HRD Forum – Learning to Boost Creativity in Teams

Mar 28, 2019

International Journal of HRD Practice, Policy and Research 2019, Vol 4 No 1: 95-99
doi: 10.22324/ijhrdppr.4.106

HRD Forum — Learning to Boost Creativity in Teams

Rob Sheffield, author of ‘Innovation Catalysts’, in interview with Rick Holden (Editor, IJHRDPP&R)

Introduction

Dr Rob Sheffield is a leadership development consultant and innovation coach with Bluegreen Learning. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of the West of England. After four years in the writing, his book “How Leaders Learn to Boost Creativity: Innovation Catalysts” has recently been published. I wanted to find out a bit more about the book and in particular to explore some of the HRD issues and implications that the book embraces and encapsulates. To begin our discussion, I ask Rob why he wrote this book.

I wrote my book for several reasons. First, I wanted to draw attention to the converging of the need for and means of learning and applying creativity and innovation skills. Societies, cities, organizations, and individuals want them. A couple of illustrations add weight to this view. The World Economic Forum 2016 report forecast that by 2020 complex problem-solving skills will be the most needed workplace skills, and creativity will be the third. And in 2018 a survey by Deloitte of 10,455 millennials asked them to identify their priorities for business. In third place, behind “Generating jobs/provide employment” and “Improve society” came “Innovate/develop new products and services, generate ideas”. Second, while trust and confidence in organizational leadership is generally low across the globe, the experience of myself and my colleagues is that we often work with leaders who learn and apply these skills. They do so in under-the-radar ways without seeking much attention, while improving others’ lives by bringing clear value through changes they introduce. Third, I wanted to make clear that creativity and innovation skills are learnable. While few know it, we have around 50 years of research and teaching to draw upon and help us.

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