Recently, Newsweek reported that research shows that creativity in America is declining for the first time.  Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary discovered after analyzing roughly 300,000 intelligence test scores of adults and children that since 1990 creativity scores have slowly been declining.  The most serious decline occurred in the scores of children in kindergarten through sixth grade.  The potential consequences could be damaging to our nation’s long-term economic growth as these youths are the future of our country and creativity and innovation are a large part of our nation’s backbone.  A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the #1 leadership competency of the future.   Below are 7 ways for correcting this issue before it becomes a huge problem.

  1. Reduce Screen Time: According to Elizabeth Vandewater, a professor at the University of Texas, for every hour a child regularly watches TV, their overall time spent in creative activities decreases as much as 11%.
  2. Do Not Ask Someone to “Be Creative”: This statement actually has a reverse effect as people tend to freeze up and get tense.  Instead, suggest that they do something that only they are capable of thinking of.  In experiments conducted by Mark Runco of the University of Georgia, this simple change caused the number of creative responses to double.
  3. Be Active: 30 minutes of aerobic exercise provides a boost of creativity, however for those who are unfit the feeling of fatigue counteracts the short-term benefits.
  4. Follow a Passion: Research from the American Psychological Association indicates that children that are allowed to develop deep passions at the expense of being well-rounded show better discipline.
  5. Just Say No to the Suggestion Box: Regardless of the format (email submission, internal website or an actual box on the wall), suggestion boxes fail because employees feel their suggestions will fall into a black hole of bureaucracy – employees need to be able to put their own ideas into motion.
  6. Take a Break: Studies show that by working on several creative projects and allowing yourself to take breaks from one project to work on another when solutions do not immediately present themselves that the end result is more projects that get completed on time.
  7. Expose Yourself to Other Cultures: The theory is that cross-cultural experiences force individuals to adapt and be more flexible.