic considered most critical for future graduates entering the workforce. More than three-quarters of survey participants (76 percent) say that "making appropriate choices concerning health and wellness, such as nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, work-life effectiveness" is an emerging content area that will be most critical for future graduates. More

Intense children not the problem, their treatment is

[1 October 2006 - Providence Journal] “Do other people consider you intense?” inquires Howard Glasser, psychologist, author and keynote speaker to the large audience at Bradley Hospital’s annual conference called “Parenting Matters.” He’s clearly intense himself. “Do any of you have a child who’s considered intense?” Besides some teachers, psychologists and daycare providers, the audience is overwhelmingly parents, and they immediately murmur irate answers to this question, with a few shouts of "You bet." All parents who happen to have high-energy, high-strung children have been dragged into fights with and for those kids unwillingly and all too often. Glasser continues, “Intensity is a gift. But the world acts as though intensity is the enemy. So we find labels; we get unnerved; we have to find a cure. And the first approach is medication.” His audience is totally with him. All parents have kids who are intense in some way, at some times. But kids who are powered-up all the time can be mighty troublesome. Glasser barks, “The message to the kids is that there’s something wrong with your intensity. We can’t handle it, and neither can anyone else. We need to make it go away.” This hits home with me. Some of the smartest, most creative and exciting people I’ve known were, well, intense – and it seems like someone was always trying to intimidate or shame them into cowed compliance. More

10 Ways to Think about Innovation: What successful young technologists know

[8 September 2006 - Technology Review - MIT] Each year, we choose the 35 innovators under the age of 35 whose new technologies seem most gloriously creative and most likely to expand human life. (Here are the 2006 winners.) In editing this year's TR35--and rereading the profiles of last year's winners, whom we introduced in the October 2005 issue--I've noticed a few things about successful innovation. More

Director Emphasizes Imagination in Research

[21 September 2006 - U.S. Department of Defense Transformation News] Dan Marren spoke to scientists about basic research, collaboration and relationships, and the use of imagination to achieve great possibilities. ... It would have been understandable for a speaker to appear rattled addressing hundreds of world-renowned scientists gathered in Atlanta recently for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research’s Joint Program Review. Dan Marren, director of the Arnold Engineering Development Center’s White Oak, Md. facility, after all, had only 45 minutes to prepare a 30-minute speech shortly after he received word his boss could not make it. ... He spoke to scientists brought together by Air Force Office of Scientific Research program managers to review five major Air Force basic research portfolios. Speaking to experts who spent the week discussing such topics as physical mathematics and plasma aerodynamics could affect anyone’s composure – anyone except Marren. His presentation focused on three topics which, he said, are of critical importance to the scientific community – basic research, collaboration and relationships, and use of imagination to achieve great possibilities. The thread that weaves these concepts together is vision. More

A Perfect Brainstorm: The three-part equation that supercharges big-idea generation

[Summer 2006 - BusinessWeek] Over the past 20 years, Eureka Ranch has played host to more than 6,000 teams of people in search of the next big idea. At the end of each brainstorming workshop, we ask participants to rate their session on its levels of stimuli, diversity, fun, fear, cooperation, and openness to radical ideas. By correlating their responses with the number of big ideas the teams came up with, we've been able to identify three simple principles that make brainstorming more powerful. Briefly stated, any team is more likely to create a big idea if it starts by exploring various stimuli, leverages diversity, and drives out fear.
Sound simple? Bear with me while I add some math. More specifically:
# OF BIG IDEAS = (STIMULUS)^DIVERSITY
divided by FEAR More

Eight Rules To Brilliant Brainstorming

[25 September 2006 - BusinessWeek]
1. USE BRAINSTORMING TO COMBINE AND EXTEND IDEAS, NOT JUST HARVEST THEM
2. DON'T BOTHER IF PEOPLE LIVE IN FEAR
3. DO INDIVIDUAL BRAINSTORMING BEFORE AND AFTER GROUP SESSIONS
Alex F. Osborn's 1950s classic, Applied Imagination, which popularized brainstorming, gave sound advice: Creativity comes from a blend of individual and collective ``ideation.'' This means building in time for people to think and learn about the topic before the group brainstorm, as well as time to reflect about what happened after the meetings.
4. BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS ARE WORTHLESS UNLESS IDEAS LEAD TO ACTION
5. BRAINSTORMING REQUIRES SKILL AND EXPERIENCE BOTH TO DO—AND ESPECIALLY—TO FACILITATE
6. A GOOD BRAINSTORMING SESSION IS COMPETITIVE—IN THE RIGHT WAY
7. BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS CAN BE USED FOR MORE THAN JUST GENERATING IDEAS
8. FOLLOW THE RULES, OR DON'T CALL IT A BRAINSTORM
More

