1. Introduction and definitions
Both at work and in other spheres of life, we value creativity more highly and cultivate it more intensively than we ever have before. The creative impulse — the attribute that distinguishes us, as humans, from other species — is now being unleashed on an unprecedented scale.
We commonly understand creativity as the ‘ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas’.3 Those surprising new approaches lead to useful results4 and, therefore, add economic, technological, artistic or cultural value. Creativity is innately human and a skill that is not specifically related to a particular job, task, discipline or area of expertise, which can be applied in a wide variety of situations and professional settings. More importantly, everyone can develop and foster creativity.5 In fact, a closer look at our lives and daily routines reveals the acts of ‘everyday creativity’ — the novel and unusual combinations or solutions that we naturally embrace to cope with the unexpected. Creativity links to curiosity, self-confidence, persistence, grit, inventiveness and entrepreneurship.
2. The creative imperative
Our society faces an unprecedented number and scale of challenges. The ‘wicked problems’6 — complex, interdependent global challenges, which are conflicting, difficult to untangle and solve, and require novel approaches and collective effort. Therefore, our human superpower creativity is a critical resource of the new age. Developing and applying a creative mindset will enable appropriate responses to ever more threatening environmental, social and economic problems. Therefore, creativity drives critical transformations, which will make our societies fairer and kinder. It is a mindset to cope with the complex, unstructured tasks and the intensity we now routinely face in our everyday working lives.
3. The creative imperative for finance professionals
This volatile and turbulent environment disrupts workplaces and poses new requirements within which professions develop. Nowadays, finance leaders need to adapt to a career at an accelerated pace of change and a portfolio of increased responsibilities. Keeping governance over core activities around financial strategy and operation, we are increasingly involved in digitalisation; environments, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives; enterprise transformation; cybersecurity; procurement; and investor relations. What is more, the tension or trade-offs between the long-term ESG goals and short-term profitability adds a level of complexity unseen before.7 All this requires a broader talent base — mainstream technical, analytical, problem-solving, people, and leadership skills, coupled with entrepreneurship and creativity, which are not traditionally linked with the role of finance professionals. Hence, there is a transformative mindset pack and a focus on creativity in this report.
4. The creative professional
Creativity draws critically on our ordinary abilities. Noticing, remembering, seeing, speaking, hearing, understanding language and recognizing analogies.
Creative professionals apply a range of cognitive and social skills, engaging themselves in complex problem-solving and independent judgement. Creativity includes critical analysis and synthesis of data and insights, which finance professionals routinely do.9 However, it also requires experimentation, boldness, and grit — daring to see things differently and persisting in one’s attempts to re-arrange them. In other words, creativity results in disrupting the existing patterns of thinking and doing and requires a combination of confidence and pursuing what one is passionate about.10 Therefore, creativity is on the borderline of being entrepreneurial — caring deeply and creating value for others and with others.11
5. Joint value creation
Similar to value creation through finance business partnering,12 the creative and entrepreneurial processes are collaborative. It is a team effort, in which leaders must mobilise both ‘dreamers’ and ‘doers’, to jointly come up with ideas and act to test and improve them.13 The type of value created could be economic or social, tapping into the ethical responsibilities of the profession. Creativity and value creation call for people-driven strategies and organisational cultures where openness, freedom, collaboration, giving and receiving constructive feedback, and continuous learning are cherished.
6. The creativity challenge and impact
We should cultivate creativity both individually and organisationally. The creativity challenge for finance professionals is to embrace those mental habits and patterns of behaviour that will make us more creative; and to open up to new perspectives on how creative professionals work. This will radically change the way we add value and partner with clients and within organisations. Organisationally, it is a quest for developing a culture that does not stifle initiative or collaboration and fosters creativity and learning. Setting a strategy that balances operational efficiency with and long-term vision and objectives is also instrumental to leveraging creative ideas. Harnessing the combination of creativity, analytics, and the sense of purpose has also proved to be a winning business strategy for growth and success.14 Therefore, by embedding creativity in daily practices, being customer oriented, tracking and analysing data, and hardwiring organisations towards agility and cross-function collaboration, creativity improves performance.15
7. Creativity in the digital age
Digital transformation provides new opportunities to engage people in creative activities. Internet technologies facilitate access, participation and sharing — making virtual environments the new arenas in which one can put creative abilities into play. While immersive technologies can inspire novel and meaningful understandings and emotions, they also challenge us to overcome some barriers to creativity like information overload; shallow mode of reading and learning; and inadequate digital, communication and collaboration skills.16
What is a creative mindset?
Creative mindset is an orientation towards seeking and finding novel solutions, which add economic, social, and cultural value. It is a mode of thinking and feeling that is inherently human and offers the resourcefulness needed to address the critical societal challenges of our age. It is characterised by curiosity, openness to new ideas and experimentation, collaboration and teamwork, persistence, learning from failure and leveraging the capabilities of networks and communities of practice.
