Make the Training Happen

Good leaders understand the importance of professional development for their Creatives, and the current economic environment, with a smaller workload for many firms, offers an opportunity to step back and fill that empty time with training and education. Understanding that, however, and making it happen, are two very different things.

A friend at a large design firm in Asia told me last week how his company's leadership decided that, with the amount of work decreasing but with no desire to cut people, they would use this as an opportunity to send people for training. But that hasn't quite worked as well as they planned, which could lead them to drop that idea.

It's easy to say "go get training," but making it happen isn't so simple. There are some things you can do to make it work.

The most important thing is to make sure people actually attend the training they've arranged to take. Chances are that if you sign them up for it you're going to have to pay for it whether they attend or not. Since wasting money is a big no-no, you need to impress upon your Creatives that if they're scheduled for training, that's their job for the day. If the training is off-site they shouldn't come to the office for anything, and they should leave their cell phones and Blackberries off for the day. They need to understand there are no extra points for skipping training in favor of work.

One reason people may skip out is that they see their leaders doing it. If you and your peers arrange training for yourselves, then you, too, have the obligation to go. You'll be setting a pretty poor example if you don't. It's easy to think that you're so important that you can't afford to be gone for a day, but trust me, you aren't. If you're really that critical, that's a sign you should be delegating authority a bit more, or perhaps you've hired Creatives who need waaaayyyyyyyy too much supervision.

Another reason they might bail out is because you tell them to go, but then don't let them. If the firm's leadership agrees that training is important then you need to release people to take that training. You may need to schedule their training around projects, or their projects around training, but whatever you do you need to deconflict their work requirements with their development requirements. Don't schedule someone for a class when you know they've got a deadline, or something's going to be missed.

One reason you might not be letting people go is because you really don't have enough people to afford to have someone gone for a day or two or five. With all this talk about a lack of work for firms, the reality is that your company may be doing very well and keeping very busy, which doesn't mean you shouldn't do employee development, but does mean you have to do it more smartly. I once had a boss who said she couldn't send people to training because she didn't have a "float," that is, enough extra people in her department to be able to cover for absences. That was a crock, of course, since her people didn't really do anything anyway, but her point is well taken: in order to be profitable you have to make sure the work gets done even when people are off doing something important like professional development.

Lots of people talk about developing their Creatives, but many of them don't follow through. It's the kind of thing that sounds good in a meeting but can be tough to carry out. If you're going to decide to take a step forward and provide training and education for your Creatives, especially if you see a good window of opportunity right now, then make a little extra effort to ensure it actually happens.

Is it Time for a New Immigration Nation??

American immigration policies after World War II were designed largely to help people get out of Communist countries and other authoritarian nations and into the United States. In addition to seeming like simply the right thing to do, it benefited the U.S. by allowing people from those countries to come here and then send word back to their friends and families about how good life was in a democratic society. Once some members of a family came to the U.S. their family members back home would have priority for immigration, the goal being to keep families together as much as possible and enhance the public diplomacy value of immigration.

Keeping families together is a worthy goal, and helping people out of bad situations and bringing them to better ones certainly has morality on its side. But should either of those currently be the main focus of our nation’s immigration policies? Given that the Cold War ended nearly 20 years ago, and a new knowledge economy has erupted in which companies benefit from having a variety of perspectives and backgrounds, wouldn’t it make sense to have immigration policies that support bringing talented workers into American companies? There are lots of ways in which opening up employment to more foreign Creatives is good for both your company and the nation’s workforce as a whole.

First, employers benefit from having more potential employees from which to choose. Limiting the firm to only Americans means that to fill all your spots you may have to take people with lesser skills than you would get if you had a broader pool of recruits. Having more choice helps you get what you want.

And, given the cross-border nature of many creative industries, having an international perspective makes you more competitive. Whether you need to understand other cultures because you have clients there, or simply want multiple perspectives shaping your product, you will benefit a lot from the new ideas your foreign Creatives can bring you.

This attitude helps the U.S. workforce in the end. Many people will say “why hire foreign Creatives when you have Americans looking for work?” But protecting American workers from foreign competition for jobs removes some of the motivation for excellence. Having competition leads you to work harder, and the American Creative workforce as a whole could benefit from that if immigration policies made it easier to bring foreign workers into your firm.

