Establishing a new cognitive reference point for our creative workforce

What kind of personal creativity management system do you use?

Okay, full transparency, that was a trick question. Most people don’t even know what PCM is, much less have one that they prefer.

The reason for that is, there’s never been a broad level of public awareness around the field of personal creativity management in our culture.

Until now. We’ve finally reached a key inflection point in our country’s economic history where the official definition of this category is needed.

Consider the recent numbers from our department of commerce.

One, creative professionals add over fifty billion dollars to our national economy each year.

Two, freelancers account for more than thirty percent of the country’s workforce.

Three, fifty percent of the new opportunities in the job market cite creativity as a necessary skill.

Four, seventy five percent of educators say that the risk of job automation is lower in professions that require creative problem solving skills.

And five, creativity, originality and initiative are the most in demand professional skill predicted for the next three years.

Because of this new economic reality, the time has come to establish a new cognitive reference point for our country’s workforce to support it.

We need to make the historic decision to think about the creative process in a different way. Not a better way, but a different way.

Which brings us back to the original question.

What kind of personal creativity management system do you use?

Since most people don’t have an answer, now would be a good time to official define this term. Here’s my Wikipedia definition for the term, which doesn’t exist. Yet.

Personal Creativity Management (PCM), is a unique approach to managing an individual’s comprehensive creative process, including the phases of ideation, organization and execution.

Personal Creativity Management (PCM) may refer to an individual working in a freelance or entrepreneurial capacity whose livelihood depends on bringing their ideas to form; or to an employee within a team or organization for whom innovation is a critical competitive advantage.

Advocates of this discipline note that effective personal creativity management typically results in greater output, faster execution, lower burnout, deeper focus and higher engagement for those who practice it.

The ultimate goal of Personal Creativity Management (PCM) is to help individuals and organizations build leverage from their intellectual capital that drives innovation and earns greater profits, while not burning people out during the process.

PCM is distinguished from other management disciplines by its cognizance of the mental, emotional and existential contexts of the people for whom it is created.

The methodology centers around a robust arsenal of hundreds of solutions custom fit for each individual’s unique personality, value system and life situation.

The solution taxonomy involves four classifications of tools. Mindsets, approaches, behaviors and assets.

Mindsets are the fixed dispositions that determine an individual’s response to creative situations; approaches are the particular procedures for addressing or accomplishing creative work; behaviors are the specific ways in which the creative professionals act or conduct themselves conducive to prolificacy; and assets are the specific things that can be intentionally used to produce value along the creative process.

There you have it. You heard it here first.

Now you have a new cognitive reference point to navigate this new economic reality.

Welcome aboard.

What kind of personal creativity management system do you use?