The very experienced Herbert Hoffmann, a former client at Coca-Cola, writes to say: “Based on 30 years of experience, I would seriously doubt that you can educate people in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership!”
When we were putting together the
new Masters programme at City University London, which was to have nine different modules
taught by seven different schools within the institution, the mix struck me as
potentially of great value to students.
Included were modules on creative
problem-solving, technologies for innovation, creative design, turning ideas
into action, creative writing, the psychology of creativity and innovation, the
creative industries, and intellectual property law. Altogether an exciting
cocktail. And one for which there clearly was a market.
It only gradually dawned on me
that the academic staff tasked with the delivery of these modules, academic experts
in their particular disciplines, had little knowledge or understanding of the
big picture. And what’s more, they seemed not to think that this was a problem.
It was like having individual specialists in flour, yeast, eggs, sugar, salt,
flavourings etc, but no one with real expertise in baking.
Did it work in practice for the
students? Probably, up to a point. What is clear is that a team of ingredient specialists
who were also qualified as bakers would have been better. Maybe a lot better.
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