Scott Noppe-Brandon On the Creativity World Forum

December, 01 2010

November 15-17: The Annual Creativity World Forum took place in Oklahoma City. LCI's Executive Director, Scott Noppe-Brandon, was on hand to ensure that creativity's inseparable companion, imagination, got its due.

Lincoln Center Institute: As its name indicates, The Creativity Forum focuses heavily on creativity, whereas you are by now recognized internationally for your conviction that the imagination comes first in what you call the ICI continuum—imagination, creativity, innovation. Were you something of the odd man out?

Scott Noppe-Brandon: No, I merely begged to differ (laughs). Seriously, I was the opposite of the odd man out. LCI's work preceded me, and I was not only able to bring ICI into the conversation, it was widely accepted. No doubt, creativity and innovation are common buzz words in industry these days, but the question "how do we get there" inevitably poses itself. Once you put forth the proposition that the imagination is the genesis of the other two, it seems quite obvious. The idea was embraced enthusiastically.

LCI: You must have been delighted to have the approval of such a large audience.

SNB: The fact that this audience came from every sphere of work and ideology imaginable was even more impressive than its size. I felt gratified to find understanding not just among other educators or purveyors of art, but among business people, industrial inventors, psychologists. So the agreement was not just that the ICI continuum is important in one area of education, but that educating for imagination is essential to the welfare of all; that it affects the economy and our whole culture.

LCI: Any particularly memorable moments?

SNB: It's almost impossible to pinpoint one epiphany over another with the kind of speakers the Forum had attracted. It was a who's who of today's thinkers from around the globe: Ken Robinson, Daniel Pink, so many more. But I'll tell you, perhaps the most memorable event for me came from a corner that I honestly would not have expected to be all that exciting. It was a discussion titled "Creative Frontiers: Innovation in Corporate America." Bruce Upbin, Managing Editor at Forbes, was leading a conversation between four CEOs of huge conglomerates in the energy business: George Kaiser, Aubrey McClendon, Tom Ward, John Richels. As you might imagine, they talked about the need for product innovation, for the insatiable need for creative thinkers in industry, but then I realized: they are not talking only about what needs to be done—because we are all aware of that—they are also talking about how to get it done. Right away and without much fanfare, they discussed strategies for implementation and financial structures around it. It confirmed for me on more than one level the need for action not just discussion.

LCI: How so?

SNB: Well, it made it clear that there is no "them" and "us" when it comes to being imaginative. Imagination itself has for so long had this ethereal aura around it, as if it were not—and could not be—a tangible, useful skill, it isn't surprising that it also became, in popular mythology, the exclusive domain of artists and daydreamers. That it can come from corporate America is probably a shock to many. But that day I saw that corporate America not only has its share of imaginative brains, it is also ready to put words to action.

And this leads to a realization that I have been trying to convey with some urgency for a while now, which is that if we're going to change the world by using this extraordinary gift we humans have, imagination, then the time is now. We are, famously, a nation of free thinkers and loud debaters, but when a crisis arises, we are capable of putting our differences aside and working together. If the needs of education right now and in the future isn't a crisis, I don't know what is. And instinctively, in gatherings such as this conference, all parties are on the same track: the advocacy for imagination comes from all quarters: corporations and the art community, the military and the educators. The nation no longer needs convincing about the importance of educating for imagination—it is convinced. It needs action.

It's wonderful that we have come so far, achieved so much. At the same time, I am worried that we'll get bogged down in our own jargon, as if the fact that we all "got it" requires no further steps. But now is the time to act, and if we just use imagination as some sort of masonic password, the time will pass, the golden opportunity will be lost.

LC: How do your spur people to action?

SNB: You advocate relentlessly. As I and many others do with each Imagination Conversation, as the America's Imagination Summit will do with a loud bang, I hope, come summer. But, to LCI's credit, LCI has been fighting for imagination for a very long time: it does not merely talk about imagination, it implements it every time one of our educators enters a classroom.

LC: Did you make any new friends at the conference, talked to like-minded people one-on-one?

SNB: I talked to lots of interesting people from business, publishing, and science. But in a way, I think I made friends with a whole generation. There were many college students in the audience, and in some of my workshops, and I was absolutely blown away by them. They were incredibly sharp: their ideas were fascinating, their questions perceptive. I was overjoyed. I felt that the future of ICI just might be in some very good hands.

LCI: Any final thoughts on the Creativity World Forum?

SNB: It's a great, important forum, and it's essential that it keep going. Seldom are so many constructive and innovative ideas, coming from so many different schools of thought, found in one place. But I think that it can be a much better forum yet: it needs greater cultural and gender diversity. Speaking from my thirty-plus years of experience with the public-school classrooms, I can say this with absolute certainty: the greatest untapped potential in this country is the imaginative potential that can coalesce when our diverse cultures, genders, and race are brought together.

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