Academic Focus: City University London

A survey from IBM’s Institute for Business Value shows that CEOs value one leadership competency above all others – creativity.  It is therefore timely that the City University London formed its Centre for Creativity with a goal of becoming the UK leader in the teaching, research and transfer of creativity in professional practice, ranging from informatics and engineering to business and the arts. City is already a world-class centre of applied creativity research through activities in informatics, business, psychology, music and the arts.

To achieve this objective it aims to achieve the following 3 sub-objectives:

1. Create cross-institutional collaborations for inter-disciplinary research opportunities related to creativity and innovation
2. Develop new high–engagement, experience-based approaches with which to learn about creativity good practices, techniques and tools, drawn from science, business and the arts
3. Research and develop new activities, tools, techniques and resources that enhance and support creative problem solving in a range of professional practices that draw on City’s unique disciplinary mix

What caught my eye about the center is its new Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership, or MICL for short.  The MICL offers a rare, perhaps unique, opportunity to study Innovation, Creativity and Leadership from a fully rounded, interdisciplinary perspective, learning from leaders in each of the disciplines. The subjects studied are:

• Delivering Innovation – Turning ideas into action
• Creative Problem Solving and Leadership
• Creative Writing
• The Psychology of Creativity and Innovation
• Leading Creative Design
• Technologies for Creativity and Innovation
• The Law, Creativity and Innovation
• Creativity and the Creative Industries

This video shows how techniques learned in the MICL can be applied to tackle ‘impossible questions’ like the current financial debt and asking if ‘The City Needs Rehab’ to help solve the problem.

Congratulations to Roger Neill and the rest of the faculty and staff at the Centre for this unique program.