If you were to make a list of fields least likely to value creativity, finance and banking might hit the top. This sector is rife with strict rules, regulations and compliance requirements, and rightly so. After all, it is all about managing your money or your company’s bottom line. We want to have confidence that everyone is following the rules. Does that really mean, though, that there is no place for creativity?

According to Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of the Association for Financial Professionals, the answer is a resounding no. In fact, he believes just the opposite. “CFOs and the people who report to them need to start thinking and acting like visionaries – the way many artists, entrepreneurs, and inventors do,” Kaitz asserts in a statement on the AFP website. “They need to take more risks, engage in more bold thinking, and take a more creative, innovative approach to finance. Today’s nonstop, manic, unpredictable business climate simply won’t tolerate a finance function stuck in the 20th century.”

Kaitz suggests three strategies for enhancing a company’s creativity: Having a willingness to fail; being customer-centric; and creating a culture of continuous learning. “Organizations themselves need the flexibility and resilience to embrace new ideas,” Kaitz advises. Adam Grant, professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School, concurs, explaining that, “Most people are… quite capable of novel thinking and problem-solving, if only their organizations would stop pounding them into conformity.”

It is clear a cultural shift in the industry is in the making. Many banks these days look more like your local Starbucks than a traditional bank. With Millennials and Gen-Xers taking their places in the working world, much more emphasis is being placed on a bank’s digital offerings. At the recent FINTECH 2020: Exploring the Future of Financial Services conference held at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, Craig Schedler, managing director with Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, reminded attendees that for a long time banking transactions were conducted in buildings via tellers.

“Fast forward and today we are living in a digital 24/7 world,” he noted. “Today, more than 80% of consumers, when considering which financial firm with which to bank, place a company’s digital offerings as their number one priority.” Consequently, Schedler said, consumers are driving a digital revolution affecting every aspect of the financial sector, sidelining those companies that cannot adapt. His own company, Northwestern Mutual, has been best known for insurance since the 1850s. “Now we have added financial planning and investments and… our move into financial technology has become a competitive advantage for us,” he said, “We are still in the process of rebranding, showing Millennials that we can speak this new language.”

Tammy Coley, chief strategy officer at BlackLine, noted in D!gitalist Magazine that finance professionals “are the folks who sweat the details” and “to some extent, this is as it should be. Trade skills for managing budgets, securing funding and complying with regulations remain at the core of what we do.” However, she argues there is still a critical need for creativity in the bigger picture of the finance function, especially in the role of the chief financial officer. “When it comes to business transformation,” she explained, “the soft skill of creative thinking – and creative doing – is paramount.”

A 2019 edition of Deloitte’s CFO Insights asserts CFOs should be nurturing creativity throughout their organizations to enhance revenue. Finance executives are vital to fostering an organization’s creativity, as they “help build organizations where innovative ideas are identified, financed, and delivered.” Furthermore, “those ideas… may just be the key to future competitive advantage.” As Michael A. Roberto, trustee professor of management at Bryant University and faculty member at Deloitte LLP’s Next Generation CFO Academy, so neatly summarizes, “creative thinking should be viewed as a tangible contributor to the bottom line.”

These examples underscore the point I have been making throughout this series so far: Creativity is a skill that matters beyond the small box of art and design into which we would typically put it. Rather, creativity is as critical to success as reading, writing, science and math. Despite the evidence, our schools have been slow to embrace the importance of teaching creativity across the curriculum. Until curriculum can catch up, arts classes will be even more vital to ensuring students are prepared for a future economy that will so heavily rely upon creativity for success.

Dr. Larry Thompson is president of Ringling College of Art and Design.