What if & Maybe
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Why
Creativity?
It's the future
"A study conducted by Forrester Consulting¹ found that “Now, possibly more than ever, there appears to be an impetus for employees to bring their “soft” skills – such as creativity, leadership, and critical thinking – to work. (…) The value proposition of humans in the workforce is shifting to essentially “human capabilities”, such as curiosity and empathy”. (…) The crux of the argument is that in addition to adapting to technological change, humans need to cultivate the capabilities that will enable us to add value where machines fall short.”
CLOSING THE EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS GAP | DELOITTE INSIGHTS, 2019
First, it’s important to conceptualize what is creativity in the context I work with. Here, creativity follows the sociocultural approach literature:
"Creativity is the generation of a product (*or service) that is judged to be novel and also to be appropriate, useful, or valuable by a suitably knowledgeable social group."
"Creativity is the production of novel and useful ideas in any domain. Innovation is the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization."
Harvard Business School teacher, Teresa Amabile summarizes the difference between creativity and innovation as:
Second: Why the focus on creativity?
Baseline:
Well, creativity precedes innovation. While efficient innovation processes based on different methodologies (agile, lean, etc.) are key to successful innovative outcomes, it is equally true that, without creativity, no innovation would ever take place.
Creates Value:
A study conducted by Forrester Consulting¹ found that “companies that embrace creativity outperform peers and competitors on key business performance indicators, including revenue growth, market share, and talent acquisition. They enjoy a high-performance working environment, driven by progressive leaders and managers who provide access, methods, and funding to back creative initiatives.”
In 2021, for the first time in 21 years, OECD's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) will assess students' Creative Thinking capabilities, reflecting how important such area of knowledge is becoming for the next generations. According to OECD own words,
A Creative thinking is thus more than simply coming up with random ideas. It is a tangible competence, grounded in knowledge and practice, that supports individuals in achieving better outcomes, oftentimes in constrained and challenging environments. Organizations and societies around the world increasingly depend on innovation and knowledge creation to address emerging challenges (OECD, 2010[2]), giving urgency to innovation and creative thinking as collective enterprises
In 2015:
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Complex problem solving
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Coordination with others
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People Management
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Critical thinking
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Negotiation
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Quality control
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Service orientation
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Judgement and Decision making
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Active listening
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Creativity
Top 10 Skills
SOURCE: FUTURE OF JOBS REPORT, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
In 2020:
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Complex problem solving
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Critical thinking
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Creativity
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People Management
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Coordination with others
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Emotional intelligence
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Judgement and Decision making
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Service orientation
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Negotiation
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Cognitive flexibility
Personal fulfillment
Creativity is a subject surrounded by myths. Some of them describe creativity as being an inborn trait. Others relate creativity to the domains of arts (painting, sculpting, dancing, music, etc.). All of them have proven to be wrong and not scientifically supported. On the other hand, it's also been proven that creativity is a skill anyone can develop.
As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states in his book Creativity: the psychology of discovery and invention
"Even though personal creativity may not lead to fame and fortune, it can do something that from the individual's point of view is even more important: make day-to-day experiences more vivid, more enjoyable, more rewarding. When we live creatively, boredom is banished and every moment holds the promise of a fresh discovery."
