When you work in the creative industry, clients naturally expect you to deliver fresh ideas on demand – and of course, we have to oblige if we want to keep our paycheques coming. However, creativity doesn’t always flow when you turn on the tap, and when it does, it can often feel like there are too many restrictions weighing it down. With impatient clients and brainstorm sessions in a rut, is brute-forcing out ideas the only “reliable” thing we can do? We certainly don’t think so! Join Wordsmith and let’s explore how we can systematically pick apart creative blocks!
Keep a stash of references
As some doomsday preppers may proudly say, “I’ve got everything I’ll ever need in my bunker when the world ends.” In the case of content creation, a lot of the creative elements that we conjure up ultimately stem from what we already know or have experienced. That means if you’re only familiar with one style or type of content, you’ll only be able to contribute ideas centred around said style/content – which can be problematic when clients inevitably want something different.
To get around this, keep an open mind and be willing to explore. Even if you feel that something is unrelated to your industry or profession, it is still a good idea to read that frontpage article. For example, we may think that aeronautics has no relation to us if we worked in marketing. However, what if an aeronautics company reached out to your business for copywriting help?
Of course, this is all hypothetical, but what’s new is always evolving – the best trendsetters are often the people who can keep atop of everything – so even if the latest trend or factoid doesn’t end up being actionable, it’ll still be a valuable asset for your personal collection. Who knows, it might come in handy later on!
For information and details that are relevant to your industry, it’s a good idea to keep a handy collection of references (this can be further divided based on execution styles, colour palettes, ideas and so forth). Since you are likely dealing with information overload every day, it’s not unusual to forget things – keeping references on hand will ensure better productivity during your next brainstorming session.
But let’s say you don’t have references yet. If you’ve ever been pulled into a meeting room to brainstorm immediately after receiving a brief, you may find your contributions rather limited. This isn’t a problem with your creativity, but rather a lack of opportunity for your brain to cook ideas. Much like making a stew, you need to allow enough time for the ingredients to simmer in order to create a delicious, aromatic meal. It’s a problem that many creatives face because their workplace simply doesn’t allow them enough time to think, writes Duncan Wardle (an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor, an expert on creative consultancy and former vice-president of innovation and creativity at The Walt Disney Company).
“People need stimuli unrelated to work (e.g. walking their dog, testing a cheesecake recipe, playing an instrument) to gain unfettered access to their unconscious brains,” explains Wardle. In the event that you do get dragged into the meeting room too quickly without being given time to think nor a collection of references, what’s left to do? Try Wardle’s useful “What if?” steps below!
Establish the rules to play by
A major hurdle to clear whilst brainstorming is keeping the ideas practical and applicable. As awesome as an idea may be, if we don’t have a feasible way of implementing it (e.g. budget constraints), then it’s dead in the water. To prevent ideas from deviating, Wardle suggests writing down all rules first.
“For instance, consider Walt Disney’s dilemma when he wanted to release his film Fantasia. He was frustrated because he couldn’t pump mist or heat into theatres,” recalls Wardle.
If you remember Fantasia, it features a collection of iconic shorts paired to musical tracks, such as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Many of the scenes featured special effects and magical elements, and Disney was right to think that adding 4D aspects would elevate the viewing experience (it’s a core part of Disney World now)… but theatres at the time refused since it would involve expensive renovations, and they were unsure whether the effects would damage the existing infrastructure.
“Accordingly, he wrote down all the rules of going to a movie theatre,” continues Wardle. “I must sit. I must be quiet. I must pay to get in. I can expect it to be dark. I can’t control the environment… By writing these rules down, Disney could more clearly see everything that was getting in his way.”
Then break the rules
To foster better creativity, Wardle would then ask the group what would happen if they could break one of the rules. “This is the fun, absurd, provocative part that allows the creative rubber to meet the road,” he explains. “In Disney’s case, it was to worry less about controlling the movie theatre environment by taking his movies out of the theatre. He considered having people dress in costumes in different themed lands so he could control the story and engage the audience – enter the concept for Disneyland.”
Let’s assume we are working for a convention centre trying to get more MICE and other international events hosted at the venue. Given how COVID had decimated the events industry, many exhibitions have struggled to return to prior scales of participants and vendors. In the case of Hong Kong, which was previously one of the prime locations in Southeast Asia for events, many potential exhibitors were turned away by Hong Kong’s tight COVID-restrictions. Although the Hong Kong Government has since lifted these restrictions, exhibition and event activity levels have yet to return to their peaks.
If this were still COVID-era Hong Kong, the chance of foreigners and international exhibitors wanting to come to the city and undergo the strict quarantines was meagre. But what if we could break the rule about having exhibitions needing to be in-person? What if exhibitions could be done online from the safety of home? This led to the HKTDC developing a fully-virtual exhibition in 2020 – leveraging technology to get around travel and social distancing restrictions.
Make every idea viable (until it isn’t)
“To be sure, some of the responses you’ll get when you go through the rule-breaking experience will seem strange and perhaps even shocking,” describes Wardle. “Dig around for the truth, though. It’s often buried deep within off-the-wall suggestions.”
Wardle points to an example of a British drinking glass production company from the 1960s, where employees would use newspaper as stuffing in their boxes – however, management noticed that employees were too distracted reading the papers instead of packing, hence there were a lot of glasses being broken. One of the managers then suggested “what if” the employees couldn’t see? Of course, that’d be both a human rights and workplace violation, but someone followed up with “what if we hired visually impaired workers instead?” It was the perfect solution – boosting productivity, lowering prices and giving jobs to people with disabilities!
The creative process works best when you give it time, but time is a luxury that isn’t always on our side. Next time you find yourself on the wrong side of a deadline, try one of these tips to dig yourself out of that creative rut.