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Creative Leadership Project Proposal

I recently graduated from Grinnell College in December 2023 and a few months after I graduated, the student newspaper published an article about the Meskwaki Nation’s relationship with the college. My creative leadership initiative will involve empowering students of the Meskwaki Nation and improving the relationship between the Nation and the College. Creative leadership is a form of leadership that is based on shared values, beliefs, and community in order to promote creative thinking.

Grinnell College is a small liberal-arts college located in central Iowa, about an hour between Des Moines and Iowa City. It is located on land that originally belonged to the Meskwaki Nation, a Native American tribe that occupied parts of the midwest United States and Canada before colonization. Now, after forced displacement, the Meskwaki have a small settlement near Tama, IA which is about 30 minutes from Grinnell by car. Grinnell College is known for its rigorous academics and its diverse student body, which consists of students from all 50 states and 50 countries, as well as about 25% domestic students of color. Still, about 10% of students are from Iowa, which is one of the top states that students come from. Due to the proximity of the Meskwaki settlement to the college, one would assume that at least a few Grinnell students are Meskwaki, but this is not the case. There are very few Native American Students at Grinnell, with zero students identifying as native between 2017 and 2022.

My proposed project would work to empower students from the Meskwaki Nation through opportunities at Grinnell College and improve Grinnell students' understanding and appreciation of Native people and the Meskwaki Nation. The project would take place over 2 years and include a first year seminar class on Native American history, a Meskwaki art show in the College art museum, and a new yearly scholarship opportunity for Meskwaki students. This initiative will give local Native students more education and leadership opportunities outside of the settlement as well as introduce more diversity and knowledge to the Grinnell community. Native peoples are known for using communal leadership and sustainable practices, so introducing some of this knowledge to the greater college community, as well as giving our native neighbors and students a platform to share their experiences and knowledge will foster community and allow for amazing learning opportunities for everyone involved.

The first part of the community building initiative is to start creating the scholarship that will be available to Meskwaki students applying to Grinnell College. The scholarship would require the student applying to be a registered member of the Meskwaki Nation, and would provide a 4-year scholarship to one student each academic year. Grinnell already offers many scholarship opportunities to incoming and applying students, so one unique opportunity for Meskwaki students makes a lot of sense due to the proximity of the Meskwaki Nation and the desire for the college to maintain a racially diverse student body. For this to happen, I would need to find a donor, or fundraise in order to create an endowed scholarship.

After setting up the scholarship, the Grinnell Office of Admissions will need to connect with the Meskwaki Nation and advertise the new scholarship. The Office of Admissions could do a short presentation at the settlement school explaining the scholarship application as well as the general application process for Grinnell and answer any questions the students have. Furthermore, the admissions officers should pass out admissions pamphlets that introduce people to Grinnell College, as well as a pamphlet specific to the Meskwaki scholarship.

The next part of my initiative is to create a class specifically about Native Americans, with an emphasis on the Meskwaki Nation. If I decide to pursue this community building initiative I will begin by reaching out to my former professors to create the course content and find a professor interested in teaching the class. For example, I took two classes in Education Studies with Professor Deborah Michaels, who has worked with the Meskwaki Nation schools to develop their History classes which focus on Native American history. Due to her relationship with the Meskwaki Nation and knowledge of their history she would be a great candidate for teaching this new course or for gathering course materials and designing the syllabus. Depending on student interest, it could be either a recurring course offered every other year or a special elective that is only offered once. In addition, depending on what professor is interested in teaching the course and what the course ends up looking like, it could be categorized as a History, Sociology, Anthropology, or first-year seminar class. The class would include a field trip to the Meskwaki Nation settlement and Meskwaki Cultural Center and Museum to encourage connection and respect between the Nation and the College.

The final piece of the community building project is to host an art exhibit of historical and current artwork by Meskwaki people at the Grinnell College Museum of Art. The Museum of Art is free for anyone to visit during its open hours, so students and any community members in the surrounding area, including members of the Meskwaki Nation would be welcome to experience the exhibit for the semester. This is another example of a way for Grinnell College to give Meskwaki people a platform and foster connections between the college and the Nation to support creative leadership in the community.

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"Cult of Creativity" Book Review

The overarching message of “The Cult of Creativity” is that creativity is not the innate romantic concept that we often assume it is. Instead, creativity was manufactured to describe what was needed during the Cold War, which was profitable ideas. Over time creativity has come to represent an ideal way of life, or a necessary part of holistic well-being. This has made creativity the link between work and inner peace, with creativity being the vehicle for their coexistence. However, creativity was designed within the constraints of capitalism and American social systems, which ultimately makes it difficult for creativity to truly invent something revolutionary.

