To employ an oft-used term from his native Australia, Andrew Grant 'rocked up' into Hong Kong last month, impressing the audience at the 'Who Killed Creativity?' seminar - co-sponsored by Classified Post and China Speakers Agency - where he proved the veracity of the findings of his just-published book, Who Killed Creativity?
Both the book and the 'roadshow' are captivating. Grant has star quality and he uses it positively. Restoring creativity to the workplace is his current mission - and that was the shared objective of those attending the fun-packed workshop.
Employing the approach and methodology of the board-game Cluedo, the question was tackled with vigour. It was like being in class with your favourite teacher at school, the one who wanted to see you have fun, knowing it nurtures thinking and results.
Grant has worked on leadership and team development around the globe for more than 15 years, but his presentation still yielded the bravado of youth, nicely seasoned with the wisdom of a recognised leader in his field. He's young at heart, and ferociously clever with it. Indeed, one of the first things he explained was how schooling tends to stifle creativity; it's something we lose as we get older.
Grant's big idea was to develop a Crime Scene Investigation-style probe into 'who killed creativity'. And like all such scenarios, real and fictive, it had many dimensions and suspects.
Grant came up with some promising profiles of the faceless assassin, or packs of assassins.
These profiles were based on his surveys of thousands of workshop participants from a range of backgrounds and experiences over more than 20 years. And, as the speaker said: 'By recognising and managing these effectively, we believe it will be possible to revive and nurture creative thinking.' On to those profiles then - some of them may be chillingly familiar.
