Fresh Take on Leading for Creativity in Business (Pt 5 of 5)
FUTURE-PROOFING TALENT - The final article of a five-part series bridging arts, science, and business to reclaim a sense of wonder in American innovation.
“I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future”
- from On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Power of the Open Road
Ever since I first read the "Beat Poets" in college, like Jack Kerouac, I was hooked. They seemed to be doing something more than writing poetry – they were predicting a coming full-on identity crisis for the whole country.
Fast forward to today, and it feels like we're caught in a similar moment. Just like the Beats thumbed their noses at the cookie-cutter 1950s lifestyle, Americans of every political stripe are pushing back against a different brand of conformity. We're drowning in social media likes, but starving for real connection. We're working ourselves into a mental health crisis of epic proportion, but asking, "Is this all there is?" From embracing mindfulness to quitting corporate jobs to find meaning, we're all on this wild ride of figuring out who we really are and what really matters.
Over the years, I've been deeply moved by how poet David Whyte often speaks about his decision to leave a career in marine biology and return to poetry because he felt the scientific language wasn't expansive enough to fully capture and express the profound experiences and insights he was encountering in his life. He realized that poetry offered a broader, more nuanced language capable of exploring the depths of human experience, emotion, and meaning.
Poetry is a kind of innovation appearing at the frontier of culture, where our internal experiences meet the realities of our external world. Crossing this boundary marks an irreversible journey across frontiers of knowledge and "into the wilderness of unopened life," as D H Lawrence once wrote about Walt Whitman. It's a place where the insights gained can never be retracted, and bells can't be unrung.
Poetry is unique in human language. It is strong enough, wonder-full enough, to ask questions that double as bold acts of liberation. Asking the big questions and refusing to settle for easy answers is a quest for authenticity, meaning, and identity. Like a kind of spiritual radar, a good question is an attempt to locate ourselves across time and space.
One of America's most beloved tales offers a surprising parallel to the Beat Generation's journey of discovery and defiance of conventional paths. The Wizard of Oz is also a case study of what successful identity transitions look like when understood as simultaneously personal and communal. We see Dorothy's journey enriched by her companions' seeking their own growth alongside her. Team Dorothy's journey highlights the importance of unity and mutual support—celebrating the "we" over the "me" and illustrating that true transformation arises from interconnectedness and collective resilience.
“The Wizard of Oz” symbolizes a quest for discovery through the transformative alchemy of braving the open road with a team. Team Dorothy's adventures through Oz, filled with unexpected challenges, also mirror the spontaneous and often chaotic process of how corporate innovation teams step into new worlds that challenge their perceptions and help them grow. The transformational power of their journey on the yellow brick road frames a vital process demonstrating how teams succeed when balancing holistic well-being with discovery – the Scarecrow (how we think), Tin Man (how we feel), and Lion (how we act).
Traveling alone, Dorothy, or any of her team members, would be forced to rely solely on their own experiences to determine the best course of action. However, by cultivating the epistemic emotion of wonder, the team could move beyond the “me” and toward the “we.”
As the philosopher Schopenhauer noted, people often behave as if their limited set of memories, defined by their lived experiences, also defines the limits of what’s possible in the world. This lack of self-awareness and emotional intelligence allows a veil to descend over what we see as possible and valuable in our lives. What becomes possible when this veil is lifted?
In his book Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, John O'Donohue explores the idea that each choice we make leaves many unchosen possibilities. These unchosen paths still exist, enriching our understanding and appreciation of freedom and the innovations teams actively shape through their decisions.
Discovering and co-creating an “open-road” practice – moving from exponential possibilities to new economic and cultural value – can empower a small group to change the shape of thought for entire generations, industries, and sectors. By expanding the limits of their consciousness, teams can overcome the limitations of the “me” and collectively forge new pathways of innovation and creativity that only become possible through the “we.”
Unlocking Human Creative Potential
Where the the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
T. S. Eliot, the Rock (1934)
The World Economic Forum (WEF) identifies analytical thinking, creative thinking, self-awareness, resilience, and curiosity as the top five future job skills. When combined with emotional intelligence and storytelling, these skills comprise the creative brain skill sets that transform imagination into innovation.
Unlocking human creative potential involves the entire organization, not just skill training programs for individuals. Creativity America’s primary focus on team and organization-level analysis and action differentiates it from other initiatives in solving the future of work skills challenge in business.
But we think it’s even bigger than that.
If harnessed effectively within a business environment, Creativity America can disrupt everything from talent engagement and human resources to business strategy and revenue/value creation.
