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	November 25, 2005

Nobody Really Cares About the Creative Class Source: US Department of Labor There's a great debate going on in the business press about whether the 'Creative Class', a term coined by Richard Florida as the basis for his very successful business books, and which includes artists, scientists, teachers, designers, writers and related technicians, can create 'competitive advantage' to companies and communities that can attract them, and whether the US is increasingly losing the 'Creative Class War'. Florida would have us believe that communities like San Francisco, Austin and Boston will be the winners of this war, largely because they attract diverse, creative people, but that thanks to lack of attractors compared to places like Ireland and New Zealand, and thanks to Bush's xenophobia and hostility to liberal arts, universities and real science, America as a whole will be a big loser. Nonsense, retort the right-wingers from the Wall Street Journal and the neocon think-tanks: this kind of irrational, unsupported infatuation with new-age accommodations to non-conformists is precisely what led to the dot com boom, and what really generates competitive advantage is productivity, low taxes, modest wages, hard work and deregulation. My observations suggest that both sides are wrong. Nobody really cares about the creative class. They are underpaid, underemployed and underappreciated, and pretty well always have been, right back to the days when you if you were an artist or musician you needed a rich and titled sponsor underwriting your work if you didn't want to starve. You're skeptical? Let's look at the jobs that the US Department of Labor says will be the biggest growth area in the next decade, shown in the chart above. The words that appear in this list the most are 'assistant' and 'aide'. These are grunt jobs, and only three of the 20 jobs in the list require any 'creativity' whatsoever. In fact, being creative would be a decided disadvantage in such jobs -- you'd go crazy with boredom in a week. And these are the projected biggest growth areas percentage-wise. Other DoL stats that describe absolute numbers of expected new jobs surface even more grindingly boring and uncreative positions -- notably food service workers, retail and service desk clerks and orderlies. These lists include only one job that is arguably very creative -- university professors. If you're still not convinced, ask people who work in large organizations which jobs in the lists below have the cachet of success, and which are the organizational ghettos, where creative people go to die: Mostly Left Brain Sales Operations Management Cost Management Risk Management Mergers & Acquisitions Accounting, Tax & Law Mostly Right Brain Training IT Knowledge Management R&D Marketing Graphics Look at the people picked for promotions, for leadership training, for the corner office jobs, the people who are highest-paid and most appreciated in almost every large organization, and you'll find they come from the uncreative positions in the left column. Look at the consultants they're bringing in, and you'll find they, too, are in the left-column professions. Look at the people who are least fulfilled by their jobs, those who feel underpaid and under-appreciated and feel they have nowhere to go in their organizations, and you'll find them mostly in the right-column positions. And look at the ranks of the unemployed and you'll find them, too, disproportionately in the right-hand professions. A lot of people in those organizational ghettos got fed up and left to become independent consultants. But guess what consulting disciplines are in the hottest demand today? Outsourcing and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance consultants, the least creative consulting jobs you could imagine. Now let's look at the exceptions to the rule -- the creative companies we're all so proud of. Apple describes its expertise as 'second mover advantage' -- watch the creative types screw up, learn from their mistakes and dominate the market by doing it better. Their designs may be creative, but their strategy is the opposite. And guess who Google's hiring? Mostly advertising salespeople and technicians. It's not the fault of big business that they aren't creative. They are dinosaurs of the industrial era, when hierarchy was king and success was a matter of leverage -- 100 low-paid drones doing what they're told, working hard, grateful for their jobs, for every manager who every once in awhile might have to do something creative (usually when competitors' disruptive innovation forces them to). The creative types don't last long in this stultifying environment, so they quit, and the people who are left hire (and contract-in) people in their own image, so the dearth of creativity, and of interest in creativity, is self-perpetuating. So as a result, most jobs in large organizations are jobs: selling crap making crap fixing crap blocking customers who complain about crap from getting their money back or getting through to management finding people and outsourcers who will do the above crap jobs cheaper lobbying politicians to prevent people who are creative from competing with them, and to prevent people from suing them for their crap It's a vicious cycle, and expecting large corporations to be enlightened and altruistic enough to get us out of it is sheer folly. There is only one solution, and that is to encourage true entrepreneurship. It is doubtful that many politicians would be willing to bite the big corporate hand that feeds them and help out in this challenge, but a few could. Here's what we need to do: Revamp early education so it encourages and provides practice in creativity, instead of driving it out of young people Starting in middle grades, start teaching and showing young people the core elements of successful entrepreneurship, so they have the capacities and self-confidence to start their own businesses. Starting in the middle grades, start teaching young people how to turn their creative talents to practical use -- the process of innovation. Provide the same tax and other subsidies for new entrepreneurial ventures and apprenticeships that we provide for post-secondary education -- because these activities are post-secondary education. Loosen intellectual property laws so they no longer strangle innovation. Eliminate current subsidies to large corporations that allow them to dominate and buy up creative and innovative entrepreneurs. Nurture the Gift Economy, whose donors of time and advice will be far more willing to support local entrepreneurs who respect and give life to local communities than the large oligopolies that destroy them. In the meantime, if you're underpaid, under-appreciated, subjugated, underemployed, working too hard and bored to death in your job, and if your creativity has no outlet, take heart -- you are in excellent company, and you should be outraged, not bored, by your situation. An elite of the rich and powerful have stolen your dignity, your opportunity, your joy in exercising your genius, your self-esteem, your value in our society. This is a disservice to the vast majority as citizens, as useful workers, and as customers looking for products and services made well and with pride. It's destroying the social fabric of our society, our environment, and the middle class. We need to create a new entrepreneurial economy, one driven by creativity and curiosity and by passion and respect. One that is in the service of people and not profits. 6:26:43 PM  trackback []  comment []

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