It’s A New Year And A New Start. After the Second World War, there was a lot of interest in creativity. Why, people wanted to know, were we able to invent so many sophisticated technologies for killing? How is it that innovation and creativity seem to explode during times of war? What don’t we understand about creativity and innovation?
After a prolonged period of instability due to Covid, the war in Ukraine, the ongoing environmental crisis, it is a question that is well worth asking again. We need to be creative in so many spheres right now … in spheres opposed to the goals of war and destruction and focused on mutual support, sustainability and a planetary union of humans so that we can all live the best possible lives no matter where we live.
Creativity is the magic engine that produces change in our world. It creates the intellectual IP that underpins products, services, business models and technology. And yet, we minimise its importance and try to contain it in the domain of art, weirdness and unexplained-ness.
The truth is far weirder. We are all creative, we must un-learn it. Which is where school stereotypes and corporate command and control management come in.
And yet, this is the only way out of the mess we have (ironically) created for ourselves.
We need to change the foundations of how we see human potential. It is not something that lives only in exceptional individuals. Yes, it is high in people who have achieved exceptional things, but they themselves are not doing anything that everyone else cannot.
We can all solve problems, imagine futures and play. So, we are all creative. Why will we not accept then, that we can also envisage new ways of living, or doing politics, energy, work and relationships with others? Why do we insist on stepping aside and letting the so-called expert do it? What is this terrible urge we all have to take our hands from the wheel and give it to someone else?
It must stop!
As another year starts, let us consider what WE can do differently. How WE can change things we are not happy with. Inside existing structures or outside of them, it doesn’t matter.
The time has come to act. Politics and business are broken. They are driving us over a cliff by consistently repeating the mistake of the past, welded to the doctrine of continuous growth and individual exceptionalism. Politics and Business are killing the rest of us.
This is my maverick challenge to all of you, dear readers.
Take up the cudgel, insist on your own expertise and make changes.
Stop accepting the status quo and the idea that the ‘ powers that be’ will fix this mess. They won’t. They are the problem.
Let’s see what we can build without them.
Come on, let’s go!