Jeff Stoller is one of my oldest living friends. I've known him since I was five of so and he has more stories to tell about me than seems decent. He and I also have a long history of correspondence, all of which seemed hilarious at the time, and probably would seem far less so now. He offered to write something for my website, an offer I jumped at. He's a brilliant writer, even if he has a penchant for quoting me.
These days he describes himself as follows:
I am a lobbyist, handling labor and employment issues for the nation's largest state-level business association (18,000 employers). My office is sort of an "emergency room" for small businesses in crisis.
I've spent 25 years in the murky world where business and politics overlap. Prior to joining this association, I gained work experience in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, New York State Senate and New York State Division of the Budget.
After graduating from Hamilton College, I completed an MBA and a Master's in Regional Planning at Cornell University.
Blah blah blah
He said that last part, not me.
Diversify or Die!
by Jeff Stoller, 8/19/02
Self-confident, journeying organizations put blue water between them and the competition because the merely good never fully engage the creative energies of the people that make them.
-- Kevin Hoffberg, The Big Themes
In addition to being fairly compensated for the work we do and the skills we bring, we want the ability to learn and grow, shape the content of our work, control our own schedules and express our identities through work. And companies of all types, including large established ones, are adapting to this change by striving to create new workplaces that are more amenable to creative work.
In this they have no choice: Either they will create these kinds of environments or they will wither and die.
-- Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class
New Jersey’s legendary Hudson County – its 600,000 inner-city residents packed into a mere 46 square miles – seems an unlikely place to look for lessons in innovative management. The local Powers That Be are a tough bunch, Tony Soprano tough, and do not always live by the principles taught in Sunday school, business school, or the Hoffberg web site.
For years, the entrenched Democratic political machine has churned out preposterously high margins of victory on Election Day – frequently aided by voters who happen to be dead. Bloated municipal payrolls sag under the weight of well-connected cronies and relatives. Property taxes are sky-high. Public schools are failing. Exorbitant public construction projects take forever to complete. Local officials often vanish mid-term, victims of vicious political infighting or Federal indictment. In short, an outsider can be forgiven for seeing nothing but chaos -- a veritable Disneyland of mismanagement, overrun by sinister dwarves.
Values? Trust? Quality decision making?
I’m sorry: dynamic managers need not apply. The story is told of a dedicated party foot soldier who toiled for years, longing for a plum patronage job. He was doggedly loyal but not, shall we say, the brightest bulb in the chandelier. At last, it was decided to reward him by appointing him to head the local Office of Weights and Measures – a position he was assured would require minimal thought or effort. He was sworn in with great fanfare, the party faithful packing the room. But as the applause began to subside, some wiseguy at the back of the room called out, “Say, Barney. How many ounces in a pound?” The new director recoiled and froze, eyes wide with panic. “Hey, give me a break!” he pleaded. “It’s my first day on the job!!”
What then are the economic prospects for Hudson County? In a word: brilliant. Population soared by an impressive 10% in the 1990’s. Young professionals are flooding into Hoboken’s condos and apartments. Corporations are investing in multi-million-dollar office facilities along Jersey City’s “Gold Coast” waterfront. The local business community is teeming with new activity, sparked by an influx of entrepreneurs from a surging immigrant population.
How can this be? How can a place that appears to be doing everything wrong have such a bright economic future?
Part of the answer is geography. Hudson County has the dumb luck of being directly across the Hudson River from mid-town Manhattan. Like the oil-besotted House of Saud, the locals just happen to be in the right place at the right time. And, this close to New York, it is almost always the right time.
But there’s something more going on here. According to Dr. Richard Florida in his new book The Rise of the Creative Class (Basic Books, 2002), the future belongs to places like New York and Hudson County whose diverse populations, eclectic cultures and historic neighborhoods attract the creative types who will lead our economy in the 21st Century.
If Florida is right, then Kevin Hoffberg’s many Words Words Words about tapping creative potential have vital meaning not only for individual workers and progressive employers. What’s at stake is nothing less than the future direction of the U.S. economy. Sound a bit melodramatic? I thought so at first, but Florida’s book has me wondering…..
The Big Themes Revisited
For the past few weeks, I’ve been spending some quality time with this web site. Like Rex Reed at the movies, I laughed, I cried, My spirit soared….. Kevin and his confreres are clearly bursting with ideas that should resonate with thoughtful businesspeople everywhere. Here are a few that I’ve taken to heart:
Without diversity, you die. Organizations that fail to promote diversity in all its forms are doomed. Without collaboration, self-criticism and unpopular ideas from under-appreciated people, a business is headed for creative failure or worse.
You gotta love what you do. Money is important. But if a company wants results from its employees, it needs to provide challenges that engage them on a deeper level.
Successful Work and a Successful Life are not incompatible. You can build real business value for your company and not betray the passion of your Inner Artist-Janitor (or something like that).
