Tag: Innovative Thinking

Looking for Something New in Creativity?

What I lack in natural writing talent I make up for in experiences. Over the years, I have worked in a number of different businesses and business cultures. that led to something new in creativity. I also read widely and have worked with some really talented and smart people. That gives me a lot of raw material to work with.

Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire find the same thing in their new book, Wired to Create. “Openness to experience, one of the “Big Five” personality traits, is absolutely essential to creativity,” they write. “Openness to experience comes in many forms, from a love of solving complex problems in math, science and technology to a voracious love of learning, to an inclination to ask big questions and seek a deeper meaning in life.”

So one simple way to improve your creativity is to simply try to get more out of life. Seek out things, people and places that you wouldn’t usually encounter in your ordinary routine. Truly great creativity comes from synthesizing across domains, not just drilling down in one single area.

Many people assume that there is an inverse relationship between quantity and quality and, logically speaking, it would make sense to focus on fewer projects rather than to spread your energy over many. It would seem that would allow you more time to concentrate on the work most likely to make an impact.

However, creativity researchers have consistently found just the opposite. The more work you produce the more likely you are to come up with something truly creative. Part of that is probably just the numbers game. A masterwork is a low probability event, so those who produce more increase their odds.

Yet there is also another factor at work. The more you produce, the more skilled you become and the more you can experiment with different combinations. Those experiments invariably lead you to see more possibilities and try them out. So producing a lot will help you see things that others don’t and increase your ability to pursue new possibilities.

The truth is that creativity is hard work. There are no silver bullets. The only way to create successfully is to get your ideas out there, find the flaws and get to work fixing them.

Einstein once said that “If I had 20 days to solve a problem, I would take 19 days to define it.” It’s important to build in constraints that will frame a possible solution and, as Robert Weisberg points out in his book Creativity, brainstorming often fails for exactly this reason.

The evidence on this point couldn’t be clearer.  Successful creative people spend years learning their fields before they begin to change them.  So if you want to create something truly new and different, your best bet is to start by learning your field extremely well.

As I’ve written before, breakthrough innovation happens when ideas are synthesized from more than one domain.  Pick any important discovery, whether it is Darwin and natural selection, Picasso and cubism, Einstein and relativity and invariably they used concepts from two or more fields.

Remember, creative geniuses tend to be less the ones with the quickest answers and more the ones who keep working till they get it right.

Why Marketing Needs to Attract Employees, Not Just Customers

Marketing is often used with the explicit goal of furthering sales, with the focus being on attracting potential customers and retaining existing customers. However, if you really want your business to succeed, then you are going to need to put more effort into the marketing tactics you use for attracting new employees. Your business won’t be able to expand without the right people working behind the scenes, so you need to implement some good marketing strategies to attract employees as well as the top talent and make them proud to work for you.

Marketers tend to like big, bold actions that grab attention and spew off metrics and the March on Washington would definitely qualify as that.  Yet, all too often, we ignore the more mundane work that comes before.  To market a product or an idea, you have to change minds and that’s the real lesson of the Civil Rights Movement.  Marketers need to learn from it.

A Great Company Culture Attracts Top Talent

With a great company image, you can attract top talent with ease. After all, when people are at the height of their careers, they know they have options. For some, their dream job will be one with a high salary, and for others, it will be a company where they can have a voice, input and a healthy work/life balance.

If you cannot offer them that top salary, then you need to work to improve your company culture and later become known for it.

Bolster your efforts by hiring the right people for your team, so that everyone works well together, and you have a family unit, not just a set of workers. An executive assessment, in particular, is key to giving your company a new direction, and if you are known for your great working culture, you can bring in great talent and retain their expertise for years.

PR and Marketing Can Make Your Brand More Recognizable

A great candidate wants to further their career, which means one of two things. One, they are looking to be hired in a higher-ranking position. Or two, they want to work for a brand that will open doors in their chosen industry.

Marketing and PR can help you attract more candidates in both instances. With the right PR and marketing team, you can quickly become a recognized business in your community. It is this recognition and reputation that candidates are looking for.

Innovative Thinking Brings In Top Minds

You want top workers, which means you need to allow them to try new things and be creative. Change your company culture to allow for this free-thinking amongst all of your employees, and aim to be recognized for your innovation through awards.

Being Proud of Where You Work is Key

You need to prove that you have a working environment that people are proud to be in. This means improving your company culture, the design of your office and the outlook of your business. Instead of just advertising your products, advertise the talents and successes of your employees.

This is a great way to showcase what your company is all about and the sort of working environment a candidate can expect if they get hired.

If an employee can say that they genuinely love working for you and are proud to work for your business, then you are on the right track. Simply advertise this culture when hiring and creating job listings, and you will bring in top talent who are looking for a great work/life balance.