Our New World Needs You To Wear A New Hat.The Case For Promoting Creativity

The old adage of 'Jack of all trades, master of none' is perhaps the clearest manifestation of where our society got it wrong when it comes to creativity and it's critical dependence on the number of experiences, skills and perspectives one has in order to be able to connect things in new ways and create never before seen transformation in society. However, as stubborn as society has been to see this reality, something else is forcing it to come to a new realization. The truth is, our new world needs Jacks of many trades. 

There is a slow but increasing realization that putting people in boxes and that old the ways of approaching our world’s most pressing issues is failing to produce fulfilled individuals and the outcomes we desire in society. Today more than ever, our rapidly changing world with its great opportunities and many challenges, requires the ability to think in new ways and the birthing of new and life changing solutions to serve the needs of a more connected and insatiable world.

Just like in the natural world, as technology-driven globalization sweeps us along, nations, organizations and companies of all shapes are left with a single option, innovate or die. As the state of the world and the priorities of donor countries and aid organizations evolve, doing good to the world is not spared either. Poor countries and non-governmental organizations in need of support are forced to face a new reality.

Perhaps, the winds of change hit businesses and multinational corporations the harshest. The world of business is facing rapid changes in how businesses compete, the new governance and global climate in which they must succeed. All this creates a new necessity for staying businesses to stay young and innovative to better serve a distracted consumer with a plethora of options to choose from.

All these larger forces have also led to unseen before changes to our workplaces and what it means to have a ‘successful’ career. Today’s workplace rewards the employee who is able to bring diverse skill set and perspectives to their teams, who can see and connect things in new ways and help their organization achieve desired goals. The old one dimensional career path that puts people into boxes no longer works. Individuals who want to succeed in the workplace nowadays have to bring diverse skills and experiences together to decipher problems and utilize new opportunities to solve problems in new ways.

The need to stay innovative and find new ways of approaching the world’s most pressing issues and concerns requires a societal shift in homes and schools (primarily) towards developing individuals with the capacity to see old problems in new ways, seek out new opportunities and tackle problems in novel ways. Thus a shift to make the promotion of creativity skills ubiquitous in our homes and schools is a central necessity for all individuals, groups, organizations and nations seeking better outcomes.

This is where Jacks of many Trades come in to save the day. Jacks of many trades can connect things in novel ways and thus give birth to new ideas, products and ways of doing things.

Schools and Universities have been painfully too slow to adapt to this new world. Schools should stop putting people in boxes and promoting the single career path that has failed to suffice in today's world. In fact, this culture of putting people in boxes goes starkly against one of the strongest theories we have in the field of educational psychology - Howard Gardener's Theory of Multiple Intelligence. According to Gardener, while our schools generally seem to design for and examine logical and linguistic intelligence, this is a very limited view of true human potential. There are all these other forms of intelligence that are left mostly undeveloped.
If there is a new mindset we have to inculcate in the minds of today's young generation, it is the appreciation that creativity hinges on the diverse number of skills, experiences and perspectives they can draw from to solve problems and create value for themselves and their communities.