Much of my interest is driven by personal and professional relationships. I have a good friend from Vietnam who has been here for his senior year of high school, his bachelor’s degree, and his master’s. After 7 years of American education, why wouldn’t we make it easy for him to stay instead of putting so many obstacles in his path? There’s an English teacher I know who’s from Taiwan, and got his master’s in the U.S., and he’s likely to have to head back home after 5 years of working here. Two Singaporeans I know have been to school here and are doing cancer research and software development, but if they want to stay on permanently we make it difficult. Why, why, why would we send such individuals away if they can make strong contributions to our society?

I would like the U.S. to continue to be the strongest economic powerhouse in the world, and so I would rather see these talented individuals contributing to U.S. companies and the U.S. economy rather than working somewhere else. Why do we continue to turn away or send back talented and ambitious people, who in many cases have already taken advantage of an American education and who could fit right into our society as contributing members? While other nations actively recruit foreign talent -- including, it should be noted, adventurous and ambitious American Creatives who are actively seeking new challenges -- does it make sense for us to be going in the opposite direction?

Flat Mentorship

Everyone likes to say they want a flat organization, whether they really do or not, because it's the thing to say these days. It's useful to flatten out your firm's hierarchy, with fewer levels of oversight between the worker bees and the CEO and fewer stovepipes that limit collaboration. But you need to consider all the likely effects before you do it.

There are a lot of benefits to a flat organizational structure for Creatives. It allows for more independence and initiative, allowing them to exercise the skills you hired them for. It makes things move faster, with less review and fewer meetings, so work can get done without a lot of holdups. It cuts your overhead costs, so you can focus your time and resources on your Creatives and not on layers of oversight.

But one downside to this is that with fewer leaders and managers in a firm, you have fewer people available for mentoring. And if your firm is full of Creatives who really need mentoring, that’s going to be a problem.

We know that mentoring is an important part of leadership. But if we’re also trying to create a more effective firm by having a leaner structure, that doesn’t leave a lot of people in formal leadership positions who can take on protégés. One architectural firm told me they went from having 1 leader for every 8 people to 1 for every 20. While that brought about some good changes for the firm, it also led the CEO to say in a meeting, “we are not a schoolhouse.”

There are ways you can continue mentoring. First, figure out what kind of mentoring you need to do. Helping a protégé develop their creative skills is time consuming; helping them map out a career path is less so. Your mentorship objectives need to be realistic in light of your manpower.

Remember, too, that mentors don’t need to be in formal leadership positions over their protégés. In many cases, it’s better if they’re not, because it’s tough to counsel someone about a problem with their leader if the problem is you. So consider making mentorship a part of senior Creatives’ job descriptions. As people gain seniority and earn more there’s a reasonable expectation that they should be assuming more responsibility. Plus, it helps prepare them for leadership positions someday. Don’t just rely on current leaders, or you’re likely to not have enough people.

Of course, there are limits to how much mentoring you can do, so you also need to think about who you’re hiring and how much guidance they will need. Going back to the architectural executive’s views on training and schooling, you need to think about hiring the right people to fit into a flat organization. Since you want independent people with a high degree of skill, you need to look into hiring experienced people rather than those just out of school. If you’re hiring people new to your field, they’ll need more advice and guidance, but honestly, they’ll need more supervision, too, and that doesn’t fit the concept of a flat organization.

So, while having fewer leaders may limit your ability to mentor, the people you hire into such a firm should require less anyway.

The firm mentioned earlier hasn’t really taken that approach. As they’ve gotten flatter, they haven’t revamped their hiring strategy so they’re likely to be hiring the wrong people. The result is requests for mentorship, with no one to provide it. Something’s got to change, or the conflict between needs and resources is only going to create more problems.

Little Things Mean a Lot

As you walk around major cities in Southeast Asia you’re likely to see a lot of fancy looking buildings. Some are very ornate, some use a lot of color, some simply look imposing. There are new office buildings as well as old shophouses, and many look great from the outside.

But as you look more closely, or take a step inside, you’re just as likely to find that the nice looking façade hides some details that don’t look so great. Poorly designed fixtures, switches that don’t seem to connect to anything, inadequate ventilation (kind of important in tropical climates), shoddy workmanship -- all of this is pretty common. At a hotel in Indonesia I had a beautiful bathroom, with a tub/shower that was apparently designed to dump as much water as possible onto the floor. A quick look revealed that the gap between the tub and the wall provided a small canal that created a waterfall down the side.

