UK businesses at risk of a creativity crisis

New research by Microsoft suggests that UK businesses are at risk of a creativity crisis because of a failure to encourage and support creativity within their organisations.

The research found that 40% of UK workers surveyed reported that innovation was not encouraged in their workplace. Major factors highlighted as hindering creativity included uninspiring workplaces (41%), a stressful atmosphere (34%) and  a lack of appropriate spaces to focus (28%).

 

Making a difference in Barry

Some lovely local initiatives are happening in South Wales in trying to get the community involved in proposing, supporting and developing new ideas. One good example is the Barry Ideas Bank setup by Andy Green.

If you are a Barry local, I would encourage you to go along to their next ‘Barry Kultura’ event on the 20th October at 7pm in the Memorial Hall.

 

 

Theory U and its link to creativity

Theory U is described as “first as a framework; second, as a method for leading profound change; and third, as a way of being – connecting to the more authentic of higher aspects of our self.” It has been developed by Otto Scharmer and his team at MIT as part of the Presencing Institute. It is well worth checking out.

It brings together ideas from the areas of Intrinsic Motivation, Ethnography, Mindfulness and Design Thinking – and has a strong link to our own philosophy of creativity described in our LCD Model with the person’s ‘State of Being’ at the heart of the process.

To read more about their thoughts, ideas and projects it is well worth reading the book  ‘Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economics‘ by Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer. They also have a lot of free content, tools and resources on their website.

You can also tune into the live stream of their Global Forum 2014 event on the 11-12 February 2014.