“The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: Artists, inventors, storytellers - creative and holistic ‘right-brain’ thinkers.” - Daniel Pink, Author

With the current global disruption across economies, industry sectors and education, it can be hard for most of us to think beyond the daily basics of simply functioning - let alone planning next career steps, progressing innovation or predicting just where the markets might land when the world jumpstarts into ‘normalcy’ again (whatever that looks like and whenever that might be). 

But against the backdrop of the economic, education and health sector challenges playing out across the planet right now, an unexpected upside to the COVID-19 societal isolation constraints just might be the welcome rebirth of CREATIVITY as a skill!

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention, and since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, creative thinkers across the globe have been coming up with incredible and innovative ways to reimagine the way we can work, learn, create value and interact at lightning speed, catalysed by COVID-19 contraction measures.

But what exactly is creativity?

And why is it so important in the future of work?

To answer that question our girledworld team reached out to multi-award winning advertising director and Chief Creative Thinker Adam Ferrier to understand more about the role of creativity in these uncertain times, and why creativity is such a critical skill for workplaces of the future.

Ferrier is actually a living case in point for creative reinvention - and an inspiration to individuals and businesses who are looking to do the same when they need to most.

A registered psychologist, Ferrier obtained degrees in commerce and clinical psychology before beginning his career in forensic psychology, which saw him work in maximum security prisons and private practice, before switching his focus (very creatively!) from criminal to consumer behaviour - and joining the Saatchi & Saatchi marketing consultancy. While there, Ferrier invented a board game called The Analyst, which was translated into three languages. More recently Ferrier has Cofounded MSIX and the Space conference (a new model for collaboration curating out-of-the-box thinkers to reimagine the Australia of the future).

But most of his creative days are spent at Thinkerbell, a creative agency he Cofounded in 2017 which recently took out Adnews Agency of the Year, Mumbrella Emerging Agency of the Year as well as B&T Emerging Agency of the Year, and - according to Ferrier - “represents the coming together of scientific enquiry and brilliant creativity”. 

Or - as he likes to call it - “Measured Magic”.

“Creativity is everything. The ability to connect information and ideas that hasn't been done before is the single thing that creates all the wonder, and solves all the problems in the world.  

“Right now creativity will get us through COVID-19, be it at a local level when a mum decides to make a boat with her kids out of cushions, or at a global level when someone develops the vaccine by appropriating what they know and applying it slightly differently - it's all creativity,” he says.

According to a report published by the World Economic Forum, creativity will be the third-most-important skill for employees in the future of work, just behind complex problem-solving and critical thinking.

“With the avalanche of new products, new technologies, and new ways of working, workers are going to have to become more creative in order to benefit from these changes,” the report said.

In fact, research by LinkedIn also found that creativity is the top skill companies will need to take businesses forward in the next horizon of Industry 5.0, because businesses seeking growth must tap creative problem-solving to enable teams to generate innovation and out-of-the-box value-creation ideas in the workplace - whether that’s finding new approaches to problems inherent to the business, developing new products or services to fill a hole in the market, or improving existing processes.

There are multiple companies that have been harnessing creativity for a while to create new engines for growth. But it’s taken a global pandemic to create a seismic shift for the BAU status quo that would quite possibly have evolved only incrementally over the next decade without the COVID-19 jolt. The attitude of ‘If it ain’t broke, why fix it?’ no longer holds because it can’t. 

According to Ferrier, companies and employees (and even today’s students) need to start thinking creatively and outside the box because it’s in situations of extreme constraint and adversity that we can be at our most creative and ingenious.

“Right now we are seeing innovations that are rising out of consumer problems driven from our changed living environment. 

Old el Paso has turned its cardboard box into a fun board game for people to play together. 

13cabs has pivoted to launch 13things - a courier business aimed to redeploy 40,000 drivers to deliver parcels via the app. Billy Care is providing in home monitoring solutions for older people. And nearly every gin manufacturer in town is now making hand sanitiser. 

This (innovation) will continue as new circumstances allow people to express their creativity in different ways. However, what's more exciting is the creativity being shown by the world’s leading scientists as they try to save lives and work on a vaccine.”

But once the intensity of the current COVID-19 crisis subsides and life returns to some semblance of ‘normalcy’, it’s those who have harnessed creativity and put it into business practice that are best placed to get ahead.

So Ferrier encourages businesses, students, the young, the (not-so) old and everyone who’s moving through these uncertain times to have the courage to unleash their innate creativity.

“Creativity is a skill born from memory, confidence and audacity. Put things together in new ways, and if you think there is magic in what you've developed, then have the confidence to express it and see what happens.

“Give your creativity away and be generous with it. Let other people build on it, steal it, and make it their own - then creativity will thrive,” he says.

“Fill your brain with stuff, but go deep. Understand niche areas of society and culture and understand those areas better than anyone. Have a few of those things and learn them deeply. You won’t believe how much of a well of creative inspiration they will become in years to come. 

“And don't be superficial (or if you're going to be then be deeply superficial, if you know what I mean!). Get your feet grounded in really understanding a few things. Then forget about it - and just let creativity join the dots.”

Thanks to Adam Ferrier for his insights, ideas - and creativity in spades!

Learn more about Adam and Thinkerbell.