Leaders agree: Creativity will be 3rd most important work skill by 2020

According to a new report from the World Economic Forum, it is clear that creativity at work is going to be one of the most important and in-demand skills in the next 5 years.

In fact, it is going to be the third most important skill overall.

This comes from a new Forum report, The Future of Jobs, which took input from an extensive survey of CHROs and other senior talent and strategy executives from a total of 371 leading global employers, representing more than 13 million employees. The report asked chief human resources and strategy officers from leading global employers what the current economic and technological shifts mean, specifically for employment, skills and recruitment across industries and geographies.

Here are the Top 10 Skills in 2020 that these companies want from their employees and recruits:

Complex Problem Solving
Critical Thinking
Creativity
People Management
Coordinating with others
Emotional Intelligence
Judgement and Decision Making
Service Orientation
Negotiation
Cognitive Flexibility

This study backs up other surveys which show how important it will be to companies for their people to be able to think creatively. In 2010, IBM surveyed 1,500 CEOs from across the world, and they voted creativity to be their most important workplace capability to help them survive and grow.

Let us compare this list to the Top 10 Skills in 2015 the companies wanted:

Complex Problem Solving
Coordinating with others
People Management
Critical Thinking
Negotiation
Quality Control
Service Orientation
Judgement and Decision Making
Active Listening
Creativity

As we can see, creativity is becoming a skill which is seen as growing in value for the world’s largest corporations.

Not only that but the other top skills like Critical Thinking and Complex Problem Solving are also intricately linked to creativity and innovation, as they are all about helping the companies navigate unexpected future challenges, whatever they may be.

Fortunately, like every skill on the list, creativity is something that can be improved over time.

To find out how, make sure you subscribe to the free Idea to Value newsletter. It shows you some of the top scientifically-backed ways to build up your creative abilities and find new and successful ways to innovate.

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Nick Skillicorn

Chief Editor, Founder & CEO at Improvides Innovation Consulting

Chief Editor of Ideatovalue.com and Founder / CEO of Improvides Innovation Consulting. Coach / Speaker / Author / TEDx Speaker / Voted as the world's #5 Innovation blogger in 2016, I help individuals and companies build their creativity and innovation capabilities, so you can develop the next breakthrough idea which customers love.