Technological acceleration gives new value to creative thinking

«Creative thinking has always been an appreciated skill in the company, but the accelerated pace of technological change makes it essential – they explain from UNIR. Previously, many businesses were able to thrive by following established routines, but that has changed radically. Global competition, digital disruption and changing consumer expectations demand new approaches and an agile, innovative mindset. “Creative employees can identify opportunities that others might overlook and bring significant added value to the organization.”

Duncan Wardle, former director of creativity at Disney and current independent innovation and design thinking consultant, explains it in the multiple conferences he offers on the importance of creativity: «AI has a lot to do with the demand for these new professionals. . Let’s think about the trajectory of artificial intelligence. They say that, in the next ten years, it will put thirty million people out of work in the US. That’s 10% of the population. How are we going to compete with someone who thinks five thousand times faster than us? The key will be creativity, imagination, intuition and emotional intelligence. And in curiosity. “Robots are not going to replicate that in the next five or ten years,” he explains.

This is corroborated by a recent Stanford University study that compares research ideas generated by LLM (large language models) with those developed by experienced NLP (natural language processing) researchers. Of the 4,000 ideas generated by LLM, only about 200 were truly unique. “That is, AI became less original as it generated ideas,” says Pascual Parada Torralba, expert in innovation and disruptive technology and academic director of IEBS Digital School. AI can enhance human capabilities, but it cannot completely replace them in creative tasks. While humans can generate truly novel ideas, AI tends to repeat existing patterns. So far, the quantitative and qualitative results of these types of studies consistently favor human participants. The bottom line is that we are only at the beginning of all the power that algorithms can reach, but for now it seems that the creative tasks still remain ours.

From UNIR they add that «creativity is very emotional and lives on failure and failure. “When machines are programmed to be curious, empathize, err and get frustrated, we will see where we are and if we should start worrying.”

But creativity wants to settle definitively at the heart of the business and for this it is key to demonstrate its return in figures. There are many studies that confirm the relationship between creativity and profitability. McKinsey, for example, developed in its research the so-called Award Creativity Score (ACS), based on the famous Cannes Lions advertising awards, in which the creativity and business performance of the award-winning companies are measured. Their measurements concluded that companies with high ACS scores tend to have better financial performance and greater innovation capacity. “These companies communicate achievable aspirations and clear goals to their employees to reduce fears of failure, criticism and negative career impact, which often hold back innovation. “Innovative growers frequently share updates on progress and success stories to inspire and motivate teams and investors.” It’s what McKinsey calls the Triple Play: companies that integrate creativity, data analysis and purpose have 2.3 times higher revenue growth than their peers.

Is creative thinking having enough momentum in Spanish companies? The study on ‘Creativity in Spain’, carried out by Kantar, revealed that the average score with which workers rate the importance that their companies give to creativity is 5 out of 10. Furthermore, they consider that creativity should not be applied only in areas typically associated with innovation. Companies are also asked to be creative when it comes to motivating staff. Another report by the firm Ricoh carried out among Spanish employees indicates that 72% of them would enjoy work more if they had time to carry out creative tasks. Experts agree that creativity can only emerge in an appropriate environment and to do so, some of the conditions that every company must review are:

–Inspiring spaces: design work areas that invite collaboration and the generation of ideas.

–Time for creativity: establish specific moments for the employee to think and develop ideas without the pressure of daily tasks.

–Diversity and collaboration: foster diverse teams where different perspectives and skills are mixed.

–Recognition and reward: reward creative ideas and their implementation.

–Access to resources: provide tools and resources that facilitate creativity, such as specialized software and development workshops.

–Encourage risk: create an environment where employees do not fear failure, but rather see mistakes as learning opportunities.

However, creativity is a skill that can be learned and developed. And that will be precisely the objective of the new Elisava headquarters in Madrid (its headquarters are in Barcelona), the first university in Spain that will train entrepreneurs in the field of creative industries. «Beyond designing products, logos, posters or the typical tasks that are usually associated with design within marketing departments, Elisava’s approach is directed to the specific area of ​​strategic design of companies, integrating these professionals into the organizational chart. of corporations and putting them at the service of all departments to solve problems in an agile and creative way,” explains Edgar González, director of Elisava. «We no longer refer to the designer as that creative genius who works alone, but rather as a person who works in collaboration with the multidisciplinary teams of all departments to solve specific problems in each of them. Creativity at the service of the entire company,” he concludes.

The dyslexia twist

Traditionally, dyslexia has been defined by the difficulties faced by people born with this condition, and never by their strengths. But things could be changing. It turns out that the capabilities that companies need most now are, precisely, the strengths for which dyslexic thinking stands out: creativity, complex problem solving, unconventional thinking, ease of identifying patterns, three-dimensional reasoning, interpersonal skills… With AI automating The most difficult tasks for people with dyslexia (spelling, reading or memorizing data) open up an immense field of possibilities for people with this type of neurodivergence. Communication agencies, telecommunications companies – even the FBI itself – already publish offers in which dyslexia is specifically valued. In fact, LinkedIn already recognizes dyslexic thinking as a skill.