Since its beginnings creativity has been riddled with paradoxes. One of these paradoxes is the promotion of creativity, revolution, and disruption of old ideas while still maintaining the same leadership and corporate systems. People are encouraged to be creative, but not so creative that they begin to question their bosses authority or restructure the systems that are holding them back. In this sense creativity is being molded to fit together with current systems when the real power of creativity would be to question these systems and devise a more equitable path forward. This is where creative leadership comes in. For me, creative leadership is the act of redistributing and reorganizing power and influence to create a more equitable community. The questioning of current systems, analyzing power structures, and rebuilding new systems is a pursuit fueled by creativity.

Throughout the book, Franklin uses US history and documentation on creativity research to show when and why creativity was shaped into what it is today. The actual images of creativity pamphlets and advertisements were very well used and strengthened Franklin’s arguments connecting creativity with American militarism and social mobility. Quotes and information from creativity tests, research, and discussion were frequently used to show the paradoxes and inconsistencies within creativity and how these are actually vital to our understanding of what creativity is.

I feel like after reading the book I have a much different perspective of what creativity is. Going in I felt like anything artistic or inventive was creative, but now knowing the complicated history of creativity I see it less as an actual trait or identifiable characteristic. Creativity is a cultural concept and is quite difficult to pinpoint what exactly it is. Generally, I would say that the meaning behind creativity is hope for humanity. Creativity has always been marketed as a very romantic concept of human power and intelligence that gives us hope for a better future. In the past creativity has been primarily used to support capitalism, but the concept of creativity has so much potential for restructuring systems and improving inequality in the future.

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Rethinking Leadership worksheet

This activity was a lot of written information with some great visuals and open ended questions and prompts to break it up. I liked the idea of creativity as a disruption of the norm and a part of being your best self. I think this is a more human-centered approach to creativity instead of a product or idea centric approach that capitalism promotes. Encouraging a person to be more creative, happier, and healthier in all aspects of life means that they will be more present and productive at work to come up with creative solutions. I think it’s so important to have time outside of work to be able to destress and work on personal projects or connect with family and friends because these things allow us to recharge and look at the bigger picture so that when we go back to work we are able to think creatively and push boundaries.

I think this worksheet is a great tool for an academic setting, or for corporate creatives facing burnout or wanting to restructure their work systems. Short readings or activities like this can help introduce people to creative thinking without the capitalist influence and show them how beneficial creative thinking can be for their work and life in general. Short activities like this can encourage participation from a more diverse group of people because these small activities are often free or inexpensive and don’t take a long time to complete like a whole book or a class would.

We live in a fast paced world that is always changing, so having creative skills and leadership skills are really important to be able to adapt to different work environments and challenges. Furthermore, as climate change becomes more evident and begins to impact humans more there will be an urgent need for creativity and community leadership to help us adjust to major changes and support each other.

Worksheet questions/prompts

How can we reclaim creativity from its commodified, market driven definition and realign it with the vision of self-actualization to foster real change through more inclusive and transformative leadership practices?

I think we can reclaim creativity by being creative outside of work and pursuing hobbies and activities. I think that more paid vacation days and work-life balance, like a 4 day work week could help give people enough time to relax and still have energy to participate in creative activities. This will help inspire people and create employees who are mentally and physically healthier.

A more holistic approach to work can also reframe creativity as an inclusive community pursuit. This would involve creating a supportive work environment where employees help each other achieve their goals instead of competing for opportunities.

Consider how each level of the system could be reimagined using alternative knowledge frameworks. How might you restructure the system by challenging the mental models, systemic structures, or patterns? Use creativity to think beyond conventional solutions.

The usual method for addressing social issues would be to start at the top of the iceberg and work down, so instead I would try to flip the iceberg and basically start from the bottom with the beliefs and values and work upwards using the values as a guide for creating new systems or deciding if current systems are adequate. 

Pick a system. Choose a system or issue you encounter regularly. This could be related to work, education, governance, or a social or environmental challenge. For example, you might focus on workplace culture, the healthcare system, or climate change policy. The Iceberg Model encourages participants to explore different layers of a system. Use this framework to investigate and draw your own model.

The system I’m going to use is the typical top-down leadership structure that is often used in work settings. This is the systemic structure of the iceberg model which operates based on the assumption that lower level employees cannot get work done well on their own. I think that it stems from an assumption that people who are older, men, and white are better at being leaders and that women, young adults, and people of color need more oversight and direction. This is supported by the fact that CEOs and managers are disproportionately white and male in the US.

