Scott Berkun had an interesting post about How the Recession will Drive Creativity. He said:
As long as people are considering change, there is the possibility for innovation to happen.
Layoffs and Cutbacks can be considered negative, but they shake the core of individuals and organizations motivating them to action. Many successful businesses around today were started as a result of a layoff. And based on my time in corporate, (20+years) I often saw teams rising to the occasion, and working at their best creatively when our budgets were cut.
It is about attitude. You can bury your head in the sand, and hope this will blow over, or you can look at the changing landscape and find a place to play. Berkun continues:
With all the talk of recessions, cutbacks and layoffs, everyone assumes creative thinking will suffer. Not entirely true. What it means is the kind of change that’s possible is different — but opportunities are there and in fact might be easier to find than before. It all depends on where you sit and what you see.
So it is really up to you. – Where will you sit, what will you see, and most importantly, what will you do differently now.