Speaking with someone from an architectural firm I quickly learned that this is common throughout Southeast Asia, even among high-end architects (and other Creatives a well). The emphasis is often on pumping things out as quickly as possible, rather than taking time to focus on details. Contracts are often won based on how quickly a creative firm promises to turnout a final product, rather than on a the ultimate quality of that product. There’s a “big picture” view that leads to things that look nice and the outside -- and that may impress the neighbors -- while ignoring the “little picture” of the details that really distinguish one product from another. Any architect can design a house; a good architect can design a house that you would want to live in.

In many Western cultures, especially among the most developed countries, this simply won’t be acceptable. Customers have come to expect the details that set your product or service apart from others, so you can’t afford to neglect them. Creative industries are all about the details, and in cultures where the time is available to appreciate them and the resources are there to afford them, your clients will expect you to put in the effort. You simply can’t ignore the “little picture,” so you need to instill in your firm a culture that addresses details with the same effort as the “big picture” stuff, without sacrificing profitability. You can’t skimp on one and expect to maintain the other.

Perhaps the more important lesson is for those in societies where details often haven’t been that important. The interest in good design and quality work is fueled not so much by culture as by economics. As nations develop stronger economies, and as productivity evolves to the point where people have time to appreciate more, they will expect more. Creative firms in more recently developed countries need to recognize the evolving tastes of their customers, and understand the challenges posed by competitors who do appreciate this reality. There’s a growing emphasis on the details in creative work, and potential customers are looking for firms that understand that. Make sure yours is one of them.

Give Them What They Need

I talked last week with a freelance photographer in Malaysia who specializes in travel photography. He’s done quite a bit of work for travel magazines, heading out mostly around Southeast Asia to provide a new perspective on familiar places, and he has a talent for helping you see a place as if for the first time, no matter how many times you might have been there.

But he hasn’t done any work for the magazine in months, nor does he expect to any time soon. The reason? The magazine drastically cut the funding for daily expenses on trips, to the point that he would have been paying for much of the trip out of his own pocket, wiping out a large percentage of what he would make from the assignment. He can’t afford to take a week away from other potential gigs in order to take one that won’t make him any money, no matter how much he’d enjoy it, so the magazine is losing out on his talents.

A travel magazine without money for travel? Come on.

When it comes to resources you need to be a smart manager, and among those smarts is a sense of priority. When your focus is on creative output then your first priority needs to be to get your Creatives what they need -- maybe not all that they want, but what they need -- to create. A graphic designer needs software. A hair stylist needs styling products. And a travel photographer needs travel funding.

Your Creatives bring talent. As a leader, it’s YOUR job to provide the resources they need to use that talent.

You’ll need to plan in advance with your Creatives so you understand your goals and they can figure out what they need to achieve them. If your salon plans to offer the Chi hair straightening technique from Japan, then you need to pay for that training; if you don’t see it as part of your offerings, then maybe you don’t shell out the $3000, or whatever it costs these days, simply because your stylist thinks it would be cool to learn. Figure out what’s necessary to meet your needs and focus your resources on that. As more resources are available, then you can do the lower priority things.

Try not to waste resources on unnecessary administrivia. If you’re throwing out a bunch of letterhead and ordering all new stuff simply because you’re changing the font at the top (and yes, I’ve worked in a place that did exactly that), you’re wasting money that could be better spent on your creative output. When you find yourself asking your Creatives "did you get the memo about the new format of the TPS reports?," you need to rethink your priorities. Put your resources into profit-making output rather than bureaucratic needs. That's not to say you don't spend money on in-house stuff that's necessary but not profit-making (like IT support, for instance) but it DOES mean you don't create unnecessary bureaucratic requirements.

Watch out as well for the "fun but not needed" stuff. Do you still emloy an in-house chefs, run a doggy day care, and provide massages on demand? This stuff is nice, and can create a better atmosphere for doing creative work, but in the current economic environment it might not be affordable...in any case, if you're scrimping on the stuff you really need in order to provide the stuff that makes things nicer, your priorities are out of whack. Some places can get away with this; Google is famous for it. But if you had Google's revenues, you could do it too. If you don't, well, then, you may need to focus your resources more sensibly. It's important to create a good working environment, but not at the expense of your true goals.

A travel magazine that doesn't have money for travel is headed out of business, or at least will find itself becoming a mediocre enterprise that doesn't stand out on a crowded newsstand. Your Creatives need resources to do what they do, and you need to find a way to get them. Maybe they need a lot, maybe they only need a little, but you need to know what they need and get it into their hands.

Learn a Lesson or Two from Overseas

Talking with folks in Malaysia and Singapore this week has been pretty eye-opening. Seeing the effects others have created through their decisions gives you an idea of what's possible, and even if their methods won't work for you, they give you a baseline from which to start.

