Firstly, who said Americans were creative individually or in groups? (or Canadians for that matter?). I have little experience of Canadians, but I have found Americans to be among the least creative business group of any that I have worked with. Although, the lack of hard evidence from a broader sample has disuaded me from generalising. If I were to though, I’d characterise Americans as a race who take other people’s ideas and commercialise (or polish) them.

I assume also that you are suggesting that “creativity” is a genetic thing, which for all I know it might be, but your comparison with Italians suggests that you believe Italians to be less creative with fashion, or food than Americans, when I think all the evidence and most people (certainly I) would recognise that the reverse is true. (I’m not Italian either by the way.) Isn’t a lot of “American” food a derivitive of Italian? Another case of polishing, perhaps? As are all the faux Italian clothing lines I see in American stores.

One thing that I really like about the post though is the concept of “Opposable Mind”, so I’m off to buy Martin’s book.

This week, I was back at a volunteer committee with my local Community Living Association (advocacy agency for people with intellectual disabilities.) Not only are our meetings a lot of fun, but they can be quite inspiring; our meetings are a setting where we truly can be more creative together, than if we were alone giving input. We eat lunch, enjoy each others’ company and turn our attention to the best interests of the agency and the people it serves.

This has also been my experience at the provincial level, and I am truly excited about returning to a provincial communications conference in February. I will report back, if you’re interested, Grant.

I almost never pull multiple quotations from the same article or blog post, but in this case I had to make an exception (after yesterday’s QotD from This Blog Sits at the): One concept of Canadians is that they are…

A skeptic might say I am going easy on Martin because I have met him, because he is a Canadian (and there is Canadian mafia), and/or because he gave me a copy of his book. May I reassure you…

Grant,

National stereotyping is racism in the global village.

Don’t judge me by the colour of my flag.

P.S. I grant you pardon, at least partially, due to the fact that you gleaned this idea from a business scholar in Toronto. That Torontonians speak for Canada isn’t a product of expertise or experience, it’s just one of many unfortunate side-effects of media consolidation! (See what I just did? That’s called a gross generalization!)

I have little experience of working with Canadians, Grant, so I am not able to comment on your central idea. One important feature of Americans, in my experience, is a very strong dislike of decisions being taken secretly or outside-the-group. American business people, perhaps very appropriately for a country founded on an anti-monarchical idea, prefer discussion to be open, inclusive, and with all the stakeholders directly involved. Is this also true of Canadians?

This attitude is very different from, say, English business culture or the cultures of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea). (Note that I say “English” becaused I cannot speak for Scottish or Irish culture in this respect.) All these cultures prefer groups NOT to discuss important matters openly, but rather to decide the key issues beforehand, outside the meeting (in the corridors rather than in the meeting room), and usually by a small cabal. Younger managers from all these countries are less like this than are older managers. As an Australian (and hence a crypto-American), I think the increasing openness of young English and East Asian managers is A Very Good Thing.

I have sat through numerous business meetings in Asia where nobody contributes anything regarding a pressing problem, but where an agreed (and often very creative) solution is suddenly produced minutes after the meeting is adjourned. The solution had clearly been prepared, discussed widely and ageed before the meeting, but nobody was willing to talk about it in an open meeting. My inner American would despair at this.