Creativity Australia celebrates our first birthday

November 10th 2009 marked one year since Creativity Australia's launch.

The amount that we have achieved and success we have enjoyed in our programs have been nothing short of amazing, thanks of course to our incredible Board, Patrons, Ambassadors, Thought Leaders and supporters.

Over the past 12 months Creativity Australia have initiated:

• The 'With One Voice' Program
• Melbourne Sings Choir
• Royal Childrens Sings Choir
• Mind Over Music Choir
• Collingwood Sings Choir

And the coming 12 months will see the beginning of:

• Geelong Sings Choir - a community and social bridging choir for residents of Geelong
• Maribyrnong Mums Choir - a support network and community building choir for single mums in the Maribyrnong area

Creativity Australia's November newsletter has all the latest information on current and upcoming programs, so please do check it out here.

Here's to another fantastic year of creativity and innovation!

What happened to our creativity? by Tania de Jong AM

If you enter a kindergarten you will encounter some of the best creative thinking anywhere: finger paintings with pink and green people and blue dogs and polka-dot skies, imaginative stories of fairies and magical, far-away places. Young children are naturally creative. They must create ways to learn and construct a world view from a collection of initially disconnected events, colours, movement and sound. So what happens between the open, effortless experimentation of our childhood and the blocks in creative thinking experienced by many adults?

One of the challenges businesses face today is overcoming the barriers to stimulating creativity and innovation. These barriers are ever present. We live in a world where computers, the internet, image and celebrities take us further away from connecting with one another meaningfully. We are in danger of becoming a society where alienation, disengagement and self centeredness are entrenched. We need to create opportunities for individuals and communities to connect with one another in new and meaningful ways.

Therefore it is critical to find creative and innovative ways to bring people together, to build resilience and social capital during these highly uncertain times. Doing so can develop stronger communication and problem solving skills, and thereby foster sustainable levels of motivation and wellbeing at a personal and organisational level. This will in turn lead to greater levels of engagement and innovation in organisations, and an enhanced ability to make a contribution to our society rather than just focusing on profits.

One way of improving our world is to help people learn how to think and act differently. We believe creativity offers the answers to many of the big issues we face in these unprecedented times, because it can help unlock our full human potential. Yet in many organizations there is no clear avenue for developing personal creativity or for nurturing ideas. In fact, those with the ideas are often ignored or stifled, so that eventually their voices and ideas fall silent. However in the face of competitive and economic pressures, many organisations are convinced that creativity and innovation are the keys to success.

There is significant international research about the enormous benefits of creative participation for wellbeing, self esteem, connection to others, increased brain function and much more. Unlocking creative potential will not only help people’s sense of self esteem, connection and wellbeing but will lead to outcomes including meaningful and creative leadership, greater innovation, a sense of connection and increased productivity. There is a yearning to align life purpose with work to make it meaningful and work is meaningful when all of our self is being engaged and challenged, including our creativity.

For further information and a range of programs to help you create a creative and innovative self and organisation, please visit www.creativityaustralia.org.au

Creativity – the national imperative by Tania de Jong AM

Australia is a highly successful and prosperous nation. However, we have ridden on our luck, especially in relying on our natural resources to get us through.

But in the 21st century being the lucky country isn’t enough. We have to work on nurturing our talent and inventiveness – in short, our creativity.

We pride ourselves on our innovation and creativity, but what is the truth?

• According to McKinsey we are not as innovative compared to other countries as we think we are.
• We tend to think of the artists and scientists as the “creative people”.
• Innovation is siloed into advanced manufacturing (a declining sector), biotechnology/medical research (a high profile, but very small sector) and a general cultural self-belief (but very few examples of systemic management and incentivisation).

In the face of this, the advanced world is innovating at an incredible rate as funds and resources are marshalled into major institutions and corporations in the USA and Europe, whilst Asia is rushing into education and applied innovation.

Against this, we have reduced R & D incentivisation programmes and our venture capital industry is virtually stillborn.

What do we need to do?

Quite simply, we need to create and nurture a culture of success, happiness and integration within our communities, organisations and institutions. These are the keys to our future survival and prosperity as a nation.

What are we doing about our cultural creativity? Virtually nothing!

So where are we?

Our focus during the Industrial and Information Revolutions has been heavily slanted to the left-side thinking brain

Our schools are heavily focused on the traditional skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and now, social history, at the expense of social, cultural, emotional, psychological wellbeing. Up to three out of four government primary schools do not have access to music, arts or creative learning programmes. This in in itself puts Australia behind most other OECD nations and some third world nations which recognise the importance of creative learning.

There is a massive growing problem of social disintegration in our society - eg rising depression, youth suicide, drugs, homelessness, binge drinking, violent behaviours, child abuse and so on.

People are searching for greater meaning in their work and life at a time when the world has never offered so much abundance.

Q: What are we to do about it?
I welcome your comments and answers and will make some recommendations in my next post.

For further information and a range of programs to help you unlock the creative potential of yourself and organisation, please visit www.creativityaustralia.org.au