Pre-Ramble:  Just the sound of the word “innovation” gives me a rush of energy that rises up out of a cross section of art, science and the romantic notions of resourcefulness and hard work. Over the past decade, this glorified word has been slapped all over everything from business schools to soap, claiming the “frontier spirit” and trading on its appeal to dreamers and pragmatists alike. 

There is growing concern, however, that the U.S. prowess for innovation is in danger, and that steps must be taken to ”reclaim our edge.”  John C. Lechleiter, chairman, president and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company expounds upon that sentiment in a recent Opinion page article (WSJ, 7/9/10, p. A17).

A stream of inventions helped make the 20th century the American century … Unfortunately, America’s economy is in danger of losing what has always been our greatest competitive advantage – our genius for innovation. … A recent study ranked the U.S. 6th among the top 40 industrialized nations in innovative competitiveness, but 40th out of 40 in the rate of change in innovative capacity … In other words, we’re at serious risk of falling behind.”

(Forgive me if I’m missing something here, but how much farther behind can we fall if we’re already dead last?)

Building capacity. In crafting a turnaround plan, Lechleiter talks about an “ecosystem” of conditions that are required to foster an environment of innovation, among them the “seeds of innovation” meaning, us human beings with our talent and energy, creativity and insights, “…  a priceless resource and one that is woefully underdeveloped in this country.” Lechleiter goes on to suggest that, along with simplified immigration policies and adequate funding for our research infrastructure, one way to bolster America’s “capacity for innovation” is to step up the rigors of science and math instruction in our schools.

At the recent Apsen Ideas Festival, education gurus like Bill Gates, Jeffrey Canada, and Howard Gardner discuss the future of education in America. They suggest all kinds of great ideas, innovative ideas even, that strive to engage young people in real learning and give them the tools they will need for a successful future. They talk about innovative models for reform … a longer school day, … an articulated curriculum, … more rigorous testing, … accountability for results, … teacher quality and parent involvement.  Certainly, these are all important elements in a high-quality education, and important building blocks for innovation as well.

Jack Hidary, a successful innovator/entrepreneur in the tech and finance camp, former philosophy and neuroscience student at Columbia University, and also a speaker at this year’s Aspen Festival, puts things in another perspective, 

“Problem-solving is not correlated with grade scores on a transcript.”

Science and reading and math – Oh my!  Sure, high performance in math and science (and reading ) are critical skill sets that must be nurtured in the well-rounded innovator, but so too are the critical traits of curiosity, independence and engagement. What is going to actually engage these kids?  Why are they going to want to sit in the classroom longer and take harder courses?  What is going to get them excited to come to school and apply themselves?  To get excited about learning?  How are they going to find what they are looking for in life unless they are given an opportunity to access their their imagination, their chi, their passion, their hidden sources of motivation? What is going to compel these students to shift their internal paradigm such that they see barriers and obstacles as exciting ”challenges to be overcome”?

Follow the yellow brick road.  Sometimes the answer is to go off of the beaten path and find yourself in a whole new place … maybe even one with rainbows, a tin man and ruby slippers (awesome, magical sparkliness shown above). Problem-solving – a gateway to innovation – involves critical thinking, exploration, resourcefulness and creativity. Future  innovators need to develop the motivation and capacity to snoop around … to follow their whims … listen to their gut, and rely on instinct and insight to make new connections among an infinite sea of random data points.

We need to provide kids with opportunities to venture down the yellow brick road … to get out of the black and white and see the world in color on a regular basis. In addition to a crabby Auntie Em and high winds, Dorothy’s data points were facilitated by her encounters with the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion.  The future entrepreneur needs a firm understanding of math and science and literature, AND art and music and team-work and a whole bunch of other random and wonderful things.

The Take-Away: We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Like Oz and the Fab 4, our the world is spinning and we need to figure out a way to make sense out of it. If we are to have any hope of rebuilding the American capacity for innovation, we need to engage and “nurture the seeds” in new ways. … Even clicking our societal heels in a spanking new pair of sparkly red shoes isn’t going to help us find our way back to innovation if we continue to ignore the critical role that the arts and extracurricular activities play in human engagement and continue to undervalue (cut funding for) them in our public and educational environments.

