Can creativity and innovation save the world?

“Creativity drives our ideas and emotions, as well as our ability to connect, to question and to be understood.” https://www.un.org/en/observances/creativity-and-innovation-day

In a world facing challenges ranging from climate change to inequality, creativity and innovation have the potential to create a brighter future for all – and business has a crucial role to play in driving this change.

Creativity is the ability to generate novel ideas, while innovation is the implementation of those ideas to bring about change. It is only through creative solutions that we can tackle complex problems, and innovation is the key to turning these ideas into reality.

With the help of creativity and innovation, businesses can devise new strategies, create new products, and improve existing ones to tackle the world's most pressing problems.

However, achieving this requires collaboration. No single person or organisation has all the answers, and everyone has a unique perspective that can contribute to finding innovative solutions. To do this we have to empower the creatives, the innovators – and put them at the heart of our projects and work.

Things your team can do to leverage creatives and innovators:

• Have a visual thinker take meeting notes: Include your graphic thinker in discussions - allow them to whiteboard or draw the problems and challenges. They can visualise pain points, user journeys and processes that other colleagues can then help iterate and refine.
• Turn your strategy into a graphic: Including a creative team member in a strategic project can save time and money – one individual with visual skills can conceptualise strategic thinking in a new way. They can capture workshops, be a user researcher, and advise and make communications products along the way.
• Bank on their empathy: when creating a product, creative thinkers use empathy and communication to interpret goals and needs – these skills go beyond the drawing room. How can you better use their ability to synthesise?
• A team of creatives can be a powerhouse resource for business tools and templates, brand monitoring and development, social media and advertising, stakeholder engagement and internal communications.

Something important to consider is that a single creative may not be able to deliver all the creative needs of a business on their own and may from time to time have more or less energy to offer. However a team of creative people working together, connected across a business, can maintain their energy and share collaborative methods across your organisation.

Creativity is a form of expression and energy, and innovation is the practice of turning this energy into action. Creativity and innovation hold immense potential to save the world, but it can only be realised if businesses embrace collaboration and new ways of collaborating as teams. The challenges we face are complex, and we need everyone's creativity and expertise to find the right solutions. By working together, we can unleash the power of innovation to create a brighter future for all.

by Katy Barr