Here is a section from my book, Mustard DOesn't Go on Corn!  At the end of the passage there is a link to a talk by Sir Ken Robinson that echos these thoughts.

Question:  What can we do as a society to promote innovation at an early age?

From Mustard Doesn't Go On Corn!: "Why is this so hard?  It goes back to why innovation is so easy.  Create a culture in which all employees are open to ideas and respect others for their input, and innovation will flourish.  Unfortunately, our culture, and by ‘our’ I mean American culture, is not the most open and respectful of new ideas.  And where does this come from?  It comes from school!  That’s right, school.  College?  High School?  Middle School?  Let’s try First Grade!   That’s right.  All of this fear starts when you go to school.  Stand up.  Be quiet.  Don’t do that.  Do this.  That doesn’t go there.  And the list goes on.  We all can remember that kid who was a little bit different.  You know, the one that was always suggesting those ‘wacky’ ideas that resulted in the class laughing at him. Wait.  Did I just describe first grade or my last staff meeting? Gordon MacKenzie, in the book Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace, talks about visiting elementary schools.  “How many artists are there in the room? Would you please raise your hands. FIRST GRADE: En mass the children leapt from their seats, arms waving. Every child was an artist. SECOND GRADE: About half the kids raised their hands, shoulder high, no higher. The hands were still. THIRD GRADE: At best, 10 kids out of 30 would raise a hand, tentatively, self-consciously. By the time I reached SIXTH GRADE, no more than one or two kids raised their hands, and then ever so slightly, betraying a fear of being identified by the group as a ‘closet artist.’ The point is: Every school I visited was participating in the suppression of creative genius.” "

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66

Thoughts?

Rich Trombetta
President, The Innovation Company, LLC

 

What did you think of this article?

Liked
Disliked
No Opinion