The Role of Creativity in Equity + Inclusion
So much of problem-solving demands creativity.
To imagine a new way, a better way, a more just way of living – we’re gonna need to get creative.
Years ago, I stumbled upon the work of Chase Jarvis. Chase is a photographer, entrepreneur, and creativity enthusiast. He founded (and then eventually sold) the online creative learning platform Creative Live. And he continues to host a podcast entitled “The Chase Jarvis Live Show”.
Chase was one of the first people I watched and listened to conduct long-form interviews with modern- day creatives on how they make a living and a life. Getting fed his content was one of the times an algorithm worked in my favor!
One of the many things I like about Chase’s perspective is that he actively works to widen the aperture of what folks consider “creativity.” For far too long, we have bifurcated ‘logic’ and ‘the arts.’ We have culturally calcified around a false binary – you are either an artist, a creative, OR you are not. You are a visionary OR detail-oriented. You are good at math and science, OR you are gifted in language arts and social studies.
Friends, we can, and often are – both!
Separating these multiple parts of our brain, talent, and capacity, flattens real-life complexity. In most contemporary careers, problem-solving is an everyday part of our jobs. It is likely we must have the requisite technical skills needed in our role, as well as the relationship capital and influence to work in effectively interdependent ways. Diminishing the complexity of the art and science combination inherent in our daily tasks limits our conscious call on creativity. If we think of ourselves as either/or, not both and, I think we’re going to have a heck of a time spurring the major sea changes that are required to move closer to lives of liberation.
Let’s do a quick review of what I would call ‘creative jobs’ in our modern workforce.
Computer programmers must be incredibly creative in order to build programs and solve glitches that seem to pop up even after checks and double-checks.
Nurses must get and stay creative in order to discover what is wrong, and to build out a plan for a patient that could lead to real and lasting relief.
Managers, supervisors, and anyone who leads teams (especially across meaningful lines of difference such as race, class, and age) must get and stay creative to effectively manage a variety of staff people boasting an enormous array of workstyles, needs, and preferences.
What does creativity have to do with equity and inclusion?
In my opinion – everything! We are trying to imagine a new world. A better world. A world where our identities are no longer used as tools to bludgeon and diminish. We want bad things to stop being so damn predictable, and we want good things to be the new world order.
How do we do that? Is it even possible? But I thought we were trapped inside a capitalist, war-mongering world that finds war acceptable but sex naughty (check out Alicia Keys song, “Holy War” for this reference)? In truth, we are. Things are feeling pretty upside down, inside out, paradoxical, and confusing. But we’re working on it! We stand on the shoulders of generations of change-makers who came before us, and there are more change-makers being born as we speak.
Our job is to do our job. We offer our creativity. We make a contribution. We dare to dream and build and make new things.
Good news – across the millennia of the human experience, creativity has set us free! Strategic creativity. Accidental creativity. Creativity that changed the course of human events. The wheel, the printing press, electricity, penicillin, the internet. Women’s liberation, truth and reconciliation committees, and popular democracies. There is a well-worn path punctuated with breakthroughs.
I’ve got this teeny tiny stair-step drawing on a post-it note tacked up in my office. You may have seen something similar. It goes like this:
Unimaginable
Ridiculous
Illegal
Offensive
Acceptable
Equality
Of course, it’s an oversimplification, but I find it apt. There is an arc to attempting new creative solutions.
At first, brand new ways of operating can feel wild, dangerous, silly, or impossible.
Somewhere in the middle of the trial-and-error period of a new creative pursuit I can feel all turned around, energized but frustrated, my idea isn’t working, yet, but I’m not ready to give up…
If and when creative breakthroughs eventually happen, it can feel like a blessed relief! Finally! Thank God! I wasn’t nuts! Hallelujah!
Other times we are forced back to the creative drawing board to start all the way over. Back to the beginning. Bruised and disappointed, but willing to take whatever we’ve learned and try to apply it to tweaks and changes for our next iteration.
Wherever you find yourself in your current creative pursuits, know that I’ve been right there with you.
Back to equity and inclusion. As you know, equity is about the re-distribution of resources. Reality is NOT served with “one size fits all” – it’s served with a wide array of support and solutions that set different kinds of us up for success. Equity is about the conscious creative work of setting out to level the playing field. Increased equity is measurable – we will know things are more equitable when identity-based disparities STOP being accurately predictable.
Inclusion is self-reported. We will know folks feel a sense of inclusion and belonging when they consistently tell us they do. Being listened to – really listened to – valued, honored, understood. That’s much different and deeper than simply ‘being invited’ to the in-group table but treated like a ‘less than’ ‘outsider.’
Depending on my mood, my health, and what I’m paying attention to I have both hills and valleys of creativity. Sometimes lots of things feel possible! Other times I mutter a quote from Aaron Sorkin’s West Wing to myself as said by actor Richard Schiff who played White House Communications Director, Toby: “this feels like pushing on the ocean.”
I’d say that today feels like a medium creativity day for me. I’m writing this on a Friday so I’m feeling both warmed up but also tapped out. The news of this week has mostly been a bummer. But I’ve also had time and meals with comrades and friends that remind me we’re in this together.
Lucky for me, I have a strong stubborn streak. That tenacity and penchant for stick-to-it-iveness ground me in a commitment to keep trying. Get back on the horse. Get back up to bat. Pick whatever metaphor works for you.
I’ll leave you with this list. These workplace equity conundrums roll through my brain on a near weekly basis:
How are we going to get America to shift to a humane approach to parental and caretaking paid leave?
How are we going to get folks attached to a gender binary to have needed ah-has around the ancient and current reality of gender across a spectrum?
How are we going to eliminate baked-in racist, sexist, ableist, and xenophobic bias in hiring, pay, and promotion?
Like I said, I don’t have all the answers – yet. But I’m quite certain these paradigm shifts are NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
In the early pages of Chase Jarvis’ book, Creative Calling, he shares,
“When we create, we tap into something powerful inside us. We don’t control this energy as much as we channel it. The strength of this creative force in every human being is undeniable – I’ve seen it unleashed too many times to think otherwise. You have this power humming inside of you right now, whether you know it or not.”
Friends, I encourage you to reconnect with your own inner knowing, your own inner play, your own wild dreams and imaginings and wonderings. If you’ve resisted or sequestered your creative self, I strongly implore you to bring that part of yourself out of exile.
If you’ve treated your creativity as a thing you are or a thing you do “on the side,” work to integrate it more fully into your life and work. Consciously decide to thread and embed creativity into the way you approach your calendar, your tasks, and your relationships.
Creativity is going to set us free. It must! It’s what we’ve got, so let’s do our damndest to use it.
From my creative self to yours, I’m grateful to be in this community of movement builders and change makers with you.
Please help me reach more people by sharing this with friends, including sharing comments and reposting on LinkedIn or by sending me a note directly (trina@trinaolson.com). I love hearing how folks are receiving and using each essay! Ya’ll are the best!
Next week, on this journey to write 52 Essays in 52 Weeks, I will share an essay about the desire for purpose in our work lives.
Talk then,