Creative Streak

The PR Report

For those of you in - or are interested in - the PR industry in Australia, consider a free subscription to The PR Report. (Sign-up box is in the left margin, as well as links to recent issues.) It's compiled and edited by Glen Frost, who also runs Frocomm, which produces meetings for the communications industry on a wide variety of topics.

Master Recipes of Creativity

Several months, I was reading and commenting in a group discussion on LinkedIn where the facilitator was curious if creative techniques might be organised more efficiently, such as developing a periodic table of (creative) elements. The conversation had the typical voices: the Activists started devising charts, the Theorists sorted and graded the techniques, the Reflectors asked questions to clarify questions, and the Pragmatists criticising the whole exercise by asking (rightly) “why? what’s the point?”

But, the germ of the thought stuck in my head. Not that I think a table of elements would be particularly useful (I might be convinced though). But rather: could one isolate the different mental processes that the brain uses to create an idea? In other words, might there not be “master recipes” which the brain uses repetitively, which form the foundation of brainstorming? And, to keep the food analogy going, does the brain need specific ingredients – outside of its own imagination?

I have exactly 32 books on my work shelves which specifically list and outline creative techniques, although no single system prevailed with very little common terminology. Still, over the past month or so, I’ve reviewed almost every book, trying to see if there were similar thought processes with made each idea 'work.'

Reasons Why Kids Should Learn to Play the Piano

A bit of cross-over posting this morning because of a conversation I had earlier today with a friend about how children could be taught creativity.

I was taught creativity by learning to play the piano. To me it was as much learning a skill as it was learning how to express myself. One thing led to another, and I wrote a personal list of reasons why I think all children should learn how to play the piano.

And just in case you're curious, here's a demonstration. It's entitled "Quejas ó la maja y el ruiseñor, no 4 in F-sharp minor - more commonly known as The Maiden and the Nightingale - from the piano suite Goyescas, composed by Enrique Granados in 1911. Regardless of all else, it's simply one of the greatest piano compositions.

Bits & Bytes, March 23

Nothing like a sinus infection to make you dredge your head into a pillow for most of the weekend. Nonetheless, three inspiring points cut through ...

 A thoughtful post from Scott Berkun's blog which turns into brilliance with this one paragraph.

"The closest thing to a real secret is this: In my years studying and teaching all things innovation, there’s one fact that’s the hardest for people to swallow and it goes as follows – To invent or create is to take a bet against the unknown. No matter what you do, you are still betting you can do well in the face of many things that are out of your control. Don’t like that? Don’t want uncertainty? Then do something else. Comfort with risk and uncertainty is the real secret. Or at least acceptance of the fact you can work your ass off for uncertain rewards. Anyone who wants to create something new is placing a bet that their view of the future is better than everyone elses’, or at least their competitors."

The second post, from Glen Stansberry's blog, "Are You Prepared To Lose Control Of The Idea?"

I've edited together the key points for me:

"One of the most intoxicating aspects of having an idea is having control over the idea. We thrive on building, planning, analyzing, almost anything but actually doing.

"Some people never understand that if they hand over control of the original idea, something better might come out of it.

"Sometimes our idea outgrows us. The trick is to swallow the thick pride and embrace the potential of what could happen."

And last, a quote from Robert Frost which I found in the entertaining book: "I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like,' by Dr. Mardy Grothe. "An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor."

Suits vs. Creatives

Maybe you’ve already seen this post – The Anti-Creativity Checklist?  Compiled by Youngme Moon on Vimeo, the list seemed to flood everywhere late last week, for good reason. I don't have more to add without re-hashing the hash. If you don't have time to watch the video, I've included her general checklist at far bottom.

At the same time, Moon’s post reminded me of a list I'd kept over the years of actual comments made by clients after presenting campaign concepts or ideas when I was creative director at Burson-Marsteller. I’d jokingly called the list “Statements To Make A Creative Director Cry.” Some of them are variations on the same theme as Moon's, highlighting the essential disconnect between "the suits" vs. "the creatives."

“No, that idea’s too big. I don’t want a BIG IDEA. I want a Little-Less-Big-Idea.”

“Let’s not try to out-think our customer. He's lucky to have our product."

“I want you think out of the box, not out of the ballpark.”

“That’s interesting. What else do you have?”

“Hmm, no. That’s not right.” (Followed by silence.)

“That's a clever brand execution. But where's the part that talks about our product being cheaper than the competition?”

Seven Different Types of Meetings

One book that keeps finding its way to the top of my shelves is How To Make Meetings Work, by Michael Doyle and David Straus.

One book section lists the seven different type of meetings, which I've listed below with some of their tips - and a few of my own - to consider prior to planning or facilitating your next meeting.

Problem-Solving Meetings

• Make sure the problem is well-defined and agreed-to by key decision makers in advance of the meeting.
• What problem-solving methodology or tool will you use during the meeting? Agree to it in advance, and make sure someone is fluent in the methodology.
• Energy is critical: attendees must want to solve the problem, or feel urgency to solve it.
• Incorporate plenty of time for discussion and debate.
• Engage a neutral facilitator depending upon the discussion and debate you expect.