When scaled beyond business, creativity can drive civic engagement and community collaboration and solve some of the biggest challenges faced by companies, industries, and cities across America. Traditional approaches need to be revised in a world where the power of human creativity, emotion, and collaboration converges with technology. Creativity America solves four critical pain points, or Mind G.A.P.S., being faced by American enterprise:
Growth Gap (Systems Challenge)
The disconnect between human flourishing and enterprise performance leads to chronic disappointment/grief, innovation incrementalism, and a diminishing belief in the American Dream.
Alignment Gap (Expectation-Reality Challenge)
The disparity between employee expectations and work experience contributes to burnout and declines in enterprise dynamism, creativity, and workplace holistic well-being (mind/body/spirit).
Performance Gap (Skills Challenge)
Existing workforce development models must catch up to the pace of change, causing deficits in essential skills such as collaboration, analytical/creative thinking, and trustworthy communication.
Sustainability Gap (Transformation Challenge)
Growth, Alignment, and Performance gaps collectively hinder transformational change and stall innovation. Systemic solutions are required to bridge these gaps and ensure long-term success.
“Wonder Out Loud Is a Powerful Thing!”
This is a mantra I created to guide my work as a Culture Futurist®. More than a catchy phrase—I see this as a vision statement for every leader guiding innovation in today's business world to understand and embody. By combining creative potential (cognitive), creative motivation (emotional), and creative collaboration (shared action), the phrase encapsulates the essence of leading creativity in business today and into the future.
When we break down this phrase, it reveals the three essential skill sets that comprise Creative Brain Capital:
Head: The cognitive skills for honing our potential for wonder into intellectual curiosity and discovery.
Heart: The emotional skills that motivate us to work together and create meaningful change in the world.
Hands: The collaboration skills for shared progress, turning inner wonder into something visible and actionable—literally speaking our ideas into the world, allowing them to mingle with the wonder of others, and shifting innovation teams from the "me" to the "we" of transformational creativity.
To realize the phrase's promise, leaders must be skilled at integrating insights from the arts, science, and business. Only by fusing all three into innovation cultures rich in creative know-how will organizations be equipped to unlock the untapped economic and cultural value that lies on the human side of technology and the future of work.
Conventional wisdom in American enterprise tends to prioritize factual knowledge, which often narrows a leader’s view of the world. Such a limited perspective can stifle creativity and overlook the full spectrum of growth opportunities. Imagine a scientist focused solely on data or a poet absorbed only in feelings—both miss out on the richer, more complete picture of reality.
Acquiring creative know-how invites leaders beyond the traditional, binary thinking that often separates internal experiences from external facts. For example, while it's true that "humans breathe air," this fact alone doesn't capture the joy of a deep breath on a crisp morning. Focusing only on facts risks missing the deeper, more meaningful experiences that enrich our lives.
Think about a concert you’ve attended for a musician you love. It was more than just notes and rhythms; it was an experience that connected you with others. The music blended your internal emotions and memories of why you love that musician's work with the external reality of being surrounded by others who share that same love, each with their reasons for being there. Together, this created a participatory experience transcending the simple fact that many strangers bought tickets and attended the same concert.
The Greek concept of Aletheia, meaning "unconcealing" or "revealing," suggests that true understanding emerges from the interplay between our inner experiences and the external world. Embracing this broader perspective opens the door to greater creativity and innovation, inviting business success.
From Creative Economy to Wonder Economy
Researchers like Roni Reiter-Palmon emphasize that organizational creativity is influenced not just by logical processes but also by factors like psychological safety, the interplay between cognitive and emotional states within teams, and teams' ability to reflect on their own thought processes, behaviors, and dynamics. As our understanding of the science of creativity deepens, there's an opportunity to use scientific research to rethink and expand the concept of the creative economy in fascinating new ways.
From the Traditional Creative Economy
The creative economy has traditionally been seen as a sector focused on producing and selling creative goods and services. This includes cultural sites, performing and visual arts, publishing, design, new media, and creative services like architecture and coding. Economists typically classify jobs in these areas as "creative" and measure their economic output accordingly. While this perspective is valuable, it limits creativity to specific types of organizations. It separates them from other parts of the economy rather than recognizing the potential for creativity to drive innovation across all sectors.
To the Wonder Economy
The Wonder Economy, however, broadens the scope of creativity, integrating it into all industries as a driving force for collaboration, innovation, and value creation. It merges creative skills, mindsets, processes, and products into a unified approach that blends arts, science, and business. This evolutionary approach isn't confined to traditional creative sectors; instead, it connects creativity across all industries, powering the human side of technology and the future of work.
