Bright ideas light the way
The Age
Saturday July 4, 2009
Unable to compete on price, Australia needs to get the creative juices flowing, writes Jim Bright. Many commentators, including myself, take the view that if we want to maintain our standard of living in the 21st century, those of us not involved in digging valuable stuff out of the ground will increasingly need to do work that is creative and innovative. Work that is imitative simply reproducing a product or service is moving, or has moved, offshore to the low-wage economies of India, China, Brazil and similar places.We can't make basic cars as cheaply as the Indians; we can't word process reports as cheaply as the Indians; we can't manufacture most consumer electrical or electronic goods as cheaply as the Chinese. Even those routine and repetitive aspects of what is normally seen as highly skilled work, such as routine medical diagnoses, conveyancing, non-contested divorce and some dentistry, are subject to competitive pressures from a compelling combination of computers and lower-paid, but Western-trained, doctors and lawyers.In other words, aside from coal, iron and uranium, much of the other work reaching into the higher echelons of high-status professions like medicine is already feeling the chill winds of international competition, which drives down incomes or relocates those incomes to other countries.This means that for many Australians, if we cannot compete on price or utility of service, we will need to compete by offering innovative and leading-edge services and increasingly looking to develop and own intellectual property such as patents that we can sell or licence to the rest of the world. In other words, never has it been more important for our workforce to be innovative and committed to the lifelong creation, invention and continuous reinvention of our products, services and selves.Which brings me to Sir Ken Robinson, who has been in Australia recently promoting his new book on creativity and careers, The Element. Much of the book is devoted to extracts of interviews he conducted with a range of successful people, drawing mainly from the world of the arts but also from science and industry.Sir Ken has a long-held interest in creativity and is an advocate for radical changes to our school system to encourage more creativity. In the book, he argues that many successful people did not discover their "element" (as in "being in your element") until leaving school. Their unique talents were overlooked in a system, he says, that encourages conformity rather than divergence.The Element is most convincing when relaying stories of how people discover their true passions. It points out that career paths are usually non-linear and that often it is exposure to ideas and inspiring people that creates the possibilities for creative success. It also makes the point that following our passions requires courage and luck and that doing so is no guarantee of financial success.Although I am sympathetic to these arguments because they echo the Chaos Theory of Careers, there is a challenge that confronts anyone who wants to draw broader conclusions from such stories. They need to demonstrate that it was the environment more than the individual that contributed to their success and, secondly, what disconfirming evidence exists. For instance, has the proportion of highly creative people in the population increased, decreased or remained constant over the past 100 years of mass education? Ironically, is it possible that the very divergent thinking skills that fuel many creative people also lead them to construct stories that exaggerate the shortcomings of their schooling?We will increasingly need answers to these questions for our economic well-being. The Element is a useful and thoughtful contribution that suggests some of these answers.Jim Bright is a professor of career education and development at ACU National and a partner at Bright and Associates, a career management consultancy. ladder@brightandassociates.com.auFor more workplace advice visit mycareer.com.au/advice
© 2009 The Age