Shumsky Idea Box

By Evan Scott

Don’t wing it – develop a creative brief and give people time to read it, ingest it, and stew on it. Creativity in business is largely ignored. How many times do you hear people say, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body!” This is simply untrue. What is true is what Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Michael Ray has said, “People say that the only constant in the world today is change. There’s another constant in the world: your own internal creativity. That’s always there for you.” (more on Michael Ray at www.michael-ray.com) Just because you haven’t learned how to access your creativity doesn’t mean it’s not there. And working as a team to harness your collective creativity is even more powerful. The other thing that’s true is that creativity in business is essential. The cost of not being creative in solving your business problems, of not successfully capitalizing on new market opportunities, of not delivering the best solutions to your customers is deadly. It’s simply unacceptable to minimize the importance of applying your creativity – and your team’s creativity – to your most pressing marketing challenges.

2. There’s nothing like great wrong ideas and terrible good ideas – wrong ideas are the stepping stones to the best ideas. Good ideas are the enemy – because they’re good, they can sometimes be accepted and prevent the best ideas from coming into being. Think about that. The most common story told to this point is the story of how many failures (or wrong ideas) Thomas Edison endured before finally getting the light bulb right. With creative ideas for marketing campaigns, the principle is never truer. It’s important to develop your brainstorming sessions with ground rules that encourage sharing all of the ideas necessary to get to the best ones.

3. No spitting – One of the ways we encourage all of the ideas necessary to get to the best one is to establish the rule of no spitting. This has to do with the need for healthy egos to be engaged in the process vs. toxic egos, which can destroy the process. Healthy egos are essential – they let us know we belong in the room. We have a lot to contribute – and in any given situation, our creativity and experience will generate ideas that lead us to become successful. In some instances our role is to provide the wrong idea, in other instances, we provide the right idea. All of it is important to the team. The toxic ego remains attached to the idea once its put out to the team. The fact is, once an idea is placed in the room, it ought not to belong to anyone. It ought to be able to survive on its own merits rather than with the help of an advocate. If it’s the right idea, it will gain champions; it will produce additional insights and grow in stature among the team. If it’s the wrong idea, it ought to be allowed to die a quick death. Toxic egos can torture wrong ideas, trying to keep them alive long past their time.
   
   
   

4. Study history; know the world – when you study history – world history, American or other cultural history, you study religion, philosophy, the arts, politics, industry and economics, and science. These are the subjects of life from which all stories are told. And when you are accessing your creativity for the purpose of developing a new concept, theme, or story, you’ll need ingredients to cook with. Studying a broad range of topics, experiencing a broad range of activities, and in general, providing yourself with consistent input, feeds your creativity and maximizes your ability to contribute. The saying that applies here is, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Learning about and experiencing the world is like filling up your creativity toolbox.
   
   
   

5. Picture this – Develop contact sheet and mock ups of your competition’s creative. Include separately design work that appeals to your team or that is consistent with your own company’s brand. Include copy – catchy or unique headlines and taglines that you believe will spark further ideas among your team. All of this can be mocked up on draft boards or hung on the walls to facilitate your brainstorming session. This can also be delivered with the creative brief ahead of time to give your team an opportunity to prepare.
   
   
   

6. Think inside the box – The difference between art and design is that art isn’t trying to say the same thing to everyone. Great art is great because it’s open to interpretation. Great design and marketing communications is exactly the opposite – it leaves no doubt about what its saying and it leaves no room for interpretation. Otherwise it would be ineffective. Graphic design, creative concept development, and other marketing initiatives do their best work inside the right boxes of messaging, budget, and time.
   
   
   

7. To be most universal, be most specific. Don’t talk about speed. Show an angler fish silent and still in the water, with a tasty morsel two inches away. (The angler has the fastest recorded strike in the animal kingdom). This is, perhaps, one of the basic foundations of all good storytelling.