Australian businesses and public organisations draw on a wealth of clever, experienced, and well-educated people to drive their objectives, but inflexible ways of working can easily become insurmountable obstacles to reaching them.

People with deep experience and who are committed to doing good can find themselves frustrated by the delays, inefficiencies, and glaring blocks in entrenched workplace practices.

Right now, the drivers of change – tech disruption, globalisation, climate change and increasingly fragile social licences to operate – are generating unpredictable disruption and ongoing uncertainty. We know we need to bridge silos and work creatively to innovate, but the effort to change can easily devolve to innovation plans left on the table in favour of more structures, policies, and procedures to follow.

The problem, then, is not about what we know, it’s about how we think. If we want to change the future, we need to change the kind of thinking that got us here. To do that, we need to get to the nub of the values that drive our thinking and default behaviours.

That’s where the experiences of two leaders in property development and insurance have been part of the proving ground for a postgraduate course that sets out to bring down the silos, championing creativity as the foundation of change.

Developed by the University of Technology Sydney’s TD School, the university’s home of transdisciplinary education and research, the master of creative intelligence and strategic innovation was developed to support the people in public and private sectors called on to lead transitions while straddling the legacy of older systems.

Sarah Neilsen, general manager of placemaking at Stockland, was looking to find ways to deepen engagement with the communities Stockland works with.

“We could see that if we took an enterprise approach, which stretched us beyond our organisational structure and usual processes, we could look at project complexities differently which, in turn, would lead to better outcomes for our communities,” she says.

Meanwhile, Julie Batch, group executive direct insurance at IAG, was spurred by her experience of overseeing innovation initiatives ultimately stymied by organisational conditions. She was looking for a set of tools and practices that would empower and amplify creativity across the organisation from the inside out.