Dispatch from the First Global Creative Leadership Summit, Part 2

The question the summit posed was "what kind of mind will we need to deal with the challenges of the 21st century?". So many thoughts and suggestions were shared over the last three days, but let me attempt to summarize. This mind will be sophisticated. It will need to balance the demands of the local, national and international. It will look long-term, not short-term. It will empathize and create. Perhaps most importantly, it will have a power of thought that can overtake the pace of change.

One of the most interesting things at the Summit was the energy in the conversation. We had great hope in the power of unanticipated discussions between experts from varied fields - and this truly came alive. It is too easy, perhaps, to remain within our professional mindset and sphere. But so many challenges are shared. As in so many areas, we are more interlinked than ever. One interesting comment - made by a number of people - was that this type of inter-disciplinary dialogue may not have been possible 10 years ago. Certainly there seemed an openness from all delegates: a willingness, even hunger, to learn from one another. Perhaps a flattened world is flattening barriers between disciplines?

So, as we look back, some particular highlights:

We looked in detail at the shift in re-distribution of the economic pie to the new challenge to the west of making products stand out. A major theme here was working out how to add creative value to end product to remain competitive. Bob Greenberg taught the lesson of Kodak. It developed pictures but did not swiftly develop its business. R+D could not be more important for business to survive in a competitive global market. And Ron Arad reminded us of the importance of design. How products look and feel could not be more important in today's market. Beauty is in the eye of shareholder.

How to better encourage tolerance and humility emerged throughout many panels. In the geo-political world, nothing is in isolation. We need to learn not just to live with our neighbors, but to understand them. In this context, Dr. Kissinger encouraged us to remember that there are no perfect leaders. Our existing leaders need to develop the new multi-dimensional approach and multi-disciplinary mind.

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar emphasized another dimension of thought: our souls are directly linked with our emotions. This was echoed - in a very different sense - by Antonio Damasio (director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC) who stressed you can only fight a negative emotion with something stronger. Laughter and humor can create joy in the place of sorrow.

Jim Watson reminded us to be curious in our thinking. It is human to create. Brad Anderson of Best Buy told us to lead by being different and Chuck Close told us to create by asking the wrong questions - not merely seeking the answers to the right ones.

And we talked of how the internet can make a positive contribution. If we can live second lives on the internet, surely we can create games that encourage cultural understanding and enhance creativity? The widening access to knowledge of the internet can build bridges of trust not barriers.

Building on the point made on the first day by Alison Richard - Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge - that we need to teach in breadth and with flexibility - Chuck Close told us to be creative, to remember the fourth "R" - Art. Adding a scientific variation to this theme, we heard from Joe Le Doux about how children's minds can change. About the power of cultural learning and memory to help us adapt the way we use our brain, harness emotion and develop the senses. Exams like the SATs do not support the 21st century citizen. We need to have lessons in empathy and innovation alongside maths and science.

So what next? We have webcast all of the Summit live (and we'll be releasing in archive from the 22nd November at http://www.creativeleadershipsummit.org).

We are distributing new research and gathering existing work. We are working with a major university to test a new method of cross-disciplinary learning and multi-cultural understanding. We will be working with scientists, artists and CEOs to develop the thoughts of the summit into practical solutions. It is just a beginning, but it is an exciting one.