6 Myths of Creativity

I believe the key to economic recovery is though creativity.  By investing in creativity we can build upon what makes our communities unique and what talents people have to create business, improve local communities, and put people back to work.

I saw this post at CoolTown Studios that outlines 6 myths of creativity...

The 6 Myths Of Creativity from a work perspective, via Fast Company magazine…

1. Creativity Comes From Creative Types - This is probably the biggest myth of all, and very evident in crowdsourcing. It’s often one simple idea that transforms, and that can come from any one person at any time. The key is to be ready to accommodate that epiphany when it comes, thus is the genius of social content sites like YouTube. Creativity comes from beingaccommodated.

2. Money Is a Creativity Motivator - If you pay someone enough they’ll get creative? Studies show creativity in the workplace isn’t motivated by pay and bonuses, but when it’s supported, valued, and recognized as being fundamental to what the company does. This directly applies to how much more motivated locals will be to support their neighborhood if they see the benefits directly and more immediately.

3. Time Pressure Fuels Creativity - Many feel they can’t get creative until it nears a deadline. Studies not only show the opposite, but that creativity goes down the next couple of days after the deadline as well. Good ideas come spontaneously when you think about them long enough, not when they’re intensely focused on with little tolerance for distraction, explaining why crowdsourcing is more effective than focus groups.

4. Fear Forces Breakthroughs - The story goes that creative geniuses harbor anger, fear and anxiety as the source for their greatest inspirations, and why they die so young. It’s probably more a result of not being able to cope with the fact that their greatest work is behind them. A study of 12,000 journal entries show people’s creative breakthroughs tend to happen when they’re happy the day before, which goes back to what makes people happy in myth #2. Now, if they can just deal with the temporary fame!

5. Competition Beats Collaboration - They say competition breeds innovation, but not if it exceeds the enjoyment and enthusiasm of sharing and building upon one another’s ideas. Individuals in our crowdsourced placemaking communites are incentivized by points, but the motivation is even greater if the rewards are based on earning points as a team or community.

6. A Streamlined Organization Is a Creative Organization - The point comes from the idea that fewer creative people is more effective than a larger mix. However, as myth #1 shows, that’s not the case in the long run. For a small company with few employees, it doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage, it means you should seriously think about crowdsourcing through your customers/followers and tap into the Long Tail of creativity.

Investing in Creativity is the Key to Economic Recovery

The Des Moines Register reported on Saturday that Iowa's unemployment rates has risen to 5.2%.

Iowa's unemployment picture darkened in March as the global recession hammered the state's manufacturing industry, pushing factory job losses to 20,400 and driving the jobless rate to 5.2 percent.

The state's unemployment rate was last that high in December 1987, the backside of the farm crisis that pushed the state's unemployment rate to 8.5 percent. A year ago, the unemployment rate was 3.9 percent. In February it was 4.9 percent.

Despite more people joining the ranks of unemployed Iowans - which hit 87,800 in March - some analysts believe the state's economic decline is ending. That would start the state's long road to recovery.

That leads to the question of how is the state going to recover. I believe the answer is in renewable energy, education, and creativity.

Iowa has invested in renewable energy and education over the past couple years. State leaders have stressed the development of renewable energy and that investment has pushed Iowa to become the 2nd largest producer of wind energy in the country. Since 2006, the Iowa legislature has invested in early childhood education and have helped teacher salaries rise to 25th in the nation.

Iowa now must invest in harnessing the creative abilities that exists in each community in the state.

From Richard Florida...

Like all advanced economies, ours is in the midst of a great transformation - to an economy in which creativity, skills, and knowledge matter more than strength and muscle… At bottom, today’s challenge is the move from jobs oriented to routine to jobs that hinge on creativity. Routine-oriented workers carry out standardized tasks, often repetitively and in a preset sequence.

Traditionally, many of these jobs have been in manufacturing - Henry Ford’s assembly line is the classic example. But the greater portion of them now are in service occupations: waitresses following standard procedures in restaurants, or clerical staff and their paperwork.

