Creativity: THE Leadership Competency of the Future

In 2006 author and presenter Ken Robinson sent a ripple through education circles in his TED talk on creativity, in which he argued, "Creativity is as important in the education of our children as literacy. And we should treat it with the same status."

In their July 19 Newsweek article "The Creativity Crisis," Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman (authors of Nurture Shock), not only make a compelling argument for Robinson's position, but they offer a road map, of sorts, for getting there. And they do so with a shock wave, not a ripple.

Authors Bronson and Merryman define creativity as the "production of something original and useful." Rather than pitting creativity against more conventional educational priorities, Bronson and Merryman seem to take a page out of author Dan Pink's book A Whole New Mind as they present a view of creativity that features "constant shifting, blender pulses of both divergent thinking and convergent thinking, to combine new information with old and forgotten ideas." Just as Pink argued that what is required in the 21st century is a "whole mind," one that features both left- and right-brain in concert, Bronson and Merryman argue "highly creative people are very good at marshaling their brains into bilateral mode, and the more creative they are, the more they dual activate."

The authors place the role of creativity in a timely, relevant and compelling context--one that helps educators grapple with a central question: How do we prepare our children for a future we can't predict?

"The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the number 1 'leadership competency' of the future. Yet it's not just about sustaining our nation's economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care. Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others."

And for those who tend to see a tension between creativity and curriculum standards, Bronson and Merryman draw a powerful connection between creativity and academic rigor: "Creativity isn't about freedom from concrete facts. Rather, fact-finding and deep research are vital stages in the creative process."

During our opening meetings, our entire Summit staff, both teachers and non-teachers alike, explored the role of creativity in our professional lives. Part of that exploration involved drawing connections between key points from "The Creativity Crisis" and the thinking of the engineers in this memorable clip from Apollo 13.



In figuring out a way to fit the proverbial square peg in a round hole, the Apollo 13 engineers engaged in exactly the kind of creative process described in the Newsweek article: fact-finding, drawing on deep research, ideas being generated and evaluated on the fly, blender pulses of both divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result), project-based learning, and, ultimately, producing something original and useful.

Quoting researcher James C. Kaufman, Bronson and Merryman posit that "creativity can be taught." And how do we cultivate creativity in our students? One route is through Isaksen's and Treffinger's creative problem solving model, the essential elements of which are mess finding, data finding, problem finding, idea finding, solution finding and acceptance finding.

What do readers make of this model in the context of creativity as defined and explored by Bronson and Merryman? Has anyone explored Treffinger's model or these notions of creativity with students and faculty? If so, I invite you to share your experiences in response to this blog.

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The Wisdom of our Children: 10 Tips for a Successful School Year

The most important influence on my work as an educator is my role as a father.

As infants, my daughters taught me that love expands our souls. As toddlers, they taught me that curiosity inspires joy. As children they taught me that imagination is more powerful than fear. And, now, as teens they are teaching me about insight—and its roots in loving honesty.

A few nights ago, my daughters and I were laughing and teasing each other when I asked, “What advice do you have for me this coming school year? What will make this year better than last?” They looked at each other, intrigued. “Seriously?” my youngest asked. “Absolutely,” I said. “Tell me what you think.”

And so they did.

Here is my daughters’ “Top 10 list of Do’s and Don’ts for Dad.” While this prescription for a healthy year was written for me, I thought others might find it useful, too. That’s part of the magic of the wisdom of our children.

• Don’t overwork yourself.
• Don’t be too hard on yourself.
• Try to do one thing at a time.
• Take time to eat your meals.
• It doesn’t matter how much you do; it’s the quality that matters.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously.
• Have a sense of humor, and be at school the way you are at home.
• Be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day and say, “I did my best.”
• Wear your glasses on the bridge of your nose, not the tip; it makes you look like grandma.
• Wear jeans once in a while. . .or, at least, don’t wear a tie.

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Turning Failure into a Gift: A Mindset for the Future

Do you embrace challenges? Persist in the face of setbacks? See effort as the path to mastery? Learn from criticism? Find lessons in the success of others? If you do, then you have adopted what Stanford professor and author Carol Dweck terms a growth mindset. And it's a mighty useful way to look at life.

This summer every member of our Summit staff--from our kindergarten assistants to our director of finance and operations--is reading Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Why? Because the discipline of this approach delivers on our theme for the year, which is also, of course, our raison d'etre as educators :

Inspiring the Learner Within: Preparing Our Children (and Ourselves!) for a Future We Can't Predict

What better preparation is there for our volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world than a mindset that transforms failure into a gift?

Dweck asks, "What are the consequences of thinking that your intelligence or personality is something you can develop, as opposed to something that is a fixed, deep-seated trait?" And eight chapters later the answer is simple, clear, compelling and profound: a growth mindset is transformational.

In short, Dr. Dweck’s research focuses on two distinct types of “mindsets” in learning: Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset.



Students (and adults as well) who adopt a “fixed mindset” believe that each person has a certain amount of intelligence and that’s that. Further, Dweck writes, “A fixed mindset makes challenges threatening for students (because they believe that their fixed ability may not be up to the task) and it makes mistakes and failure demoralizing (because they believe that such setbacks reflect badly on their level of fixed intelligence).”

By contrast, Dweck’s research indicates that students who embrace a “growth mindset” (believing that intelligence can be developed through effort and hard work) are more likely to “confront challenges, profit from mistakes, and persevere in the face of setbacks [as ways of] getting smarter.”

In a fall 2007 presentation to Independent School leaders at Harvard's Annual Independent Schools Institute, NAIS President Pat Bassett named Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success as the book he most encouraged Independent School teachers and administrators to read this year. His rationale was both simple and profound:

Dweck's research shows us two things:

[1] One's belief that one can't improve stunts achievement (fixed mindset).

[2] One's belief that one can take concrete steps to improve enhances achievement (growth mindset).

If you have an early adolescent or older child, I encourage to read Dr. Dweck's article "Brainology: Transforming Students' Motivation to Learn" with your child and discuss its key points. In the process, you might share your attitude about and approach to your own attitudes about learning.

Mindset is not your ordinary self-help schlock. Dweck's research offers a discipline and action steps for adopting a "learn-and-help-learn framework" for living. In the end, which mindset would you like to see your child embrace? Your spouse? Your colleague? The person in the voting booth next to you?

I encourage you to pick up a copy of Mindset and share your thoughts and reactions with a Summit teacher or staff member--and with other friends at Summit and in the wider community. Maybe you'll be inspired to post a comment or two on this blog. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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