News

It’s been an interesting first three months at Creative Oklahoma.  I’ve learned that many people think creativity is nice and cute, but doesn’t really belong in the business world. Not many people understand what Creative Oklahoma does and how much work lies ahead.  Many people have their concerns, but I am here to tell you that ‘Creativity Matters’ — it matters in education, commerce and culture.  

For the past five years, Creative Oklahoma has been working to develop the Oklahoma Innovation Index for schools. The Innovation Index provides teachers with an online tool to easily measure creative and innovative learning growth in the classroom.  The Index helps teachers expand the minds of children to learn more creatively, and not simply teach to the test. We recently conducted a feasibility study with twelve schools in Oklahoma and Arkansas to test the efficacy of the Index.  The results speak for themselves.  In the schools where the  study was conducted, the teachers overwhelmingly welcomed the Index to help them prepare students with the 21st century skills of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.  The Index will now be piloted in Creative Oklahoma’s eight Creative Communities before being made available to all teachers in every Oklahoma classroom.  Creative Oklahoma is working hard to find ways to support our teachers and help them improve learning for our kids.

Last year, Creative Oklahoma started an initiative to empower citizens in eight Oklahoma towns and communities to implement their ideas to improve their communities and the health and well-being of their citizens.  These communities have embarked on a two-year journey to generate new ideas from citizens across all sectors to solve some of their biggest challenges utilizing a creative problem solving methodology.  Oklahoma Creative Communities focuses on building strong community leaders, changing a poverty mindset and showing communities what can happen when everyone comes together to solve a problem.  While the journey has just begun, it is exciting to see communities defining challenges, creating solutions and dreaming big.  We are actually beginning to see this effort as a way to bridge cultural gaps, income gaps and have a positive impact for small towns.  Creative Oklahoma understands what can happen when you encourage ideation, embrace big goals and empower the team.  Creativity Matters!

Finally, Creative Oklahoma has been working the last few months to establish the Oklahoma Mentorship Network.  We have been amazed at the response and the team that has come together to support this endeavor for the entire state.  Partnering with the Oklahoma Business Roundtable, Oklahoma Venture Forum, i2E, 36 Degrees North and others, this could be one of the most effective mentorship programs in the state for all aspiring entrepreneurs.  We will have world class mentors offering support for Oklahomans with ideas.  The goal is to plough the ground, plant the seeds and watch the economy grow.  
I have heard many people say that they don’t know what Creative Oklahoma does, but from my perspective we are running fast to help Oklahomans and their schools, businesses and communities be more innovative and thereby, more competitive in the global economy. I challenge each and every one of you to be more creative.  I dare you to dream big and believe you can…Creativity Matters!