One of the things that really helps drive creativity and innovation in a culture is having a strong civil society. The term civil society refers to those things that lie between the family and the government. Groups like churches, volunteer organizations, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, sports groups, and book clubs, have very positive benefits when it comes to encouraging and building creativity. These groups offer people an outlet for their ideas, help them get comfortable with sharing their thoughts and trying them out, and remind people that their voices matter.

With that in mind I was happy to see Be Movement emerge in Singapore a couple years ago. They have started publishing stories that tell about the community efforts of private groups as well as individuals and businesses (and not just in Singapore, either). The end result of such an effort should be to raise awareness of civil society and other community efforts and to inspire participation by showing people the impact they can have. By bringing to light all the opportunities to participate in civil society and show what the benefits to society can be, they can help encourage the growth of civil society, which in turn will help people develop their creative talents and the confidence to use them in an environment beyond that of their parents or the government, neither of which are always encouraging when it comes to original, creative thinking.

Singapore is pursuing an official strategy to become a more creative city. One of the key elements of that will be unofficial efforts like this. It is a lesson other countries and cities should be considering as well. If you know of similar efforts in your city or country, please let us know…we would love to learn more.