Big themes. Big ideas. Valuable insights. I’m sure these come as no surprise to those who have worked with Kevin in recent years. I, of course, have the disadvantage of having known him since we were three years old. When clients and colleagues think of Kevin, they think of the accomplished senior advisor to Fortune 50 corporations. When I think of Kevin, I think of the rude 10-year-old whose notion of a “branded customer experience” was dancing naked up and down the bed for a captive audience of overnight guests. I suppose this web site is the electronic equivalent of that initial concept.
But I digress….
What Kevin says matters. And his Big Themes may be bigger than you think; they have implications far beyond the happiness of a few individuals or companies. Entire cities, regions and states need to wake up to the fact that fostering creativity is essential to their future economic development. Tapping the creative potential of every worker is not simply a nice idea; it may be the key to an industry’s ability to keep pace with the ferocious wave of new technology that is transforming our economy.
That’s where Dr. Florida, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, weighs in. He says that traditional approaches to economic development are for the birds. Politicians nationwide are falling all over themselves thinking that huge corporate tax breaks or taxpayer-financed ballparks will assure their future prosperity. Business managers should be careful not to fall into the same trap. The smart money is following the creative workers.
The Rise of the Creative Class
Here’s Florida’s argument in a nutshell….
A powerful new social class is emerging in America, the “Creative Class”. Its 38 million members, representing more than 30% of the U.S. workforce, are transforming work and society in profound ways. Their ranks encompass a diverse range of people who “create” for a living: artists and engineers, teachers and computer nerds, research scientists and musicians, architects and financial wizards, writers and designers.
The Creative Workers are the “winners” in today’s economy, adding value and generating new products while members of the Working Class (33 million) and Service Class (55 million) tread water in industries such as transportation, construction, health care support and food service. Since the Creative Workers’ creativity is now the decisive source of a company’s competitive advantage, employers have started to give them what they want: flexible working hours, casual dress codes, a place at the table for eccentrics and nonconformists.
Creative Class workers value workplaces that are diverse, tolerant and open to new ideas. What’s more, they demand the same of the surrounding communities. And they are voting with their feet: Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, New York and D.C. are hot; Buffalo, Youngstown and New Orleans are not. It helps if your area has a large gay population and a high concentration of “bohemian” painters, musicians and actors. It’s not that the high-tech whiz kids are all gay or musical; they simply take this as a sign that the region is accepting and stimulating.
Late in his book, Florida gets around to crunching census numbers with his demographer buddies. He made a believer out of me; there’s strong evidence that a region’s levels of diversity and creativity are powerful indicators of its future employment growth, population growth, and potential for innovation. Places like Hudson County -- with access to diverse lifestyles, cultures, languages, historic neighborhoods, and nightlife – have the kind of environment where creative types settle and fuel the local economy.
Why is this happening? Why is this pampered Creative Class emerging suddenly as the Golden Goose that will determine our economic fate? Florida attributes it to what he calls the “Big Morph”, a historic resolution of the centuries-old tension between the uptight “Protestant work ethic” and the freewheeling “Bohemian ethic.” Today’s Creative Ethic is producing something entirely new: a workplace culture that encourages individuality but with a sustainable economic base. A workplace filled with technologically creative “trouble-makers” who ask tough questions, but who work hard to make the business succeed. In Florida’s view:
These people want to contribute; they want to be heard. They are not drifters in our midst, nor by any means are they barbarians at the gates. They see no need to overthrow the established order…. The synthesis that they are living is not just a matter of sticking a bohemian lifestyle onto an organization man value set… The people of the Big Morph see themselves simply as “creative people” with creative values, working in increasingly creative workplaces, living essentially creative lifestyles.”
So what?
Why should anyone care about this issue? Because if Florida is right about the rise of creativity as an economic force, this country is in for some serious political and economic upheaval.
Think of it. Most CEOs and politicians do not recognize the emergence of the Creative Economy. They will continue to spend billions on old-style economic development projects, when it’s the creative workers that should be the focus.
On the other hand, a Creative Economy where the gifted “winners” get all the attention will not be a hit with the 88 million Working Class/Service Class “losers” who are two-thirds of the workforce. Even by the relaxed standards of New Jersey politics, 65% beats 35% every time. It will be interesting to see what happens if steps toward Florida’s brave new world get put to a vote.
Whatever lies ahead, the messy economic changes underway will force businesspeople to confront one of those Big Themes: without diversity, you die. As Kevin put it, “there is no example in nature of a healthy ecosystem that is not a diverse ecosystem.” To me this means that many employers, and society in general, must discard a lot of old prejudices and learn to appreciate the value of the people around us. The geeks, the nerds, the immigrants, the young, the odd, the eccentrics, the non-conformists, the trouble-makers, the people that drive human resource managers crazy --- they may all be critical to our future productivity, profitability and prosperity.
Is the Creative Economy real? Will it widen the gap between America’s haves and have-nots? Can a government packed with business-bashing liberals and gay-bashing conservatives fashion policies that allow it to grow?
Hey, give me a break. It’s my first day on the job!
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07/24/05