One important lesson to learn is the importance of learning lessons. Take some time to see what others are doing, and don't limit yourself to your own country.

One thing that helps spark your creativity is seeing what others do. Students and Creatives throughout Asia are looking at what comes out of the West and using those ideas to start creating new ones. This isn’t about stealing intellectual property, which is fairly prevalent in this part of the world and is obviously is a bad thing. Instead, its about watching and learning from others rather than keeping a purely domestic focus. We can draw inspiration from many sources, so it helps to actually have many sources at which to look.

This works for individuals like you, too. Don’t think that all the best creative work gets done in America. You should be looking at work done in different cultures, and frankly, there are so many avenues for finding creative examples from throughout the world that there’s no excuse for not looking around. Creative work can be found on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, corporate websites, online communities,and other places with relatively little effort. If nothing else, seeing what the competition out there is offering may inspire you to put a little more effort into your own work.

Your Creatives may already be doing this, or they may not. As a leader part of your job is to help them develop their skills, and broadening their world view would be good for that. It’ll help you, too, in your development as a leader. So look for the lessons you can learn from the rest of the world. Not everything you see is going to work for you, just as not everything you see another domestic company doing would be right for you. If you think we have a monopoly on creative talent, though, you are already way behind. See what good ideas are out there, ideas your domestic competitors may be ignoring.

If nothing else, getting overseas to check things out helps you build up your frequent flier miles and upgrade to business class. Those seats make all the difference in the world once you land. After arriving in Singapore around midnight for an overnight stop last week, 23 hours after taking off, I spent the next 6 hours running around town with one of my best friends, a graphic designer there. Try doing THAT after sitting in coach.

When Every Day is International Employee Day

There are people who will tell you that you should focus your hiring efforts on Americans, especially during bad economic times. But your purpose as a leader is to create the best workforce possible for your company, not to run a jobs program. If the best talent comes from overseas you should take advantage of it. Having a successful company has more of a positive economic impact than does providing jobs or less talented people, who may keep your firm from achieving its potential.

Some governments have contributed to industries, including creative fields, by shaping their immigration policies to bring in people with different backgrounds. For example, for years Singapore’s Ministry of Labor has had an office whose function is to help recruit foreign talent. They’ve recognized that employing skilled people is good for business, regardless of where they call home. One possible explanation for Singapore’s top innovation ranking in a survey earlier this year may be the contributions of their foreign Creatives, rather than the dominance of their homegrown talent.

Now, you can’t create government policy (not directly, anyway), but you can design your own. Expand your employment base by looking outside the U.S. You might consider recruiting overseas, and if you do you’ll need to talk with an immigration lawyer about requirements you face when employing foreign workers. Our current immigration laws make this a much bigger hassle than it needs to be, but it's worth it to find the best Creatives...after all, when you need unique talents, you can't guarantee that the personwho has them will be from your country, so don't limit yourself to domestic employees.

Another option is telework; Malaysia, for example, has become a great source of software development talent, but often the workers still live there, which allows them and you to avoid immigration hassles. One oft-touted advantage of such a program is that it's cheaper for you, as Creatives in other countries can often be hired at lower salaries, but I'd suggest you not focus on that. You should pay your employees what they're worth, and if that means they're making more than their local peers, well then, good for them!!

In days of old the knowledge economy, unlike service industries and manufacturing, may have seemed limited to domestic employees,but that's simply not the case anymore. As other countries have seen, opening your doors to foreign Creatives can lead to some very positive economic outcomes. If that's true on a national level, then you can bet there's some truth to it on a company level too. Look for the best talent, not just the best American talent, if you want to be successful.

Different Expectations for Education

13 hours makes for a long flight, especially when you're afraid to take a sleeping pill because you had wine with dinner (laugh at me at you will, but I get nervous about the whole "stop breathing" thing while flying over the North Pole). And 13 hours was just the first leg of this trip, with a 3-hour layover followed by another 6-hour flight. So there was plenty of time for reflection last week even before touching down in Asia.

We in the U.S. often see ourselves as the creative center of the universe -- everyone watches our movies and listens to our music -- but there are plenty of lessons to be learned from Asia. The evolving creativity emerging from this part of the world is spurred in part by culture, in part by government policies, and in part by the recognition that if the U.S. can do it, so can others. Creative leaders in the U.S. should look at what's happening here and take the lessons from the region that seem useful. One area where this would be helpful is in education.

