The importance of creativity for 21inc got reaffirmed last week during the Creative Spaces and Places conference hosted by Artscape.
Throughout the conference speakers reiterated the urgency to reinvent our institutions to meet 21st Century economic and environmental challenges. The 20th Century was defined by mass production and it’s under these tenants that many of our institutions still operate. The 21st Century looks like one requiring constant reinvention. In this world creativity, or as it was called at the conference, applied innovation, is a priority outcome.
To give an example, a study presented by Sir Ken Robinson showed that when kids are aged 2-3 85% of them could make over 200 objects from a random assortment of blocks, ropes and other stuff. By age 10 the rate declines precipitously, to 30%. By 25 the percentage of people who can make over 200 objects is 3%.
It is through institutions that we can reverse this trend on a societal scale. We need governments, universities, nonprofits, and schools to find ways to enable creative thinking, and fostering leadership that supports innovation and collaborative attitudes.
What does this look like? One example of this is the Australian state of South Australia which has a "Thinkers in Residence" program. Every year the Premier invites world leading thinkers and practitioners to live in the state for 2-6 months and embark on public education and policy specific studies that help guide the state forward.
Another example profiled at the conference was of a filmmaker in residence program -- at a hospital. This filmmaker didn't make documentaries but rather she integrated film techniques into the medical delivery system.
In Atlantic Canada, where ideas to deal with demographic and economic challenges are dire, In NB, arts & culture organizations can play an important role by being a central hub of social capital/idea generation. We need people with new, different and odd takes on the world to inspire solutions.
I’d be remiss not to include 21inc as part of this solution. We’re trying to ensure that the next generation of leaders have the skills and knowledge to inspire and apply creativity in our businesses, governments and nonprofit organizations. We’re still learning but this is the direction we're going. Having it reaffirmed last week is a confidence boost that we’re on the right direction.
1 comments:
Here here. This is very much needed well beyond NB and it is inevitable that the framing ideas of many of our institutions will need to be reconsidered and then re-established.
I can't help thinking of all the people I know who are creative (in the sense that they could add significant value to an enterprise) but who are trying to deploy that innovative energy inside a vortex of anti-creative death(muted and dull organizations and structure).
I think we need to help more people understand what the change process is like, how to assess whether you can change your corporate culture or need to get out, start something new, etc. The conference you mention appears to doing that very thing and I was encouraged to read about it on your post.
Typically, if we follow the approved channels, we end up running through the very processes that are part of the problem in the first place. That's really discouraging and wastes a ton of energy. On the other hand, we need the stability, social capital and resources of the existing institutions.
I've approached these questions via the study of how systems change over time, including our human systems. There are some great resources to help develop the thinking needed to navigate these spaces and they are(slowly) being adopted in forward-thinking organizations or new start-ups.
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