Before & After : Creative thinking in business

What do you do all day long?

You’re in meetings. You’re at the computer. You’re traveling. You’re in more meetings. You’re doing your job. You’re executing stuff.

Now, what exactly is it that you are executing?

Ideas.

We all do, do, do. But it starts with an idea.

We come up with ideas. We are handed other’s ideas. We sell ideas. We execute ideas. Too, often we clean up after ideas gone wrong.

How long does it take to come up with that idea? A nano second, right?

Then we put in the hours, weeks, often months, sometimes years executing that idea. It better be a good idea. Because that’s a lot of time, energy and money going into that idea. It better be a very good one. Heck, it better be great. (more…)

Look around you. Look at all the good ideas. All the good stuff. Products. Services. Art. Entertainment. Try to find great stuff.

Voltaire said, “Good is the enemy of great.”

When it comes to creative thinking in business, I believe the reason most people don’t come up with great ideas is because they come up with a good idea, and then they stop.

In all fields, we see too many people, even pretty creative people, stop at their first good idea too often. Is it because they are too busy? Too lazy? Their standard is too low?

Take advertising, the business where I made a living for 20 years as a player and the past dozen or so as a coach; by today’s standards, most work that was done 20, 30 years ago was pretty bad. Back when the average American was exposed to fewer than 1200 messages a day, the best advertising stood out, as much as anything, because most of the work was not very good.

Today, the average work that appears in the media is much better. I’ll even say it’s good. But what good is good? When the average American is exposed to over 3,000 messages, how many are making an impact? Even if you say 10% (which I think is a high estimate at 300), still 90% of the work is invisible or forgettable.

“But it’s pretty good!” you might protest. And I say, “it doesn’t matter. If it isn’t great, it’s not worth much in the ad sweepstakes.”

Good is seductive. Good is too often good enough to feel like you’re finished thinking, but not good enough to win big in the marketplace. (more…)

One of the biggest mistakes people make in group think has to do with the number of participants. Too often I see brainstorming teams simply involve too many people. With the intention of putting a lot of mind power against a challenge or opportunity business people often assemble groups of 7, 8, 9, heck, I’ve seen groups of 20 people bumping into one another in the spirit of more is more.

Well, I have to tell you, at a point in gathering together brains to storm, more is less sooner than most people think.

I believe the ideal number for group ideation is 2 or 3, maybe 4. After that the benefits, if there are any, are far out weighed by the drawbacks. (more…)

What constitutes a creative environment anyway? Is it the environment environment? The paint color? The furniture? The carpeting?

Is it the conditions that encourage fresh ideas and discourage all the negative stuff that stifles free thinking?

From my observations as a creative thinking coach, having been within the walls of more than 300 companies, over 100 ad agencies, many of which are truly trying to develop a “creative environment,” most groups are looking in the wrong place for a solution. (more…)

When you lead a group ideation session sometimes it’s good to anticipate the potentially difficult players in advance to head off the problems.There are many types of problem children who could mess up the process. Here I’m going to talk about a group who is not necessarily a problem because they can’t play well with others. But more their presence often presents a problem because of where they are on the org chart, not who they are as individuals.

I’m talking about the big cheeses. The bosses. The heavy hitters.

These are the people who, because of their positions, wield all kinds of influence on the brainstorming process, where they intend to or not. It’s best to handle that potential dysfunction in advance to head off any possible issues before they happen.

Here’s what I do. I call together all persons of rank a few minutes before the actual brainstorming begins and speak to them as a group. I don’t single out anyone. I don’t pull anyone aside individually. I remind them, if they’re not aware, that their very presence in a brainstorming session might put a damper on the process.

I mean, we’re looking for new ideas here, friends. By definition, new ideas are unproven. It’s not easy volunteering a truly new idea in front of the boss, no matter how open a corporate culture might be.

I work with a lot of top executives, and I have to tell you some of the most hollow words in business are “our people are allowed to fail.” Funny, but your people don’t seem to know that.

So in my little pre-brainstorming pep talk I tell these executives, “It’s not you, personally, It’s your position.” Could it be them personally? Sure. But it’s easier to speak to their positions, so it’s not a personal thing.

Here are my simple executive coaching tips:

1) Hold back early - don’t volunteer too many ideas too quickly

2) Don’t judge other’s ideas in the early going

3) When you volunteer an idea, make sure the first one is a little far out

Let’s look at all three little pieces of advice in detail. (more…)