Guest post by Roberta Gogos, Industry Analyst & GTM Leader.
I’ve been spending a lot of time with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) New Economy Skills report lately. It’s full of data worth sitting with, and I’ll probably keep coming back to it. But one finding in particular has been stuck in my head.
Creative thinking is the skill workers value most. Across sectors, company sizes, and regions, it tops the list. When peers recognize it in a colleague, they assign it the highest value of any skill. (WEF, New Economy Skills, 2025)
That sounds like a skill organizations would prioritize. Name in job descriptions. Measure in performance reviews. Reward in promotions.
They don’t.
Creative thinking barely shows up in hiring decisions. Only 72% of US job postings mention even one human skill. In supply chain and transport, fewer than half do. It’s not just creative thinking. Curiosity and lifelong learning, which employers keep saying is critical for the future, is the weakest skill in every global region the WEF measured. (WEF, New Economy Skills, 2025)
So there’s this gap. Not an awareness gap. Everyone agrees these skills matter. The gap is between what we say and what we actually do about it.
Sound familiar?
I think most L&D leaders feel this. You know creativity matters. You know resilience matters. You’ve probably said it in half a dozen stakeholder conversations you’ve already had this year. But when you look at your systems, your job postings, your scorecards, your measurement frameworks, do those skills show up? Or are they assumed?
Assumed is a comfortable place. It means nobody has to define what good looks like. Nobody has to figure out how to measure it. Nobody has to own the investment. The skill just sort of… exists. Until of course it doesn’t.
The WEF report calls these skills “durable.” I understand why. They feel permanent, like once someone develops empathy or resilience, it’s theirs to keep. But the data complicates that.
During the pandemic, when the conditions these skills need to grow disappeared (practice, collaboration, feedback, real human connection) the skills declined across the board. By 2025, not one had fully recovered to pre-2019 levels. (WEF, New Economy Skills, 2025) Five years. Still below baseline.
Building them back takes longer than most organizations plan for, too. The majority of people need months of sustained practice to develop capabilities like creativity or resilience. Only about a quarter make meaningful progress within weeks. (WEF, New Economy Skills, 2025)
The pandemic’s impact on these skills didn’t hit everyone equally. Individual contributors lost the most ground. Senior leaders held steadier, not because they’re better at these skills, but because they had access to coaching, structured programs, and feedback loops. Development resources flow upward. The people whose creativity and collaboration you depend on most got the least support.
This has been on my mind. Our Learning is Human ebook makes the case that connection, not content, drives better learning outcomes. That’s still true. But there’s a harder question underneath it: if everyone agrees human skills matter, what’s actually getting in the way?
That’s what our next ebook digs into. The gap between agreeing that these skills are important and building the infrastructure to actually develop them. It’s coming in the next couple of weeks.
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