Research Shows that Creativity Really is Declining

A really interesting story about the problem of falling creativity scores appeared in a recent issue of Newsweek magazine.  A link to the article was sent to me by one of our alert Associates (thanks Scott D.) and you can read it here:

The points that jumped out to me in the article titled The Creativity Crises include:

  • Intelligence scores in children have been increasing by 10 points with each successive generation however creativity scores have dropped.
  • Creativity scores were increasing until 1990 and have since begun to decrease, “and the decrease is very significant” according to the lead researcher.
  • Possible causes of this decline were enumerated as too much “screen time” (TV’s, games, etc.) and a general lack of attention to developing creativity in our children.

At a time when a recent IBM poll of 1500 CEO’s listed creativity as the most important “leadership competency”, this issue is vital and will no doubt be explored deeply in the years ahead.  The article also includes interesting information about ways some schools have begun to address this problem and what other countries are doing to focus attention on creativity in their schools.  Also, don’t miss the point, counter-point articles regarding brainstorming as an idea generation technique – Forget Brainstorming and Don’t Forget, Brainstorming Works! I’ll let the articles speak for themselves, but I will add that we too have seen dramatic positive impact at organizations that have correctly applied the various tools taught in our programs…including brainstorming.

 

How do you think your company will be impacted by these falling creativity scores?  What is your company doing to encourage creativity?

 

 

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