![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/322\/2021\/05\/Paul-Reali.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMy friend Mark West asked me to say a few words to this year\u2019s graduates about another of my friends, creativity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We Boomers and Generation Xers can say what we want about Gens Y and Z (ahem: our kids), but we should thank them for this: they have embraced the idea of creativity as few before them. The word creatives is now in common use. A decade ago, the most common response to hearing that I have an M.S. (yes, a Master\u2019s of Science) in Creativity was this: \u201cyou can get a degree in creativity?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only that, but it\u2019s studied in colleges worldwide. My book, <\/em>Creativity Rising: Creative Thinking and Creative Problem Solving in the 21st Century (ICSC Press), written with three colleagues, is used as an introductory textbook at colleges in four countries. The book is a why-to and how-to guide to deliberate creativity, and it introduces concepts that most of today\u2019s graduates take for granted. Of course I\u2019m creative, they\u2019ll say \u2013 which was not something I expected to hear from most working adults even a decade ago.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet there\u2019s a disconnect, still, between how young people think about creativity and how they intend to use it. In the main, they consider creativity to be part of their lives, but not necessarily something they can bring into their workplaces. They have a point: many employers do not know how to nurture and support the highly creative people in their workforces. Yet here\u2019s what I\u2019d like employers and new college grads heading into the workplace to understand: creative ability is why people are hired in the first place.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s obvious, actually: if a company can get a computer to do the work, it does. Humans are hired to do what computers can\u2019t: primarily, to think and solve problems creatively.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To be specific: Creativity is action taken to produce a novel (unique, original) and valuable (useful, appropriate) outcome. Many of us do this naturally; creativity is part of the prize pack you receive for being born human, says Cathy Pickens, author of <\/em>CREATE! Developing Your Creative Process. Yet what our lives and our workplaces require is the deliberate application of creativity; that is, identifying problems and opportunities, big and small, and approaching them in new ways.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What <\/em>Creativity Rising tries to make clear is that this is not optional. Creativity can no longer be seen as a nice-to-have or when-we-have-time endeavor. Creativity is an essential life skill and the cornerstone of today\u2019s workplace. The world moves too quickly. Change is not just inevitable, it\u2019s constant. Companies that do not build nimble, innovative, creatively-supportive workplaces will find it difficult to retain talent from Gens Y and Z \u2013 and increasingly from Gen X and the Boomers. And that failure will make it impossible to thrive, not to mention survive.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If I were to sum up my message for new graduates, it\u2019s comes down to this: don\u2019t settle for workplaces that stifle you and your creativeness. You\u2019ll soon learn that your side gigs and side hustles are not enough outlet for your creative self. It doesn\u2019t deserve to be placed in a box from eight to six. Seek out and help build jobs and workplaces that embrace and enhance your creativity. It\u2019s time for creativity \u2013 and you \u2013 to take your place on the stage.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that Paul\u2019s advice on the value of deliberate creativity relates not just to recent graduates but to all of us as we respond to our fast-changing and stress-inducing society. Like Paul, I think that we all should make an effort to exercise and cultivate our creativity, and one way to do this is by engaging in the world of storytelling. Participating in organizations like Charlotte Lit (https:\/\/www.charlottelit.org<\/a>) and the Charlotte Writers Club (https:\/\/charlottewritersclub.org\/home<\/a>) can help us accomplish this goal. As I see it, creativity and Storied Charlotte go hand in hand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Given that May and June are the months when most graduation ceremonies take place, it seems to me that now is a good time to offer a bit of advice to young people who are about to leave school and launch their careers.\u00a0 Such advice is often included in commencement addresses.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard many such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2902"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2907,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902\/revisions\/2907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n