It is always time for me to do a little happy dance when I read yet another creativity and innovation type study that points out how important the ability to think creatively is…a happy dance because my whole being gets excited by the very word ‘creativity’ – it conjures up visions in my head of wondrous things that I have not even thought of yet – wondrous things that all the clever people of the world are yet to think up…it conjures up POSSIBILITY! I LOVE IT!
So it is with great joy and a dancing heart that I share with you the latest article I have stumbled upon. OK it’s from a 2010 IBM Global CEO study – 2010…this stuff is not new, and yet still we laboriously teach our children in an antiquated education system that does little to encourage true thinking…*sigh*…but I digress…
Check out this graph of the “Most Important Leadership Qualities over the next 5 Years”…can you see number 1?
When looking at business leaders – CEO’s prefer creativity over integrity…No???? Really????
“CEOs now realize that creativity trumps other leadership characteristics. Creative leaders are comfortable with ambiguity and experimentation. To connect with and inspire a new generation, they lead and interact in entirely new ways.”
(source: Insigts from the global CEO study, www-935.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceostudy2010)
The key words for me there are ‘comfortable with ambiguity and experimentation’ – we’ve all heard the Edison lightbulb story of not failing but finding a very very large number of ways that didn’t work.
That is what experimentation is all about, and if you haven’t tried, and haven’t failed, how can you possibly know what needs to be done next?
That is where participation in the arts offers children (and adults!) a safe environment in which to test their thinking skills, the ability to try something, have it not work, or not work out as you planned, try something new and so on is a skill that brings immeasurable long term benefits…just ask the CEO’s looking for creative thinkers!
It’s up to all of us to ask more questions, look for better answers, examine why things didn’t work, and try try try.
Teaching your children to do the same rather than rely on finding that one single correct answer end of conversation. This is called divergent thinking in modern times, but I think I prefer the ancient Greek way of describing it as Dionysian thinking – sounds much more exotic doesn’t it?
Think of the changes that we have had to learn in our lifetimes already – computers, programming, program updates, internet, smart technology – what will the future hold for us and our children? The science fiction authors can only speculate – but one thing is for sure, it will be our ability to adapt and make creative connections between the knowledge we have and the new technology that is being introduced that will keep us in the running for future employment and entrepreneurship.
Hail Dionysus – God of wine and ecstasy and epiphany!