Out of Our Minds – Learning to Be Creative

Citation

(2002), "Out of Our Minds – Learning to Be Creative", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951aae.005

Out of Our Minds – Learning to Be Creative

Out of Our Minds – Learning to Be Creative

Ken RobinsonCapstoneISBN 1-84112-125-8£15.99Keywords: Skills, Qualifications, Ability

Increasingly organisations are being inhibited not by the availability of raw materials or capital but by access to people with the right skills mix – people that can deliver innovation and support flexibility. Technology makes more things possible – but too often we fail to realise potential. The problem gets worse as increasing competition and demographic changes affect both the demand for and the supply of skilled people.

Robinson argues that the investment we make in formal education is often wasted – that policymakers confuse qualifications and abilities. As a result he suggests that there is an urgent need to rethink the public investment in (especially higher) education. Otherwise, we are likely to see a continuation of the trend for large organisations to establish their own "colleges" and "universities" to fix a problem caused by inappropriate public education.

The author goes on to identify what organisations can do to rekindle the creative flame that the mass, public education system all too often extinguishes in young people. In so doing, he pleads for a reconsideration of the notions of "intelligence", and the "standard" human resource development approaches.

This book should stimulate and challenge those charged with investing resources in people. It should also stimulate readers to recognise and develop their own creative abilities through a recognition (and subsequent addressing) of those factors that inhibit such development.