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| CREATIVITY
CAPTURES |
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What does creativity mean? Heritage Illustrated Dictionary defines
creativity as "Characterised by originality and expressiveness,
imaginative". Hence creativity involves generating new ways
of viewing problems or situations and these may not in the first
instance appear practical.
I prefer to define creativity as the purposeful creation of ideas,
followed up by deliberate and evident implementation of those ideas.
I have yet to be impressed by a creative person or company that
has no track record of outcomes. Creativity needs to pass the reality
test of transforming ideas to tangible and visible outcomes.
THE CREATIVITY PROCESS REQUIRES:
- In depth knowledge of the subject
- Idea generation skills
- Enthusiasm and positive thinking
- Evaluation of ideas
Simon Reynolds of the infamous Australian Grim Reaper Advertising
campaign (for AIDS) states that we must schedule time for ideas
creation and to question everything, as questions are the answers.
In the corporate environment we need to make a ten-minute space
for idea creation or new ways of doing things. This may be asking
staff to write one idea every day and at the end of the week putting
one idea into action. A business can buzz with 52 new ways of doing
business every year.
We are so afraid to borrow. Yet, creative borrowing such as the
best ideas from other industries can lead to effective outcomes.
There are great experts on the methodology of ideas creation, including
de Bono. We at MAP Marketing, have used three methods in generating
new ideas:
1. MINDSTORMING
We sit and generate a large quantity of ideas but limit the time
for generating them-say ten minutes. Whilst these ideas are created
nobody is allowed to criticise, pass comments on another’s
ideas, interpret or interrupt. One person records the ideas. Then
we shortlist ideas, add, extend and evaluate the shortlist. Finally
we choose the best outcome and apply the reality criteria.
2. WORD GENERATION
This is similar to the mind storming but we focus on getting similar
and opposite word generation on a particular topic and we apply
the same process as mindstorming.
3. HUMOUR
I subscribed to the New Yorker for two reasons to read the cartoons
and to use the best advertisements as an inspiration to staff. Humour
and inspiration lead to detachment and detachment leads to creative
idea generation.
Maria Charlton B Com MBA AFAMI CPM
Managing Director - MAP Marketing
+61 2 4929 7766
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