Creative Streak

Responding to Negativity (They Say, You Say)

Although negativity most often affects the brainstorming part of the creative process, it’s equally destructive in the last stage – the merchandising phase – when you’re packaging and selling the idea to someone else, like a supervisor or a client.

As a creative director, I’ve had more than my share of debates with clients about the quality of an idea, and in my experience, their objections fall into five basic groups.

For each "They say" objection, here are my best "You say" responses.

They say: "That idea isn't us."

• Link the ideas to the values or principles of the corporation or organisation.
• Incorporate testimonials from the target audience into your presentation. Show why they like the idea or campaign, how they’ve helped adjust the ideas into their final form, and how the idea changed their perceptions about the organisation.
• Have you/Can you ask internal influencers to help create or adjust the idea? How can you add their endorsement to the presentation? In the past, I’ve used photographs/quotes and video clips in the presentation - once, we invited one of the key influencers to the presentation for “live” endorsement.

Can You Switch Off Your Negativity?

I recently gained certification to facilitate Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and one of the most fascinating parts of the accreditation workshop was analysing how different ‘types’ were creative or approached creativity.

In particular, we debated how individuals exercised their creativity in the dichotomies of Sensing v. Intuitive (S-N) and Perceiving v. Judging (P-J). If you know nothing about MBTI, here’s enough information to be dangerous. People with “S” tendencies prefer specifics, details, measures, practicality and repetition, and people with “J” characteristics prefer order, structure, control, limits and categories. Once we reviewed all of the categories, we debated how people with either S or J preferences were able to balance their negativity - and more so, could they "turn it off”?

To suggest that you can switch off the natural and understandable urge to be negative is a bit like telling someone to stop smoking cigarettes. It's an easy comment for a non-smoker to make, but a very difficult step for the smoker - even if the smoker knows it's not good for their health.

Why Are We Negative? (Part 2 of Negativity v Creativity)

This isn't a scientific answer, but when it comes to brainstorming and creativity, our negativity falls into four groups.

1. We’re impatient for the ideas.

In the immortal words of 'Chris,' a former colleague who was arguing with me about the validity of brainstorming: “Where’s the intelligence in wasting time coming up with ideas which don’t or won’t work? Give me the Big Idea now.” Chris never saw the double standard at work here. It was fine if we spent a considerable amount of time on discussing, debating and massaging the right strategy, but it was unacceptable if the Big Idea didn't emerge in an hour's brainstorm.

It's not acceptable, but it's understandable at the same time. Creative thinking is largely an invisible task. It probably doesn't look like real work to many people. After all, isn't it a common myth or fantasy that an idea appears in perform from after a blinding flash of inspiration?

2. We’re conditioned to be negative.

Perhaps you've heard the famous statistical piece of news that the average human being has 60,000 thoughts a day, and that 90% are the same thoughts you had yesterday, and worse, 80% are negative.

Negativity v. Creativity (Part 1)

Outside of house plants, is there anything easier to kill than creativity?

Many exceptionally fragile things come to mind: an egg, flowers, the ego of a Hollywood celebrity. But none have less resiliency than creativity. How sad because creativity allows us to create or do something new and different in our lives, to prevent it from falling into a mundane pattern, even for the most routine among us.

Its frailty is even more acute for business because creativity is as vital to corporate health and success as accounting, operations and manufacturing. At the same time, negativity robs the organisation of its most valuable asset: new and original thinking.

Selling the Idea of the Idea

Convincing someone that an idea – perhaps your idea – is the best one can sometimes be more difficult than actually developing the idea itself.

From my experience, there’s five rules to follow (more or less in order) to make sure your ideas are given the proper attention they deserve as you move from brainstorming to implementation.

1. Link the idea to its purpose.

Show or demonstrate why this specific idea will help to achieve the goal and/or address or eliminate the problem. This rule grows in exponential importance to the ‘unusualness’ of the idea. In other words, the more bizarre the idea, the more you need to anchor it in reality.

2. Make influential friends.

Involve key internal/external people throughout the creative process, if possible, sooner than later. Get a clear agreement on the goal or purpose of the idea. What do they expect? What criteria will they use to the judge the best ideas? Do they have any initial ideas (even if bad) which might suggest a tone or style? Can they help contribute to the creative brief? Can they join the brainstorm, or stop by after it’s finished? Can they help select or judge the ideas?