Creativity becomes a strategic tool in the Wonder Economy, offering "creative enterprise solutions" that combine workforce wellness, innovation process improvement, and strategic foresight. This approach transforms the creative industries from a vertical sector into a horizontal "creative solutions" sector that permeates every industry, much like how technology has become a critical component across all sectors. By doing so, the Wonder Economy opens up new market opportunities and redefines how we think about creativity in the modern American enterprise.
Dorothy: "You're a very bad man!"
The Wizard: "Oh, no, my dear. I'm a very good man. I'm just a very bad wizard."
Navigating transitions requires the right tools. Just as weather maps visualize the data details in a tornado's dramatic and unpredictable nature, our personal and collective journeys map the transformative stories of change and discovery hidden within the data.
We will remain immersed in an accelerating flow of data, product must-haves, and policy must-dos for the foreseeable future. The secret to successfully navigating the months and years ahead is learning to hold this creative tension while staying open to new possibilities and embracing the expansive opportunities in the “we” rather than contracting into the “me.”
Whether the path is yellow-bricked or technologically framed, our progress depends on how we think, feel, and collaborate in the stories we tell about the journey ahead. Perhaps this is what Steve Jobs meant when he said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”
As we find a new language for writing future history, the journey of American innovation will surely be laden with uncertainties. However, I am increasingly clear on one thing: only when we stay wonder-full and lead with love—that self-transcendent emotion moving us beyond the self-centeredness of “me” and toward the possibilities within the “we”—will the limits of the masks we wear today fall away.
These masks, these foreclosed identities we use to shield us from each other, also perpetuate our pain. These masks – like the straw-laced ignorance of the clever scarecrow, the steely, rusting armor of the compassionate tin man, the pompous roar of the scared but brave lion, the sparkle and dazzle of ruby slippers on the feet of a curious adventurer, or the technological wizardry and velvet curtain hiding the wisdom of a trickster – obscure ancestral wisdom and diminish our human creative potential in the present.
Love takes off the masks and reveals our connection to each other. As James Baldwin so eloquently put it in The Fire Next Time: “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word 'love' here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace—not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”
Love is where wonder resides. From our dynamic conception of democracy, landing a human on the moon, and mapping the human genome to jazz greats, Hollywood icons, and culture-shifting technology— our creativity and entrepreneurial spirit are fueled by our legendary sense of wonder. It is what makes America special.
Nevertheless, research records a decline in American creativity, business dynamism, and overall mental well-being today. Only 36% of Americans still believe in the American Dream. Unprocessed grief, likely from loss of identity, is gripping innovation.
Culture is dynamic. Technology is accelerating. Business structures are shifting. When change is the only constant, how we respond will shape our legacy. Will we stay the same or embrace the combined power found in the arts and science of creativity to build better futures?
To meet our obligations, we need better questions and new ideas to meet our challenges. To realize meaningful solutions that scale, we must be fit for the future, fostering curiosity, emotionally intelligent dialogue and co-creative ecosystems.
Reclaiming our sense of wonder in American dreams requires building resilient cultures rich in creative know-how guided and led by those with open minds, engaged human spirits, and skills in collaborative action toward our shared humanity.
The story of our next world-changing idea, company, or movement begins with three simple yet powerful words: “I WONDER IF…”
How we find and fuel the story of what comes next will determine what lies beyond the rainbow.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theo Edmonds, Culture Futurist® & Founder, Creativity America | Bridging Creative Industries and Brain Science with Future of Work & Wondervation™
©2024 Theo Edmonds | All Rights Reserved. Please credit the author when using. The views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any organization with which the author is affiliated.
ACCESS THE FULL FIVE-PART SERIES
PART ONE: QUANTUM CULTURE
Beyond the political, JD Vance and I can likely agree on four things about Breathitt County.
PART TWO: MAKING THE HUMAN SIDE A SHARED VALUE
Leadership needs a glow-up to match the boldness of our visionaries, entrepreneurs, and innovators.
PART THREE: BUILDING STRATEGIC FORESIGHT
Finding the intersection of technology with human creativity in our search for awakening and understanding in a world that often feels chaotic and bewildering.
PART FOUR: DEVELOPING CO-CREATIVE ECOSYSTEMS.
Information goes in through the heart and other things Steve Jobs taught us about moving from the “me” to the “we” of innovation.
PART FIVE: FUTURE-PROOFING TALENT
A hope-fueled drive to actively shape a more creative and kind future that pushes us to go beyond old notions of creative economy while reconnecting us to something greater than ourselves.