Decision-Making Meetings

• The key decision maker must be involved, if not attend the meeting.
• Identify the coaches (the positive influencers to the decision maker) to determine how to win or leverage their support
• Identify the gatekeepers (the negative influencers to the decision maker) and the bomb-throwers (the ‘devil’s advocate’ type of people). Determine how to minimise, neutralise, or think ahead of them to counter-balance or address their concerns.
• Keep the number of attendees to a smaller number than a larger.
• Make sure team knows how they will be impacted by decision, that they have responsibility for the decision. At the same time, do not steam-roll.
• And last – perhaps most important – don’t fake a decision-making meeting. Be honest.

Prioritising Meeting Items

Many people are familiar with the Time Management Matrix - a simple tool which helps to prioritise tasks, based on whether they are Urgent or Important, or both, or neither.

The general rule of thumb is to plan the bulk of your day focused working on Urgent/Important tasks, get the Urgent/Non-Important tasks out of the way as soon as possible (or at appropriate breaks), plan ahead to get Important/Not-Urgent tasks started, and leave Non-Urgent/Non-Important tasks to the side until they become either Urgent or Important.

Sadly, we live more and more in a world where "status meetings" are catch-all events in many organisations. Most of them are unfacilitated and without any sense of prioritisation ... and no, "chronological order" is not prioritisation.

As a way to counter-balance, if not correct these unfiltered status meetings, consider using the Time Management Matrix to categories the items into the four areas to determine their spot on an effective meeting agenda.

1. Urgent-Important Items should directly link specifically to the purpose of the meeting, and should be discussed as soon as possible on the agenda. They almost always involve the key decision makers. Unless you have all the time in the world (and who doesn't, in our lazy, carefree world), focus on fewer items in this category than more. Or, prioritise the these items in case time is lost on discussion and debate. Also, make sure you have enough time after the presentation of each item for discussion and debate.

Creative Jolt: Quiet Time

From Psychology Today a link to a great article entitled Boosting Your Sense of Quiet Force, outlining the benefits of focusing by removing daily distractions. In turn, less distractions often mean boosting creative thinking.

I particularly liked the person's complaint: "I left my Blackberry at home, so I was so bored during my cab ride home. I had just had to sit there." It reminds me of a friend who said she can barely stand to ride public transport if she doesn't have her iPod.

While I have nothing against music devices, it always begs the question: At what point, do you allow yourself - give yourself - the simple luxury of thinking? When I've taught Time Management workshops, I've always found it strange that people will actively fill up their diary with meetings - some of which are totally irrelevant - but they would never think of booking time for themselves to constructively think.

For some - myself included - it's pretty easy to get distracted. For you and me, here's another article in PT entitled Easily Distracted: Why It's Hard To Focus, and What To Do About It.

Both of these articles on 'focus' give me an excuse to re-publish another of my favourite articles from PT - Everyday Creativity - from November 2009.

Thanks to Ralph Kerle for the article. Go here for his blog, Creative Matters.

Finally, if you have any of your own suggestions, please send them here. I'll post each individually in the future, and give you full credit.

Creative Jolt: Flash Cards

It's a fairly common experience: an idea pops into your head, usually out of nowhere and without your conscious knowledge.

In reality, your brain probably had a problem it was trying to solve. As you wandered through your day, your imagination came into contact with some piece of random stimulus, and intrigued, it merged the problem with this new piece of (something),and suddenly you had a new idea. I'm a visual person, so for me, it's usually an image, something I see, a picture in a magazine. Other times it's a piece of music or a lyric. Maybe you're the type who prefers words or reading? Or you're tactile?

Whatever it is, this simple trick of merging the problem with a random concept is the easiest way you can create an idea. If you want to do this more often, then it's simply a matter of creating a series of random images to keep on hand to spark your creative streak.

Whenever I need to brainstorm an idea, either by myself or with a group of people, I pull out different sets of 'flash cards' that I've made or collected over the years. I/We ruffle through them, allowing our imagination to use the visual and verbal stimulation to generate ideas. Next thing I know, my imagination is pouring out ideas - both good and bad, which I can then adapt, adjust, continue to re-merge, until I have a few good potential ideas.

Bits & Bytes, March 15

Here's some of my week-end catch-up on posts related to creativity, innovation and communications.

Framing Is Everything - One of my favourites, Luciano Passuello writes Litemind, always a thought-provoking blog on creativity and innovation. His post Framing Is Everything speaks to the process of "framing" and its importance to problem solving and decision making. He suggests that how you articulate the problem will profoundly influence how you solve it with creative thinking.

How Good Is Your Website? -  My colleague Neil Drewitt sent this website to me - Bowen & Cragg - a company which consultants on website effectiveness. It has a terrific database of best practices, plus 1,000 articles free on its website. You can also sign up for its newsletter. Handy, practical and a beautiful website to boot (no surprise there).

Two Articles on Innovation