Friday, February 24, 2006
Are You Part of the Creative Class?
I met this man when he got a standing ovation for his captivating opening keynote (I closed the conference with a complementary keynote) - and immediately went out and got his book, as you might well do after reading, briefly here about his timely message.
In his book *The Rise of the Creative Class: and How it's Transforming Work, Leisure Community and Everyday Life*, Dr. Richard Florida describes how the so-called Creatives, the nearly 38 million Americans in diverse fields who create for a living are causing a shift in how we "think about why we live as we do today -- and where we might be headed."
This excerpt from the overview resonated with me, as it may with you: "Millions of us are beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always have -- with the result that our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing" (http://www.creativeclass.org).
Florida, a Visiting Scholar at the Brookings Institution and Heinz Professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon, has stimulated international discussion about how, as he writes, "the choices these people make already had a huge economic impact, and in the future they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither."
Florida has forged several partnerships to generate high-quality research on his topic, engage ever-larger constituencies, and generate the thoughtful conversations that keep people involved.
Here are some examples of his partnerships that you might adapt to engage others in your work. In alliance with the magazine *Fast Company*, he's able to research and report on best and worst cities for Creatives (http://www.creativeclass.org/rankings.shtml).
With adept organizational allies, he generates more solutions and involves more people (http://www.creativeclass.org/allies.shtm). With a complementary coauthor, Irene Tinalgi, he finishes a companion book (*Europe in the Creative Age*) sooner and launches videocasts for this new market, Europe.
Next you may want to read the message of concern (for Americans) in his follow-up book, The Flight of the Creative Class.
To discover how you, too, can forge partnerships to attract more attention and customers, see my book, *SmartPartnering* (http://sayitbetter.com/store/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SP).
In his book *The Rise of the Creative Class: and How it's Transforming Work, Leisure Community and Everyday Life*, Dr. Richard Florida describes how the so-called Creatives, the nearly 38 million Americans in diverse fields who create for a living are causing a shift in how we "think about why we live as we do today -- and where we might be headed."
This excerpt from the overview resonated with me, as it may with you: "Millions of us are beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always have -- with the result that our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing" (http://www.creativeclass.org).
Florida, a Visiting Scholar at the Brookings Institution and Heinz Professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon, has stimulated international discussion about how, as he writes, "the choices these people make already had a huge economic impact, and in the future they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither."
Florida has forged several partnerships to generate high-quality research on his topic, engage ever-larger constituencies, and generate the thoughtful conversations that keep people involved.
Here are some examples of his partnerships that you might adapt to engage others in your work. In alliance with the magazine *Fast Company*, he's able to research and report on best and worst cities for Creatives (http://www.creativeclass.org/rankings.shtml).
With adept organizational allies, he generates more solutions and involves more people (http://www.creativeclass.org/allies.shtm). With a complementary coauthor, Irene Tinalgi, he finishes a companion book (*Europe in the Creative Age*) sooner and launches videocasts for this new market, Europe.
Next you may want to read the message of concern (for Americans) in his follow-up book, The Flight of the Creative Class.
To discover how you, too, can forge partnerships to attract more attention and customers, see my book, *SmartPartnering* (http://sayitbetter.com/store/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SP).
