Here's a creative issue I'm frequently working through with Executives in Leadership.
This is an article by the World Economic Forum predicting that 50% of all employees will require reskilling by 2025.
A quick glance at their Top 10 and I agree with most and would reason that creative skills and intelligence encompass 8/10 of the skills mentioned.
Creativity + originality.
Innovation.
Critical thinking.
Complex problem solving.
Ideation.
Technology design
All fall squarely within the realms of creative thinking, skills + process.
The second half of the article details 'How long will reskilling take'?
And this is where the logic unravels...
Nowhere is creativity mentioned, instead we are offered a shopping list of technical skills to learn:
Content Writing.
Sales + Marketing.
Data + AI skills.
Cloud Computing + Engineering
Here's why this is a massive issue...
Learning new a program or how to use the cloud, does not facilitate the creative skills or intelligence required to:
Develop original concepts...
Or design innovation...
Or to think critically...
Or to solve complex problems...
Or to drive ideation...
Or to develop emotional flexibility...
Articles like these expose this professional creative blindspot, by failing to address how we might develop our creativity, creative skills, process and intelligence.
In doing so they sustain two damaging beliefs that inhibit our understanding of creativity:
The assumption that creativity occurs as a by-product of learning more 'technical things'.
It devalues genuine creative intelligence, skills and process.
The World Economic Forum (and others) rightly identifies the need for creativity, critical to the future of work + education.
Proactively leveraging unique and creative insight is how organisations adapt faster, solve, innovate and lead.
The creative intelligence of Leadership engenders the culture and process by which exceptional ideas may be generated and executed.
So seperate from technical reskilling, perhaps we should ask...
How might we develop these specific creative skills and how long might they take?
I can help with that... and not as long as you might think.
If you would like to learn how to develop the creative intelligence of you and your team, book your consult here...
For the price of a coffee + chat, I can lead you through a mini-assessment to demonstrate how creativity is never delivered by the new tool, rather a creative shift in your thinking..
#appliedcreativity #innovation #designthinking #innovationconsultant #thoughtleader #creativity #author #speaker #sydney #australia
Christopher. S. Sellers: Creative Thought Leader + Founder of the Six CREATIVE Skill Sets
Director + Lead Creative @ Black Bulb Creative