As this exercise is about exploration rather than definitive answers, the outcome is left open. Feel free to sketch, write, or creatively represent your reimagined system and discuss what changes you believe are possible if the foundational assumptions and structures are challenged. 

What if one person's job was just to help out everyone else? So instead of a boss or manager there was a floater who jumps onto whatever project needs extra support or inspiration.

Shifting the role of boss or manager to mentor so instead of being an overseer of other employees they are more of a helper and can make recommendations and give advice - deeper connection and understanding of employees goals and aspirations rather than just a boss.

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Women and Girls for Climate Justice

I really liked the reading this week about young women in climate activism. As a young woman I related a lot to the frustration and difficulty of not being taken seriously. The reading also reminded me of a lot of stuff I read and discussed in class while getting my bachelors in anthropology. I was surprised at first at how directly climate change was linked to child marriage for girls, but it makes a lot of sense since women are often expected to make big sacrifices for the sake of their families.

This is also similar to what I posted in my introduction about a creative leader, Berta Cáceres, who was assassinated for her climate activism as an indigenous woman. I think that since women in the global south are often responsible for the home and domestic work, environmental issues can be much bigger obstacles to them than to men. For example, women are usually responsible for getting food and water for their families, so when food and water start to become scarce it is the women who will notice first.

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Brainstorming Approaches to Creative Leadership

Alex Osborn created the concept of brainstorming as a way for higher up employees to gather ideas when they were struggling with something. They would gather many mid and low level employees for dinner or coffee and have them call out as many ideas as possible. A secretary would write all the ideas down and the higher up executives would sort through the list later and decide which ideas were good. Osborn wrote books and pamphlets on brainstorming that explained that poor people or low level employees could become rich through brainstorming good ideas, which invalidated systemic equality. The whole concept of brainstorming was to use the ideas of lower-level employees for capitalistic gain for the company, but how can we be sure that these employees were actually credited and compensated for their ideas? People later started doubting the usefulness of brainstorming, saying that creativity was a process and not something that people could turn on and off when it was useful. Also, higher up executives were the ones coming up with the prompts for brainstorming and were the ones choosing which ideas they considered good, so it did not produce truly revolutionary ideas since brainstorming was designed to produce ideas that functioned within capitalism.

Later, people began thinking of creativity as more than just inventiveness but as an expression of human nature. Creative people were often seen as odd and rejected modern society, but they were still supposed to be productive and useful to society and industry. I see this paradox a lot in the book as well as in my daily life, where creativity is valued but only at certain times, or only when it is a useful tool to benefit the company.

For my worksheet I tried to take what I liked from the conventional creativity worksheets and expand it to a more holistic approach. So instead of asking employees to be creative only in certain settings they are encouraged to work creatively throughout the day. In addition, I wanted to give employees more opportunities to provide feedback and ideas, as well as have more power as a collective to choose what to work on and how to go about it. Instead of a leader assigning work I imagined allowing employees to have more freedom to choose what projects they wanted to pursue, as well as how to pursue them.

I started with creating a workspace and work community that is more comfortable and encourages individuality by relaxing strict dress codes, providing comfortable and enjoyable work spaces and allowing employees to decorate their desks or individual storage spaces. Then I wanted to emphasize shared morals and values among the company and employees, like Maslow’s synergy (Franklin, 99). Having a shared goal and an understanding of how an individual or team’s work is helping the company achieve something is vital to motivating workers.

In the next section I pulled from the reading in week 3 by Katherine E. McKee about critical theory. For example, I included understanding historical context, inclusive community-based ideas, and attention to social identity. I also wanted to give employees and community members more influence in brainstorming and in selecting which ideas were the best so I had them write out the problem in their own words before responding to it. Another brainstorming option that gives the employees and community more influence is to have a brainstorming session with the roles switched, so higher up employees would generate ideas and then lower level employees and community members would decide which of the ideas would work the best for them.

Finally, I added some ways that creative leaders can welcome change and optimize creativity. In this part I focused on the importance of accepting new things, not rejecting new ideas right away and considering other people’s point of view when selecting ideas to pursue further.

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Cold War Creativity

I have lived my whole life being called creative by my parents and teachers. Before I started reading "The Cult of Creativity" I would have defined creativity as a personality trait or a way of thinking that centers aesthetics, art, and original thinking. However, the longer I read the more I became confused by what creativity is, and it became a bigger and more abstract concept.

