Should an archivist be creative? (Episode 237)

Should an archivist be creative? (Episode 237)

Think of a group of professionals where everyone thinks creativity is important and virtually all of them also think they are creative.

Did you think of The Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet)?

Well, you should have. Or at least you could have.

The Swedish National Archives is one of Sweden’s oldest government agencies. The oldest mention of a national archive, Riksens archivum, can be traced back to 1618. The National Archives is tasked with safeguarding and maintaining an overview of Swedish society’s archival materials.

So, an old Government agency tasked with handling archives, could creativity really be important to them?

Well, I just spoke to them last week and over 95% of them raised their hand to say that creativity was important in their job. And over 90% (!) raised their hand to say that they thought they were creative. (These are the kind of numbers you normally only get from young university students, IT consultants, or advertising people in Sweden.)

After speaking on the topic of creativity to over 2000 groups in virtually all kinds of industries, I have learned one thing: Never assume anything about how people look at creativity.

So, while I had prepared a speech based on the assumption that a low number of people at the National Archives would say that they thought they were creative, I had also – thankfully – prepared an alternative speech in case a high number would say yes.

I just LOVE that employees of an old government agency in charge of archives all confidentially raise their hand and say that creativity is important in their job.

 

 

And it was fascinating to see how new AI solutions are now being launched to read 1500th-century handwritten documents to make them searchable and readable for today’s researchers.

On Saturday I spoke about creativity to lawyers in Saigon. On Thursday I spoke about creativity to marketing professionals in Copenhagen. And on Friday I spoke about creativity to people at the National Archives of Sweden.

Creativity is everywhere!

Isn’t that amazing?

And imagine the creativity that can be released if we become even better at teaching and inspiring people in all industries to become even more creative.

That is why I am passionate about being The Creativity Explorer.

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