Pre-Ramble:  So, I am totally tardy in weighing in on President Obama’s message to the nation’s schoolchildren yesterday.  The thing is, I am actually so stunned by the reaction of those who object to the president’s speech to students, even more so of those who object to the president addressing students at all, that I can barely pull my thoughts together. 

In his speech, President Obama draws upon personal experiences and makes the case for the role of education in a successful life.

He highlights education as the great equalizer and speaks to the challenges faced by young people in a media culture that often presents an unrealistic view of the world and can serve as a distraction from the knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes which would advance the likelihood of a successful future in it. 

The truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And, you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.”

What parent doesn’t want their child to hear that message?  What parent doesn’t want their child to work hard and stay in school?  What parent would rather take their child OUT OF SCHOOL, than have them listen to the president of the United States give an18 minute pep talk around the importance of education and personal responsibility?  (Are they as vigilant about what their kids are listening to the other 1,422 minutes in a day?) What parent doesn’t want their child to hear new ideas; ideas that might be counter to the ones that they hear at home?  What parent/American citizen doesn’t want their child to be more engaged in what is going on in their community, country and world?

Parents who don’t want their children to listen to the president talk about the value of education are, at the very least, missing a teachable moment — an opportunity to talk to their kids about the things that matter to them, to share their own perspectives on issues and invite their children to think for themselves about the things that are happening around them.

The Take-Away:  The more I think about it, the more I want my child to listen to that speech twice.

Pre-Ramble: In the aftermath of the global finance fest in Davos, Switzerland, business and political leaders from around the world continue to wring their collective hands in search of policy level solutions to curb what is rapidly being identified as the most serious global recession since the 1930s. They’re asking themselves and each other where all this is going and what it will take to kick-start the growth needed to end it.

If American businesses and the new administration have anything to say about it, economic recovery will involve an elephant gun of bail-outs followed by a whole bunch of ”innovation.”  Intel recently ran a front-page ad in the WSJ headlined, “Today’s education. Tomorrow’s innovation,” proposing that education is the key to solving global challenges and tossing $120 million into the ring for science fairs and youth outreach. In the same issue, Shell (oil and gas) stressed the role of innovation in solving our most challenging problems stating, “In the new energy future, if it doesn’t exist, we’ll need to invent it.”  They go on to concede that “it won’t be easy; but innovative solutions rarely are.” …

Ok… sure, leaving the specifics of Shell’s renewable energy policy aside, there seems to be some kind of effort here to speak to the need for a new way of thinking. It’s one thing to invoke the “i-word”, quite another however to actually bring it about. If our political and business leadership is looking to innovation to drive economic recovery, they better take a closer look at the investments they’re making in education.

The Big Disconnect: Meanwhile, back in Minnesota… (Yes, yes, we’re still shuffling those disputed ballots around…) Governor Tim Pawlenty champions the state’s “world-class” public education system and competitive workforce, while delivering repeated body blows to state funding for the arts. Similarly, Massachusetts’ Brandeis University, proclaims art to be “the great legacy of human accomplishment, essential to interdisciplinary learning” as its curators prepare to sell off the entire collection from its esteemed Rose Art Museum — long regarded as an important teaching resource. If kids in the K-12 and higher education pipeline aren’t equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to think about things in new ways (creativity), how on earth are they supposed to merge into the workforce ready to innovate?

The Take-Away: If an innovative workforce is the goal, then step up policies and practices that foster creative thinking in the learning experience of kids. Gee,… there’s an innovative idea! 

One way we could do that is by teaching kids, beginning on the first day of pre-school, to explore ideas in different ways… maybe using shape, color, light, shadow, spacial relationships, connections, perceptions, dynamics, systems, motion, movement, tone, harmonics, intervals, blending, etc. … It could be embedded in the daily curriculum and an integral part of their everyday learning all the way up to grade 12. We could expose students to the work of great thinkers and craftsmen, and help them uncover the connections between societies and their forms of expression and invention. We could inspire children to think in new ways and prepare them to compete in a global economy. We could make this kind of creativity content a priority at the state and national levels …  We could call it art innovation education.