Basically, creativity as a concept was created after WWII by psychologists who were moving away from IQ tests which were used to promote eugenics and racism. After the holocaust, the US wanted to step away from eugenics and racism that were integral to Hitler's regime. In the Cold War era, the US wanted to be able to identify really smart people to maintain their status as the most powerful country in the world, but wanted to step away from the dull corporate culture and conformity that was evocative of communism. This caused psychologists to begin studying creativity, which was thought to be the solution to promote individualism and capitalism that set America apart from communist countries.

However, in trying to study creativity, psychologists were actually defining and constructing creativity as a new concept. This led to a lot of disagreements about how to study creativity, as well as what creativity actually was. In a lot of creativity research, people were chosen to participate based on researchers identifying them as either creative or not creative. How creative someone is perceived to be is very subjective, and often creative people were identified by reputation and awards in their field which ultimately does not correspond to creativity. Some researchers at the time pointed out this flawed methodology, but the research continued nonetheless.

Creativity was invented by American psychologists who were promoting capitalism during the Cold War, and the US government funded a lot of their research. This means that creativity as a concept is inherently rooted in capitalism and consumerism. Creativity was also thought to be the solution to increased productivity and new inventions that would benefit large US corporations. For example, Dow Chemical was a huge supporter and funder of creativity research. However, Dow Chemical created Agent Orange, a form of chemical warfare used in the Vietnam War which caused major health problems including birth defects and cancer for US and Vietnamese veterans, as well at Vietnamese civilians. Dow Chemical is also responsible for causing infertility among other health issues in their employees who manufactured a pesticide in the 1970's which has now been banned in the US. This shows how creativity was created to serve corporations and the US military to the detriment of people's well being.

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Leadership in the Era of Unpredictability

Art and the World After This by David Maggs

The Enlightenment era of prediction and control is changing into a world today of chaos and unpredictability due to covid, climate change, colonialism, and tech.

Complexity economy - address multiple issues at once, looking at world as relationships/systems/networks that are connected

Replace the practice of addressing separate challenges with an understanding of the system as a whole to address multiple issues at once. This reminded me of critical theory, where we are trying to better understand how systems impact a community in order to promote equity. So both are attempting to look at a bigger picture before diving in to try to fix things.

This reading was saying that artists and creativity are needed more now and in the future to cope with the unexpected challenges that humanity is going to face, however, I’m curious how AI plays into this. Unfortunately AI is a huge threat to artists because it’s so easily accessible and can be used to create art for free on sites like chat gbt. A lot of companies are already using AI to replace artists and creative thinkers. At the time this was written in 2022 AI was much less advanced and less accessible than it is now so it wasn’t a worry for the author, but now I worry that in the future there will be no need to employ artists at all.

Ted talk by Michael Jones

Embracing unpredictability. This is similar to “art and the world after this” where they discuss how we live in such an unpredictable world now, so creativity/ability to respond to unforeseen situations is very valuable

Michael Jones is talking about art that isn’t meticulously planned ahead of time, for example the piano piece like a tv soundtrack where he just plays what he feels like playing and the art just flows in a more organic natural way instead of a performance of a specific piece. Similar to freestyle rap or improv acting.

I usually have a plan for my art before I start it, but back in highschool I took a collage class where I would just start putting things on the page and then kind of just add what felt right and what looked right to me instead of thinking about what I wanted the finished piece to look like and making a plan based on that. Some of my collage pieces are shown below.

Importance of having your own creative voice

Article by Michael Jones

Improv and creativity require artists to listen and respond accordingly (aka good leadership, listen/reflect and then act)

Importance of allowing questions to sit and remain unsolved to create discussion and many different possible solutions before addressing the question

‘Truth’ is constantly changing

This is similar to the reading last week by Katherine McKee where she says that nothing lasts forever because communities and culture are always evolving.

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Critical Theory in Leadership

Leadership theories are typically rooted in whiteness and masculinity.

I am typically a quieter and more reserved person, and in middle school and high school I was even quieter than I am now. I often got told by adults that I should be louder and more outgoing, which ultimately just made me more self-conscious and uncomfortable. I think there's an expectation that to be successful and happy (and a good leader) you have to be an overly confident, outgoing person and have a very strong presence. This makes sense since Western leadership was mostly created by white men, and a strong, demanding person is what Western leadership promotes.

What is Critical Theory?

Critical Theory is a group of theories that aim to diminish inequality and exploitation among people by evaluating practices and systems to create equity. We can tie this to leadership since traditional Western ideas of leadership and success were primarily shaped by white men, so we can use critical theory to understand other leadership systems within marginalized communities to dismantle and reform what leadership means.

