Talking of innovation is only a beginning for UAE leaders

The Life: Q&A: Mark Batey, of Manchester Business School, discusses why many leaders talk about getting innovative - even if they do not actually know how to follow through.

Mark Batey says 'creativity is the key skill for the 21st century'. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

Mark Batey argues that creativity is crucial in today's workforce, from junior front-line employees up to chief executives. Mr Batey, the joint chairman of the "psychometrics at work" research group at Manchester Business School, discusses why many leaders talk about innovation - even if they do not know how to follow through.

Why is creativity important for companies in the UAE?

Creativity is the key skill for the 21st century, because the world is becoming less business-as-usual and more and more complex. The problems and challenges and opportunities we face are less likely to be solved by routine, standard responses. If that is the case, we can argue people need to take creative approaches in exploiting opportunities.

You have argued that the reality of creativity rarely matches the rhetoric about it. Why is that?

The main reason is most organisations talk about creativity [and] innovation, and then they weave the words "creativity" and "innovation" into their mission, vision and values - and don't know what to do to bake it up. Your average CEO of a large organisation knows if they mention "creativity" and "innovation", generally, their share price goes up.

Can creativity be measured by companies?

If I'm being completely honest as a scholar, what I'd want to be able to say is "of course we'd be able to measure this". If I did, I'd be lying. It's like "leadership". You can't measure leadership; you can get leading indicators of who is likely to be a good leader. We are confident we can identify creative skills and train them.

As you see it, what are the four big dimensions of creativity?

Idea generation; our personality traits; our motivations; our levels of confidence. That works for both individuals and teams.

Is it more important for an individual business leader, or a company overall, to be considered creative?

I don't know how you can distinguish the two. An organisation that tolerates senior leadership who model creative behaviours will almost certainly have creative culture in itself. A leader who comes along and acts in an innovative way - they're lucky if they can transform [a non-creative business]. More likely they get chewed up and spat out. My feeling is creative leaders make it to the top in organisations that support and originate creativity.

Which companies do you think are the most creative?

Let me be hackneyed and come out with old favourites. What we generally feel is the flagship companies - Apples, Googles and 3Ms - are often held up as the poster children of the creativity movement. If you want to see real creativity and every-day problem-solving, walk in the doors of any small to medium enterprise. Small companies are where they move from one role to another; that to me is the real exemplifier. You can find that in an Apple, and the one-man, two-man band.

* Neil Parmar