Suits can profit from a spell in the sandpit

[17 November 2004 - The Australian] CREATIVITY and innovation in business are no longer the sole domain of the pony-tailed staff in the ideas tank. Corporate executives playing in sandpits, acting in theatre pieces and brainstorming radical ideas are moving in as businesses see the benefits of bending rigid rules to let in inventive thinking. Open-plan offices and the suit-free Friday are just two of many relaxations taken on by the corporate world under the weight of the popularity of masters programs promoting creativity and innovation, according to one management academic. Director of the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University of Technology, Adolph Hanich, says he encourages his charges to avoid the stifling nature of the corporate credos of productivity and efficiency. More

Creativity Central cNews Mention of Creative Education Foundation

Thanks to fellow e-newsletter, Creativity Central cNews, for the mention this month ...

[November 2004 - Creativity Central cNews] From Steve Dahlberg, General Manager, Creative Education Foundation "Imagination and ideas are the social capital that grows economies, integrates differences and changes individuals ... ideas can transform the world. There is a global urgency for deliberate creativity -- whether it's the 9/11 Commission citing the intelligence community's 'faliure of imagination,' the head of GE calling for innovation to enable continual corporate growth, a political pundit pointing out the 'war of ideas' between differing groups or an urban planner advocating for creative communities." More

Creating a Global Society: Separation Without Separateness

[November 2004 - Center for Creative Leadership e-Newsletter] In an increasingly interdependent world, hierarchical authority is proving fundamentally inadequate for getting things done – and that has major implications for our understanding of leadership, according to Peter Senge, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and renowned expert on organizational change. More

Nominations Wanted for the Center for Creative Leadership 2004 Walt Ulmer Applied Research Award

[Center for Creative Leadership] Established in honor of Walter F. Ulmer, Jr., retired CCL President and Chief Executive Officer, this award recognizes outstanding, career-long contributions to applied leadership research. The Center for Creative Leadership is currently looking for external candidates for the 2004 award. All submissions are due by Dec. 1, 2004. More

Full-time kindergartens see less play, more work

[31 October 2004 - Detroit News] The school's curriculum - called "integrated" because it allows children to explore knowledge in various subjects in connection to their environments - stresses early reading and math skills to prepare them for the rigors of first grade. A key goal is for as many children as possible to leave kindergarten with basic reading skills. "It's no longer playing and just socialization," Benezra said. "Everything has an academic bent. The tooth chart isn't really to track lost teeth - it's to help them count." Kindergarten, which is German for "children's garden," is serious stuff these days. With half-day programs giving way to full days in state after state, the curriculum once saved for first grade has been pushed down to 5- and 6-year-olds. Nearly 98 percent of youngsters in the United States attend kindergarten, 60 percent of them in full-day programs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More

The Innovation Economy

[11 October 2004 - BusinessWeek] We've walked on the moon, built the Net, and decoded the genome. Have we run out of worlds to conquer? No. As a matter of fact, we're on the cusp of a fresh innovation boom. More

A Milestone for BusinessWeek
Since 1929, we've been chronicling innovations and the people who make them. Here are some of the best from the past 75 years. More

The business of creativity

[31 October 2004 - Boston Globe] What thriving industry employs more workers than the computer software sector or communication services, and twice as many as the health care technology cluster? The answer: the "creative economy." In hopes of promoting the North Shore as an enclave for arts and culture businesses, the Enterprise Center at Salem State College this month launched a creative economy incubator. Today, half of the 28 businesses housed at the center are members of the creative industry. The start-ups range from a marketing and advertising company to a drama coach and a handbag designer. More

Artists reach troubled kids via creativity

[31 October 2004 - Grand Rapids Press] Last May, when Marty Arnold asked local artists to conduct classes for residents of St. John's Home in Grand Rapids, she didn't expect the response she got. Arnold, a development associate at this residential treatment center for abused and neglected kids, knew there would be some interest, but the level of enthusiasm surprised her. By the end of summer, 11 artists in St. John's Home's Visiting Artists Program had led regular 90-minute sessions with 30 children ages 7-17, often donating the supplies as well as their time to the cause. More