Viewing leadership through a lens of critical theory allows us to rework what we mean by leadership and use leadership as a means to ending injustice. Typical leadership education would be to come into a community and tell the people what kind of leadership they need. A critical approach to leadership education would be to act and reflect in cycles as a community, and build trust and engagement in a process of liberating people from oppression. This form of leadership is more inclusive because it takes into account social identities and oppressive systems and works to develop collective leadership within a community, allowing people within the community to address their own needs and issues their way.

Creativity contributes to inclusive and equitable leadership because it allows for a more flexible structure. Leadership systems that are very rigid and devoid of creativity often do not take into account community, social identity, and historical context. Creative leadership includes input and ideas from the community, not just a few 'leaders' making decisions. In addition, creativity encourages us to pull from our lived experiences, which are heavily influenced by oppression and social identity. Therefore, creative leadership should take into account oppressive systems, injustice, and inequality in order to best address these issues.

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Collective Leadership

The essays on leadership in Resurgence Magazine each had an interesting take on leadership, but the big theme that I saw was community leadership and collective leadership.

In the first essay "Gentle Stewardship" a quote that stood out to me was “we need to encourage a humble and collective leadership that will influence actions and outcomes in all corners of our organisations and communities.” (13) I really like this approach to leadership, thinking of it as a collective effort instead of the work of one person.

The second essay "From Hero...To Host" followed a similar path, critiquing the common view of the heroic leader who fixes everything. This makes a lot of sense to me because pretty much every leader is successful because of the people supporting them, not just from their own work. The essay talked about how this ties into the corporate world, saying that “Many senior leaders view engaging the whole system as a threat to their own power and control.” (16) I have encountered this a lot in school as well as in some of the jobs that I've had where people in positions of power resist change or ideas unless it's coming from another person with a similar or higher position.

In "Inspiring Leadership" the A Rocha program is a good example of community based leadership, and I loved how Dave Bookless showed how in his experience people don't need one strong leader but instead need to be invited to participate in a community.

"The Power of Language" talked about how in politics language can be used to obscure the truth. For example, “World leaders often use diplomatic language that hides the real meaning of the words, creating euphemisms that are outright dangerous. Describing slaughtered and maimed civilians as “collateral damage” is the classic example for our times, and it’s cynical in the extreme.” (21) This phenomenon of politicians or newscasters manipulating words to mislead the public is incredibly frustrating to me, and it's often successful in its misinformation.

"The Making of Harmony" seemed kind of ironic after reading so many pieces tearing down politicians and the heroic leader. The author seemed to put Charles III on a pedestal and was very defensive of him throughout the essay. In addition, the author included quotes by Gandhi and MLK, which continues this idolization of one heroic leader instead of recognizing the whole community and movement that contributed to that leaders success.

Continuing the theme of collective leadership, a quote from "A Lifetime of Activism" reads "collaboration must replace competition." (35) I liked this quote because it often can apply to corporate or student culture, where it can feel like you are competing against your classmates or co-workers. But by working together we can use collective leadership to create a better project, and collaboration will also foster community by encouraging people to talk and share and help each other improve.

Lastly, in the essay "Coming of Age" Rob Laidlaw says “It is the rich, not the poor, who contribute most to animal cruelty.” (37) This is true for climate change as a whole as well, because the richest countries and people are often the ones who are the most detrimental to the environment. For example, rich people often use private jets and have multiple houses and cars. In addition, wealthier countries use more heating and air conditioning, and import more products from abroad. All of these activities require energy and fossil fuels that contribute greatly to climate change.

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What is Creative Leadership?

https://www.artsjournal.com/jumper/2022/12/co-creating-with-a-conscience-or-why-study-leadership-at-an-art-design-college/

Creative leadership is “envisioning and realizing change and innovation while attending to shared values, mission, and social impact.” So basically problem solving and enacting change while being ethical and socially conscious.

One piece that I really liked from the same blog is “leadership is a collective capacity” because I often do my best work when working in a team. Just because one person or a few people are technically in charge, doesn't mean other people can't contribute new ideas, and overall it's the team or the movement that is doing the work, not just the leader.

“there are ways of being, doing, and knowing that are inherent to artmaking and design that are both undervalued by society-at-large and incredibly valuable at a moment in which we are looking at the ‘end of the world as we have known it’”

https://www.artsjournal.com/jumper/2023/01/on-a-strategy-of-indeterminacy-or-the-value-of-creating-pathways-to-the-unforeseen/

This post reminds me a lot of my own diy projects and art, where I don't know if something is going to work until I try it. And if I try it and it doesn't work, then I just have to try something else. It's all just trial and error.