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GREENSBORO — An influential Raleigh think tank is undertaking a statewide push to foster more creativity in schools and the work force, an idea that might not sound all that, well, creative to folks here in Greensboro.

After all, earlier this decade, the city was in the throes of self-examination, trying to figure out how to attract and keep a “creative class” as part of an economic development scheme promoted by researcher Richard Florida.

Three or four years after the creative class discussion has faded from Greensboro’s front burner, the Institute for Emerging Issues is taking it up as its signature issue for the year.

The think tank, headed by former Gov. Jim Hunt, is frequently influential in setting the state’s policy agenda. In previous years, it has tackled renewable energy, infrastructure, and the remaking of higher education, all of which have become central discussions in government circles.

Fostering creativity, Hunt said, is critical to developing a modern breed of workers who can compete in an ever-evolving industrial landscape based on knowledge and innovation.

And, in fact, Greensboro’s experience did inform the think tank’s planning, said Anita Brown-Graham, the institute’s executive director.

“We have given it a lot of thought and been careful in our language not to make this feel like Richard Florida version 2,” Brown-Graham said.

Much of Florida’s work, at least as it was applied in Greensboro, centered on building the type of community that might attract creative workers, seen as high earners who would in turn create other jobs.

Applied here, that seemed to mean building a downtown with lots of amenities like bars and Wi-Fi cafes, as well as boosting the profile of cultural institutions.

Keith Debbage, a geography professor at UNCG, criticized this approach at the time as “putting the cart before the horse,” and urged the city to invest in more basic drivers of the economy like land and work force development.

“We did get a lot out of the initiative actually,” Debbage says now, quickly adding, “It didn’t lead to anything actually concrete.”

But he said the idea of creating a knowledge-based economy with creative workers permeated the consciousness of leaders in local government and business. That shift led communities to focus on developing home-grown talent, such as that at local universities.

“I would say the big 'a-ha’ is we started engaging (the university sector), which is huge here,” agreed Dan Curry, acting director of housing and community development for Greensboro.

The city’s attention, he said, has turned from attracting new people here to developing and keeping creative talent, including the 50,000-plus students at Greensboro’s five colleges and universities.

That lesson is one that Brown-Graham said the institute has applied to its initial research on the topic and will be part of its emphasis during its coming conference.

“It’s less, quite frankly, about attracting creative people, which was at the core of his (Florida’s) strategy. This is about cultivating creative people,” she said.

There are other ways that the institute’s approach differs from earlier ideas about fostering creative culture.

Research, Brown-Graham said, shows there’s as much call for creativity in rural jobs as there is in urban settings. As well, being a creative worker doesn’t require an advanced degree.

“It’s going to require different education. It’s going to require more education, but it doesn’t require all the advanced degrees that people sometimes walked away from early conversations...would have believed,” Brown-Graham said.

To that end, the institute’s agenda is a mix of policy makers like Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, where statewide initiatives in fostering creative thinkers have gained national attention, as well as federal and state leaders like Gov. Bev Perdue and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Those who come should expect a nudge from Hunt, who said leaders at all levels need to add creativity into the mix of skills they teach, especially to students in public schools and colleges.

“I hope we’re going to have some way of measuring how well we’re doing it,” Hunt said, acknowledging that a “creativity test” may be hard to develop or administer. “At least we can start looking for evidence of it, that the work is happening. ... We need to get on the case.”

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com