With the exponential rise of AI, many articles have been written by brilliant minds in various industry sectors as well as from academics. To add its unique knowledge to an already flourishing number of articles on the subject, the Harvard Business Review wrote that inaccuracies of the AI model requires human creators and that the uniqueness of human creativity including awareness of social and cultural context, both across borders and through time will become important leverage. It raises the question: What is the importance of creative thinking skills in today’s business world?
Human Creativity vs Technology
While technology has undoubtedly brought many benefits to businesses, it cannot replace the human creativity that is required for true innovation. As the Harvard Business Review notes, the uniqueness of human creativity, including awareness of social and cultural context, is a critical component of business success. In fact, in today’s highly competitive business world, creative thinking skills have become more important than ever. With the rise of artificial intelligence, businesses need individuals who can think outside the box to generate innovative ideas. Although it is true that AI can come up with informative texts, its content still needs to be checked and the result must be revisited by a person to provide a unique touch to it. Knowledge is still the key element that a person has to offer, in any field that they may be employed. Here are some creative thinking skills examples that can differentiate people in a business environment that are worth looking into.
Reasons Why Human Creative Thinking Skills are Still Important in Today’s Business World
To understand the importance of creative thinking skills in today’s business world, it is crucial to look at the issues that businesses face. Only by doing so can we understand why human creative thinking skills are not only important but necessary to the conduct of day-to-day business and to the constant growth of a company.
To Innovate
Even if you can ask an AI to come up with ideas, it still needs someone to type in some information that will provide it with a direction on what to look for. When it comes to innovation in the business world, human creative thinking will always be necessary since many elements need to be taken in account that only a person working in a specific industry and in a given region will be able to know. He will use his knowledge of what customers like and dislike about the company’s products and peek at other innovations in the same industry sector to come up with innovative products and services. It is this type of innovation that is critical to business success, and that allows companies to stay ahead of their competitors, while adapting to changing market conditions. Only human creative thinking skills can amalgamate all data and deliver an entirely new product or service that will help the continued growth and development of a business. Once the idea is created, then AI can be involved in helping make it better.
To Solve Problems
Business happens. In a day’s work, managers need to use their creative skill in order to solve problems that pop-up regularly. There is rarely a day that goes in a company without an employee necessitating help on a given problem. It may be simple to solve, or it may require for the manager to put in his thinking cap to get to a solution that will help the company in some ways. Since problems are becoming increasingly complex and difficult to solve in today’s business world, creative thinking skills can be a difference maker to approach problems from new angles and generate innovative solutions that may not have been considered before.
To Be Flexible and to Adapt
Human creativity at work is a necessity. The business world is constantly evolving, and companies need managers that possess the skill to adapt rapidly to changes in the market, by inventing new ways as they go. Technology is but a tool that they can use to develop their ideas and implement them in the workplace. Only a person in a giving context can fully integrate all the elements that will provide the solutions to him in the end. That explains why creativity is also a synonym to flexibility. A company needs individuals who can first look at situations from every angle. By letting different perspectives influence them, creative people are better equipped to handle changes and adapt to new circumstances.
How to Develop Creative Thinking Skills in Companies
Understanding the reasons why creative thinking skills are important in business, it becomes evident that companies need to invest in developing such skills in their managers and employees. The results will be higher than any investment in technology that could be made, since they need people to have ideas first, in order to develop them through all the means that they may have at their disposition, including AI, afterwards.
Since everything starts with an idea, the first element that higher management need to work on is to encourage their managers and employees to come up with them. To do so, they need to create an environment that supports creative thinking. It can take place through brainstorming sessions or by allowing time for individuals to work on passion projects that can be inserted into the development of the company.
The second initiative that companies should take is to embrace diversity in the workplace. This growing movement is a real generator of ideas, since it brings a wide range of perspectives and a large variety of experiences to the table. Through exchanges between people from different backgrounds and various cultures, the possibilities of creating new ideas grow exponentially. It is important to create a safe place where everyone can express their opinions and define their point of view in full respect of one another.
In conclusion, it is clear that creative thinking skills are critical to success in today’s business world, even more than it was only a few decades ago. As technology continues to advance, businesses need to recognize the value of human creativity over machine capacity. Only by investing in developing the creative thinking skills of their employees can companies remain at the top of their industry.
