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Tuning our economy to reward creative skills

Three broad sets of skills play a role in our economy. Physical skills, like lifting and manual dexterity, are the ones we honed in the old economy. But two sets of creative skills matter more now: analytical skills, and social intelligence skills (Exhibit D). Both are critical in our knowledge-driven economy.

• Analytical skills This creative skill set includes capabilities such as determining how a system works and how changes in conditions will affect the outcome, developing and using rules and methods to solve problems, and quickly and accurately comparing and contrasting patterns or sets of numbers. Occupations that require the highest level of analytical thinking skills include surgeons and biomedical engineers, while those that require the least include piledrive operators and fashion models.

• Social intelligence skills This skill set comprises abilities in understanding, collaborating with, and managing other people. It includes the ability to assess the needs and perspectives of others to facilitate negotiation, selling, and teamwork. It also includes complex thinking skills that are essential for assessing fluid, ambiguous human situations – such as deductive reasoning, the ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense, or judgment – and for decision making. And it includes oral and written communication skills. Not surprisingly, the leading occupations in this creative skill set include psychiatrists, chief executives, marketing managers, and lawyers.

• Physical skills Derrick operators are at the top of this list, along with steel workers, fire fighters, and electricians. What do they have in common? Arm-hand steadiness, strength, coordination, dexterity, and other physical abilities are some examples.

How do these skills map against jobs? The skills make-up of creativity-oriented occupations is weighted more heavily toward analytical and social intelligence skills; the opposite is true for routine-oriented occupations. All jobs require a mix of analytical, social intelligence, and physical skills to varying degrees.

We find that all occupations require some degree of creative skills. On analytical skills, electricians and plumbers, two routine-oriented physical occupations, generally have as many analytical skill requirements as art directors or architectural drafters, classified as creativity-oriented occupations. Chefs and head cooks, routine-oriented service jobs, have analytical skill requirements similar to those of accountants. On social intelligence skills, orderlies (routine-oriented service occupations) require social skills similar to drafters (creativity-oriented occupations). So, while it is generally true that analytical and social intelligence skills are important components of creativity-oriented occupations, all occupations have a requirement for some level of these skills.

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This sidebar is adapted from Roger Martin and Richard Florida, Ontario in the Creative Age, Martin Prosperity Institute, February 2009.

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