In an uncertain world, efficiency only gets you so far. Dr Margaret Heffernan on why HR must prioritize creativity instead.

Dr Margaret Heffernan will take to the stage at UNLEASH 2026 in Paris to challenge a long-standing business norm: the pursuit of efficiency.

The former CEO turned author and Professor of Practice at the University of Bath will argue that in an age of AI and relentless uncertainty, too much efficiency can leave organizations at risk. The businesses that thrive will instead invest in creativity and innovation.

Ahead of her keynote, Dr Heffernan sits down with UNLEASH's Chief Reporter Allie Nawrat to discuss why HR has fallen into the trap of “overfitting,” and how organizations should break out and build a more creative, imaginative culture instead. 

Allie Nawrat: You’ve argued that efficiency works when you can predict what's coming, but today's pace of change defies forecasting. Why is efficiency the wrong metric for organizations right now?

Margaret Heffernan: Efficiency is fantastic when you can see, understand and control your whole system. Increasingly, there are lots of parts of any business that are inherently complex, which means you can't see or control the whole business.

In that sort of situation, if you're too efficient, you don't have any margins with which to respond.

If you've been running your budgets too tight, if you've been hiring too specifically for only particular types of skills, if you've been hiring only those people you absolutely have to have on staff, then you're going to find it very difficult to respond effectively.

AN: If not efficiency, what should organizations be prioritizing instead?

MH: An efficiency mindset wants an answer. In the age of uncertainty, where you can't quite be sure of what's going to happen next, or how priorities might shift, you want to have options that you can choose from when the context shifts.

[That means] you should start thinking about innovation before you have to.

Innovation is inherently not efficient. You’re going to get people to come up with and develop ideas that may never work. You may develop products that never sell.

But the reality is you can't afford not to do this.

You have to get ahead of market demand and start thinking strategically [about] innovation.

What you can't do is sit there and wait to see what's going to happen, because other companies are not doing that, and they will eat your breakfast.

AN: At UNLEASH 2026 in Paris, you’ll be talking to a room of HR and L&D leaders. Amid uncertainty, what must they change about how they hire and develop talent?

MH: One of my big criticisms of the HR industry generally is that it's fallen into the trap of overfitting. Let's decide exactly what this position is for, exactly what qualifications and expertise are needed. Let's hire exactly that person and put them in that box. Then we'll have total control and everything will be great.

The overfitting problem is enormous; suddenly you have all these people on your books, and tomorrow you need them to do something different. Are they able to do that? It's certainly not what you hired them for.

[Your] people know your business; they have a lot of expertise. Now you have to help them develop a different mindset: one that is not looking for instructions.

For the last few years, the World Economic Forum has been banging on about the need for more creative and critical thinking. I have seen precious little evidence that anybody's actually taken that to heart. I see a distinct absence of learning appetite [and] curiosity – and those are the qualities we have to be hiring for now.

It's about finding people who regard [uncertainty] as exciting, instead of terrifying. You want to see evidence of initiative: People who went off the obvious path, who showed some agency and some free will. People who have initiated their own project or done something in their community.

Survey your colleagues and ask: Who are the really creative, imaginative people here? How do we go about building that into our recruitment programs and our L&D programs?Survey your colleagues and ask: Who are the really creative, imaginative people here? How do we go about building that into our recruitment programs and our L&D programs?

I think HR has been nudged or shoved in the direction of control – and that won’t work if you want a more creative, imaginative culture, which can get ahead.