Companies and organizations everywhere cite creativity as the most desirable - and elusive - leadership quality of the future. Yet scores measuring creativity among American children have been on the wane for decades. A specialist in creative leadership, professor James Haywood Rolling, Jr. knows firsthand that the classroom is a key to either unlocking or blocking the critical imagination. He argues that today's schools, with their focus on rote learning and test-taking, work to stymie creativity, leaving children cut off from their natural impulses and boxed in by low expectations. Drawing on cutting-edge research in the realms of biological swarm theory, systems theory, and complexity theory, Rolling shows why group collaboration and adaptive social networking make us both smarter and more creative, and how we can design education and workplace practices around these natural principles, instead of pushing a limited focus on individual achievement that serves neither children nor their future colleagues, managers and mentors. The surprising truth is that the future will be pioneered by the collective problem-solvers, making Swarm Intelligence a must-read for business leaders, educators, and anyone else concerned with nurturing creative intelligence and innovative habits in today's youth.
James Haywood Rolling, Jr. is Dual Professor of Arts Education and Teaching and Leadership, and an affiliated faculty member in African American Studies at Syracuse University. Dr. Rolling has been elected as the 37th President of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) beginning his term in 2021, and currently serves as the inaugural Chair of the new NAEA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Commission. A member of the 2017 class of NAEA Distinguished Fellows, Dr. Rolling served as the Senior Editor of Art Education journal from 2015-2017 and is also a 2018 graduate of the School for Art Leaders, a flagship professional development program of NAEA supporting art + design educators in their quest to excel as leaders. In 2021, Dr. Rolling will add an additional role to his creative leadership responsibilities as a new member of the Board of Trustees at the Everson Museum of Art.
The author of dozens of peer-reviewed articles and papers, numerous book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and books on the subjects of the arts, education, creativity and human identity, Dr. Rolling continues to expand the reach of his message about the social origins of our common creativity while advocating for the development of each individual's unique creative superpowers, especially those typically overlooked among the children of marginalized and under-resourced communities.