Creativity-oriented occupations, on the other hand, require workers to apply their knowledge to changing situations, make responsive decisions, and communicate. The proportion of people performing creativity-oriented work has increased threefold over the past century and continues to grow even in the current economic crisis, as their jobs are much less vulnerable to recession than routine jobs.

Over the coming decade, they will account for about half of all jobs created in Canada and the U.S. alike. Yet we still undervalue creative jobs and the key skills on which they depend - consider the controversy over funding cuts for research and innovation in the recent federal budget. [...]

If we want a high-wage economy, we also have to ensure that our training programs and schools develop social and analytical skills, and focus our efforts on attracting businesses that invest in the creativity of their workers.

To be successful, we must tap and harness our most important resource: the creative capabilities and talents of all…

We can build upon what makes our communities unique and what talents people have to create business, improve local communities, and put people to work.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Human Creativity as Capital (alistbloggers.org)
• Report urges 'creativity-oriented economy' for Ontario (thestar.com)

Creating a Better Working Climate

Republicans talk about creating a better business climate in the state. Well, here is how to create a better working climate.

Talent, Tolerance, Technology, Territorial Assets, and Tension

These are the workplace characteristics to seek if you’re wanting a job that will offer exciting challenges and have the best chance to survive the economic downturn and thrive in the next upswing - at least that’s my theory. Challenge it if you like.

Richard Florida has demonstrated how talent, tolerance, and technology can help a city prosper, attracting creative people and the businesses that want to hire them. He has recently added “territorial assets” to the mix (locational amenities) and I’ve long promoted Tension as another T - people need a reason, a challenge - to form community and generate new ideas.

It stands to reason (and Florida may have said this somewhere) that the ideal workplace would also offer:

• A chance to work with talented, experienced, and wise co-workers.
• Leadership that is tolerant or open to new ideas, alternative approaches to problem solving, or working generally.
• Top technology that increases efficiency (which doesn’t necessarily mean every latest gadget or program).
• A great location near amenities of interest to me (whether transit, roads, parks, restaurants, cafes, pedestrian malls).
• The types of challenges or tensions in which bright creative people can make a difference.

Status quo is boring; a company just raking in the money without much effort can be a dull place to work after a while (creative people often seek more than a good paycheck).

By contrast, threats, tensions, and new challenges can force all the talented people in an organization to elevate their performance - and the current once-in-a-lifetime economic event is creating many new challenges.

And, I would argue that those companies most open or tolerant to trying new things in the current downturn, to introducing new technologies (such as social media in the workplace), ensuring their location both appeals to workers and helps them be productive - these are the organizations most likely to survive and thrive.

Iowa can reverse the brain drain by creating a better working climate and thrive in the new creative economy.

Forget Tax Cuts and Tax Incentives, Invest in People, Neighborhoods, and Small Businesses

Image by Antre via Flickr

In the down economy it is now important to invest in people, in neighborhoods, and in small businesses instead of promoting tax cuts for the wealthy and handing out tax incentives to corporations.

By fostering a community of entrepreneurship and promoting creativity, economic development can occur from within a community.

The Project for Public Spaces ran a story about the top 10 trends of 2008.

Placemaking puts people first. It is a holistic approach based on public involvement, on citizens working to make things better. Capitalizing on communities' often overlooked assets and can-do spirit, placemaking shows how we can advance everyone's health and happiness without spending huge amounts of money.

We now see the limitation of the privatized pursuits that flourished in recent years, and are rediscovering the importance of truly public spots—parks, markets, waterfronts and downtowns, to name a few—where we can come together to meet our needs and solve problems.

Taking stock of our work over the past year, we noticed 10 significant trends that are redefining the world as we know it, even in a down economy. What stood out in looking over all that we accomplished in 2008 was how people can still make big changes in their community if they have the right tools.

