HOW STRONG IS YOUR CQ?

Earlier this year, Adobe released its 2020 results from the Adobe CQ (creativity quotient), an evaluation tool designed to measure enterprise, creative aptitude and capability across teams and organisations. More than 2500 enterprise leaders from around Asia Pacific, including 578 leaders from Australia and New Zealand, took the online persona-based test to evaluate their creative leadership in 2020.

The baseline test examines five key areas in which creativity impacts business success: culture, data, skills, technology and experiences. At the conclusion of the test, respondents are assigned an appropriate persona based on their results – Visionary, Leader, Assembler or Challenger.

“The challenges of 2020 brought to the fore the importance of creativity, collaboration, innovation and problem-solving,” says Vice President of Adobe Australia and New Zealand Suzanne Steele. “Business leaders across Australia and New Zealand [ANZ] are doing a great job of building the right culture and experience to drive creativity, however it’s important we don’t stop there.

The majority of ANZ leaders are performing well in creative leadership, with 60 percent ranking as Leaders. However, there’s still room for improvement, with only 13 percent of participants achieving the top ranking of Visionaries.

ANZ leaders are strongest in the ‘experience’ category, with 45 percent excelling in leveraging creative skills and technology to deliver innovative and engaging experiences. Specifically, more than half (58 percent) of ANZ enterprise leaders see creativity as a fundamental tool of innovation and evolution, incorporating it into all elements of their work.

“Fostering a creative culture is a strength of ANZ leaders, with 41 percent excelling in this area,” says Steele. “When asked when their team feels most creative, more than half (54 percent) said when there’s a problem to be solved. This means leaders in ANZ are providing their teams with an environment that celebrates change and encourages a ‘fail fast’ attitude, allowing brands to challenge the status quo and unlock new endeavours.”

One area for improvement is the use of technology as a creative tool. Compared to the rest of APAC, ANZ leaders trail behind in terms of data and technology. Less than a third (31 percent) of ANZ leaders excel in data, and a similar number (33 percent) excel in technology, compared to 35 percent and 37 percent respectively for APAC.

“The greatest area of opportunity for ANZ leaders is to better foster and leverage creative skills within their teams,” says Steele. “Less than one quarter – 22 percent – of ANZ leaders excelled in helping their teams develop creative skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving and collaboration. We need to see a greater focus on upskilling in these skills crucial to the future of work.”