I can’t speak to the validity of the recent results shared on the declining creativity in our country but I can share a perspective on whether or not as a society we’re as willing today as in years past to the success and failures of creativity.
To be free to be creative means being free and open and willing to fail along the way. However, the risk of failure along the path to creative greatness is what I suspect is affecting our overall creativity success. Have we stopped taking risk? Are we more aware of the public scrutiny when we do so and fail? The answer is absolutely ‘ the expectations from ourselves and others is to push the levels of creativity in ideas, solutions and overall out of the box thinking but the freedom to do so with the possibility of not knowing, with 100% accuracy, what the final result will be is what is changing.
There is an increased desire to be different while still being liked and respected within your defined group ‘ whether you’re a company, brand, agency or an 8 year old child. I imagine that once the hypocrisy stops then creativity will begin to increase again. Let’s truly reward creativity. Let’s embrace the notion that two people can look at the same problem and solve it differently. Let’s be open and willing to support those that try and fail along the way because we believe and know they’ll learn, refine and find the creative magic in the end.
