SIX TIPS FOR BUILDING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
By 2020 creativity will become one of the top three skills leaders will need and, more than ever before, creativity is required to be competitive. By Jane McCarroll.
By 2020 creativity will become one of the top three skills leaders will need and, more than ever before, creativity is required to be competitive. By Jane McCarroll.
Ilove the beginning of a year. It’s a great chance to set the scene for what I aspire to learn and achieve in the coming year. We’re sharing the lunch room with robots and AI is everywhere – which got me thinking, as a human, what can I dial up to best ensure a successful leadership career? Two key areas that stand out for me are the rise of creativity as a key leadership skill and the continued importance of innovation.
By 2020 creativity will become one of the top three skills leaders will need. The unrelenting and unprecedented changes in today’s world present problems and opportunities never before faced – by anyone. We cannot expect success by applying old solutions to new problems. More than ever before, creativity is required to be competitive.
Innovation is about the implementation of our ideas. I love ideas and unleashing my creative spirit. But it’s not just about ideas, it’s about making those ideas happen, and that’s where innovation comes in. Innovation can be anything apart from business as usual. Innovation to me is any change, big or small that unlocks new value.
So, how can we add more creativity and innovation into our daily lives when we might have challenges that are beyond our control? Our companies might be risk adverse; our goals might be too lofty or maybe the sheer size of the to-do list feels like we will be busy until 2020 and we can’t add one more thing.
Here are some areas that I’m going to focus on to keep the creative tank flowing and build my innovation muscle this year. Focus on continuous improvement versus massive change: We often think innovation is about big ideas that are transformative and game changing. But often it’s the accumulative impact of lots of little changes that add up to make a big difference. The benefits of smaller scale innovation are huge – not only do they happen more quickly with less fuss, they