1. Placemaking gains ground around the globe
   
2. Collaboration is the key to making change
   
3. Greenplace: How community revitalization fights climate change
   
4. Placemaking is essential to vibrant travel destinations
   
5. Libraries emerge as new town squares
   
6. How cities stay lively 12 months a year
   
7. The Power of 10 leverages community assets
   
8. Public markets provide a leg up in a down economy
   
9. The rise of community-based transportation planning
   
10. New developments create innovative models for destinations
    

For more in-depth information about PPS and Placemaking, check out two recent articles from Convene Magazine and the Urban Land Institute.

Buying Local is More Important Now than Ever

With the economic crisis, it is more important now than ever to support local businesses. This great article that talks more about the importance of buying local.

The Culture of Big has brought us to the verge of a Big Collapse.

Could we be doing it differently? Yes, we could, by replacing “big” and “global” with “small” and “local.” Proponents of this increasingly popular economic strategy envision a web of thriving locally owned small businesses that collectively preserve local character and culture and bring our Main Streets back to life while ensuring the sort of stable, long-term economic foundation that increasingly appears beyond the reach of our top-heavy Culture of Big.

The article then lays out 4 reasons to buy local...

First, local businesses don’t move. They’re reliable generators of wealth for the local community. Local governments often focus on attracting or retaining big corporations, only to find that at some point down the road they flee. Local businesses stick around and generate income for years and often generations.

Second, local businesses have a higher economic multiplier. What this means is that a dollar spent at a local business tends to circulate in the local economy longer. About six years ago, a study was conducted of economic multipliers in Austin, Texas. When a person spent $100 at a Borders bookstore, $13 stayed in the local economy. When the books were purchased at a locally owned bookstore, $45 out of the $100 recirculated locally. Many similar studies have been conducted and they all point to the same conclusion.

Third, local businesses have a size and character that is consistent with leading theories of what makes a community flourish. People want walkable communities. Megamalls and industrial aren’t compatible with this, but small and home-based locally owend businesses are. Communities built around locally owned businesses are also more appealing to the so-called “creative class,” a term coined by the social scientist Richard Florida to describe knowledge workers and other “creatives.” These people are a key driving force of economic development, and they’re drawn to communities that are diverse, entrepreneurial, and fun to live in—in short, communities with lots of locally owned businesses. In addition, tourists tend to be drawn to local businesses.

Fourth, local businesses have a smaller carbon footprint because their inputs and their markets tend to be more local.

I don't shop at Wal Mart mainly because I believe it harms local businesses. I would much rather eat at my local sports bar than go to Applebees. One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday afternoon is to visit the locally owned stores in Des Moines' East Village or in downtown Ames.

In support of local businesses, please add a comment sharing your favorite local businesses.

Crowdsourcing Places for Creatives

Before I became interested (or as my wife says, addicted) to politics, I was interested in urban planning.  I still keep up on planning issues, as I serve on the Plan and Zoning Commission in my town.

One of the planning websites that I visit frequently is CoolTown Studios. I love the site because it looks at things from a slightly different angle and highlights cool, authentic places that make neighborhoods and towns unique.  Last week, CoolTown Studios posted their top 20 articles of all time and I thought I'd share them here...

By popular request, here are what I feel are the top 20 articles among the 1400 on this site, influenced by current times. This will be constantly changing, especially as I rediscover previous articles and post new ones (in bold)...

Crowdsourcing and creatives…
The creatives: rengen, cultural creatives, creative class - Identifying the core market itself.
What is crowdsourced placemaking? - The most definitive definition.
The time is now to crowdsource the places you want - Get started now.
The beta community - The crowdsourced placemaking community that makes it all happen.
The four different kinds of beta communities - The four kinds of projects beta communities can help generate.

Placemaking…
The impact of natural cultural districts - The best academic definition for the places that attract creatives.
The third place - The fundamental unit of a natural cultural district.
Cultivating your own Temple Bar District - One of the most inspiring stories of how a natural cultural district was saved and now flourishing.
Happiness best reflected by the beauty of place - Aesthetics matter to people more than anything.
The ‘postcard test’ - A litmus test for a place’s aesthetics, beauty.

