Since 1990, U.S. creativity has been in a downward spiral!Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you ever thought about whether creativity could be measured?  It seems that in 1958 E. Paul Torrance designed a series of creativity tasks to measure creativity.  He administered his test to 400 children in Minneapolis. 

I would question how accurate this creativity index would be in predicting creativity for adults.  I read a recent Newsweek article, The Creativity Crisis, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.   Apparently, Jonathan Plucker of Indiana University, validated a more than three times correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment with Torrance’s creativity index as contrasted to childhood IQ.

This year, Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary did a follow up study where he analyzed almost 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults.  It appears that creativity scores steadily rose, just like IQ scores until 1990 and then creativity scores nosedived.  The decline is most significant from kindergarten through sixth grade.

In my prior blog post, I wrote about the CEO Survey of 1,500 CEOs who unequivocally identified creativity as the most important leadership competency for success in the future.  

What does this mean for the United States in terms of maintaining our leadership position in the world?  Our leaders understand that creativity is essential; yet at the same time our creativity scores are plummeting!

Stop and think about where we currently need creative solutions.  We are crying out for new ideas to solve our ongoing economic crisis.  We need new ideas to solve the issues of sustainability.  We need new ideas to support our changing demographics.

Creativity includes not only generating great ideas, but it also means being open to the ideas of others.  Through creative thinking we can generate solutions for a health care system as well as new thinking for moving towards a more peaceful world. We need new ideas to make our country more competitive and to identify new ways to measure success. 

Do you think creativity is important?

Is the United States falling behind in creativity and innovation?

Like many of my peers, I am an ethnocentric American. As patriotic citizens of the United States, we are taught Americans are the best in the world at everything. We are the leaders in creativity and innovation. After all we did send the first man to the moon.

Is this still true or are we only deluding ourselves? Is the United States still the most creative and innovative of all? Are we still the most competitive?

Let us see what Robert D. Atkinson, President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), has to say. His team used sixteen indicators to measure global competitiveness. They fall into six broad categories:

1.) Human capital
2.) Innovation capacity
3.) Entrepreneurship
4.) IT infrastructure
5.) Economic policy
6.) Economic performance.

The ITIF report finds the United States ranks sixth overall among forty nations/regions in overall innovation and global competitiveness. Singapore is number one, Denmark is number four. When you are in an innovation race, do you consider coming in at sixth place to be acceptable?

Now that I have your attention, take a look at which countries are making the fastest progress toward the new knowledge-based innovation economy.

When you look at the change score that measures the rate of innovation over the past decade and compare this to the other 39 countries, the United States ranks last in progress toward the new knowledge-based innovation economy over the last decade. We are number 40 out of 40 nations/regions!

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is going to happen to us all?

To read the full report by the ITIF, please go to The Atlantic Century.

What tools do you need to promote the development of a creative economy?  Why do we even want a creative economy?   Think about our economic slowdown, our failed schools and our need to build a sustainable community.   

As you have witnessed over the past year, there has been a seismic shift in the skill set needed to be productive and successful during a recession.  You must develop your imagination and empathy to deal with all the surprises that an uncertain future brings to you.  

John J. Cimino, Jr., the founding president and CEO of  Creative Leaps International, made me aware of a proposed bold new investment in culture.  It is called “Art and the Public Purpose:  A New Framework.”   It offers five concepts as the key to our national recovery as well as our cultural recovery.

1.)    Use creativity for the common good.

2.)    Engage all of us.

3.)    Build on all of us.

4.)    Put artists to work to support cultural recovery.

5.)    Stand for the expression, supporting democratic media.

These principles support our values of creativity, equality, responsiveness, hard work and freedom.  We have within our grasp the ability to become more resilient, resourceful and inspiring.

Culture and art are powerful economic drivers.  You can send a powerful message to President Obama and Congress.  It is time to develop a coherent cultural policy.  If you wish to be part of this wonderful movement, you now have the opportunity. 

When you look back, you will be able to smile with pride and say to your children, I helped to transform our country.  We have great schools, jobs are plentiful, and our communities are inspired.  You developed your creativity because you supported a movement to give you access to the right tools.  We were once ordinary and now we are extraordinary!

You should not delay, take action today, and sign the petition.  For more information click here “New Cultural Policy.” 

Now that you have signed it, tell your friends about it.  Thank you!