Employers’ attitudes toward education in Singapore are a little different from Americans’. In the U.S. we see a strong bias in favor of a bachelor’s degree, which reduces the pool of potential employees. Singapore’s system of polytechnics -- essentially, 2-year colleges with a vocational emphasis -- produces Creatives who have broken out of the traditional educational model and who see great opportunities ahead of them even without a 4-year degree.

The poly system, which is a relatively new phenomenon here, is useful for students who have some idea what they want to do for a career but who need to develop their skills in a structured environment. Not only do they gain skills, they are also surrounded by like minded students, providing an environment that offers great motivation. Students at Temasek Polytechnic, which has a strong art and design focus, report an intense entrepreneurial spirit among students who talk about the businesses they’re starting after graduation. Start them they do, as the family structure there provides a support network for young people who want to strike out on their own.

The system isn't perfect. Some students enter a program only to learn that what they thought they wanted to do isn't really what they wanted to do. While a 4-year university program allows for more exploration, a poly education tends to lock a student into something specific early on,and since students start that 2-3 year program at age 16, you can see a lot of people making choices early on without a lot of good information. That situation could be a bit different in the U.S., where students would typically start such programs at age 18 or so.

What can you take away from this? Well, consider expanding your recruiting efforts beyond university students, if that's where your focus currently lies. Community colleges in the U.S. have long been viewed as a home for less capable students, but if the job for which you’re hiring doesn’t really require a bachelor’s degree, why not look for someone who’s spent a couple years in school developing the very skills you need? Depending on the needs of your particular field, you might be better served by someone with an associate’s degree or relevant certifications.

Bachelor's degrees are great for helping people learn how to learn, and as a former university professor, I'll be the first to say that a bachelor's program offers a great education. But I'd be the last to say it offers a great education for everyone. Some people will benefit most from a more structured ,specific program, and if they are excelling in that, then they may excel in their work for you as well.

Take a lesson from overseas, and open your eyes to more sources for employees.

It DOES Matter Who Gets the Credit

There's an old saying that says there's no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit. That's true to a point, but don't use that as an excuse to take credit away from your Creatives.

A friend of mine used to work for a well known fashion designer. My friend was a very talented designer himself and was the source of some very nice clothes (this wasn't just him talking, I did see the sketches myself). But the boss' attitude was that his name was on the clothes, so as far as anyone was concerned, he was the only one doing the designing. The other designers, as far as the world knew, didn't exist.

Now it may seem like, for branding purposes, such an approach would be useful. If it’s the name on the tag, or on the firm, that draws customers, then the public persona may require one person’s face rather than an ensemble. But your people deserve credit at least in professional circles, and you should find a way to balance that with your profit-making requirements.

Sure, you can keep your Creatives out of the public eye (though honestly, does anyone really think any big designer does all the creative work by him or herself??), but they should get the professional recognition they deserve from their peers. This is awfully important for their morale and motivation. Your talented people want to be recognized for their abilities, maybe not necessarily by customers but certainly by others in their field, both in their own firm and elsewhere. This is a pretty natural feeling and if you ignore it you run the risk of them bailing out on you when you need them. So you should at least acknowledge them within your field rather than pretending they don’t exist.

Taking the credit yourself puts your firm at risk by helping create a bad reputation for you. Creative firms tend to see a high turnover rate, and as word gets out about your style, the more talented Creatives are likely to avoid you. Since the talented Creatives are the ones you want, this is bad news for your company, and since you‘ve insisted on taking all credit for yourself, any substandard work done by less-talented employees reflects on you personally..

Your employees need that professional recognition as well if they’re going to advance in their field. Chances are they won’t be staying with you for 40 years and will be looking for opportunities for greater responsibility and new challenges elsewhere. Denying their contributions hurts their ability to do that, and frankly, that’s just unfair on your part.

Taking credit for others’ work is the sign of a big ego or a weak character (not that those two are mutually exclusive -- it could be a sign of both). Strong leaders have enough confidence in themselves that they aren’t worried about being overshadowed by their Creatives. Weak leaders try to keep oters from seeing what it really takes for them to be successful. So ask yourself: which one are you?

On the Road Again

The LeadingCreatives crew had fun in New York and now is headed to Southeast Asia for 3 weeks (plus Hong Kong!). We'll be talking with graphic artists, fashion designers, production designers, photographers, software developers, and other Creatives to see what lessons we can learn from this part of the world. More to come!!

Happy Labor Day

No entry for today. The LeadingCreatives crew has rolled north to go to the US Open. Go Federer!!!