The economic foundation…
If there was ever one definitive graphic, this is it - A table that illustrates our evolution from an industrial to a knowledge economy.
Digital infrastructure replacing an asphalt one - The physical environment to accommodate modern needs.
The Experience Economy - A better description of our modern economy than simply ‘the information age’ or ‘knowledge economy’.
Creatives ahead of the financial crisis - How the preferences of creatives, and not so big homes, are better suited to a sustainable economy.
How the creative class relates to the economy - Visual evidence of how creatives grow an economy.

Innovative examples…
The most innovative government agency in the U.S. - The New York City Department of Transportation.
NYC's stunning 'streets to plazas' program - A model program for creating pedestrian-only destinations.
Ten defining principles for a true green community - Benchmark principles and communities for zero carbon, zero waste communities.
Paris launches world's largest bike sharing system - No bike sharing system in the world comes close.
Elements hits the Washington Post front page - A crowdsourced restaurant gets national exposure.

Recently dropped from the Top 20
More evidence that 'not so big homes' are in - Smaller homes are the creative American Dream
Affordability's secret weapon - the 'ipad’ - A stylish 380 s.f. one-bedroom in the UK.

So what does this have to do with Iowa politics?  Over the past two years, Iowa has focused on reversing the brain drain in the state.  Lawmakers are looking at different policies that would lower the cost of college, forgive student loans, and raise wages.  I think all of these are very important.  However, it wouldn't hurt for Iowa to build some more cool places. I am not just talking about building cool places in Des Moines, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids, but in Iowa's small towns too.

Over the next few months, I hope to write more about how Iowa can build some of these cool places and highlight some of the cool places in Iowa.  

CootTown Studios defines crowdsourced placemaking as...

the act of taking development traditionally performed by real estate conglomerates and outsourcing it to a large, defined group of people in the form of an open call, to transform the places we find ourselves into the places where we live, as ‘places of the soul’ that uplift and help us connect to each other. 

 So to keep in line with those thoughts, feel free to chime in with your thoughts and share any cool places in your town.

Harnessing the Power of the Creative Economy

With the collapse of the financial market, the creative economy becomes more vital for regions and cities to cultivate.

One of reasons we believe the creative economy/society is different from the industrial and agricultural economies is that it relies on a resource (creativity), that every single human being has. The question is whether our institutions and their leaders can provide mechanisms and devices that support the individual in exercising their creativity productively.

Policies must be put into place that value people over profit and reward work over wealth. This will help unleash the power of the creative economy, empower people, and revitalize local economies.

One thing that needs to be put into place is a national high speed internet policy.

Virtually every other advanced country has explicit proactive national broadband policies. We're the only country that doesn’t. I think the question is whether we have the political will to move beyond largely ideologically fights and bickering to get on with the task, which is to get faster broadband and get it to more places and more people.

A national high speed internet policy would increase productivity, make rural areas competitive in the global economy, and empower innovation.

Giving Away Our Tax Money

The State finalized deals to give away our tax money to corporations...

Economic development officials approved state loans valued at $155 million for 11 business projects on Thursday for companies promising to create 613 jobs.

Instead of handing out millions to a select few businesses in corporate welfare, Iowa must begin investing in a quality people climate that attracts and retains talented individuals.

From Richard Florida, author of Rise of the Creative Class, writes...

While it certainly remains important to have a solid business climate, having an effective people climate is even more essential. By this I mean a general strategy aimed at attracting and retaining people---especially, but not limited to, creative people. This entails remaining open to diversity and actively working to cultivate it, and investing in the lifestyle amenities that people really want and use often, as opposed to using financial incentives to attract companies, build professional sports stadiums, or develop retail complexes.

The benefits of this kind of strategy are obvious. Whereas companies---or sports teams, for that matter---that get financial incentives can pull up and leave at virtually a moment's notice, investments in amenities like urban parks, for example, last for generations. Other amenities---like bike lanes or off-road trails for running, cycling, rollerblading, or just walking your dog---benefit a wide swath of the population.