The Power of Ordinary Practices

[20 September 2006 - Harvard Business School Working Knowledge] Teresa M. Amabile's research centers on how the work environment can influence the motivation, creativity, and performance of individuals and teams. A recent study focused on the influence of team leaders on these factors. Professor Amabile and New Business publisher Mike Roberts recently discussed her research. ... Seemingly mundane things that managers do can have great impact on their workers, says Professor Teresa Amabile. In this conversation with Professor Mike Roberts, she updates her ongoing research on creativity in the workplace by investigating how people's intense inner work lives affect their productivity—and how managers can encourage production. Key concepts include:
* Emotions, motivations, and perceptions about work permeate an employee's daily experience and affect performance.
* There are five specific leader behaviors that create a positive influence on people's feelings, and three that have a negative impact.
* Leaders must understand how ordinary, seemingly mundane things they do or say carry great influence on workers—so "sweat the small stuff."
More

A Look at Mau's Massive Change

[21 September 2006 - BusinessWeek] The renowned Toronto designer's show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago challenges design to solve the world's problems. ... What do a featherless chicken, Wal-Mart's (WMT) logistics system, and an economic theory on homeownership have in common? To Bruce Mau, they all demonstrate the power of design-oriented thinking in the innovation process. These examples and far more are packed into Massive Change, the multimedia exhibit that made its U.S. debut Sept. 16 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The exhibit is the brainchild of Mau, a Toronto designer internationally renowned for his graphics work. But of all the points the show makes, and it makes many, the most obvious is how far design reaches in our lives, beyond visual expression and product development. The show presents design as a method of creative problem-solving that can be applied to large social problems such as hunger, housing shortages, or energy for the Third World. "We have to liberate design from fixating on the visual," says Mau. "Instead we wanted to think about design as the capacity to effect change." More

Can arts change the world, a holistic theory

[7 September 2006 - The Village Voice] ... Art can change the world incrementally and by osmosis. This is because art is part of a universal force. It has no less purpose or meaning than science, religion, philosophy, politics, or any other discipline, and is as much a form of intelligence or knowing as a first kiss, a last goodbye, or an algebraic equation. Art is an energy source that helps make change possible; it sees things in clusters and constellations rather than rigid systems. More

Attracting the 'creative class'

[14 September 2006 - The Courier-Journal - Louisville, Kentucky - Opinion] In a recent Atlantic Monthly article, Richard Florida, the pundit who coined the term "creative class" to describe a young generation of technologically savvy, lifestyle progressive workers and entrepreneurs who become economic drivers in the communities in which they settle, offers new evidence that the migration to "superstar cities" is accelerating. Florida's work in tracking these trends is closely followed by economic growth experts and our own Greater Louisville, Inc., which hosted him here. In short, Florida argues that "superstar cities" will be the primary winners in the future because of these new "creative" residents. The question for cities like ours, which Florida does not include in the "superstar cities" list, is how to secure our share of the future economic pie as we compete in a "world is flat" economy. We believe the answer rests largely on grass-roots efforts to address this trend. More

Theory of Creativity

[August 2006 - HOW magazine] What can an economist teach us about creativity? Turns out, plenty. In his new book "Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity," noted economics professor David Galenson argues that there are two distinct creative types that employ two fundamentally different approaches to artistic innovation. He posits that experimental innovators (old masters) work by trial and error and make their major contributions late in their careers, while conceptual innovators (young geniuses) have flashes of brilliance and enjoy artistic breakthroughs at young ages. Which type of creative are you? Read HOW’s Q&A with Galenson to see where you fit in his theory of creativity. More

Helping creativity flourish in children

[17 September 2006 - Chandigargh Express News Service - India] CREATIVITY is a crucial human ability, which must be identified and encouraged, especially among children. It is for this purpose that the National Bal Shree Scheme, a unique endeavour of the National Bal Bhavan to honour the most creative children in India, was started. The zonal finals of the scheme would be held at Bal Bhavan, Sector 23 on Sunday and Monday. Children in the age group of 9-16 would participate in four streams — creative arts, creative scientific innovation, creative writing and creative performance. Addressing mediapersons at Press Club today, Amita Shaw, director, National Bal Bhavan, New Delhi, said the scheme was aimed at nurturing and encouraging creative children. Stating that creative people were essential for the development of a country, she said, ‘‘If creativity in children is not recognised at an early age, it can take a negative turn after some time.’’ More

Creativity and productivity: making growth work

[17 September 2006 - Jamaica Gleaner News] Productivity Week allows us the opportunity to look beyond the firm-based measures of labour productivity to broader and newer issues of development, and indeed, to a new economy. Today the development debate surrounds such concepts as the 'knowledge economy', 'micro-finance', 'nanotechnology', 'sustainable development', 'trade and development', 'governance', 'capacity development', 'culture and development', and so on. There is, however, little that brings all of these together. One exception is new growth theory. It says that creativity is the most important factor of production. According to the old theory, the scarcity of land, labour, and capital determined what is produced (to meet demand) and at what price (to satisfy profit and supply). But many of these factors of production are not really scarce but under-utilised. The new theory is that creative use of capital and labour makes both more productive by invention (new ideas) and innovation (new applications). Firms, governments, and schools, can all increase their productivity through creativity, that is, ever finding new ways to improve their output and results. What is more, any one class, race or nation does not own creativity, nor is it scarce in nature. It is abundant and spreads easily. Rather than a law of diminishing returns, one benefits from a law of increasing returns. Knowledge, ingenuity, discovery, science and technology, are all forms of creativity, and the wellspring of creativity is the human mind. Creative thinking is the basis for good research, organisation, operational procedures, production systems, human relations and governance, and applies to all of these in business, politics, academia, school, justice, crime fighting, and other aspects of human society. More

