How can we further our understanding of creativity and the value it brings not only to design but to the world

How can we further our understanding of creativity and the value it brings not only to design but to the world?

Mat Dalby
Five years ago, the World Economic Forum predicted that three skills would become essential for the future of the workplace – creativity, logical reasoning, and problem sensitivity. In the 2016 Future of Jobs report, the organisation cited research stating that more than half of all jobs would require a higher degree of these cognitive abilities as part of their core skill set by 2020. As workplaces have grappled with the effects of the ongoing pandemic since March 2020, this prediction couldn’t have been more prescient. An unprecedented rise in remote working practices and ever-evolving guidelines around interactions in the physical workplace has only served to highlight the value of creativity, critical thinking and problem solving abilities.

For designers and architects, this not only impacts on the way we work in our own creative practice but also in the way we create spaces that encourage these qualities in the end user. So, it is essential that we understand how to use and value creativity. “We need to look after ourselves and ensure that when we are called upon to unleash our creativity that we can successfully deliver time after time, rather than hoping that inspiration will strike sooner or later, like some form of creative slot machine,” says Mat Dalby, Interior Design Director for Australia & New Zealand at dwp | design worldwide partnership. “We are building a body of work we are proud of – not using a gumball machine.”