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DESIGN OF A CREATIVE SOCIETY

THE CHARECTERISTICS OF A CREATIVE SOCIETY:

- Social creativity comes into existence due to the challenge facing a society and an

innovative response to it by the elite of that society.- The stimulus to social creativity is provided by challenges such as wars, natural

calamities, social upheavals, conquest, colonization, opening up to foreigntrade and influence and so forth.

- A culture that nurtures diversity, gives ample scope for inventions. Such societies

progress because of differences between the individuals.- Another habit worth nurturing is self awareness as a way of understanding how one

affects others. People are free to think in a creative society and act divergently,but without losing their receptivity to those that differ from them.

- Ability to arrive at creative compromises ie ability to secure win win solutions.

Viewing others as part of ones own large family, rather than as enemies to bevanquished, helps nurturant resolution of conflicts.

- Sense of mutuality and sharing, we must be mindful of our obligations as of our rights.

When we take, we must also give.

- The lowest levels in society must get a chance to grow and be creative, to haveenriched jobs and satisfaction from doing interesting and challenging work.

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- Availability of cultural and physical means. Ex: English language. It helps mass literacy.

The people could be taught many basic concepts relating to the work ethic, thescientific attitude, cooperative action and self reliance.

- Openness or receptivity to cultural stimuli.

-There has to be balance between short term and long term development. Religiouscultures emphasize the long term objectives excessively, primitive culturesemphasize immediate gratification.

- Free access to cultural media for all without discrimination. There should be no racial,religious, sexual or social class bars to education, libraries, musuems, cinemas,

news and so forth.

- Elimination of oppression as a spur to creativity. Creativity will be at a low level whena society is highly oppressed as under a colonial rule.

- Exposure to different cultural stimuli.Trade, conquest, tourism or diplomatic relationscan get a society exposure to other quite different cultures.

- Tolerance for and interest in diverging views

- Interaction of significant persons working in a group for creating an extraordinaryeffect.

- Incentives and awards help the creative effort.

- Accumulation of ideas in a culture. The state of knowledge and the degree of itselaboration the techni ues and instruments one can use make some new develo ments

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possible and others impossible.

- The concentration of ideas in individuals in the society help the society to be creative.

- Sharp social class differences and inequalities can, in societies permitting upwardmobility, trigger off imitations, compromises and innovations on the part of

communities lower on the social strata.- The expectation of change: Innovation flourishes in an atmosphere wherein there is

anticipation of change.

- Independence from authority: Greater the freedom of the individual to explore hisworld of experience and to organise its elements, the greater the likelihood of

new ideas coming into being.

- The healthy competition of rivals, such that they earn their rewards on the basis ofperformance.

- Deprivation of essentials: Serious deprivation can be paralyzing for artisitc,philosophical or scientific creativity.

- A change in the dominant characteristic of a culture such as allegiance to the castesystem or in the system of production may trigger a chain reaction of changessuch as marriage practices, the form of government.

- Access that innovative individuals have to positions of power in a society.

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- Institutions that take care of basic human needs (welfare state, cooperatives, jointfamily, caste, etc)

- Freedom from excessive bureaucratic and political control of social and economicactivities, Decentralization of regulation, Emphasis on control of results ratherthan procedures, Emphasis on self regulation by institutions.

4) Needed stimuli for creativity:

- Communication of external challenges and threats to the gifted, and giving them theopportunity to contribute to meeting these challenges.

- Identification of major internal challenges, their communication to the gifted, and

creation of opportunity for them to contribute to the meeting of these internalchallenges.

- Vigorous fostering of international and inter cultural contracts. A world orientation inschool curriculum.

- Highlighting of models of creative achievement.

- Public reward for creative accomplishments.

- Fostering of inter-organizational competition, kept ethical, however, by law, custom,self regulation, etc.

- Policy of moderate deprivation (through some import control, vigorous exports, high

interest rates and financial stringency, etc.)- Ado tion of a bold and risk rowth and survival strate b the overnment and

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and other core institutions.

- Change through government and social action, of those social parameters (such aschild rearing and marriage practices that can trigger a chain of innovations)

- Giving the traditional have nots access to political and economic power and

opportunities for upward mobility.5) Needed management of strategic institutions, such as government, strategicenterprises, institutions of higher learning etc

- Meritocracy

- Decentralization of operating decisions.

- Use of an effective management performance information and control system

- Institutionalization of a culture of flexibility, results orientation, calculated risk taking,innovation, face to face resolution of conflicts and acceptance of challengingtasks by the institutions and their members.

- Adoption of inspiring institutional missions.

STRATEGIES FOR TRANSFORMING NON INNOVATIVE CULTURES:

A change agents role in transforming a non innovative culture is as follows.

1) He must not threaten its members with jargon and show of knowledge, nor with

aggressiveness.

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2) Looking out for small or big problems of the collectivity in which one can quitelyassist is a way of building the confidence of others in the change agent.

3) Nudging the collectivity or powerful members of the collectivity to take on challengesthat they can not fulfill with conventional methods is a way of unfreezing thecollectivity and making it receptive to new ways of taking the challenge.

4) Having the collectivity or powerful individuals in it, brainstorm or list alternativeswithout inhibition or evaluation in responding to a challenge or a crisis maylead to a success experience and therefore to interest in creative problemsolving and innovating.

5) Fear of failure is the great enemy of innovativeness. If the change agent can bring upreal life examples of people who dared and thereby succeeded, considerableunblocking may be expected.

6) Investments on books, tools can facilitate creativity and innovation.

7) Some of the members may experience failure and frustration. The change agent

needs to change his strategy from being that of a provoker of change to one ofconsolidator of change.

NECESSITY OF A CREATIVE SOCIETY:

-A creative society is an economic necessity for the worlds poor nations.

- The government seeks to manage investment bureaucratically ie by standardisation,

rules, hierarchy control. Thus investments are mismanaged and their expectedbenefits are oorl realized. The absence of innovative s irit leads to wholesale

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import of foreign technology with scant regard to to the nations requirements.

- Minor innovations in eating, living, working habits can bring about changes in livingstandards in the underdeveloped countries.

Ex: Family planning, protein rich diet, preventive health care, use of better

methods of farming, literacyInnovation in society will have more impact on living standards than on investments.

Ex: Use of low cost housing technique developed by Laurrie Baker could permitbuilding more number of houses with the same money.

- The innovative society can guide changes at the society level and also at the level ofsmall slices of society such as family, caste, village, work organisation,community and so forth.