As we all know and feel, America seems to be on the decline. GDP, education, infrastructure – misery all around.
Need further proof?
The recent Global Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum showed America slipping from 4th to 5th in the world.
When you consider the glass half empty, this decline is a permanent process.
When you consider the glass half full, this decline is a temporary dip. Something we can overcome by reinventing ourselves. Again.
The only way out is to dig deep into our creativity to maintain relevance in a shifting global landscape.
Unfortunately, new research coming out of Cornell, suggest our biggest stumbling block to be ourselves: Humans face massive challenges to accept creative ideas.
A few highlights from the Cornell paper:
– Because creative ideas are also new, they seem to give rise to uncertainty or even discomfort for others who depend on the tried-and-true way of doing things. To reduce uncertainty, subconsciously rejecting a creative idea may be easier than accepting it.
– Basically, everyone was evaluating an idea that their peers rated as being creative but the people who were feeling a sense of uncertainty were biased against the creative idea and favored the idea that is purely practical.
– “What we found is that people are perfectly willing to claim they want creative ideas but they can nevertheless hold a negative bias that causes them to reject creative ideas,” Goncalo wrote. “That’s what makes this so insidious for people who are trying to be creative [because] biases may lurk beneath the surface.”
To survive and, hopefully, thrive in a global economy, America needs to become the biggest supporter of creativity and creative people.
In any environment.
In anything we do.
Creativity has to become the mission of this country.
It has to be taught in school.
Rewarded in professional life.
Celebrated in each community.
Creativity shouldn’t be limited to a Creative Director.
An agency,
A division.
Something that’s cool or weird.
It should be a mandate in our society, part of what we are.
Creativity used to be a rare object.
The starving artist.
The weirdo.
The crazies.
We need to weave the weirdness and craziness into the fabric of our lives.
We are all creatives now.
uwehook 
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