Hacks demonstrate now is the time to embrace creativity

With data breaches at Optus and Medibank, CIOs need every possible advantage. Could harnessing creative minds improve problem solving and augment innovation?

Woolies’ new vertical farms, with herbs growing in the fresh food section. Image via Invertigro's Instagram page.

I am sure chief information officers (CIOs) are rolling their eyes at this headline – as if they haven’t got enough on their plates.

With an exec board stressed about becoming the next data breach headline and digital transformation making the CIO responsible for basically everything, the last thing these crucial data and technology custodians perhaps want is to take on creativity.

I can hear it now. “So I’m already across intel for products, customers, experiences, operations and growth, but now you want me to be creative too?”

Well, not exactly. But I do believe CIOs should be harnessing creative minds around them to improve problem solving and augment innovation.

Right now, CIOs need every possible advantage because they’ve never carried a heavier burden of responsibility. The problems they face are increasingly complex, with both technical and human facets. And, in almost every case, technology being the answer is the easy option and it’s people that are the problem.

The recent data breaches at Optus and Medibank have highlighted the elevated risk level of data breaches and are consuming an enormous amount of CIOs’ attention. Interestingly, however, Verizon’s 2022 Data Breaches Investigations Report found 82 per cent of data breaches involved a human element. Either employees had wrongly configured a database or they’d clicked the convincing phishing link – opening the front door for cyber criminals.

Josh Lamont is customer technology lead at Accenture Song

As a tech lead in a creative organisation, I am surrounded by experts in what people want: product innovators, experienced designers and marketers. What I’ve learnt is that these colleagues approach problem solving in a completely different way to me – an engineer.

Case in point. When I sat down to talk about data breaches with my creative colleagues, I was all set for a discussion about how best to protect sensitive data. Their solution didn’t involve technology. “Don’t keep the data. Use it once to verify identify and then destroy it.” Simple. Effective (this is not new, but it highlights the different way the creative brain works).

Consider a new immersive training experience Accenture helped to create for child protection case workers in the US. Using virtual reality headsets, case workers are dropped into interview and home scenarios filmed with real actors, where they practise making decisions in real time. The system is accelerating learning in a high-pressure profession and leading to better outcomes for families.

My point is, the headset technology the system uses was already available. What makes the training so powerful is the brilliant production by creatives working with experienced case workers to make the scenarios convincing. The technology was a critical enabler. But creativity is what made the difference.

Pretty much every 2022 product innovation tells the same intersection story. Think about the combined skills required to bring about Woolies’ new vertical farms, whereby customers can see their herbs growing in the grocery section. It takes a retail chief marketing officer (CMO) who knows the appeal of “locally grown” and an innovative ag-tech company. These are not people previously seen in the same room who have become a force for value creation.

How can CIOs squeeze out more of that value? We need to formalise the fact that the CMO and CIO agendas are aligning at a far deeper and more important level that many even realise or are utilising. To solve the very digital and human business problems these two C-suite forces must be brought together, purposefully and regularly.

As a CIO this means introducing creatives to your team and breaking down the barriers by making time to sit with your creative departments to understand how they think and operate.

It’s about pulling in creative thinking and getting permission to leverage creatives in tech meetings. This can start with service design, prototyping and concept designs before expanding to include all types of problems. To truly tap into the creative brain, regular meetings must be held to find out what they’re thinking and watch how differently they approach your thorniest problems.

For those still not convinced, just think back and remember how during the pandemic technology and marketing were standing shoulder-to-shoulder solving problems together. Remember how fast we moved and how many impossible things we achieved?

Josh Lamont is customer technology lead at Accenture Song