The Nation In Numbers: Where the Brains Are

[October 2006 - The Atlantic Monthly - By Richard Florida] America’s educated elite is clustering in a few cities -- and leaving the rest of the country behind. More

A school worth studying

[10 September 2006 - The Seattle Times] In most of the ways that parents use to judge schools, Van Asselt Elementary in Southeast Seattle would seem a dubious place to send your kids. Four of five students are poor enough to get free lunch. There's no parental involvement to speak of, no aggressive PTA hosting fundraising auctions. It's one of those aging urban schools that's long been abandoned by the middle class and by whites. This year, in a school of 460 kids, only one is white. Nobody was too surprised when, five years ago, Van Asselt was put on the federal list of failing schools. Today, there's some kind of magic happening inside. ...
Two things jumped out at me — things that ought to be clarion calls for any school struggling to make it in this era of high-stakes standardized tests. One, the Van Asselt staff has a brilliant, counterintuitive strategy when it comes to the WASL. Which is that they mostly ignores it. They don't teach to the test. The test doesn't dictate the curriculum, nor does it hang like a sword over the school day. Van Asselt kids still get three recesses. And though it's no alternative school, there remains a major focus on in-school art, gym and especially music — all programs that are being shunted aside at some schools in slavish pursuit of the three R's. ... "Class has got to be engaging and creative or they won't learn," he said. "If I teach to the test I won't even get their attention." The second thing is truly inspiring. Five years ago the staff of Van Asselt took a leap of faith and began aiming the classroom instruction at the most gifted and talented kids. They call it "teach to the highest." It's accompanied by a tutoring program designed to prevent anyone from falling too far behind. More

Imagination deficit could cripple society

[11 September 2006 - StatesmanJournal Opinion - Salem, Oregon] Protecting imagination is even more important in realms beyond entertainment. Progress in arenas from social reform to technological invention would be crippled if people lost their ability to imagine a better world. Tolerance and empathy depend upon the human capacity to imagine all the implications of the Golden Rule. More

New byword for the city focuses on the imagination: 'Pittsburgh. Imagine what you can do here'

[9 September 2006 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] Declaring the Pittsburgh region sorely under-appreciated by outsiders and residents alike, local business and political leaders yesterday unveiled a three-year, $3 million marketing effort aimed at showcasing the area's beauty and accomplishments and bolstering the region's image, economy and civic pride. "Pittsburgh. Imagine what you can do here" is the tagline for the campaign, which will kick off next month locally with print and online ads followed by a national rollout in December. The campaign will be the cornerstone for events leading up to the commemoration of the city's 250th birthday in 2008. More

The Elements of a Clear Decision

[7 September 2006 - MIT Sloan Management Review] When Luda Kopeikina was president of Celerity Solutions, Inc., a supply chain software and services company, she was under intense stress. The company's market was shrinking, as was its revenue, and Kopeikina had to act decisively in order to save it. After she had made a series of "right" decisions and the crisis was averted, she became intrigued by what ingredients and conditions went into those decisions. Could they be replicated? Could they be taught? Kopeikina's curiosity led her to research and write her recent book "The Right Decision Every Time: How to Reach Perfect Clarity on Tough Decisions" (Prentice Hall 2005). In a recent interview, she shared some of her thoughts and findings ... Q: What are the elements of a good decision? Good leaders focus on three elements. First, they identify the best decision-making process. Second, they look for the best data and analysis they can get. More

My Customer, My Co-Innovator

[31 August 2006 - strategy+business - by Michael Schrage] It's difficult to create products that customers want without understanding what they really need. Now that simple realization has spurred companies such as Cisco, Procter & Gamble, and Goldman Sachs to work together with their customers at the earliest stages of the innovation process, while making the entire process more transparent throughout the value chain. As a result, information flows freely between company and customer, designers have a clearer picture of what customers need, and the resulting products are more successful in the marketplace. More

SparkCon Hopes To Make Raleigh Creative Hub Of The South

[31 August 2006 - Raleigh Chronicle] A new conference centered around creativity hopes to bring people together to spark new ideas in business, art, and society will be hosted in Raleigh in September. Appropriately named SparkCon, the conference will be held at various venues in downtown Raleigh from September 14th to 17th.  Conference organizers say the event will focus on four topics including inclusivity, the arts, independent businesses, and technology. More