Don't Get Cocky in the Recession

The US government reported this week that the unemployment rate has reached 9.7%. It’s worth noting that the rate only includes those people still looking for work; if you add in those who have given up looking, it’s certainly a bit higher. Leaders and managers may see themselves in a position of “employment dominance” created by a weak labor market.

Think twice, though, before adopting this attitude yourself. When it comes to Creatives, you still need to be careful about losing them.

First of all, remember that the most talented Creatives will always have other options, and the most talented ones are the ones you want to keep. Firms are still hiring, headhunters are still calling, and the Creatives most attractive to others are the ones you most want to hold onto. Adopting an attitude of “hahaha, I’ve got you now!” is just going to encourage them to go out the door.

Next, consider that a weak labor market in the US doesn’t equate to a weak labor market everywhere. Asia is bouncing back out of the recession, as are some European countries. Creative talent is increasingly mobile, ad if opportunities arise in other countries, your employees may jump. Don’t think an overseas move is out of the question…more and more people have an interest in trying out life in another country, perhaps due in part to the explosion of university students who are studying abroad and realizing just how cool it is to live somewhere else for a while. And of course, there are always telework opportunities with overseas companies, too.

Finally, rather than seeing this as a chance to consolidate power over your employees, you should instead view it as a chance to beat out your competitors. Many companies’ weaknesses will surface during a recession and they will grow weaker. You should use this chance to increase your market share and strengthen your firm for the day when the economy recovers. You should be trying to come out of this downturn with an improved position, and for this you need a motivated, high-quality workforce.

If you view your work as a power struggle between you and your employees, then you have a problem. Hopefully, that’s not your attitude, and if it is, then you really need to change something. Don’t look at a recession as a chance to make yourself stronger relative to your employees. No general ever won a battle by using a lull in the fighting to hammer is own troops rather than hammering the enemy. Use, don’t abuse, this opportunity.

Can Government Spark Creativity?

In today's Bangkok Post there's a story about the government's plan to encourage creativity in the workforce. Optimistically titled "Thailand to be Creative ASEAN Hub", you have to wonder how sucessful they might be.

We’ve talked here before about Asia’s potential for innovation. While there's plenty of process innovation, real creativity seems to be in less supply. The Thai government expects, within the next six months, to create a new government ministry to oversee the encouragement of innovation and creativity, and the development of the knowledge economy. It’s a laudable idea, as countries like Thailand should try not to get left behind in an evolving world economy.

But can government really spur a creative economy?

There are some things within government control that can help encourage the growth of creative firms:

Sponsor education systems that develop the skills needed for creativity and innovation.

Provide limited-time tax incentives for creative firms.

Subsidize or guarantee loans for firms in creative fields.

Implement immigration policies that make it easier for domestic firms to bring in foreign talent.

Can these kinds of programs work? Maybe.

There can be some stimulus in the short term. Fiscal programs like tax credits and loans can make it easier for new businesses to enter the market by lowering some financial barriers, and can provide a safety net for entrepreneurs who want to take a shot at something new.

In the medium term, immigration policies can encourage an influx of Creatives to fill the current gap left by an un-Creative workforce. Over time these workers can bring new ideas into the workplace and begin reshaping attitudes, encouraging a more creative mindset within the nation’s economy. We are seeing something like this in Singapore, where foreign talent has set examples that domestic talent is following, to the point where Singapore was highlighted n a survey this year as the most innovative country in the world.

Over the long run, education policies are what it takes to create an innovative economy. We say “over the long run” because it’s going to take at least a generation of people going through a new system and coming out the other end before education changes the nature of the workforce, and even longer before this new workforce changes the nature of the workplace. Countries like Thailand who want to be strong innovative centers cannot delay the restructuring of their education system, even though the effects will not be felt for a long time.

So government policies have the potential to work…but will they? Ah, that’s another question. Governments aren’t typically known for understanding innovation and creativity. The idea of Thailand creating a bureaucracy to address innovation seems a bit of a paradox; bureaucracies, though they serve a useful purpose, which is to do repetitive tasks efficiently, and that’s pretty much the opposite of innovation. Governments aren’t innovative, so relying on them to encourage innovation seems a bit of a pipe dream.

The lesson for Thai Creatives, and Creatives everywhere for that matter, is that they probably shouldn’t wait around for government programs to help them. It’s nice if the government offers worthwhile programs, and creative firms should certainly take advantage of them they can, but if you want to be creative, then get out there and create.