5 YUMNAA FIRFIREY Yumnaa is the Head of Sustainability at Scatec in South Africa. She has had a diverse career in business, government, partnership organisations and as an entrepreneur, and holds a Bachelor of Business Science from UCT.
Creativity, originality & initiative
The core of creativity, originality and initiative lies in being mindful and present to the task at hand and constantly asking the most important question: ‘Why are we doing this?’ What are we trying to achieve and how best can we be successful and the most efficient with the resources we have at our disposal? If we can constantly return and recalibrate our actions to those fundamental questions, then I believe we are on the path to finding appropriate and lasting solutions for our world. The importance of these skills can be fully appreciated when one considers the alternative. If we are not original and creative in our approach, then we are most likely applying old, worn out solutions to new problems. If anything, 2020 has shown us as a global community, that without any forewarning or preparation, we can be faced with a challenge and a very different set of circumstances that we have to respond to. It is with ingenuity that we stand a chance of getting beyond surviving… to really thriving. We have rapidly changing workplaces and rapidly changing industries in a rapidly changing world. The increasing number of challenges are an automatic result, probably with increasing severity in the future as well. We cannot afford to be anything but original and creative in our thinking and we cannot only be thinking; we need to take initiative to move that thinking into action – quickly – before we face the next challenge. But how do we do this? What are the first steps towards this approach? What does it mean in practice? Here are some of the steps you can take.
Curiosity A healthy dose of respectful questioning shows interest in the subject being discussed, in order to understand why a challenge is currently approached in the manner that it is. This will yield insights into how it may be approached differently. It could also provide useful tips on how other similar challenges could be addressed and helps to build your cache of competency tools. 26 / CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE 2021
